Humana, the big insurer, is contracting with physician practices to create a bundled-payment model for maternity care.

The Louisville, Ky-based insurer  will work with five OB-GYN practices to cover beneficiaries with low-to-moderate-risk pregnancies to try to improve quality and lower costs.

The model, among other things, is meant to make available more data and analytics to improve  care, and reduce duplications and readmissions.

Interestingly, the announcement comes soon after news  that Walmart might want to buy the insurer.

The  maternity bundle  is Humana’s second  bundled-payment model. It started  its joint-replacement bundle in 2016, citing an effort to cut costly readmission rates.

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