Home Health & Hospice Week

Maryland and Virginia may be just the beginning.

Two more veteran nonprofit hospices are combining forces, this time in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Maryland-based Montgomery Hospice & Prince George’s Hospice and Virginia-based Blue Ridge Hospice plan to affiliate, creating “a new organization model for community hospice & palliative care providers,” they say in a release. Combined, the hospices would care for more than 900 patients daily through their hospice and palliative care programs across the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C., and in eight counties across the northern Shenandoah Valley and northwestern Virginia.

“By co-founding a new supporting entity, the hospices will be well-positioned to meet the evolving realities of the healthcare landscape,” they say. But because they will continue to be locally operated, “the communities served … will continue to receive the same level of high-quality, expert, compassionate, and culturally sensitive care and support,” according to the release.

Plus: “The affiliation will create a model of care with the potential to strengthen not-for-profit hospices throughout the Mid-Atlantic,” they hospices say. In other words, they are looking to create a bigger network of nonprofits, as has already been done in other areas of the country like Ohio, California, Oregon, and Florida (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXI No. 6).

“Through our affiliation, we hope to demonstrate to other like-minded, not-for-profit hospice and palliative care providers throughout the Mid-Atlantic that we can all be better — and stronger — when we work together,” Cheryl Hamilton Fried, CEO of Blue Ridge Hospice, says in the release.

Both hospices were founded in 1981, points out Ann Mitchell, CEO of Montgomery Hospice & Prince George’s Hospice.

After a due diligence process, the affiliation will be subject to approval of the hospices’ boards and usual govern­mental and third-party entities.

Other recent business developments include:

In Ohio: Health system ProMedica is abruptly shutting down its home health agencies not involved in the pending sale to Gentiva. Back in February, Atlanta-based Gentiva announced it was buying the nonprofit health system’s Heartland home health and hospice agencies (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 8). ProMedica’s other agencies in Clyde and Dundee will shut down by Nov. 1 and the agency in Sylvania will scale back to serve pediatric patients only, local news outlets report. The Gentiva transaction “continues to progress,” ProMedica says in a statement.

In Michigan: Elara Caring is establishing a new regional headquarters in Jackson, the 17-state chain says in a release. The company “is deepening its Midwest presence where it is rapidly expanding the delivery of value-based services,” says the Dallas-based provider of home health, hospice, personal care, palliative care, and behavioral health services. Elara has more than 200 locations and 26,000 employees, according to its website.

In North Carolina: Chicago-based Avid Health at Home has acquired Well Care Home Care for undisclosed terms, private equity firm and Avid owner Havencrest Capital Management says in a release. Avid and WCHC furnish non-medical home care. “WCHC will serve as Avid’s flagship operation in the North Carolina market as Avid looks to expand further in the southeastern United States,” Dallas-based Havencrest says. “Avid is actively exploring new acquisition opportunities in home care across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Mountain West geographies,” it says.