Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Amedisys is keeping busy.

St. Croix Hospice continues to expand, this time in the “Show-Me State.”

The Oakdale, Minnesota-based company has acquired three agencies from LifeCare Collective: HomeCare of Mid Missouri, Nurses & Company, and Transitions Hospice. The acquisition adds four new branch locations in Bolivar, Moberly, Nixa, and St. Peters, “expanding the number of St. Croix Hospice offices in Missouri to six,” the company says in a release.

The buy for undisclosed terms is the company’s fourth of the year, it says. St. Croix serves nearly 2,700 patients out of 51 branches in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

Other recent mergers and acquisitions include:

In Arizona: Dallas and Nashville-based private equity firm Pharos Capital Group has acquired Prescott-based THEMA Health Services, a provider of hospice, skilled home health, and palliative care services throughout the state, for undisclosed terms, Pharos says in a release. “As Medicare hospice daily per diem payments cost about four times less than daily skilled nursing facility services and 40 times less than acute-care inpatient services, THEMA’s hospice offering delivers significant institutional cost-saving benefits, while also maximizing quality of life with compassionate, accessible care,” Pharos partner Jim Phillips says in a release.

In California: Davis-based YoloCares is the newest hospice to join the California Hospice Network, a strategic partnership for nonprofit hospices. In 2019, Elizabeth Hospice in San Diego, Mission Hospice & Home Care in San Mateo, and Hospice of Santa Cruz County in Scotts Valley formed CHN, although Elizabeth Hospice has since dropped out. A recent study found “nonprofit hospices … provide 10 percent more nursing visits and 35 percent more social work visits per patient day than for-profit hospices,” CHN maintains in the release.

In North Carolina: Amedisys Inc. has agreed to acquire “regulatory assets that allow the company to establish home health care centers to fully service and expand the Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C. markets,” the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based chain says in a release. “Amedisys will acquire the right to expand certified home health care services in Mecklenburg County and Wake County, N.C., and surrounding counties, including Union, Wayne, Wilson, Stanley, and Anson.”

In Texas: Amedisys also recently opened a joint venture with UMC Health System in Lubbock called UMC Home Health and Hospice, UMC says in a release. “Through this joint venture with Amedisys, the UMC Health System can now offer expanded high-quality, at-home care to more seniors in Lubbock and surrounding areas,” it says.