By: Dexter Braff
A few years back, Kindred Healthcare began to acquire home health and hospice providers in order to develop “integrated care networks.” But in early 2015, the company went “all-in” on home health and hospice when it acquired Gentiva Health Services in a deal valued at $1.8B.
At more or less the same time, the company began to pare down its skilled nursing operations from more than 300 facilities to 91. And on November 8, 2016, the company announced its intention to go “all-out” in skilled nursing in a move designed to “shift its business focus to Kindred at Home, the nation’s largest home health, hospice and community care provider.”
A control-alt-delete reboot, no doubt.
But in such an ever changing environment, not unprecedented in health care.
Perhaps you may remember when Amedisys was a diversified health care provider in search of a signature identity. It found its raison d’etre when it acquired 116 home health sites from Columbia HCA. In short order, the firm divested its pot pourri of health care interests to focus on home health. Today it is a $1.4B national provider of home health and hospice services.
Then there’s BioScrip. In 2004, Chronimed, Inc. and MIM Corporation merged to form a $1B plus provider of specialty pharmacy and PBM products and services. In early 2010, however, in order to increase its reach – and notably its margins – the company acquired Critical Homecare Solutions, a leading provider of home infusion therapy. They liked IV so much that just two years later, they jettisoned much of their specialty Rx business to Walgreens. “Presto-change’o,” today the firm is a nearly billion dollar provider of home infusion therapy.
Talk about your M&A makeovers.
Kim Kardashian would be proud.