Home Health & Hospice Week
Private Duty, DME, And Infusion Company Adds Medicare HHA
Blockbuster UnitedHealth-LHC Group deal poised to move forward. Expect home health mergers and acquisitions to pick up the pace now that the 2023 final rule is out. Home health activity will still be slow by comparison, though. “We’ll finish 2022 down about 10 percent from historical periods … but with a stronger Q4, now that the Home Health final rule has been set,” Mertz Taggart Managing Partner Cory Mertz says in a new M&A report. One new deal is by AmeriCare Medical in Troy, Michigan, which has acquired QCN Home Health Care in the same town for undisclosed terms, the company says in a release. AmeriCare already operates private duty AmeriStaff Nursing Services, Sun Medical Equipment and Supply serving the Detroit area, and Rx iV Specialty Pharmacy, which provides home infusion and intravenous therapy services, according to the company. “Having a Medicare-certified home care agency allows us the opportunity to care for even more people needing home care services,” Greg Jamian, AmeriCare Medical President and CEO, says in the release. AmeriCare also includes two more divisions — Private Reserve Home Care and Oak Bridge Case Management, it says. Other recent deals include: In Florida: Alana Healthcare in Franklin, Tennessee has acquired Preferred Home Health Providers in Eustis for undisclosed terms, Alana says in a release. PHHP provides services in Lake, Marion, and Sumter counties. Chronic care company Alana also recently launched Alana Home Care in Tennessee, it notes. In Louisiana: UnitedHealth Group’s $5.4 billion purchase of publicly reported chain LHC Group Inc. appears to nearing completion, according to news reports. The acquisition stalled as the Federal Trade Commission investigated, but now that probe seems to be wrapping up favorably. Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based UnitedHealth said it would merge Lafayette-based LHC Group with its Optum health services division, when it announced the deal earlier this year. In comparison, Humana Inc. bought Kindred at Home in two phases for $8.1 billion. That transaction was finalized in August 2021. In Minnesota: St. Louis Park-based Lifespark is acquiring for undisclosed terms Livio Health, a wholly owned subsidiary of the parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota that provides home health services to people with chronic and complex illness. In addition, “the parent company of Blue Cross has secured a minority owner stake in Lifespark through a cash investment made in addition to the valuation of Livio Health,” Lifespark explains in a release. “There is still so much waste in the experience [seniors] face through a revolving door of hyper-segmented care,” Lifespark CEO and founder Joel Theisen, a nurse, says in the release. “This is a commitment to break the fragmentation and poor outcomes with an innovative solution,” Theisen pledges. In Arkansas: The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Amedisys Inc., and Amedisys subsidiary Contessa are forming a joint venture serving central Arkansas, they say in a release. UAMS Comprehensive Care at Home “combines all the essential elements of primary, hospital or rehabilitation level care with the comfort of patients’ homes,” they say.
Home Health & Hospice Week
- Value-Based Purchasing:
HHAs Finally Get Their Hands On Their VBP Stats Ahead Of Time
Don’t miss the real-time Q&A in the Nov. 18 livestream. One of home health agencies’ [...] - Reimbursement:
VBP Cohort Assignment Still Iffy
PIPRs contain data that won’t be used for ‘real’ VBP, CMS cautions. Watch out: Home [...] - Regulations:
OASIS-E Lacks Final Approval As Implementation Date Looms
Plus: Mind this critical Nov. 16 deadline or pay the price. Value-Based Purchasing isn’t the [...] - Hospice:
HOPE Data Collection Wraps Up
Another Care Compare refresh is hot on the heels of the last one. Medicare has [...] - Billing:
Learn These New HH Telehealth G Codes
CMS issued telehealth coding details internally back in July. Remember that final rule that came [...] - Mergers & Acquisitions:
Private Duty, DME, And Infusion Company Adds Medicare HHA
Blockbuster UnitedHealth-LHC Group deal poised to move forward. Expect home health mergers and acquisitions to [...] - Finance:
Shutdowns Plague HH, Hospice Providers Nationwide
Two hospice inpatient facilities close their doors. Staffing shortages continue take a toll on hospice [...] - Industry Notes:
New Hospice Chaplain Billing Codes Are On Deck
But final usage remains up in the air. Many hospices will be glad to see [...] - Industry Notes:
Consolidated Billing List Grows
Add five more codes to the home health bundling list. The Centers for Medicare & [...] - Industry Notes:
OASIS Data File Available
If you’d like to get your hands on OASIS data from 2021, now’s your chance. [...] - Industry Notes:
HHS Pledges $13M To Grow Nursing
The HHS Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded $13 million to “bolster nursing education [...] - Industry Notes:
HIPAA Breach Costs HH Co. $425K
Georgia-based Aveanna Healthcare must pay $425,000 after a series of phishing attacks led to a [...] - Industry Notes:
Agency Settles Wage Violations
A Chesapeake, Virginia home health company and its owner are paying high six figures for [...]
