Market consolidation continues in the home care and hospice arenas, leaving little room for small providers.
So say analysts at Irving Levin Associates in a new report about mergers and acquisitions. “After a sharp dip in home health and hospice acquisitions in the second quarter, M&A activity picked up in the third quarter with a 50 percent increase in announced transactions,” the Norwalk, Conn., firm says. “However, the nine acquisitions in the third quarter were still significantly less than the 15 transactions in the year-ago quarter in 2014.”
Lately, post-acute providers have been leading the biggest acquisitions. “It will be increasingly difficult for small home health and hospice providers to compete in this market, which will drive them into acquisitions with consolidators,” predicts Lisa Phillips of the Health Care M&A Report.