[UPDATED] AngMar Acquires Three Hospices, Launches De Novo

AngMar Medical Holdings is expanding its Angels Care Hospice brand with the acquisition of three unnamed hospice provider with locations in Texas and Nebraska for an undisclosed amount. The company has also opened a de novo location in Prescott, Ariz.

Historically a home health provider, AngMar entered the hospice market in Oct. 2019 with the purchase of a Wichita, Kan.-based company. AngMar often keeps the names of the organizations it acquires confidential per agreements with the sellers. The company’s end-of-life care holdings do business as Angels Care Hospice, which now has seven locations in four states.

“For over 20 years, the Angels Care brand has prided itself on offering the highest quality of skilled home health to people that struggle to leave their home and continue to have difficulty managing their chronic disease,” said Mark Eddins, President of AngMar Medical Holdings, Inc.“Within the next two years, AngMar plans to have 100% of its home health markets supported with the hospice benefit.”

Following the three transactions and Arizona de novo AngMar will have co-located its hospice operations with 36% of its home health centers.

AngMar has actively pursued hospice growth since entering the space in 2019. Last year, AngMar also purchased Graham Regional Hospice and Reliable Hospice. Financial terms for those deals were undisclosed.

The company works with several brokerage firms to locate potential acquisitions in their target markets, which generally coincide with their home health holdings. Hospice utilization rates, the size of the senior population and the degree of competition in those communities are also key factors in its buying decisions.

Utilization in the three states in which their new locations operate are comparable to or exceed the national average of 51%, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. Arizona had the third-highest rate of hospice utilization among Medicare decedents in 2018 at 58.8%. The rate in Texas reached nearly 53% that year, and Nebraska saw 50.9% utilization. Utah leads the nation at 60.5%.

More acquisitions are likely in the cards for AngMar. AngMar’s Chief Operating Officer Tony Miller told Hospice News the company expects at least five or six deals this year, with the possibility of more de novos as well.

“There are certain locations that we feel really strongly about having a hospice benefit,” Miller said. “We’ve given ourselves six months in these locations. If we don’t identify a good acquisition opportunity we will begin the de novo process in at least two markets.”