OptumRx, the pharmacy care services business of Optum, announced it has acquired AxelaCare Health Solutions, a leading provider of home infusion solutions. The addition of AxelaCare continues OptumRx’s strategy of improving care and reducing costs by integrating information and services on behalf of those it serves.
With an aging population accessing new and more medications, AxelaCare enhances OptumRx’s ability to deliver the best care to the growing number of consumers managing complex conditions through at-home infusions. Together, AxelaCare and OptumRx will expand the scope of treatments that can be offered in the home rather than in higher-cost institutional settings.
AxelaCare’s industry-first electronic patient outcomes assessment technology, CareExchange® captures and reports real-time patient-specific data on the clinical efficacy of drug regimens. CareExchange will work together with Optum’s analytics tools to support treatment decisions and OptumRx’s synchronized approach to medical and pharmacy care.
“AxelaCare’s at-home services will enable us to more effectively support the growing number of people managing complex conditions, many of whom require infusions that increasingly involve higher-cost specialty medications,” said Mark Thierer, CEO of OptumRx. “We look forward to adding AxelaCare’s broad spectrum of therapy solutions to bring consumers higher-quality, more cost-effective infusion service at home, where we know they prefer to get well and stay well.”
Larry Renfro, chief executive officer of Optum said “AxelaCare’s sophisticated approach to treating patients with complex clinical conditions will be further enhanced by Optum’s ability to deliver more actionable information to the precise point of care, yielding greater value for customers and consumers.”
AxelaCare currently treats patients in 44 states and Washington, D.C. through its network of registered nurses. The company offers chronic drug therapies from unaffiliated manufacturers through its network of 34 pharmacies, for conditions such as autoimmune disease and hemophilia, as well as acute infusion therapies including antibiotics and total parenteral nutrition.
“OptumRx’s differentiated pharmacy care services model that goes beyond prescriptions to leverage industry-leading data, technology and scale, will help AxelaCare deliver on our promise to improve the health of the people and communities we serve,” said Ted Kramm, CEO of AxelaCare. “Our shared focus on creating more connected experiences will support better treatment decisions, health outcomes and cost savings for patients and customers.”
Through its service to more than 65 million people through a broad base of payer and employer clients, OptumRx will accelerate the introduction of AxelaCare’s progressive approach to home infusion care to a broader market.
About OptumRx and Optum
OptumRx is an innovative pharmacy care services company managing the prescription drug benefits of commercial, Medicare, Medicaid and other government health plans, as well as those of employers and unions through a national network of 67,000 community pharmacies and state-of-the-art home delivery pharmacies which have earned the prestigious Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites™ (VIPPS) accreditation by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. OptumRx is part of Optum, a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to making the health system work better for everyone. Visit www.optum.com for more information about OptumRx. Optum is the technology-enabled health services business of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH), serving approximately 300 payers and nearly 115 million individuals.
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