[UPDATED] Brookdale Sells 20% Stake in Hospice, Home Health JV with HCA

For $27 million, HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) has acquired Brookdale Senior Living’s (NYSE: BKD) 20% stake in a hospice, home health and therapy joint venture between the two companies. HCA now owns 100% of the business. The joint venture formed in 2021 when the senior housing operator sold an 80% stake in its health care […]

Contessa’s Lessons Learned on Risk-Based Palliative Care

As Contessa Health pioneers a growing value-based palliative care-at-home program, they’ve encountered some learning curves when it comes to operating within a new payment system. Contessa is a subsidiary of Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED), which the home health and hospice provider acquired in 2021 for $250 million. Contessa’s specialty is high-acuity care in the home, including […]

How PE Firms Are Adjusting Hospice Exit Strategies in a Shifting Market

Private equity firms typically turn around and sell an asset within three to five years post-acquisition. However, some may slow that cycle down in today’s economic environment. The presence of private equity firms in the hospice arena has expanded exponentially during the past several years. But this year, deal volume slowed across the board. While […]

2023’s Most Impactful Hospice Deals

A rich mix of hospice merger and acquisition (M&A) activity at the end of 2023 is fueling trends into next year. Hospice M&A activity has diverged from the frenzied pace set in recent years. The hospice space in the last five years has seen record-breaking multiples, a prevalence of private equity-backed platform transactions and large-scale […]

Principles Underlying Optum’s Home-Based Care Deals

Optum Health’s home-based care acquisitions are designed to support an overarching goal of expanding value-based care and diversifying clinical capabilities. The UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) subsidiary in June penned an agreement to acquire Amedisys in an all-cash transaction of $101 per share, or about $3.3 billion. This followed its $5.4 billion acquisition of LHC Group, […]

How Quality, Utilization Will Shape Hospice M&A in 2024

Investment trends in the hospice industry have meandered in recent years, impacting providers’ approaches to growth in 2024. The mix of hospice buyers has become more diverse during the past five years to include more private equity investors, large health and hospital systems and home health companies, along with payers. These trends will have lasting […]

Betterleave to Expand to 12 States Following $2.4M Funding Round

The bereavement care tech company Betterleave has secured $2.4 million in a funding round led by Chingona Ventures. Austin-based Betterleave Bereavement launched as a venture capital-backed startup in March 2022. The company’s bereavement care platform is designed as a benefit that companies can offer their employees who have lost a loved one, a pregnancy or […]

Amedisys Sees Small Hospice Gains as Contessa Takes Off

As Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ) awaits the outcome of its pending acquisition by Optum, the company showed only modest gains in its hospice segment. Both admissions and average daily hospice census were down in the third quarter of the year, 6% and 2%, respectively, compared to Q3 2022. Net service revenue for the segment reached slightly […]

Home-Based Care a Continuing Growth Engine for UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is leveraging its subsidiary Optum to drive growth in value-based care arrangements, with building out its home-based care capabilities as a high priority. This drive is evidenced by Optum’s pending acquisition of Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED) and its purchase of home health and hospice provider LHC Group, which closed in February. By […]