McKesson, PE firm to acquire home infusion provider in deal worth $5.8 billion

Healthcare behemoth McKesson and private equity firm CD&R have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Option Care Health, described as the largest independent provider of home and alternate-site infusion services in the U.S., in a deal valued at approximately $5.8 billion, including debt.

Option Care Health does business in all 50 states. Last year, the company generated net revenue of $5.6 billion and net income of $207.6 million.

“This investment represents an important opportunity that aligns with McKesson’s long-term strategy to expand access and affordability to innovative therapies across the care continuum,” said Brian Tyler, McKesson’s CEO. “As these therapies continue to grow in importance and their delivery becomes increasingly complex, McKesson is focused on investing in areas where our capabilities can help improve access and advance care in lower-cost community settings, at or closer to home.

“Option Care Health’s clinical model and national infusion footprint across home and ambulatory sites are well aligned with those priorities, and the company is well positioned for continued growth,” Tyler continued. “As a strategic investor, we look forward to bringing McKesson’s experience and expertise in specialty pharmaceuticals to support Option Care Health’s strategy of broadening access to complex therapies and enabling care delivery in lower-cost settings, while creating long-term value for stakeholders.”

Under the terms of the agreement, CD&R will hold a majority ownership stake of about 51%. McKesson’s investment of approximately $1.4 billion will give the company a minority ownership interest of about 49%. The agreement includes a framework that would allow McKesson to acquire CD&R’s stake in the future under certain conditions.

The purchase price of $32.05 per share represents a premium of approximately 37% relative to the closing price of Option Care Health’s stock on Oct. 5, the last day of trading before the deal was announced.

If regulatory and shareholder approvals are obtained and other closing conditions are satisfied, the companies expect to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2027.

Option Care Health will continue to operate as a separate, but privately held, company led by its own management team, according to the press statement.

John Rademacher, Option Care Health’s CEO, said, “We will continue to enhance our platform and deepen our partnerships with hospitals and health systems, physicians, payers, and biopharma manufacturers.”

Our Take: McKesson, the largest distributor of pharmaceutical products in the U.S., stated in the announcement that growth in specialty care is one of its strategic objectives. Acquiring an ownership stake in Option Care Health gives McKesson a path to achieving this goal by “[supporting] the delivery of complex specialty therapies across multiple care settings.”

Partnering with CD&R allows McKesson to take advantage of this opportunity without paying the entire price up front or assuming all of Option Care Health’s debt, which is estimated to be $1.3 billion as of June 30.

If this opportunity proves fruitful, and there’s no reason to think it won’t, McKesson will likely take full ownership of Option Care Health. This degree of vertical integration could raise issues for McKesson customers who compete with Option Care Health (i.e., other home infusion providers).

In that scenario, some McKesson customers might switch to Cencora, Cardinal Health, or another distributor. It’s hard to see how McKesson’s bottom line would take much of a hit, though, if any — the U.S. home infusion therapy market is expected to grow from $23.6 billion this year to nearly $50 billion by 2034, according to Fortune Business Insights.  

What else you need to know

Cigna’s is implementing an initiative designed to save $3 billion by 2030 by modernizing processes and streamlining workflows. The initiative is part of the company’s “Lead to One” strategy unveiled recently on investor day. According to a press release, Cigna employees will use “AI-enabled insights and tools to drive greater effectiveness, along with driving disciplined supplier and vendor management.” CEO Brian Evanko said a portion of the savings will be reinvested in the company and some will be used to help the company reach targeted earnings growth.

Separately, Cigna introduced a member and clinical support model called Health Sense that is designed to reduce inefficient healthcare spending by 10% by 2030. The company said the model connects information about members’ health, care, benefits, costs, and previous interactions with the health plan to help make the information, benefits, and support available through Cigna Healthcare more relevant and easier to use.

Health Sense will be embedded “across the Cigna Healthcare experience … rather than operating as a one-size-fits-all chatbot or stand-alone app,” Cigna stated in the announcement. Dr. Stanley Crittenden, chief medical officer at Cigna Healthcare, said the fuller picture Health Sense provides will help clinical and care teams “recognize potential needs earlier, connect people with relevant resources, and make it easier for them to move from information to action with their treating providers.” Cigna will begin rolling out Health Sense early next year, starting with members who have cancer or cardiometabolic conditions.  

Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System is launching a health plan. MultiCare Health Plan will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the health system supported by PSW, MultiCare’s “longtime population health partner,” according to the announcement. Karen Decaran-Voight will serve as the health plan’s president. The first offering — a provider-sponsored, not-for-profit Medicare Advantage HMO with Part D prescription drug benefits — will be available to Medicare-eligible patients in three counties, with enrollment starting in mid-October and coverage taking effect on Jan. 1.

MultiCare received regulatory approval in August for a proposed affiliation with Samaritan Health Services, a five-hospital system based in Corvallis, Ore. Samaritan operates a health plan of its own but withdrew from the Medicare Advantage market starting this year.

Intermountain Health is stepping away from Trinsic, a clinically integrated network  in Colorado it has been operating jointly with Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth. In a notice to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain said a Trinsic operating unit in Broomfield, Colo., would close on Dec. 4 and UCHealth would assume sole operation of the Trinsic network after Dec. 7.

Trinsic was established in 2023 by combining UCHealth’s Coordinated Care of Colorado and Intermountain’s Colorado Quality Care Network. According to Fierce Healthcare, the network includes approximately 1,000 primary care clinicians and 17 hospitals.  

CommonSpirit Health is consolidating its operating model, a move that will become effective in January, Becker’s Hospital Review reported. Michael Browning, chief financial officer of the Chicago-based health system, said during an Oct. 2 earnings call that instead of the current structure, which comprises the California, Central, South, Mountain, and Northwest regions, the nonprofit would be reorganized into West, Central, and East service areas, each with its own president.

Browning said the objective is to eliminate duplication, layers of management, and complex legal structures, according to Becker’s. Additionally, CommonSpirit is consolidating its acute care entities into one per state and has unified all 27 critical access hospitals into one rural operating model in the East service area, Becker’s reported.

The reorganization is part of a multiyear initiative, called Project Impact, that is designed to address CommonSpirit’s financial losses by driving between $5 billion and $6 billion worth of value creation systemwide. CommonSpirit has sold five hospitals so far this year and is working to finalize the sale of three more by yearend. It also sold its minority stake in Conifer Health Solutions, a revenue cycle management joint venture, back to Tenet Healthcare in February.  

Executive moves

Peter Shorett has been named as Beth Israel Lahey Health’s next president and CEO, effective in January. Shorett has served in senior leadership roles since joining the Cambridge, Mass.-based health system in 2019, most recently as chief operating officer. Shorett will succeed Dr. Kevin Tabb, who has served as president and CEO since BILH was formed in 2019 through the merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health. Before that, Dr. Tabb served as CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess, starting in 2011. Dr. Tabb announced his plans in March to step down from his role at BILH.

Karen Hanlon will add the role of CEO to her title at Highmark Health on Jan. 1, and the Pittsburgh-based insurer’s current CEO, David Holmberg, will transition to the role of executive chairman. Hanlon, who has been with Highmark Health since 1997, according to the news release, currently serves as president and has previously held the roles of chief financial officer and chief operating officer. Holmberg has been CEO since 2014. Highmark Health is the parent company of Allegheny Health Network.

Laureen Driscoll will become president and CEO of WellSpan Health on Jan. 4, succeeding Roxanna Gapstur, who announced in April her plans to retire from the York, Pa.-based health system. Currently, Driscoll is chief executive of Renton, Wash.-based Providence’s South Division, which includes Northern and Southern California. Before she joined Providence in 2022, according to the announcement, Driscoll held various senior leadership roles at Tacoma, Wash.-based MultiCare Health System.  

What we’re reading

Early-Stage Drug Development Is Strategic Infrastructure. Can The US Afford To Lose It? Health Affairs, 9.17.25

Patents on Small-Molecule Drugs Approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, 1990-2019. JAMA, 9.28.26 (registration or subscription required)

Clinical Trial Prediction Markets — Information, at What Cost? NEJM, 10.7.26 (registration or subscription required)