The new centers are being built or acquired in 11 of the 15 states where Humana’s primary care network already has a presence.

Published Feb. 19, 2025 •Updated 20 hours ago

Rebecca PiferSenior Reporter

CenterWell Wendover in Charlotte, N.C., celebrates its grand opening in October 2023. Courtesy of HumanaListen to the article4 min

Dive Brief:

• Humana is sketching out expansion plans for its fledgling primary care network, announcing Wednesday that its CenterWell and Conviva brands expect to add up to 30 new centers this year.
• The new centers are being built or acquired in 11 of the 15 states where Humana’s primary care network already has a presence, though the insurer is also foraying into new metro areas, including Augusta and Savannah in Georgia; Burlington, Greensboro and Winston-Salem in North Carolina; and Wichita, Kansas, according to a press release on Wednesday.
• The expansion includes 11 senior primary care centers co-located at Walmart stores, finishing the buildout of a joint initiative Walmart and Humana launched last year. Centers will open throughout the year, with a number opening this spring, according to a spokesperson. Humana declined to share how much it is investing in the expansion.

Dive Insight:

At the end of 2024, Humana operated more than 340 primary care centers through its CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Conviva Senior Primary Care brands.

That’s compared to roughly 200 centers in nine states at the start of 2022. The pace of expansion has made CenterWell and Conviva the biggest and fastest-growing primary care provider for seniors in the nation, according to Humana.

However, the size of Humana’s network this year pales in comparison to care delivery arms overseen by some of its peers — notably, UnitedHealth, which operates thousands of clinics and employs or is affiliated with roughly 10,000 physicians nationwide.

The massive healthcare conglomerate originated the vertical integration strategy of pairing a national health insurer with a large network of physician practices — a blueprint that Humana has also been pursuing over the past few years.

Snapping up physician offices allows insurers to diversify their revenue and insulate their bottom line from major fluctuations in medical costs, more easily manage value-based care arrangements and keep a greater slice of premiums in-house.

Humana’s intercompany eliminations — essentially, how much revenue Humana pays subsidiaries like CenterWell for providing services to itself — reached $16.5 billion in 2024, up 7% from the year prior.

Yet CenterWell (also the name of Humana’s broader health services division) hasn’t been able to prevent the worst of elevated spending in Medicare Advantage and Medicaid from hitting Humana’s profits.

The insurer reported net income of $1.2 billion in 2024, down more than half from $2.5 billion in 2023 because of higher spending on members’ care in the government programs.

During a call with investors earlier this month, Humana management said investing in CenterWell is a key driver of Humana’s future growth prospects. That could include M&A, executives added.

“We feel good about the opportunities we found to expand our primary care footprint in the second half of 2024,” CEO Jim Rechtin said, though Humana plans to be “thoughtful” in choosing M&A targets that “allow us to continue to grow our earnings capacity while being prudent with our balance sheet.”

Along with partnering with Walmart, Humana has a joint agreement with frequent private equity collaborator Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe to co-fund new primary care centers under the CenterWell brand.

The joint venture with WCAS allocates up to $1.2 billion to develop clinics between 2023 and 2025.

Correction: A previous version of the story misidentified the company Humana is partnering with to co-locate clinics. That company is Walmart.