Home Health & Hospice Week

Plus: Nursing recruitment issues shut down only hospice in rural county.

As temperatures fall, the hospice mergers and acquisitions market continues to heat up.

Take a look at these recent deals around the nation:

In Illinois: The Vistria Group has agreed to sell regional chain St. Croix Hospice to an affiliate of H.I.G. Capital for undisclosed terms, the Chicago-based investment firm says in a release. The Vistria Group bought Oakdale, Minnesota-based St. Croix from Stamford, Connecticut-based PE firm Clearview Capital in 2017. St. Croix serves six states in the Midwest. Vistria portfolio company Hospice Care of South Carolina in Spartanburg, which it bought in 2019, acquired Agape Hospice earlier this year. St. Croix has opened multiple new locations and bought Hometown Hospice & Homecare headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin last year.

In Nevada: The Pennant Group Inc. has acquired Harmony Hospice of Las Vegas, it says in a release. Eagle, Idaho-based Pennant purchased two related hospices earlier this year, it notes. Pennant is a holding company with 73 home health and hospice agencies and 54 senior living communities in 14 states. Pennant spun off from The Ensign Group Inc. last year and operates Cornerstone Healthcare Inc.

In California: Pennant also has closed on a home health joint venture with nonprofit health system Scripps Health in San Diego. The JV, which combines Scripps’s home health business and a local Pennant-affiliated home health agency, will serve patients under the name Seaport Scripps Home Health.

In Texas: LHC Group and health system CHRISTUS Health are expanding their joint venture partnership by adding a hospice provider in San Marcos, the Lafayette, Louisiana-based chain says in a release. Once finalized, “the LHC Group-CHRISTUS partnership will include 22 home health, hospice, palliative care, community-based, and long-term acute care locations across three states,” LHC notes. LHC and the Catholic health system first formed the JV back in 2017 (see HCW by AAPC, Vol. 26, No. 33).

In Colorado: Charter Health Care Group has acquired two hospice providers, Vitality Home Healthcare in Denver and Heartwood Home Health & Hospice in the Salt Lake City area, for undisclosed terms. Charter is the “post-acute care provider platform” for Pharos Capital Group, a physician-founded private equity firm based in Dallas and Nashville, Pharos says in a release. Vitality does business as Phoenix Home Care & Hospice. Charter has five Southern California locations and made two acquisitions in March of this year — Las Vegas-based St. Luke’s Home Hospice and Phoenix-based Arizona Select Hospice, Pharos adds.

It’s not all mergers and acquisitions, however. Northwest Colorado Health will be discontinuing its home health and hospice services in Grand County, Colorado by Nov. 13, reports Ski-Hi News. Northwest is the only hospice provider in the county.

“Recruitment of nursing staff in Grand County has been a struggle,” Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Einfeld said. “We have done everything we can think of, but at this time, we do not have the personnel resources to be able to safely provide this service in Grand County.”

The county stopped providing home health and hospice and Northwest stepped in four years ago. The county will not be able to resume offering hospice, an official told the News.