UnitedHealth Group’s Optum announced Tuesday that it plans to buy home healthcare provider LHC for about $5.4 billion.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022, according to the release.

Keith Myers, chairman and chief executive of LHC Group, said in a news release: “Working together as organisations dedicated to caring for the most vulnerable in society will help us deliver high-quality and increasingly value-based families more effectively and efficiently. care.”

The leadership of LHC Group will continue after the acquisition.