Charter Health Care Group Acquires Providence Home Health & Hospice

Charter Health Care Group has acquired Providence Home Health & Hospice in Houston, Texas, for an undisclosed sum. This is the company’s sixth acquisition since early 2020.

Charter is a portfolio company of Pharos Capital Group, based in Dallas and Nashville. Charter provides a range of senior care services that includes hospice, home health complex care management and palliative care. They care for more than 4,000 patients annually in six states.

“Even before the onset of COVID-19, the demand for home health and end-of-life services had seen a dramatic upswing, and such services are now increasingly seen as a mainstream component of high-quality patient care,” said Bob Crants, founding partner and chief investment officer of Pharos.

Demographic tailwinds have been fueling a thriving hospice market in Texas. The Lone Star State has the third largest elderly population in the nation, according to the Texas Demographic Center, a state institution. The number of Texans 65 or older grew by 49.5% between 2000 and 2014. Only California experienced a higher rate of increase among their senior population.

Texas ranks 15th among the states in hospice utilization, with 52.8% of Medicare decedents electing hospice in 2018, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. Utah has the highest rate of utilization at 60.4%.

Most recently Charter acquired Serene Care Hospice in Omaha, Neb., as well as the home health company Physmed from the same owner in that same market.

Last October the company purchased Vitality Home Healthcare in Denver and Salt Lake City-based Heartwood Home Health & Hospice. In March 2020, Charter acquired St. Luke’s Home Hospice in Las Vegas and Phoenix-based Arizona Select Hospice. Both of those providers were part of the VeraCare Hospice system. Financial terms for each of these transactions were undisclosed.

The company expects to pursue additional transactions during 2021.

The extremely active hospice M&A market is showing no signs of slowing down in 2021 or looking ahead to 2022. Private equity investors like Pharos have been particularly bullish in the space. A record number of private equity hospice transactions took place in 2020, according to the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group, even as valuations continue to soar.

Providence offers hospice, palliative care, skilled nursing, physical therapy, and other related services in close to 100 communities in the Houston region. American Healthcare Capital advised Providence on the sale.

“We are pleased to add Providence to our growing portfolio and expand our high-quality, post-acute care services to the Houston area,” Steve J. Larkin, Charter’s CEO, said. “Like the other companies we have brought under our umbrella, Providence shares our culture of providing compassionate, comprehensive care solutions for patients and families navigating the final years of life.”