Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Fourteen-state provider snaps up Texas hospice.

A nonprofit Arizona hospice provider has opened a new branch offering palliative care services in Scottsdale.

Phoenix-based Stoneridge Hospice, which was formed in 2020, operates 18 hospice locations throughout the state, it notes on its website. “By introducing palliative care services, Stoneridge Palliative Care aims to extend its continuum of care, ensuring individuals have access to tailored support throughout their healthcare journey,” the hospice says in a release.

“This new agency will offer a range of palliative care services, including pain and symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, coordination of care, and assistance with advanced care planning,” Stoneridge explains. “The expansion into palliative care further solidifies the agency’s commitment to meeting the evolving needs of the communities it serves,” it adds.

Other recent business developments include:

In Texas: Enhabit Inc. is revealing more details about the chain’s recently concluded strategic review process, under which it decided it would continue operating as a standalone business. The details come as a result of a challenge from investor AREX Capital Management. Dallas-based “Enhabit’s strategic alternatives process was robust and included outreach to a significant number of potentially interested third parties,” according to a statement from the eight independent directors nominated for reelection to the Enhabit Board at the 2024 Annual Meeting. “After nine months and having received no actionable proposals, despite giving the most interested parties an abundance of time to submit such a proposal, the Board unanimously determined to conclude the strategic review,” the release says. “We are disappointed that AREX has initiated a proxy contest to take control of the Board in the wake of the extensive strategic review that they demanded.”

Also in Texas: The Pennant Group Inc. has acquired Nurses on Wheels Inc., which provides hospice services in Corpus Christi and the surrounding communities, for undisclosed terms, the chain says in a release. “We are excited to expand the reach of our hospice operations in south Texas,” Pennant CEO Brent Guerisoli says in the release. Pennant continues to pursue “high quality” home health, hospice and senior living acquisitions, he adds. Eagle, Idaho-based Pennant operates 113 home health and hospice agencies and 54 senior living communities across 14 states.

In Maine: Androscoggin Home Healthcare and Hospice now has a new name to go with its broader scope — Andwell Health Partners. In addition to home health and hospice, Lewiston-based Andwell furnishes inpatient hospice care in its own facility, operates the Maine Center for Palliative Medicine, and has branched out into community and behavioral health, mobile wound care, in-home care giving, private-duty nursing, therapy care, and maternal and child health, it says in a release on its website. “We collaborate with hospitals, health systems, and other healthcare organizations,” points out Ken Albert, CEO of the rebranded company.

In Nevada: 1Care Health based in Las Vegas has acquired Reset Behavior Health through its 1Care Hospice unit, the hospice says in a social media post. The purchase will expand the hospice’s pediatric service area to the entire state and is 1Care’s first foray into the behavioral health realm, it says. 1Care also plans to acquire Urgent Care Home Health, dba as Leapfrog Pediatric Home Care, which furnishes home health and private duty services in the northern part of the state, 1Care says.

In Georgia: Atlanta-based Resurgia Health Solutions and Hackensack, N.J.-based Ennoble Care have merged, the home-based primary care companies say in a release. Resurgia operates in Georgia while Ennoble offers primary, palliative, hospice and value-based services in that state plus New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia, it says.

In Kentucky: Louisville-based BrightSpring Health Services has announced “several recent tuck-in and strategic acquisitions,” including “a home-based primary care group in Arkansas … an I-SNP (institutional special needs health plan) in Kentucky and Tennessee … [and] a home and community pharmacy in Texas,” the company says in a release. The purchases were all effective in early May.

In Massachusetts: Plymouth County is trying to beef up its provision of medical care in the home — but not through traditional home health. The county is partnering with Mascon Medical, Brewster Ambulance and the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts on a pilot — the Plymouth County Mobile Integrated Health program — that sends first responders to the home for medical care, reports WATD. “Mobile Integrated Health Care (MIH) and Community EMS are new programs that utilize mobile resources to deliver care and services to patients in an out‐of‐hospital environment in coordination with healthcare facilities or other healthcare providers,” the state Department of Public Health says on its website.