CenterWell Senior Primary Care announces expansion plan

CenterWell Senior Primary Care, which is part of Humana Inc., has announced expansion plans across seven states in 2024.

CenterWell and sister brand Conviva Care Center are Humana’s Primary Care Organization. As of the end of 2023, they had about 295,000 senior patients in almost 300 centers in 15 states. The company announced it will add up to 50 new centers around the country at least through the end of 2025.

“Bringing these senior primary care centers to additional communities means more patients can benefit from the entire CenterWell ecosystem,” CenterWell health care services President Sanjay Shetty, MD, said in a news release. “Giving more seniors access to the integrated assets of CenterWell – primary care, home health and pharmacy – means they’ll receive the holistic care they need at a greater value throughout the health care journey.”

New practices

Three locations will be new: Asheville, North Carolina; and Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. CenterWell will add new practices in existing markets of Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Indianapolis, Indiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Louisville, Kentucky; Orlando, Florida; and Richmond and Tidewater, Virginia.

Holistic services

The expansion is in line with a plan Humana announced in 2022 to grow by 100 senior primary care clinics by 2025. follows the 2023 debut of CenterWell Primary Care Anywhere for patients in Georgia and Louisiana. That program delivers clinical services such as blood draws, vaccinations and prescription management, at patients’ homes, with copays the same as in-person care at a primary care center.

Touting its operation of “a comprehensive, value-based, holistic care model,” CenterWell said its physicians an integrated care teams specialize in treating seniors. Physicians and advanced practitioners spend up to 50% more time with patients than typical providers. Care teams create personalized plans for patients while addressing social, behavioral and financial needs.

“The holistic care model at CenterWell Senior Primary Care benefits both seniors and clinicians,” CenterWell and Conviva Chief Medical Officer Vivek Garg, MD, said in the news release. “Interdisciplinary care teams of nurses, social workers, pharmacists, and medical assistants work alongside our physicians and advanced practitioners empowering them to provide truly age-friendly, comprehensive care that improves health outcomes and quality of life. The result is better preventive and chronic disease management, fewer avoidable visits to the emergency room and hospital, higher satisfaction with healthcare, and clinicians who are practicing medicine as they always imagined.”

Company revenues

Humana’s CenterWell Segment pulled in $4.71 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 and more than $18.4 billion in revenues for the entire year, according to results announced this month. That was part of overall quarterly revenues of $26.46 billion and annual revenues of more than $106.37 billion. Despite those figures, Humana this month reported an annual loss of $541 million and Humana CEO and Director Bruce Dale Broussard he and the executives were “disappointed in the update” announced with the quarterly results.

“We take our commitments seriously and are disappointed we were unable to fully offset the higher cost trends experienced in the fourth quarter, despite our best efforts to identify mitigation opportunities throughout the year,” said the management commentary published last week discussing the quarterly and annual results.

“While not minimizing the significance of those challenges, we are proud of the strong growth we achieved in our (Medicare Advantage), Medicaid and CenterWell businesses in 2023, and progress made across the enterprise to advance our industry leading MA and senior focused value-based care platforms supported by the tireless work of our over 65,000 teammates,” the company said.

As of last year, Humana had about 5.5 million MA insureds, or about 18% of the 30.8 million people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans for 2023. It was the second-largest share of MA insureds, behind UnitedHealthcare, with 8.9 million, or about 29% of the MA total, according to an analysis by KFF.

Merger on, then off

Humana made headline news in late fall 2023 when the Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported the company was in talks with Cigna to merge. That deal apparently fell through and the companies did not join.