Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Amedisys, Option Care partner on COVID-19 treatment in long-term care facilities.

College Station, Texas-based Traditions Health, a national hospice and home health provider, has acquired two home health agencies in Oklahoma — Traditions Home Care and Secure Home Care. The seven acquired locations will extend Traditions’ reach into Eastern Oklahoma, adding offices in and around McAlester and Eufaula, the company says in a release. Traditions (OK) was founded in 2002 and combined with Secure in 2015.

Traditions Health also has entered the Louisiana market with the acquisitions of Grace Hospice & Palliative Care in Lafayette and Heritage Hospice in Hammond, it says in the release. Traditions, which is a portfolio company of private equity firm Dorilton Capital, has made numerous acquisitions in the past year.

Other recent deals and developments nationwide include:

In Indiana: National home care chain Amedisys Inc. and infusion services company Option Care Health Inc. are “collaborating on providing COVID antibody infusion therapy within skilled nursing and assisted living facilities,” the companies say in a release. The companies will initially pilot the Bamlanivimab program in the Indianapolis and Valparaiso, Indiana markets, “with potential to scale to other markets, as appropriate,” they say. “Through its Hospice division, Amedisys will oversee the on-site care coordination for [long-term care facility] residents through their expansive clinical team,” they explain.

In Nebraska: St. Croix Hospice continues its strategy of opening de novo locations in its Midwest service area by starting a new office in Norfolk. This is St. Croix Hospice’s fourth Nebraska location. Last October, St. Croix parent the Vistria Group, a Chicago-based investment firm, agreed to sell St. Croix Hospice to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital.

In Florida: Empath Health and Stratum Health System are moving ahead with a merger they first announced back in February 2020. The Boards of Directors of both companies have formally approved the merger of the two organizations, pending regulatory approval, they say in a release. “The merger will create the country’s largest not-for-profit health system delivering non-acute care and services through its skilled, significant medical and holistic programs to individuals with chronic, advanced and terminal illnesses,” say the companies that are the parent organizations of Suncoast Hospice, Tidewell Hospice, Approved Home Health, and Avidity Home Health.

In Washington: Following a campaign by concerned citizens, the Boards of Commissioners of Public Hospital District No. 1, Skagit Regional Health, and Public Hospital District No. 304, United General District 304, have voted to discontinue further consideration of a potential purchase agreement for Hospice of the Northwest, formerly known as Skagit Hospice, reports the San Juan Islander newspaper. Bristol Hospice was rumored to be the potential buyer of the nonprofit hospice.

In California: Meanwhile, Bristol Hospice, a portfolio company of Webster Equity Partners, has acquired the Southern California operations of Companion Hospice, according to a release. The deal is Bristol’s seventeenth acquisition in partnership with Webster Equity, which invested in the company in 2017. Salt Lake City-based Bristol now operates 35 locations across 10 states, it says.