Category: Amedisys
The ability to deliver higher-acuity care in the home is now table stakes. That’s especially true for health plans and health systems following the introduction of the COVID-related Acute Hospital Care at Home Waiver by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) in November 2020. Eventually, though, the public health emergency is going […]
After multiple years of record-breaking M&A activity, home health consolidators are now starting to show an increased interest in organic growth. While the approach to growing a home health business through building existing infrastructure may take longer, the environment in 2022 is more friendly to organic growth than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]
Home health and personal care services provider Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) is experimenting with a new model that better fits the Medicare Advantage-heavy environment of today. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys has started to pilot a new model that takes into account the case rate on a per admission basis, which will hopefully drive down […]
The home health industry’s battle with Medicare Advantage (MA) plans for fair rates has gone from a few stakeholders saying “the quiet part out loud” earlier this year to nearly every major provider in the country talking about the issue with regularity. My colleagues and I have covered the topic extensively. But we’ve moved beyond […]
Amedisys names Nick Muscato as chief strategy officer Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) announced this week the promotion of Nick Muscato to chief strategy officer. Moscato most recently served as the senior vice president of finance with Amedisys and has been responsible for leading investor relations. “[Nick] brings a wealth of expertise to the team and […]
Amedisys completes a series of acquisitions Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) recently completed a number of acquisitions. The company announced that it has completed its purchase of Evolution Health and certain home health assets from AssistedCare Home Health and AssistedCare of the Carolinas. Sign up for HHCN + to read this exclusive content. Individual Membership […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has become “obsessive on retention” and the larger impact staffing could have on the company. “We feel like the most impactful lever in our organization is retaining our clinical staff,” Chris Gerard, president and COO of Amedisys, said Thursday at the Barclays Global Healthcare Conference. “We live and breathe, every single […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) Chairman and CEO Paul Kusserow has officially passed the baton. “It’s been a life-changing journey to serve our patients and employees,” Kusserow said Thursday during the company’s fourth-quarter 2021 earnings call. “I believe the best time to transition leadership is when a company has a clear idea of where it’s going […]
Earlier this week, Axios reported that Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is gearing up for a sale of Kindred at Home’s hospice business and seeking a multiple of 12 times EBITDA. Two days later, Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC) reaffirmed its plan to spin off its home health and hospice segment into a new publicly traded […]
The ongoing public health emergency is sure to bring more staffing turmoil this year, along with additional regulatory and policy updates. The year ahead is also likely to bring more leadership turnover at the very top of home health organizations. Beyond the pandemic, private equity dollars will keep flowing into home-based care, leading to an […]
On Dec. 10, connectRN announced it had raised $76 million to scale its technology-enabled staffing platform for nurses. The Series F round was led by Suvretta Capital Management and Avidity Partners, with participation from several other groups. While its involvement didn’t garner immediate attention, one of the home health industry’s biggest names was also among […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) is gearing up to execute on its 2022 strategy while positioning itself for 2023, which it sees as a year of major upside. The company detailed those plans Wednesday at the 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, just days after its announcement that current CEO Paul Kusserow will retire from the […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) announced Monday that Chairman and CEO Paul Kusserow will retire as CEO on April 15. Kusserow joined Amedisys – one of the largest home health and hospice providers in the nation – in 2014, a time when the company was faltering and its executives were calling for change. Kusserow helped turn […]
With all eyes focused on the home, it’s no exaggeration to say there were dozens of blockbuster in-home care acquisitions last year. But while all transactions directly impact the buyers and sellers, only a handful help shape the trajectory of an entire market. As I started to think about my own home health and home […]
The home health market is made up of about 9,900 home health agencies, with businesses ranging in size, service mix and structure. The publicly traded home health companies, in particular, offer a snapshot of the industry in the present – and often a sneak peek at what’s to come. While the names of the publicly […]
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to dominate headlines in 2021, despite the collective desire for it to be gone by this past summer. But it didn’t stop massive dealmaking, which made M&A just as big of a story in home-based care as the virus. Thus, those two topics took up a lot of the Home Health […]
It has never been more challenging to be a home health operator. At the same time, there has never been more upside. That’s the general census of home health executives as 2021 comes to a close. Looking ahead to next year, many believe unprecedented labor struggles are likely to continue, though technology and the use […]
