Amedisys Expands in Three States Via Evolution Health Deal

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) has agreed to purchase Dallas-based Evolution Health LLC, a provider of hospice, home health and infusion therapy. Financial terms were undisclosed.

Evolution is a division of Envision Healthcare, which does business as Guardian Healthcare, Gem City and Care Connection of Cincinnati. The company’s more than 650 employees provide care out of 15 locations in Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio.

Evolution reported that it conducts more than 260,000 hospice visits annually, though the company sees more patient volume on its home health side.

“While this is a home health acquisition, it adds to our continuum of care in Texas, where we already have a hospice presence,” Kris Novak, vice president of mergers and acquisitions at Amedisys, told Hospice News. “When looking for agencies to join the Amedisys family, we always prioritize coordination with our hospice presence for the continuum build.”

Amedisys indicated in December 2021 that it would refocus its acquisition pipeline towards the home health space in 2022, after a period of pursuing mostly hospice deals as the company waited for the dust to settle on the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM) payment system.

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented the PDGM home health payment model in 2020, which classifies patients into payment categories based on clinical characteristics and other information.

“The purchase of Evolution Health continues our strategy to acquire and integrate high-quality regional home health assets into our home health division,” said Amedisys Chairman and CEO Paul Kusserow.

Amedisys is the second largest provider of home health care and the third largest provider of hospice care in the United States with 528 locations across 38 states and the District of Columbia.

“Both Evolution Health and Amedisys share a commitment to providing quality care to our patients in the comfort of their homes,” said Evolution Health President Mike Parsons. “We look forward to growing with Amedisys and continuing to offer our employees exceptional resources and support to care for their patients, along with access to expanded service offerings.”