Elevance To Acquire Louisiana Nonprofit Health Insurer, Adds 1.9M Members

Elevance Health Inc ELV agreed to acquire Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, joining Elevance Health's affiliated Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield family of brands.
The combination builds on the existing collaboration in Louisiana through joint ownership of Healthy Blue, which serves Medicaid and Medicare Dual Eligible members.
It will also accelerate BCBSLA's strategic evolution to improve access, affordability, and quality of services delivered by BCBSLA to the more than 1.9 million members they serve, with capabilities developed by Elevance Health and its healthcare services organization, Carelon.
With more than $4 billion invested over the past several years, Carelon delivers behavioral health, complex and chronic care programs, and digital models.
Analysts from S&P Global Ratings said the Louisiana insurer had revenue of approximately $4.5 billion and net income of about $101 million in 2021, figures a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana spokeswoman confirmed, Wall Street Journal reported citing an email.
The Blue combination makes sense for Elevance, said James Sung, an analyst with S&P Global Ratings. "This is a way to get into Louisiana while retaining that brand, which holds a lot of value for the long term," he said. For the Louisiana insurer, the deal will bring greater scale and access to Elevance's technology and other resources.
The acquisition is expected to close later this year.
Upon closing, Elevance Health's affiliated Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will operate within 15 states nationwide.
Price Action: ELV shares closed at $477.94 on Monday.