GAPS Health Plans ‘Breakout Year’ Marked By SNF Partnerships

GAPS Health hopes to continue its explosive growth in the new year, by way of skilled nursing facility (SNF) partnerships and acquisitions of smaller physician practices.

Dallas-based GAPS provides medical directorships to SNFs across the U.S. – the company has only been around since 2019 but is already in more than 350 facilities as of December 2021. Leadership plans to be in around 700 by the end of this year.

GAPS’ latest partnership involves Consulate Health Care. In late July, GAPS and Consulate signed on for a pilot in nine of their 70 facilities in Florida.

The medical directorships company expects it will help manage additional Florida facilities in 2022, according to Jeff Winter, senior vice president of strategic partnerships for GAPS.

Consulate is reportedly undergoing a rebranding and restructuring according to a Tampa Bay Times report. The nursing home operator no longer has any long-term care facilities listed on their website.

While unable to name other specific prospective partners or provider groups at this time, GAPS Health Co-Founder Jerry Wilborn did say the company has three to four nursing home chain partnerships in the pipeline, and that the acquisition front looks promising.

“We know a number of physician groups who are equally yoked and they think about things the way we do. We see partnerships in that regard on the horizon as well,” Wilborn said. “This is going to be a breakout year for us.”

The group started out with what Wilborn calls a “handful” of facilities, about 10-15, and by the end of 2020 they were pushing 100. GAPs is looking to strengthen its presence in existing states – the team provides medical directorships in 18 to 20 states currently, Wilborn said.

GAPS isn’t the only company to specialize in providing medical directors and other clinical capabilities to SNFs. Competitors Theoria Medical and Eventus WholeHealth also thrive on initiatives to address the gap between federal calls for medical director visibility and the value-based care model.

Partnering with large nursing home chains and having business strategies align with government initiatives like the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) have helped drive growth, the founders said.

The company’s North Shore Healthcare deal in September 2020 defined the large nursing home chain model, standardizing and enhancing clinical care in 71 of the operator’s SNFs and assisted living facilities.

“Northshore is the poster child for that relationship. We’ve been able to work with the client, the client says, you know what, they’re the clinicians, they’re the experts. We’re going to listen here,” added Wilborn. “They’ll help us with survey issues. We’ll ask them the questions that we’ve always asked them but we’re going to work really hard to get out of their way and let them take care of patients.”

In 2021, GAPS established a “deep partnership” with chains across the country, Co-Founder Jamison Feramisco said, with an increased focus on COVID patients and infection control practices.

GAPS medical directors have increasingly been working with the regulatory, business development and corporate side of SNF chains to provide better outcomes for patients, Feramisco told Skilled Nursing News. This interoperable endeavor, coupled with GAPS’ value-based care alignment, is very appealing to operators.

Winter calls the business strategy “unusual,” preferring to partner with the whole chain instead of single facilities.

The medical directorship group is getting calls now from nursing home chains they haven’t targeted for growth and are increasing clientele week over week, Wilborn said.

“There’s no way [SNFs] are going to get there without physician direction,” said Wilborn, referring to value-based care outcomes. “We’ve had some stupendous successes with I-SNPs across the country; we see that as another means of our growth for 2022.”

As another part of its business initiative, GAPS aims to reduce the number of medications taken by residents. For one of its clients, GAPS said it’s on track to decrease more than 3 million unnecessary medications annually.

“We are literally optimizing thousands of patient medication regimens every week, to the tune of thousands of medications that we’re discontinuing. What we’re finding out is that the outcomes are better, returns to acute are better. The nursing time that is saved is tremendous,” Wilborn said. “That’s super important, with the staffing crisis.”