Sentara Healthcare acquires Fla. insurance company

Norfolk-based Sentara Healthcare has acquired AvMed Inc., a not-for-profit health plan company based in Miami, from SantaFe HealthCare Inc., Sentara announced Thursday. Financial terms of the deal, which closed Dec. 31, 2022, were not disclosed.

AvMed is a health insurance company with more than 200,000 members and 35,000 providers and nearly 500 employees. It offers commercial group, individual and Medicare Advantage coverage.

“Sentara has extensive experience operating successful health plans that facilitate access to high-quality, coordinated care for members, and we are excited to be bringing Sentara’s mission — we improve health every day — to an even larger community,” Sentara President and CEO Dennis Matheis said in a statement.

The affiliation between Sentara and AvMed “creates greater economies of scale allowing Sentara to better coordinate care, enhance overall experience, improve affordability and continue capability investments to better serve patients, members and communities,” according to a news release.

“Sentara and AvMed are like-minded, mission-driven, not-for-profit organizations with long histories of serving our communities and delivering excellence in service, quality and member satisfaction,” Colin Drozdowski, president of Sentara Health Plans and executive vice president of Sentara Healthcare, said in a statement.

Sentara operates Sentara Health Plans, the health insurance division of Sentara Healthcare, offering plans through its subsidiaries, Optima Health and Virginia Premier. With the acquisition of AvMed, Sentara’s health care operations expand coverage to nearly 1.2 million members, according to a news release.