Humana named Dr. Andrew Agwunobi president of its growing home solutions business on Friday, with the veteran health insurer and provider executive slated to start Feb. 21.
Agwunobi comes to the insurer from the University of Connecticut, where he currently serves as interim president of the university and CEO of the UConn Health System. He previously served as chief operating officer of St. Joseph Health System, a 14-hospital network headquartered in Irvine, California, and also led Renton, Washington-based Providence Health Care System as CEO. Agqunobi additionally oversaw the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration and its $16 billion budget.
In his new role at Humana, Agwunobi will report directly to CEO Bruce Broussard and serve as a member of the management team. He fills an opening left by Susan Diamond, who moved from president of the home care business division to Humana's chief financial officer last June. Broussard pointed to Agwunobi's medical and professional experience leading a home healthcare organization as a benefit to the insurer.
Agwunobi is a pediatrician who earned his medical degree from the University of Jos in Nigeria and master's in business administration from Stanford University.
"He's a doctor—he understands the value of care in the home, why seniors want more of it, and our vision a Humana for making it much easier for people to get the care they need at home," Broussard said in a news release.
Humana, the second-largest Medicare Advantage carrier in the nation with 4.3 million members, has been investing in its home care services. UnitedHealthcare is the nation's largest Medicare Advantage insurer with 6.4 million enrollees.
Last August, Humana paid $5.7 billion to buy the remaining shares of Kindred at Home, bringing the insurer's total investment in the nation's largest home care and hospice provider to $8.1 billion. Humana eventually plans to integrate the home health side of Kindred into Agwunobi's Home Solutions division, with the aim of providing care to those insured under different carriers. Integrating the two businesses will continue through 2023, the company said.
In June, the insurer also paid an undisclosed sum to acquire One Home Healthcare, which does business as onehome, to build on its growing value-based home health segment. In 2021, Humana also partnered with in-home service provider DispatchHealth to offer in-home emergency and acute care to its traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage members.
"As the ongoing COVID pandemic has accelerated interest in and shifts to in-home care and home health models, I'm highly confident that we will be able to help the people we serve achieve better health outcomes," Agwunobi said in a news release.
