Home Health & Hospice Week

Hospice execs talked ramped-up M&A in latest earnings calls.

Acquisitions aren’t the only avenue to growth.

On the west coast, The Pennant Group Inc. subsidiary Cornerstone Healthcare Inc. has opened two “successful” start-ups, the Eagle, Idaho-based chain says — Alpha Home Health and Hospice in Everett, Washington, which formerly was home health-only, and Peaceful Heart Hospice in Murrieta, California, according to a release.

Meanwhile, in Arizona, LHC Group Inc. has agreed to purchase East Valley Hospice and East Valley Palliative Care in Mesa. The agreement should close on Jan. 1 and LHC expects the acquisition to bring annualized revenue of about $4.8 million, the Lafayette, Louisiana-based national chain says in a release. Both providers will continue to operate under the East Valley Hospice and East Valley Palliative Care names, respectively.

And LHC’s buying spree is far from over, it seems. The company is “seeing an increasing number of hospice opportu­nities in our pipeline,” CEO Keith Myers said in the chain’s Nov. 5 earnings conference call for the third quarter.

“Our inorganic growth has only scratched the surface with a number of joint venture opportunities adding to our M&A pipeline,” said LHC President Josh Proffit in the call. “Our potential acquisitions are currently comprised of nearly two-thirds hospice locations.”

LHC isn’t the only chain continuing its hospice acquisition strategy. After some big deals in the last year, Addus HomeCare “continue[s] to evaluate and pursue other acquisition opportunities from a robust pipeline of potential transactions,” CFO Brian Poff said in the chain’s Nov. 5 earnings call for the third quarter.

Addus will be looking at “smaller” hospice assets now that the company has made a number of big buys in the market, CEO Dirk Allison indicated in the call.