Literature Review

Brightspring Health Services, Inc. enters into definitive agreement to divest Community Living business to Sevita; reports preliminary 2024 financial results and provides 2025 guidance excluding Community Living The MarCom Journal, Louisville, KY; by Leigh White; 1/20/25 BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. (“BrightSpring” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: BTSG), a leading provider of home and community-based pharmacy and health services for complex populations, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to divest its Community Living business, namely ResCare Community Living, to Sevita, a leading provider of home and community-based specialty health care, for $835 million in cash consideration, subject to customary adjustments. The transaction is expected to close in 2025, pursuant to regulatory approvals and typical closing conditions. Following the divestiture, BrightSpring’s Provider Services will be comprised of Home Health and Hospice, Personal Care, Rehabilitation Services, and Primary Care. 

Federal report highlights private equity, consolidation concerns Modern Healthcare; by Hayley Desliva; 1/16/25 Three federal agencies on [1/15/25] said "more effective and vigorous" enforcement is needed to protect patients harmed by healthcare's continued consolidation. In a report released just days before a new administration takes over, the Health and Human Services Department, Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department said comments they sought earlier this year on the state of the industry made clear that worries about access to services and costs have intensified as consolidation and private equity's role have grown. ... The report noted several areas of concern: 

Choice Health at Home completes acquisition of Family Tree Private Care WL US FM 98.3, Tyler, TX; Press Release, EINPresswire.com; 1/17/25 Choice Health at Home (“Choice”), a leading multi-state provider of home health, hospice, personal care, and rehabilitation services, is proud to announce the acquisition of Family Tree Private Care (“Family Tree”), one of the largest private care operators in the United States. This transaction further establishes Choice Health at Home as a premier operator offering a comprehensive continuum of care, including private care, to patients across Texas, Colorado, and the Southwestern U.S. “This is a transformative moment for Choice Health at Home,” said David Jackson, CEO of Choice. ... "The addition of Devotion Hospice allows us to expand our hospice services and reinforces our commitment to provide quality care to our nation’s 5th largest metro population (Houston, TX).” ... Daniel Gottschalk, CEO of Family Tree, shared his enthusiasm for the merger ... 

Renovus acquires Superior Health McGuire Woods; by Trey Andrews; 1/13/25 Renovus Capital Partners has announced the acquisition of Superior Health Holdings. Superior, formed in 2021 and based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a provider of home health and hospice services throughout Louisiana. Renovus, based in Philadelphia, is a lower middle market private equity firm that invests in a few sectors, including healthcare services. Founded in 2010, the firm invests across a range of healthcare companies, including those in life sciences commercialization, IT, revenue cycle management and behavioral health. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. 

St. Croix Hospice to acquire Mayo Clinic Health System hospice operations in Southwest Minnesota PR Newswire, Oakdale, MN; by St. Croix Hospice and Mayo Clinic Health System; 1/13/25 St. Croix Hospice and Mayo Clinic Health System have entered into a definitive agreement for St. Croix Hospice to acquire Mayo Clinic Health System's hospice operations in Southwest Minnesota. The agreement remains subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025. ... "With more than 75 locations across the Midwest staffed by local care teams, St. Croix Hospice has been proudly providing hospice care for Mayo Clinic Health System patients throughout the Midwest for many years," says St. Croix Hospice Chief Clinical Officer Mandy Cogswell. ... "This marks the second recent transaction where St. Croix Hospice has acquired a health-system based hospice program, including a fourth quarter 2024 purchase in Iowa and Nebraska," said St. Croix Hospice CEO Heath Bartness.

UnitedHealth, Amedisys ask judge to toss antitrust lawsuit Modern Healthcare; by Diane Eastabrook; 1/9/25UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys asked a federal judge Wednesday to either dismiss a government lawsuit over their planned merger or require the Justice Department to better define where the deal would stifle competition. The motion is the latest chapter in UnitedHealth Group’s 18-month effort to acquire home health and hospice company Amedisys for $3 billion. In November, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit to block the deal, claiming it would stifle competition. ... The request for a dismissal came days after UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys backed away from a deal to sell some home health and hospice locations to Dallas-based Vital Caring Group to alleviate antitrust concerns.