This article is an exclusive feature available as a part of your subscription to HHCN + Basically all of the publicly traded in-home care giants offered internal updates and expectations for the coming year this week during a series of investor presentations. In addition to company-specific plans, the group discussed key policy developments and important […]
Walmart’s latest health care hire Walmart has reportedly snagged Dr. David Carmouche from Louisiana-based Ochsner Health to lead its expansion into retail health care. Walmart officially kicked off its health care strategy in 2019 when it opened its first 10,000-square-foot health center in Dallas, Georgia. That initial location even included an on-site connection to home […]
The independent home care company HouseWorks has acquired Atlantic Homelife Senior Care. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Headquartered in Boston, HouseWorks offers mainly private-pay in-home care services to older adults in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, plus Philadelphia and parts of Maine. In addition to traditional home care services, HouseWorks — founded more […]
Aveanna Healthcare (Nasdaq: AVAH) has agreed to acquire Comfort Care Home Health for $345 million, according to financial filings. The Atlanta-based Aveanna went public through a $100 million IPO earlier this year. While it filed an 8-K on Oct. 1 for the deal, a press release has not yet been issued. Sign up for HHCN […]
The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/. Megan Ambers, vice president of workforce strategy and HR […]
The home health industry is at a pivotal moment, with operators weighing exciting new opportunities while simultaneously working through emerging challenges related to the COVID-19 virus. Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED), LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG), Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: AVAH) and other publicly traded providers discussed many of the industry’s biggest developments during their […]
Since the onset of the COVID-19 emergency in early 2020, home-based care providers have had to navigate seemingly countless challenges around keeping both patients and staff safe. Providers are now gearing up to face a new and more aggressive strain of the coronavirus: the Delta variant. Among its major distinctions, the Delta variant is more […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) executives are still coming down from the excitement around closing the company’s market-moving acquisition of Contessa Health, a home-based care innovator dedicated to shifting higher-acuity care into the home. But along with big future plans for Contessa and its legacy segments, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based aging-in-place giant also continues to face […]
Health insurer Regence BlueShield has partnered with DispatchHealth to give its members access to hospital-at-home and mobile high-acuity services. “Hospitalizations in the home is a groundbreaking and exciting shift in care delivery,” Dr. Drew Oliveira, senior executive medical director at Regence, said in a press release. “Our partnership with DispatchHealth enables Regence members to receive […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has completed its purchase of Visiting Nurse Association’s (VNA) assets. Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys has a number of in-home care capabilities, including home health, hospice and personal care services. Amedisys also recently acquired Contessa Health for $250 million. The deal gives the company a range of acute-level care services. Meanwhile, VNA […]
If you dig into the home health market, you’ll find that a lot of providers look very much alike. Overall, the home health market is made up of several thousand different players, from smaller mom-and-pop shops led by mission-driven nurses to multi-million-dollar behemoths led by savvy health care veterans. Yet for the most part, many […]
Aging-in-place company Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) on Wednesday announced plans to acquire hospital-at-home pioneer Contessa Health for $250 million. From a nuts-and-bolts perspective, the deal — expected to close later this summer — makes a ton of sense for Amedisys. Among the strategic benefits, for example, it gives the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based company an unprecedented […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has an agreement in place to acquire Contessa Health, one of the biggest players in the hospital-at-home market, for $250 million. The acquisition takes Amedisys’ total addressable market for in-home care services from $44 billion to $73 billion, according to the company. Strategically, Amedisys believes it can leverage its existing home-based […]
In the home health business, providers rise and fall with their people. Recruitment and retention difficulties have been the bane of home health operators for years. Even during a once-in-a-generation pandemic filled with health hazards, cash-flow challenges and personal protective equipment (PPE) problems, it was staffing shortages that kept the bulk of organizations up at […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) expected to do plenty of dealmaking heading into 2020 and Year 1 of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Those plans, however, were largely put on pause for the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based home health, hospice and personal care services company due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While Amedisys remained active on the M&A […]
