Optum’s Play For Amedisys Underscores Demand For Home Health Assets, Could Create Unexpected Bidding War

Option Care Health (Nasdaq: OPCH) announced its plans to acquire Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) at the beginning of May. In early June, competition arrived, as UnitedHealth Group’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum put in its own bid to acquire Amedisys.

For Option Care Health, the deal was its way to create an end-to-end health care continuum in the home, layering Amedisys’ capabilities onto its home-based infusion services. It also would create a healthy, diversified payer portfolio that neither company currently has on its own.