Humana Corporation's Growth in Private Enterprise and Welfare Care
Humana Inc. was founded in 1961 in Louisville, Kentucky by David Jones and Wendell Cherry as a nursing home company. The decision to start the business came in a rather unusual situation. It was whilst both men were playing a game of golf in Louisville. Each of them put up $1,000 as their initial investment. The company soon became the largest nursing home company in the United States. Learning that more profits could be made in running hospitals they divested from the nursing home chain and moved into purchasing hospitals in 1971. To reflect the company's new direction, the name was changed from Extendicare to Humana Inc. in 1974. Humana experienced tremendous growth organically.in the years that followed. Its takeover of American Medicorp Inc. in 1978 doubled the company's size. During the mid-1970s, a fast-track construction process enabled the completion and opening of one hospital a month. This accelerated construction schedule compressed time by overlapping processes thu