StrangeTony,
SEC filings show Kindred's unsuccessful courting of Gentiva through two letters. The offer started off at $13 a share. It became $14 when Kindred went public in May with their hostile takeover. It appears Kindred wants Gentiva by hook or crook.
Also, regarding a separate but related issue, I was shocked to learn that certain Kindred executives are approaching executives in our company about going to work for Kindred, even though those executives are subject to publicly disclosed non-compete agreements. In addition, in connection with your recruiting efforts, your executives are providing to those recruits what we believe to be material non-public information that you agreed to keep confidential. Paul, I am deeply disappointed in these actions and would like to take this opportunity to remind you and make it very clear that we do not approve or condone this behavior.-- Rodney D. Windley, Gentiva's Executive Chairman
Kindred responded they "would not knowingly do" such a thing.
Gentiva lost COO Chris Russos shortly after purchasing Harden Healthcare. Gentiva CEO Tony Strange counted on Russos to mitigate integration risk. What would you call buying 160 locations only to close over half that number? Is that integration or disintegration?
Kindred and Gentiva share unethical billing practices. Each company paid the government $25 million to settle purported frauds. Kindred settled around fraudulent kickbacks, while Gentiva paid for billing the government for a higher level of service not indicated by chart documentation.
Kindred may brag of its lower turnover and employer of choice status (in direct contrast to Gentiva), but they aren't blemish free:
Employment-related lawsuits
Four wage and hour class action lawsuits are currently pending against the Company in federal district court for the Central District of California, and are being addressed together by the court. Each case pertains to alleged errors made by the Company with respect to regular pay and overtime pay calculations, waiting times, meal period waivers and wage statements under California law. On March 13, 2013, the court conditionally certified five classes of the seven total classes sought for certification for discovery purposes and declined to certify two others. Notice of class action certification and class members’ right to opt out of the lawsuit was mailed to all of the Company’s current and former California hospital employees. The Company intends to vigorously defend these claims.
A wage and hour class action lawsuit against the Company alleging violations of federal and state wage and hour laws is pending in federal district court for the Northern District of Illinois. This lawsuit pertains to the Company’s previous automatic meal break deduction practice for non-exempt employees in the Company’s hospitals located outside California. The court granted conditional class certification in part on June 11, 2013. This lawsuit has been settled in principle by the Company’s agreement to pay $0.7 million to claimants from the Company’s five Illinois hospitals, plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and certain administrative costs, subject to reaching a written settlement agreement and obtaining court approval.
Based upon available information, the Company recorded an additional $7.0 million loss provision in the fourth quarter of 2013 (for a total loss reserve of $12.7 million) related to these wage and hour lawsuits. The Company continues to evaluate the loss provision in light of potentially relevant factual and legal developments, including information learned through rulings on dispositive motions, settlement discussions and other rulings. The expected loss reserve is based upon currently available information and is subject to significant judgment and a variety of assumptions, and known and unknown uncertainties. Given the uncertainty of litigation, the actual loss may vary significantly from the current reserve, which does not represent the Company’s maximum loss exposure. At this time, no estimate of the possible loss or range of loss, in excess of the amount accrued, can be made regarding these lawsuits.
So Kindred ripped off employees for over $13 million in fair compensation? Gentiva and Kiindred are cut from the same cloth, each with robust Human Abuse Departments.
This should be one heck of a catfight compete with teeth, claws and lots of legal screeching.
Anonymous
Strange Tony,
ReplyDeleteSo, right fromt he start, any leader from any corporation is heartless? Do you think, perhaps, it is a bit far-reaching to immediately trash-talk Kindred and claim they have a Human Abuse Department on the level of Gentiva's? Find a company that is completely clean of any litigation, especially from the state of California. You are going to have to look pretty hard. Once you do, go apply to that company. And let me know who you find, so I can apply too!!
In every corporation, the leadrship -- officers of the company -- ALWAYS have a bail-out unlike the majority of employees. That benefit comes with being an officer in both public and private companies. In publicly-held, we have the benefit of seeing it, up front and in your face. Hard to stomach, indeed. But, this goes on everywhere, without exception, in every company.
Get to an officer level of a corporation and make the change, but you may also want to consider investigating a little more about Kindred...there is a chance they may do things a little differently.
Keep the posts coming. You've been busy the past several days. People enjoy the read... a real yarn!
Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteHeartless was not used in this post. Never mentioned executive parachutes or board buyout arrangements. Me thinks you protesteth too much.
Horrific leadership, i.e. greed and power addicts, are now widespread. They used to be the exception.
What commonly exists isn't necessarily right or inspiring. Senior management in our country has regressed in the last decade. I spent decades in the field working for numerous corporations. A number of them had a heart.
I share research and opinion. So you don't share my opinion. That's fine. We're both adults. Are you with Kindred or Joele Frank? Maybe Cleary Gottleib or Citi?
Do you share your opinion for free or are you paid to do this?
As for StrangeTony it's his blog:
http://generichospice.blogspot.com/2013/01/welcome.html
He kindly posts information I submit:
http://generichospice.blogspot.com/2013/02/gentivas-2012-performance.html
My posts are worth every penny you paid for them. They are free and done off work time.
Anonymous (from Gentiva)
When you say "So, Gentiva and Kindred are cut from the same cloth, each with robust Human Abuse Departments." what do you mean?? I believe it is reasonable to interpret that statement to mean that Gentiva and Kindred are one in the same, so all of the banter about Gentiva applies to Kindred. If that's not what you meant, you were not clear in your post.
ReplyDeleteAnd in regards to who I am, I am of no power or influence in any of the decisions being made. I'm a working man who happens to have a good time at work and enjoys the people he works with. That may be hard to imagine but it does happen from time to time in Big Bad Gentiva!
Anonymous,
DeleteI enjoy my coworkers as well and am grateful for the opportunity to interact with patients and their families. As a fellow working person I do know bad management when I see it. We obviously don't have the same supervising manager, but we share senior leadership. In what way is your voice heard? We have zero opportunity and have had the same for years.
Anonymous (from Gentiva)
If you work for "Big Bad Gentiva," why are you defending Kindred? Gentiva's senior leaders clearly have told Kindred to take their offer and leave.
DeleteStrangeTony
Things are still on the move with the takeover. Kindred has sweetened the deal and Gentiva will make a decision by next Friday June 27th. As someone who recently left Gentiva, many employees are hoping for the takeover just to see management kicked to the curb. From what I hear the FSU in Kansas has gone down hill dramatically in the last two years. Moral is low. I left there knowing about workplace bullying by a small group of females and I told management straight up about it and they just shrugged it off and said that that's just how those women are. They've had numerous (I'm talking about double digits) complaints about them for awhile now and the person I was hired to replace quit bcuz of them. But see they are friends with the supervisor outside of work I guess cuz they get their kids together for birthday parties and such. I know 3 people are currently looking to leave. One gal got lucky and got moved away from them but the others are stuck there until they can find something else. I mean even the director knows about it. Trash I tell ya. Now I got offers from 3 different major companies so it worked out for me. But I also hope Kindred takes it over so I can laugh my a** off when those do nothing managers get handed their pink slips. Karma is a b*tch only when you are.
ReplyDeleteKindred-Gentiva settled the lawsuit for $12 million:
ReplyDeletehttps://homehealthcarenews.com/2018/04/kindred-agrees-to-pay-12-million-to-settle-labor-related-charges/