Agape Care Group has expanded to North Carolina with the purchase of Hospice of the Carolina Foothills. Financial terms were undisclosed. Agape is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Ridgemont Equity Partners. Its newly acquired asset operates in eight counties in its home state and will not rebrand in the near term. “There […]
Hospices are finding opportunities to bolster their philanthropic fundraising, which took a dip for many organizations due to the pandemic. As some events and other fundraisers start to rebound, providers are carrying with them lessons learned during leaner years. Fundraising and philanthropy are often a primary source of financing for programs such as complementary therapies, […]
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently proposed a 2.7% pay increase for hospice care for Fiscal Year 2023. However, that amount may be a drop in the bucket as COVID-19 headwinds rage, inflation surges and employee wages climb. Beyond the rising costs, Medicare is phasing in the return of payment sequestration, […]
Palliative care packs a small but meaningful punch in the value-based payment arena. But to successfully negotiate value-based contracts, hospices will need to educate payers about the value of palliative care, according to J. Cameron Muir, M.D., chief innovation officer of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). Specifically, providers can help orient […]
CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) subsidiary Aetna has selected Ohio’s Hospice and Pure Healthcare as part of the insurance company’s hospice and palliative care preferred provider network for Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) in the Buckeye State. Admission to the network means that Aetna will also cover a range of benefits for Ohio’s Hospice and Pure […]
Aveanna Healthcare (NASDAQ: AVAH) is seeing strong returns from its hospice and home health acquisitions while continuing to battle labor headwinds. Industry-wide, workforce pressures from staff shortages and rising wages have not relented. While clinical staff were dwindling prior to the pandemic, the pace accelerated when COVID-19 struck. The surges that occurred late last year […]
Private equity (PE) firms represent the strongest competitors for strategic buyers in the hospice mergers-and-acquisitions market. Hospice M&A activity cooled off across the board during the first quarter of 2022. In part, this is because a range of buyers scrambled to complete deals during late 2021 and are now focused on integrating those assets. But […]
Addus HomeCare (NASDAQ: ADUS) has gone all-in on building out its care continuum. Launched as a personal care provider, the company in 2016 began offering hospice and home health to enhance its value proposition for payers by further reducing hospitalizations and emergency department visits. “If you realize that our average patients are in their 70s, […]
In its calculus behind its 2021 Kindred at Home deal, Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) had to weigh the potential cost savings and lucrative hospice divestiture against the labor pressures in the space, as well as the complexity of scaling home-based care in a fragmented industry. Last year, Humana acquired total ownership of Kindred at Home […]
Recent acquisitions and joint ventures by The Pennant Group (NASDAQ: PNTG) are fueling bottom-line growth for the Idaho-based senior services provider. The financial boost from acquired home health and hospice agencies helped mitigate COVID-related struggles like rising costs and labor headwinds. Case in point, the 15 deals the company completed in 2020 collectively grew EBITDA […]
