Homecare Homebase customers are home-based care innovators that feature prominently in industry news. Here are some customer news highlights from the past month. Several Homecare Homebase customers shared their next steps for preparing for the HHVBP nationwide rollout. Read the full article here.
Pennant Shares M&A Strategy
The Pennant Group shared how its operational model informs M&A strategy in a Home Health Care News article. The company looks for agencies with a strong local team that is looking for resources to help them grow and is planning on picking up the acquisition pace in 2022. The Pennant Group provides common resources including EMR, financial, legal and HR support and incentivizes branches to achieve financial, quality and compliance benchmarks. The Pennant Group increased revenue by 22% in 2021. Read the full article here.
Affinity Hospice New De Novo
Affinity Hospice announced the opening of a de novo location in Alabaster, Alabama. The location provides hospice and palliative care both in the home and at hospital and long-term residential facilities. Affinity Hospice operates out of 11 hospice locations across four southern states. Read the rest of the article here.
Amedisys Reduces Staffing Turnover
Amedisys went on record with Home Health Care News to talk about its “obsession” with staff retention, discussing the importance of operating at clinical capacity. The company reduced turnover by 9% in 2021 after employing a turnover prediction tool. Amedisys offers home health, hospice, personal care and high-acuity care services out of 350 care centers across 34 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, the company cares for an average daily census of 74,000 patients. Read the full article here.
Addus Acquires JourneyCare
Addus HomeCare Corp. acquired JourneyCare, a nonprofit hospice provider with an average daily census of 750 in Illinois. The addition is helping to build out the company’s coordinated care across service lines. Addus has 211 locations in 25 states serving more than 45,000 patients. The company will continue to pursue M&A opportunities for home health and hospice, potentially focusing on Ohio. Read the rest of the article here.
Trinity Health at Home Announces M&A Plans
Trinity Health at Home announced its plans for M&A expansion in the private duty space. The company is currently considering half a dozen private-duty organizations for acquisition to round out the care continuum. Trinity Health at Home cares for upwards of 9,300 patients. Read the full article here.
Aveanna Healthcare Holdings, Inc. Reduces Employee Onboarding Time
Tony Strange, CEO of Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc., discussed some of the conversations he is having with payors to allow greater access to home care. He is discussing new operating and payment models for private-duty services to replace the hourly fee-for-service operating model. The company is also bolstering its hiring and onboarding processes with online on-demand training which has reduced on-boarding time by 80%. Same day pay and flexible scheduling (using a smartphone app) have also been implemented to help with retention. Aveanna is also anticipated to be active in the M&A markets for home health and hospice in 2022 and 2023. The company is one of the parties considering the purchase of Encompass Health Corporation’s home health and hospice spin off. Read the full articles here and here.
Enhabit Home Health & Hospice Acquisition Interest
Several organizations have expressed interest in acquiring Enhabit Home Health & Hospice, currently belonging to Encompass Health Corporation. The home health and hospice spin off is currently valued at $1.1 billion and served 200,600 home health admissions and 13,100 hospice admissions in 2021. The home health and hospice segment employs 10,900 personnel. The home health service line contains 251 locations across 34 states and the hospice service line includes 96 location across 22 states. The company is planning to add 10 home health and hospice de novos in 2022 as well. Read the rest of the article here.
AccentCare Focused on Trauma-Informed Care
AccentCare announced a company-wide push to include trauma-informed care in its services and staff support programs for hospice care. Trauma-informed care requires a careful look at the patient’s history, so care can be planned in a way that minimizes trauma triggers. The focus is partially due to the traumatizing effects of the pandemic and includes a higher sensitivity to patients’ comfort level with being touched and individual needs. AccentCare cares for 210,000 patients at 260 locations across 31 states and the District of Columbia. The company also employs over 30,000 people in services ranging from personal, palliative, hospice and home health care as well as rehabilitation, telehealth and care management. Read the full article here.
The LHC Group Purchase and Growth Plans
United Health Group is buying The LHC Group for over $5.5 billion in order to pair the home health provider with Optum Health. The LHC Group’s leadership team members will remain in place. The deal will help LHC Group advance its value-based care strategy. The LHC Group has 964 locations across 27 states and the District of Columbia. Read the full article here.
2021 marked a record for new acquisitions and acquired revenue for the LHC Group. 97 new locations and over $299 million in annual revenue were added to the company. The largest deal was with HCA Healthcare Inc. and Brookdale Senior Living and included 47 home health, hospice and therapy locations. The company also saw 21.9% growth for non-Medicare episodic admissions in 2021. Joint ventures are also winding back up as an additional growth source for The LHC Group. Its latest JV agreement with Archbold Medical Center was announced in March. Read the rest of the article here.
Traditions Health Acquires Six Entities
Traditions Health announced the acquisition of six hospice entities in March. The company purchased Sonata Hospice, Cadence Hospice, Pacific Crest Hospice, Sonata Hospice of Riverside County, Sonata Hospice of Las Vegas and Serenity Health Management. The acquisitions span three states: Kansas, Nevada and California. Traditions Health services over 8,500 patients across 18 states and 75 office locations. The company offers hospice home health and palliative care. Read the rest of the article here.
Elevate Home Health Partners with SNFs
Elevate Home Health is partnering with skilled nursing facilities to help improve overall health outcomes and capitalize on growth opportunities. Its goal is to create a “true continuum of care”. The organization is based in New Jersey, Florida and Texas and intends to expand in Florida and Virginia. Read the rest of the article here.
Bayada Leverages Tech-Enabled Services
Bayada is leveraging new tech-enabled services to streamline transitions of care between the hospital and home. The company is creating virtual care teams to provide primary care from the come and address social determinants of health. Read the full article here.
St. Croix Announces M&A Plans and Launches Fall Risk Program
Stephen Phenneger, President and CFO of St. Croix Hospice addressed the company’s 2022 approach to mergers and acquisitions and cited the addition of Silverado Hospice and CNS Hospice to St. Croix’s ranks in an article on 2022 M&A activity for Hospice News. In addition to acquisitions, St. Croix is growing organically by opening de novo locations. Its latest de novo is located in Fremont, Nebraska. Read the full article here.
St. Croix Hospice also launched a program to reduce fall risk among its patients. The program begins with an assessment when the patient is admitted to hospice, followed by education and safety measures and a 24⁄7 nurse triage hotline. A pilot of the program in North Branch Minnesota resulted in a 25% reduction of falls during a three month timeframe. Read the rest of the article here.
Centrica Care Navigators Rebrand
Hospice of Southwest Michigan has rebranded to reflect its growing scope of services. The company, now known as Centrica Care Navigators provides hospice, palliative care and adult day care. The umbrella brand will help the provider discuss their services without having to speak in terms of specific service lines and help patients at different points in their care journey. Read the rest of the article here.
Silverstone Hospice Shares Staffing Strategies
Alfonso Montiel, CEO of Silverstone Hospice shared strategies the company has used to address staffing challenges during Hospice News’ 2022 Staffing Summit. Silverstone Hospice has tripled its patient census since 2019, further stressing the need for staff. Silverstone Hospice found success through proactive outreach to prospective candidates who recently updated their resumes. Efforts to foster a culture of inclusivity, integrity and transparency have also paid off. Read the full article here.
