Home Health & Hospice Week

Providers change hands nationwide.

Home care providers have been busy in the mergers and acquisitions market.

Among recently announced transactions is Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare Inc.'s purchase of home care and hospice company IntegraCare Holdings Inc. for $71 million in cash and a $4 million option based on 2013 earnings. Grapevine, Texas.-based IntegraCare, a portfolio company of private-equity firm Flexpoint Ford, has annual revenue of about $71 million and 47 locations across the state, Kindred says in a release.

"The transaction will provide a platform for organic expansion into additional markets throughout the south including the Houston market where Kindred has a large market presence," the long-term care company says. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

In Minnesota: Minneapolis-based Allina Health plans to buy ConnectCare, a non-profit home health and hospice company serving Glencoe and Hutchinson, Allina says in a release. Allina's Home & Community Services division serves 28 counties throughout the state and will take in ConnectCare's 37 employees. The deal is expected to complete by Jan. 1.

In New Mexico: Heritage Home Health-care & Hospice in Albuquerque says it has acquired two personal care providers, Maroland (Trusted Care at Home) in Albuquerque and 800 HomeCare in Las Cruces for an undisclosed amount. Heritage will now serve more than 2,000 patients with 1,600 employees, it says on its website.

In Kentucky: Louisville-based senior living company Christian Care Communities has acquired Hartford, Ky.-based Pro-Care Home Health. "We're creating a true continuum of care," says Christian Care CEO Keith Knapp, according to WFIE News 14. Pro-Care made 60,000 in-home visits in 2011.

Christian Care at Home will open a new office in Christian County and on Christian Care's Village Manor campus in Warren County. It will retain all Pro-Care office locations in Ohio, Logan, Hopkins and Daviess counties.

In Florida: Augusta, Ga.-based CareSouth Health System Inc. has acquired assets of Boynton Beach, Fla.-based Alliance Care. Alliance furnishes home care, private duty services, and physician house calls, CareSouth says in a release. The deal includes locations in 11 Florida cities.

CareSouth operates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia and now has 55 certified locations, it says.

In Kansas: Not all home care providers are growing, however. The ever-tightening Medicare reimbursement system is taking its toll on providers, including My Sacred Home home health agency in Wichita. The agency is about $1.4 million in debt and has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reports the Wichita Business Journal. Medicare payment rates don't cover the agency's expenses, owner Jennifer Terry tells the newspaper.