LHC Group announces JV expansion LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) as well as partners Texas Health Resources and Methodist Health System are expanding their joint venture in Texas. The three health care organizations announced on Thursday that they’re purchasing and sharing ownership of Regent Home Health, a provider that currently serves patients and families in […]
As one of the largest aging-in-place companies in the nation, Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) has a footprint that stretches across nearly 40 states. It has turned one of those states into its chief innovation hub, partly thanks to its small but creative personal care services division. At the end of 2020, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys […]
The home health dealmaking train keeps on rolling, with the latest transactions coming from Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) and Charter Health Care Group, a private equity-backed post-acute care provider. On Wednesday, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire the regulatory assets of a home health provider operating in Randolph […]
A former leader of the CMS Innovation Center is launching his own health care investment firm. He’s doing so armed with a pretty solid endorsement from one of the home health industry’s biggest names. Adam Boehler — the initial head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) under the Trump administration — announced […]
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) announced Monday that it has repurchased $73 million in stock. The move comes just a few days after Amedisys also executed a new joint venture with the UMC Health System. Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys is one of the largest home health companies in the country, with more than 500 care centers […]
Acute and post-acute patient volumes started to normalize in the early part of 2021, with hospitals, skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and home health providers all hovering around their 2019 baselines. The accelerated rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is largely responsible for the newfound stability, particularly in the SNF space. Following millions of inoculations across the U.S., […]
The historic wave of consolidation that home health M&A experts predicted ahead of the Patient-Driven Grouping Model (PDGM) hasn’t fully panned out, largely due to the COVID-19 emergency and the billions in federal relief dollars that have come with it. There was some degree of contraction within the industry, however. Going into 2020, there was […]
For the first time in decades, U.S. health care spending may have actually decreased in 2020, new data suggests. Several factors likely contributed to the potential decrease, according to nonprofit research and consulting firm Altarum, which released a preliminary analysis of last year’s national health spending on Tuesday. Such factors include year-over-year declines in hospital […]
Back-and-forth shifts in patient volume between skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and in-home care providers have been happening for years. Yet health care policymakers and executives are now examining such shifts — and the potential advantages of delivering care inside an individual’s home instead of a facility — more closely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. […]
Although workplace diversity has long been seen as a difference-maker for organizations, it’s still rare to see a major company’s board of directors made up of mostly women. In fact, when it comes to representation in U.S. boardrooms, women only make up 20% of public company directors, according to data from the Diligent Institute. In […]
“Nobody knows what the future holds” has been one of the biggest lessons learned during the COVID-19 emergency. But even as the home health industry plays its part in responding to new infection spikes across parts of the country, it has never been more important to stay ahead of the curve. To remain competitive in […]
Traditions adds to post-acute care platform Traditions Health is adding to its growing post-acute care business. The College Station, Texas-based home health and hospice provider announced a handful of new acquisitions at the start of January. Financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed. In Oklahoma, Traditions acquired two home health agencies: Traditions Home Care […]
In somewhat of a surprise move, U.S. health care policymakers unveiled plans last week to expand the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model, a nine-state Medicare demonstration designed to better align reimbursement to quality of care. Despite backing from most of the home health industry, the HHVBP Model — first implemented in 2016 — had […]
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines in 2020 — and rightfully so. But there were plenty of other storylines that defined the year, including the launch of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), the conclusion of a hotly contested presidential election and the execution of multiple industry-shaping transactions. These are nine of the most overlooked stories […]
Going into 2020, many home health executives predicted that the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) would kick off a wave of consolidation and agency closures. Others believed the phase out of Requests for Anticipated Payment (RAPs) would have a similar effect. For the most part, that didn’t happen. The COVID-19 pandemic — and all the policy […]
About five months into the COVID-19 crisis, Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) believes that it’s better positioned for the future than it was before COVID-19 landed on U.S. soil. The Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) and COVID-19 have presented challenges to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based company’s home health business, just like almost everyone else’s. But Amedisys bested […]