AccentCare, Memorial Hermann Health System JV ‘Throws Gauntlet’ into Home Health, Hospice

Dallas-headquartered AccentCare is forming a joint venture with Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System.

Through the JV, the two health care organizations are combining their home health and hospice operations in south Texas to form a new entity. AccentCare will take the lead on managing the home-based care business.

Joining forces will allow the organizations’ to strengthen their combined presence in the state and “greatly expand access” to home health and hospice, according to a statement from AccentCare.

“We are two award-winning health care organizations, rising to today’s health care challenges and joining together to become even better,” AccentCare CEO Steve Rodgers said in the statement. “This partnership with Memorial Hermann throws down the gauntlet for what home-based health care can aspire to be in south Texas.”

Collaborations and joint ventures are becoming more common in the hospice space as providers try to reach patients further upstream and diversify service lines.

AccentCare is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Advent International that provides hospice, palliative care, personal care, non-medical services, home health, care management and high-acuity home care. The company operates more than 250 locations in 30 states and in the District of Columbia, caring for roughly 210,000 patients and families annually.

AccentCare early last year unified its seven business lines under the company’s main brand. The move included subsidiaries Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care, Sta-Home, Gareda, HRS, Texas Home Health, Southeastern Health Care at Home, and Guardian.

The joint venture will “reimagine” the home-based care system for patients and families across the organizations’ combined footprint, according to AccentCare’s statement. When a serious health episode occurs that requires hospital care, the JV will allow these patients’ to have smooth care transitions into home-based settings as their health needs evolve, the company indicated.

“We’re excited to continue our history of transformative care by partnering with AccentCare,” Teal Holden, senior vice president of ambulatory and post-acute services at Memorial Hermann, said in a press release. “Home-based care is a setting that is becoming increasingly important. By joining with a national and local leader like AccentCare, we will significantly advance our capability to both innovate and optimize care in the home-based care setting.”

This isn’t the health system’s first JV aimed at improved access to home-based care.

Last year Memorial Hermann launched a JV with Contessa, the palliative care service arm of Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED). In addition to palliative care, Contessa provides hospital-at-home and skilled nursing-at-home services. Home health and hospice provider Amedisys acquired the company in 2021 for $250 million.

Memorial Hermann owns and operates 14 hospitals and has joint ventures with three other hospital facilities, as well as an accountable care organization (ACO). Its staff of more than 31,000 employees and 6,700 affiliated physicians provide care across 260 sites in southeast Texas.

JVs have also increasingly played a crucial role in AccentCare’s growth strategies. The company has been zeroing in on partnerships with health systems and physician groups as it expands its post-acute services.

These partnerships have become a rising priority to the company’s expansion plans this year, according to Rodgers.

“Our focus right now and where we’re seeing the majority of our activity is continuing expansion over joint venture strategy. Actually taking over hospital-based assets, transforming those assets and creating the partnerships are transforming marketplaces for us — and are creating the right level and kind of partnerships,” Rodgers told Hospice News earlier this year. “If we’ve got, for instance, a joint venture partnership, we’re very much focused on working with them around the ecosystem that needs to be put together to cover on-demand, high-acuity patients in the community.”