Kindred Healthcare on Monday announced the pending sale of its RehabCare business line to Select Rehabilitation, further putting distance between former skilled nursing heavyweight Kindred and the sector.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Glenview, Ill.-based Select will emerge as an even larger player in the contract rehabilitation space, expanding its footprint from 35 to 43 states.
“Select’s acquisition of RehabCare presents exciting growth opportunities based on the companies’ shared cultural foundation of clinical excellence, quality care provision, and outstanding customer service,” Select CEO and co-founder Anna Gardina Wolfe said in a statement announcing the transaction.
The combined company will employ 17,000 therapists and cover 2,300 sites of care — including skilled nursing facilities, senior living campuses, schools, and home health agencies.
Once a major player in the skilled nursing industry, Kindred exited the space in 2017, when the Louisville, Ky.-based health care giant struck a $700 million deal to sell the vast majority of its SNF assets to BM Eagle Holdings. Kindred sold the final remaining standalone post-acute center remaining in its portfolio, a property in Las Vegas, last October.
“Exiting the skilled nursing facility business, in its entirety, has been a long-stated goal of our enterprise,” CEO and president Benjamin Breier said in a June 2017 statement. “After more than two decades of nursing center operations, this announcement clears the way to closing that chapter of Kindred’s story, and turning the page to the future of integrated post-acute care.”
Breier framed the RehabCare sale as a way to further narrow the company’s focus on its new core business of higher-acuity post-acute services.
“Following the completion of the transaction, Kindred will remain the largest specialty hospital company in the United States, with a portfolio of long-term acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation hospitals, acute rehabilitation units, and an emerging behavioral health line of business, all specializing in treating the most medically complex patients,” Breier said. “We believe a more concentrated focus on our specialty hospital operations will position Kindred to achieve even greater long-term success.”
Kindred and Select expect the deal to close sometime before the end of this year.
“When we founded Select 22 years ago with a single facility in Illinois, our vision simply was to provide a better solution for post-acute care rehabilitation,” Select chairman and co-founder Neal Deutsch said in the statement. “Our ability to acquire RehabCare enhances Select’s position as a leading industry provider of contract rehabilitation services and is a true testament to the strength of our amazing leadership team, dedicated therapists, and extremely loyal customer base.”
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