The Home Health & Hospice (HH&H) market has experienced a significant number of tailwinds in the past few years, such as aging demographics, a focus on expanding more cost-effective care settings, and favorable reimbursement trends. This environment has kept the HH&H healthy, often hovering around 100 per deals annually. Based on preliminary results, there were 92 transactions announced in the HH&H in 2024, compared with 99 in 2023 and 114 in 2022. As we close out the year, we wanted to provide the top five HH&H deals of 2024.
- Owens & Minor, Inc., a healthcare supply chain management company, acquired Rotech Healthcare for $1.36 billion, or 1.8x Rotech’s annual 2023 revenue. Rotech is one of the largest providers of home medical equipment and related products and services in the United States and has a significant presence in the home health space. It has a comprehensive offering of oxygen, other respiratory therapy equipment, wound care equipment and supplies and diabetes devices. Owens & Minors expects this deal to help accelerate the company’s growth.
- In June, Gentiva, one of the country’s largest home health providers, divested its personal care operations in a $350 million deal. The assets serve more than 16,000 patients daily in a seven-state service area of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. According to Dirk Allison, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Addus, the operations have approximately $280 million in annualized revenue. Addus HomeCare Corporation, the buyer, funded the acquisition through its existing revolving credit facility.
- The HH&H industry has seen plenty of investment from private equity firms over the past few years, and that trend persisted in 2024. In October, Martis Capital purchased Three Oaks Hospice from Petra Capital Partners for $150 million. Three Oaks Hospice provides home health and palliative care. It was launched in 2019, fueled by a $21 million investment seed from Granite Growth Health Partners, Health Velocity Capital and Petra Capital Partners. According to the press release, it generates EBITDA in the $10 million to $13 million range.
- Vitas Healthcare Corporation, a subsidiary of Chemed Corporation, acquired Covenant Care‘s hospice assets for $85 million. The hospice operations span the panhandle of Florida and Alabama, specifically including the Tallahassee, Marianna, Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, Crestview and Pensacola markets in Florida, and the Dothan and Mobile/Daphne markets in Alabama. As part of this transaction, Vitas is also acquiring an assisted living (AL) facility from Covenant Care.
- In mid-July, The Pennant Group, Inc. acquired the hospice and home health assets of Signature Healthcare at Home, which offers services in the Pacific Northwest, with multiple locations throughout Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Signature employs more than 650 dedicated home health and hospice staff, with annual revenue of approximately $78 million, home health admissions of more than 12,000 and an average daily hospice census of more than 300, each over the trailing twelve months. The acquisition will add to Pennant’s existing strength in the Pacific Northwest region while building out Pennant’s operational footprint.
To see the entire list of HH&H M&A activity from 2024 and more, check out our LevinPro HC database of more than 35,000 transactions.
