Walgreens Boots Alliance on Tuesday announced it has "entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the remaining 45% stake" of post-acute and home care company CareCentrix for $392 million, marking the latest move by a health care or retail company to enter the home care space.

Walgreens buys the rest of CareCentrix

In October 2021, Walgreens purchased a 55% stake in CareCentrix for $330 million with an option to raise its stake in the future. That deal closed in August, and according to Walgreens, during its 2021 fiscal year, CareCentrix delivered $1.5 billion in pro forma sales.

Now, less than two months after becoming CareCentrix's majority owner, Walgreens announced plans to acquire the rest of the company—a deal that is expected to close by March 2023.

"We continue to see strong results and potential for growth from our partnership with CareCentrix," said Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer. "Our full acquisition further accelerates our transformation to become a consumer-centric health care company, leveraging innovative platforms that extend our capabilities into fast-growing segments of health care. CareCentrix is key to offering services to our patients at every stage of the care continuum, and to driving long-term, sustainable growth as part of our U.S. Healthcare strategy."

Currently, CareCentrix manages care for more than 19 million patients in more than 7,400 provider locations and, according to Walgreens, offers "a suite of services on an integrated basis to support home care models—including home nursing, durable medical equipment, home infusion, and in-home palliative care."

CareCentrix will continue acting as a distinct business from Walgreens once the acquisition is finalized, and CareCentrix CEO John Driscoll will enter a new role as EVP and president of U.S. health care at Walgreens.

Driscoll said CareCentrix is "thrilled to be part of [Walgreens's] vision to transform local healthcare and develop new valued-based models. A major component of the future of healthcare is in the home, and CareCentrix is critical to enabling [Walgreens] to serve patients wherever and however works best for them."

The move marks the latest retail or health care company to enter the home care space, including CVS Health, who purchased Signify Health for around $8 billion in September, and Best Buy, who purchased Current Health for $400 million last year. (Japsen, Forbes, 10/11; Landi, Fierce Healthcare, 10/12; Berryman, Modern Healthcare, 10/11)