UnitedHealth Group Completes $2.8 Billion USD Acquisition of Banmédica

UnitedHealth Group Inc. has closed its tender offer to acquire Chilean healthcare company Empresas Banmédica and its regional subsidiaries, which include a significant presence in the Colombian market.

The purchase agreement was formally filed by the U.S. healthcare firm with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in December for a reported price of $2.8 billion USD, or 2,150 Chilean pesos per share.

As part of the deal for the company, which provides health benefits and services to millions of people in the region, UnitedHealth now owns the Colombian EPS health market companies Aliansalud and Colmédica Medicina Prepagada as well as clinics Clinica del Country, Clinica La Colina, and Portoazul.

In an interview with Colombian magazine Portafolio, Molly Joseph of UnitedHealthcare said that customer and patients will see no immediate changes in their coverage or care plans. The biggest changes in the future, she says, will include an increasing investment in technology and medical systems management to make processes more efficient.

Data analytics, increased digitization of records, and biometric innovations are likely to be among the advances down the road.

“We want to bring to Chile, Colombia, and Peru our experience in helping to improve access to health of the population — with better quality and lower costs — taking advantage of the technology and information we have,” Joseph told Portafolio. “The combination with Banmédica creates a much stronger organization with greater capacity to offer more services and of better quality.”

(Photo credit: 2012 Pop Culture Geek)