Humana Taps Shetty to Lead CenterWell Following Hospice Divestiture

Humana, Inc., (NYSE: HUM) has tapped Dr. Sanjay Shetty to become president of its health care services business, CenterWell.

Shetty’s appointment continues a reorganization that the insurance giant undertook last year that arranged its business into two segments, insurance and CenterWell. The latter contains the former home health assets of Kindred at Home, of which Humana acquired 100% ownership in a $5.7 billion 2021 transaction.

Humana later sold a 60% stake in Kindred’s hospice business to the private equity firm Clay, Dubilier & Rice for $2.5 billion. Humana retains the remaining 40%.

The company’s Kindred at Home deals reflect its deepening dive into risk-based reimbursement programs like Medicare Advantage (MA). Through CenterWell’s expanded home health capabilities, Humana theoretically can generate savings by caring for more patients in a lower-cost setting and reducing hospitalizations and readmissions.

​​“In the home, we have continued to expand our value-based model, which coordinates care and optimizes spend, across home health, [durable medical equipment] and infusion services,” Humana CEO Bruce Broussard said in an earnings call. “We remain on track to cover approximately 40% of our MA members with the fully value-based model by 2025. In addition, we are implementing some of these capabilities on a standalone basis to accelerate value creation.”

CenterWell encompasses Humana’s home health, pharmacy and specialty pharmacy services. The business segment also includes joint ventures with private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) that offer primary care services for seniors.

The segment earned more than $4.1 billion during Q4 2022, up from $4.08 billion in the prior year’s quarter. Its growth was offset by lost income from the hospice divestiture, according to Broussard.

Shetty, CenterWell’s newly appointed president, will come on board April 1. He is currently president of Texas-headquartered Steward Health Care System, which includes 39 hospitals nationally, a large multi-specialty medical group and an accountable care organization. 

“This newly created role comes as we continue to meaningfully expand our CenterWell capabilities, strengthening our payer-agnostic platform and integrating the clinical experiences for patients across the CenterWell platform,” Broussard said. “[Shetty] will draw on his extensive experience leading a large health care system as well as his deep understanding of technology and application of data and analytics and modernizing workflow to accelerate the integration of our CenterWell assets.”

Overall, Humana, Inc., brought in more than $22.4 billion during the fourth quarter of last year, up from $21 billion in Q4 2021.