UnitedHealth's Optum To Buy Surgery Center Business For $2.3 Billion

UnitedHealth Group , the largest U.S. health insurer, is escalating its already aggressive effort to become a nationwide provider of medical care , buying Surgical Care Affiliates for more than $2 billion.

The deal, which calls for UnitedHealth to buy Surgical Care's outstanding common stock for $57 a share, would combine OptumCare, Optum’s healthcare delivery business, into a more comprehensive provider of ambulatory care services, working with more than 80 health plans across the country. Deerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care operates ambulatory surgery centers and surgical hospitals in more than 30 states .

“Combining SCA and OptumCare will enable us to continue the transition to high-quality, high-value ambulatory surgical care, partnering with the full range of health systems, medical groups and health plans,” said Larry Renfro, vice chairman of UnitedHealth Group and Optum chief executive officer.

OptumCare’s is a retail approach that includes urgent care centers and locally based community health clinics , which have become a bigger focus of UnitedHealth in the last two years. UnitedHealth two years ago bought MedExpress, an operator of urgent care centers in 14 states.

Adding Surgical Care Affiliates brings another more than $1.5 billion in revenue to OptumCare’s growing portfolio. SCA and its affiliates provide care to 1 million patients annually in more than 30 states, the companies said.

“Joining with OptumCare will enable us to better support and empower independent physicians, helping them provide high-quality care for their patients while making healthcare more affordable,” said Surgical Care chairman and CEO Andrew Hayek.

OptumCare will also become more of a competitor to the likes of Tenet Healthcare and HCA Holdings as well as large nonprofit hospital operators across the country. Once the deal closes, SCA will become part of the OptumCare platform, which serves several million patients annually via 20,000 affiliated physicians and hundreds of primary care sites, urgent care centers and community health centers.

Lower-cost healthcare services fits the Optum and UnitedHealth strategies to shift the healthcare system away from fee-for-service medicine that emphasizes volume to a value-based care proposition that gets medical treatment done in the right place at the right time. Increasingly, health insurers and the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly are moving to value-based or alternative payments that base reimbursement on health outcomes and how well the care is delivered.