Renovus Capital Partners announces strategic partnership with Superior Health Holdings The Alvin Sun, Wayne, PA; by Renovus Capital Partners, LLC; 1/7/25 Renovus Capital Partners ("Renovus") today announced a strategic partnership with Superior Health Holdings, Inc. ("Superior" or the "Company"), a leading provider of home health and hospice services throughout Louisiana. ... Superior was formed in 2021 as an aggregation of several agencies providing similar services throughout Louisiana and has since grown both organically and through strategic acquisitions, led by Chief Executive Officer, David Martin. ... Superior Health Holdings, Inc., based in Baton Rouge, LA, is a full-service family of agencies offering hospice and home health services.

Masonicare completes merger with UMH, facility acquisition McKnights Senior Living; by Kathleen Steele Gaivin; 1/6/25 Wallingford, CT-based Masonicare has completed its planned merger with United Methodist Homes, the companies said Thursday in a joint statement. Masonicare Corp. is Connecticut’s largest not-for-profit senior living and care organization, offering independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing as well as short-term rehabilitation, respite care and hospice care. UMH, a 150-year-old organization, has five locations in the Nutmeg State. The communities provide independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and short-term rehab. The merger moves UMH under the Masonicare brand and extends to UMH access to Masonicare’s comprehensive continuum of care, the companies said.  Also on Jan. 2, Masonicare announced the acquisition of Atria Greenridge Place in Rocky Hill, CT, rebranding the assisted living and memory community to Masonicare at Greenridge Place.

Top hospice trends to watch in 2025 Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 1/3/25 Hospice leaders will need to keep their eyes on five key trends in the new year when it comes to compliance, business operations and finance. Coupled with these trends is rising utilization. Hospice utilization reached 51.7% among Medicare decedents in 2023, up more than two percentage points from the prior year, according to recent data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). This is the highest rate since 2019. ... The number of hospice care days also saw increases, as did average length of stay and average number of patient visits per week. Total Medicare hospice payments in 2023 reached $25.7 billion. ...

The Pennant Group Closes $80M Signature acquisition Hospice News; by Jim Parker; 1/3/25 The Pennant Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PNTG) completed its $80 million acquisition of Signature Healthcare at Home’s hospice and home health assets. Pennant closed the deal on seven of Signature’s Oregon locations on Jan. 1. The company previously completed the purchase of Signature’s Idaho and Washington assets on August 1, 2024. Acquiring Signature will boost Pennant’s existing presence across three states. The purchase adds seven locations to the company’s footprint in Oregon, as well as multiple locations in four Washington cities and two cities in southwest Idaho. 

How private investment is becoming a driving force behind PACE Modern Helathcare; by Diane Eastabrook; 12/23/24 2025 could be the year a 50-year-old program that keeps older adults out of nursing facilities goes mainstream as for-profit companies innovate and launch more programs. Habitat Health, Seen Health, One Senior Care and InnovAge are planning to expand Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly from California to Ohio. These investor-backed organizations are scaling and innovating PACE at a time when more states are offering the Medicare-Medicaid program for frail older adults, and as legislation before Congress could make its services more widely available. Still, these for-profit programs face administrative hurdles and high start-up costs that have hamstrung PACE for decades.

Trends in private equity acquisition of pain management practicesJAMA Network Open; Geronimo Bejarano, MPH; James E. Eubanks, MD, MS; Robert T. Braun, PhD; 12/24Pain has the highest health care spending in the US and is expected to increase with the aging population, which may entice private equity acquisitions of pain management practices. Private equity has increasingly acquired physician practices and acquisitions are associated with higher spending, utilization of more expensive treatments, and increasing patient volume. In this cross-sectional study of private equity acquisitions of pain management practices, we found a rise in acquisitions over the last decade with almost 1 in 10 pain management physicians affiliated with a private equity–owned pain management practice. [The] ... high amount of consolidation within certain states poses concerns for private equity to have enough market power to control care delivery of several procedure-based specialties, including pain management. Policymakers and the Federal Trade Commission have taken notice of the harms of increases in both health care consolidation and private equity acquisitions, and there are ongoing efforts to curb their detrimental effects.