Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) will seek an injunction against the company’s former home health and hospice CEO April Anthony in state District Court in Dallas County, Texas. The company alleges that Anthony violated terms of her employment agreement, including breach of non-competition and non-solicitation obligations, and for misappropriation of trade secrets.
Anthony founded Encompass Home Health & Hospice in 1998 as her second home health venture and has led the company as it grew from a single start-up location to a large player in the industry with a national presence. She was previously the owner and CEO Liberty Health Services and prior to that, she was founder and CEO of Homecare Homebase.
“[Encompass] acted after recently learning from multiple sources that Ms. Anthony met in secret with employees, including senior executives, to encourage them to leave the Company to join a competing venture,” Encompass alleged in a statement.”These efforts began before Ms. Anthony left the Company’s employment and continued thereafter. Ms. Anthony took extraordinary steps to hide her activities, which were in direct violation of her contractual and other legal obligations.”
Anthony could not be reached for comment.
Encompass provides both facility-based and home-based patient care through inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, home health agencies and hospice. The company operates 137 hospitals, 242 home health locations, and 83 hospice locations in 39 states and Puerto Rico.
A public or private separation of the company’s home health and hospice segment is underway, though details of the forthcoming transaction remain hidden. Encompass announced last December that a strategic repositioning of the segment was in the cards and expects to reveal their ultimate decision before the end of this year.
The company’s home health and hospice segment revenues jumped 14.6% during the second quarter to more than $286 million, up from $249 million in Q2 2020.
Companies featured in this article:
