Best Buy Divests Current Health as Co-Founder Reacquires Company with Ambitious Growth Plans

Best Buy has divested Current Health, the care-at-home technology company it acquired in 2021 for nearly $400 million. Christopher McGhee, co-founder of Current Health, has reacquired the company and returned as CEO with plans to build it into the "world's largest healthcare organization."

Current Health's New Direction Under Returning Leadership

McGhee, along with several former team members including co-founder Stewart Whiting, is set to run Current Health as an independent business. The company aims to focus on complex, high-cost, high-risk patient populations where there are clear payment models and benefits to delivering care in lower-cost environments.

"The future of healthcare is in the home and the community, and we have a role to play in that transformation," McGhee stated in a company blog post. He emphasized the potential for moving care out of hospitals into home-based or community-based settings, particularly in areas such as oncology and cell and gene therapies.

Current Health's platform combines FDA-cleared monitoring devices, third-party devices, integrated telehealth, patient engagement tools, and electronic health record integrations. The company has supported home healthcare programs serving 70,000 patients and works with 40 health systems, including Mass General Brigham, Atrium Health, and Geisinger Health.

Challenges in Scaling Care-at-Home Services

Best Buy's decision to divest Current Health comes after facing difficulties in scaling the business. In Q4 2024, the company recorded a $475 million pretax noncash goodwill impairment charge related to its Best Buy Health reporting unit, reflecting downward revisions in long-term financial projections.

Corie Barry, Best Buy's CEO, acknowledged during an earnings call that while the company still believes in the strategy of leveraging technology for care at home, "the market is not scaling as fast as we originally forecasted."

The uncertainty surrounding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver has been a factor in slowing the adoption of hospital-at-home solutions. The waiver, which allows certain Medicare-certified hospitals to provide inpatient-level care at home, has been extended multiple times and is currently set to expire on September 30, 2025.

Despite these challenges, McGhee remains optimistic about the growth of care-at-home programs. "I think a lot of health systems have now got commercial arrangements that allow them to grow regardless of what Medicare does or doesn't do. I don't think the genie can go back into the bottle," he stated, citing strong financial and clinical outcomes demonstrated by hospital-at-home programs.