Home Health & Hospice Week

Pace of HH, hospice M&A remains relatively brisk, legal experts note.

LHC Group Inc. will grow by nine locations in the Peach State.

LHC Group has agreed to purchase Eastman-based Three Rivers Home Health, expanding its “service footprint in 36 counties in the Certificate of Need state of Georgia,” the Lafayette, Louisiana-based chain says in a release. Three Rivers will continue operating under its own name.

“It is time for us to step aside and allow Three Rivers to become part of a larger organization,” Founder and President for the last 43 years, Kaye B. Smith, R.N., says in the release.

LHC Group employs 29,000 workers in 37 states and the District of Columbia, the chain notes.

The pending LHC acquisition and other recent deals show that while the home health and hospice markets have slowed a bit from the white hot 2021 market, they are far from stagnant.

“When viewed through the lens of the times — when we are facing rapid inflation, ongoing supply chain issues, and a lingering bout with COVID-19 — the volume of deals remains robust and should give stakeholders a reason to be optimistic,” advise attorneys with law firm Bass Berry & Sims in online analysis.

“The post-acute care sector — which encompasses home health, home care and hospice services — remained active throughout the second quarter of 2022, with the announcement or closing of several transactions,” the Bass Berry & Sims attorneys observe. “Transaction activity has been slightly lower compared to 2021, but home health and hospice M&A activity still outpaces the broader market,” they add.

Forecast: “We anticipate that based on the first two quarters of 2022, deal activity throughout the rest of the year will continue at a robust pace despite headwinds from inflation, lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the monkeypox public health emergency,” the Bass Berry & Sims attorneys predict.

More recent home health and hospice deals include:

In California: The Pennant Group Inc., the parent of Cornerstone Healthcare Inc., has acquired the assets of Ardent Hospice and Palliative Care, which provides hospice and home health in the Central Valley, Palm Springs, and San Diego, the Eagle, Idaho-based chain says in a release. “This off-market acquisition opens the door to new service areas in Palm Springs and the Central Valley, and further strengthens our presence in San Diego,” Pennant CEO Brent Guerisoli says in the release. Pennant, through its subsidiaries, operates 94 home health and hospice agencies in 14 states, it says.

In Minnesota: St. Croix Hospice has opened a new location in Albert Lea, expanding the Oakdale-based chain’s service area in the southeastern part of the state. “We are reducing travel time to the patient’s bedside which enables us to improve our response time for urgent patient needs,” says Jamie Hanson, Statewide Clinical Director for St. Croix Hospice in Minnesota, in a release about the de novo. St. Croix operates in nine Midwestern states.