St. Croix Hospice Continues Missouri Expansion

St. Croix Hospice has expanded in Missouri with a Jefferson City de novo in the central region of the state.

This is the company’s seventh Missouri location, bringing the number of counties St. Croix Hospice serves in the Show-Me State to 44. They opened a previous de novo in the city of Independence last March.

“St. Croix Hospice is answering the growing hospice care needs of central Missouri by locating additional staff to serve communities from our new Jefferson City location,” said CEO Heath Bartness in a press release. “We have been steadily growing our presence in the state to provide expert hospice care to those who need it and are excited to place a team in this centralized location.” 

St. Croix, which is backed by the private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, has been on a growth trajectory for at least the past three years, with a focus on Midwestern markets.

In addition to a spate of acquisitions, the Minnesota-based hospice provider has launched four de novos thus far in 2022. This follows six new locations they opened in 2021 and seven during 2020.

The company cares for more than 3,000 patients through close to 60 locations in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin and South Dakota.

Last month, St. Croix acquired Lombard, Ill.-based Lexington Hospice Care. Financial terms were undisclosed.

Also in Missouri, the company purchased three Missouri companies from LifeCare Collective last October — HomeCare of Mid Missouri, Nurses & Company and Transitions Hospice.

The proportion of seniors older than 65 in Missouri’s population is expected to reach 19.1% by 2025, up from 13.5% in 2000 and 13.6% in 2008, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hospice utilization in Missouri reached 50.2% among Medicare decedents in 2018, which is in line with that year’s national average, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Utah leads the nation in utilization at 60.4%.

St. Croix has no plans to slow down its expansion, Bartness previously told Hospice News.

“Our growth has really been derived from both opportunistic and strategic opportunities,” Bartness said. “It’s our goal to bring St. Croix Hospice to as many of those that we can reach, and we’re doing so in a continuous manner, because that’s just what we’ve done in the past. We’re not an organization that is hopping around from coast to coast. We’re very focused on the Midwest.”