Lafayette, Lousiana-based Acadian Health has expanded its geographic footprint across five Texas communities.
Acadian Health recently expanded in Austin, Beaumont, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio, Texas, regions with senior populations that are diverse and growing.
The company’s mobile health care clinicians integrate virtual visits with primary, hospice and palliative care services to assess patients’ needs in the home to reduce emergency and urgent care utilization and associated costs.
“Our growth in Texas is an assertion of Acadian Health’s commitment to pioneering health care access and outcomes,” Benjamin Swig, director of Acadian Health, said in a press release. “By opening up access to acute and chronic care into homes, we are making health care more equitable, accessible and impactful.”
Acadian Health’s mobile community-based services include acute care for recently hospitalized non-emergency patients, as well as at-home hospital care for critically ill patients that require 24/7 monitoring as well as advanced diagnostic services.
The health care company operates a hospice and palliative care program that works to reduce hospice revocations and ambulance transportation, as well as improve care coordination and patient and family engagement, Acadian indicated in a fact sheet.
Acadian Health also partners with other hospice and palliative care providers, as well as home health agencies, hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) to help provide disease management services for patients and families with complex care needs.
The community-based care operation is one of six divisions of Acadian Companies. Other divisions include an ambulance service, air medical transport services and an emergency medical technician (EMT) and paramedic training program.
“We have seen a tremendous increase in patient volume over the past six months, and have grown our team to fulfill additional contracts with health care providers,” Swig said. “Our mobile health paramedics, EMTs and licensed vocational nurses have been working diligently with providers and health plans to provide alternative care options for our patients, and we are seeing the success in their overall care and well-being.”
Acadian Companies was established in 1971 by CEO and chairman Richard Zuschlag and other co-founders in response to growing need for emergency medical support and care. Its subsidiaries provide care across 72 counties in Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
Hospice utilization in Texas runs high, with 143,284 Medicare decedents using these services in 2021, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Only California and Florida had higher volumes of hospice decedents, at 156,000 and 154,521, respectively.
Seniors 65 and older represent 13.4% of the Lone Star State’s overall population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Caucasians represent 39.8% of the Texas population, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. The other half of the state is predominantly Hispanic. Latino populations make up nearly half (40.2%) of Texas residents, while African Americans represent 13.4% and Asian Americans 5.7%.
An estimated 5.2 million individuals will enter this age group by 2030, according to a report from the Elder Options of Texas.
Acadian Health’s expansion in Texas marks “a new chapter” aimed at not only bridging service gaps across these markets, but also driving a more “modernized approach” to care delivery through telemedicine services, according to Richard Belle, the company’s director of operations.
“By leveraging digital platforms and empowering our paramedic clinicians with evidence-based medicine knowledge and resources, along with our steadfast commitment to patients, Acadian Health isn’t merely participating in the future of healthcare in Texas — we’re shaping it,” Belle said.
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