Disruption Hits Home Health & Hospice M&A

Disruption Hits Home Health & Hospice M&A

At the start of the year, the biggest disruption expected in the Home Health & Hospice sector was the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), a reimbursement overhaul introduced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on January 1, 2020. The impact on small agency owners was expected to be tough, with many industry insiders predicting a wave of bankruptcies, closures, and sales in the first year of PDGM. That would have been disruptive for the M&A market, but it wasn’t expected to last, once companies adjusted to the changes in rates and cash flow. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic more than 100 days into its march across America, PDGM seems like the least of the... Read More »
New Buyers Move in to Home Health & Hospice

New Buyers Move in to Home Health & Hospice

The Home Health & Hospice sector is poised for big deals in 2018. As the healthcare industry shifts inexorably toward value-based reimbursement models, this sector has become the “go-to” care protocol to help drive down costs and to keep patients out of institutions. However, the pressures that existed in 2017 are still present in 2018, and even amplified now. Mark Kulik, managing director at The Braff Group, recently gave us his view of the market. Not only will the rate of M&A activity accelerate, new buyers will enter the market. “Ten years ago, people stayed in their lane. Today, we’re going out to a wider range of buyers, such as long-term care and... Read More »

Deal of the Week: Almost Family/LHC Group

The Home Health & Hospice sector is gearing up for a busy 2018, compared with the sluggish performance turned so far in 2017. Two leading companies, LHC Group (NASDAQ: LHCG) and Almost Family (NASDAQ: AFAM) announced a “merger of equals” on November 16. That transaction followed third-quarter earnings calls from Amedysis (NASDAQ: AMED) and Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) with each CEO discussing aggressive moves into the hospice sector. Bring it on! M&A activity in the Home Health & Hospice sector has been slow, to say the least, throughout 2017. Prior to the LHC/Almost Family announcement, just 41 deals were reported through mid-November, with a meager $20.9 million in... Read More »