The home-health approach continues an industry trend of trying to keep patients from using expensive hospital beds, and in many cases aligns with patient preferences of staying at home. (Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) –UnitedHealth Group Inc. agreed to pay about $5.4 billion in cash to add home-health provider LHC Group Inc. to its wide range of insurance and medical services. Under the terms of the proposed deal, UnitedHealth will pay $170 a share for LHC, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. That's about 8% higher than LHC's closing price Monday. LHC would become part of UnitedHealth's Optum Health unit.

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