Optum, the diversified care delivery arm of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), has reached an agreement to acquire home health giant Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED), which provides skilled nursing facility-at-home services via Contessa Health. Optum emerged as a suitor for Amedisys earlier this month, after the home health giant had previously announced a deal to combine with […]
LHC Group
As value-based care increasingly becomes more prevalent in the nursing home industry, providers continue to straddle traditional Medicare fee for service (FFS) and a plethora of managed care plans. But there are arrangements that can allow organizations to be both payer and provider, or partner with those that already occupy both worlds. Amy Kaszak, executive […]
Skilled nursing and post-acute companies — and other providers serving older adults — must raise their games to deliver services within a new health care paradigm, as payers and consumers alike demand a more integrated continuum. In particular, post-acute and senior care companies must “be the answer” as large insurance companies seek ways to more […]
CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) appears poised to become a bigger player in the post-acute care space moving forward, in a pilot program that highlights ongoing shifts away from facility-based care and into the home. The company announced last week that it is preparing to launch a post-acute transitions pilot for Aetna members in select geographies […]
Optum, the health services arm of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), has agreed to buy home health giant LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG) for a reported $5.4 billion. The blockbuster deal is the latest indication that the nation’s largest health care payers are driving a shift toward value-based care models that prioritize more services delivered in people’s […]
The COVID-19 pandemic continued to put pressure on an already strained skilled nursing industry in 2021. The next 12 months will be yet another test of resilience. Looking ahead to 2022, SNFs must stay nimble and inventive to not only survive but thrive. Private equity will continue to lead the nursing home transaction market pack, […]
Of the two million patients admitted to nursing homes every year, an anticipated 35% could be diverted to home health care if the Choose Home Care Act of 2021 becomes law, according to Keith Myers, chairman and CEO of LHC Group. Myers, along with Visiting Nurse Health System CEO Dorothy Davis, spoke about the legislation […]
Home health operators aren’t the only players in post-acute and long-term care looking to capitalize on a weakened skilled nursing sector: As health systems and managed care insurers look to adapt their offerings to the post-COVID tastes of their patients, home health providers may find themselves with significant regulatory and payment tailwinds as they work […]
Operators of post-acute care facilities have seen the steady diversion of patients to the home setting in recent years, and multiple home health heavyweights believe the COVID-19 pandemic will only accelerate that trend into the 2020s. The flow of hospital patients bypassing the institutional skilled nursing facility “is picking up more steam right now,” LHC […]
While the skilled nursing world has largely adapted to its new Medicare payment model, the home health industry is currently in the midst of its own seismic shift — a change that could potentially open the door for nursing homes to grow in the space as smaller agencies rush for the exits. The new Patient-Driven […]
Despite multiple quarters of record earnings and a stock price that dwarfs that of other publicly traded skilled nursing companies, executives at The Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) said that investor skittishness over SNF assets played a major role in their decision to spin off its home health and senior housing business lines into a new […]