Breier Flattens Gentiva Employee Retirement Match

Strange Tony,
 
Kindred struck the deal with Gentiva expecting to save and make more money.  Two years ago Kindred President Ben Breier set the expectation.  "Synergies expected to be north of $70 million at the end of year two of the transaction will be immediate — will be meaningfully accretive to our earnings."

Breier announced in his recent earnings call "on the Gentiva deal, we achieved $91 million of synergies, a savings at the high end of our already aggressive expectations." 

That aggression completely wiped out Gentiva employees 401k match for 2017. How much will executive bonuses rise from stiffing employees?  That information will be available in April.

If anyone feels run over this Thanksgiving it might have been Ben Breier on his Synergy bulldozer.

Anonymous (from Kindredful)

Kindred's Hollow Promises to Keep Teammates Informed

Strange Tony,

Kindred President Ben Breier opened Kindred's Q3 earnings call with his usual remark :  "Let me start as I usually do by extending my deep appreciation on behalf of the entire leadership team to our more than 100,000 teammates across the country. Each day our partners at Kindred work hard to improve the lives of more than 1 million patients we care for annually. The excellent care delivery and clinical outcomes we generate are the direct results of their efforts."

Later in the call he said, "the most important thing for us was that when we made this announcement yesterday, we wanted our employees, our teammates, our partners to be the first ones to hear it, not anybody else. So in terms of process and things that have become public, it was very important to me, and to our Board, and to the rest of our management team that we treat our employees the right way by making sure that they knew what was happening before anybody else did. And we're going through that process here internally at Kindred, and our folks are working their way through that."

How many of Kindred's 100,000 teammates heard about the company's strategic shift and dismal financial results from Ben Breier?  I read the release Monday evening and am still waiting for any internal news from my employer.  Wall Street analysts heard long before our local group of Kindred employees.

One could say why would hospice or home health employees need to know?  Answer:  Staff at our site have already been asked about the news by area nursing home companies.  Kindred employees could look informed or ignorant.  It was up to us to be informed.  Management delivered our staff a goose egg of information.

As for communication there was one telling interchange between an analyst and Breier.  The analyst asked how Breier or the company would define a mutually beneficial outcome for the nursing home division sale.  Breier replied, "Kindred's shareholders will have to respond to what that definition of mutually beneficial for us is."  Sadly, Breier may have a career in politics.

For the first time Breier spoke about premium pay rates for RN's across Kindred's business lines.  That's a new development, not at our site, but in the conversation with Wall Street's finest. Brier's opening pander to employees is not new.  Neither is the hollow promise to keep employees informed of key executive decisions.  The lesson is employees will have to listen to quarterly earnings calls to actually hear strategic information from Kindred's C-Suite.  Otherwise we're kept in the dark. 

Anonymous (from Kindredful Q3)

New Kindred Board Member's Stock Award

Strange Tony,

Kindred announced a new board member.  Dr. Lynn Simon is a C Suite occupant with Community Health Systems, a for-profit hospital company.  Kindred loaded Dr. Simon's pocketbook with nearly $150,000 in restricted stock.  She only has to last a year for that stock to vest. 

Dr. Simon joined Community Health Systems in November 2010 when the company's stock price stood at $32 per share.  It's now $5.50.  CHS expanded via buyouts and borrowings the last few decades.  A downturn in business sent CHS' finances reeling.  Healthcare has become unaffordable even for many with health insurance.

CHS is trying to retrench by selling off assets (hospitals and other affiliates) to reduce debt.  Kindred shed unprofitable LTACs a few months ago.  Rumors have it more shedding is on the way.  It's not clear if it's facilities, headcount or both.

What percent of Kindred at Home employees make $141,000 a year?  How many former Gentiva employees have no retirement match for 2017 under Kindred?  How many Kindred at Home employees will have their pittance of a raise eaten up by increased benefits cost/reduced benefits coverage?

It's a bifurcated world where people at the top can only "perform" if there are massive incentive structures in place, while people at the bottom are "thanked" for their hard work only to learn later executives took away another important benefit with no explanation.  Gentiva did this with a silent PTO reduction.  Kindred made it darn near impossible for Gentiva employees to know if they had a retirement match at all in 2016, before ditching the benefit altogether for 2017.

Dr. Simon's nearly $150,000 prize will come available on 11-2-2017 after Kindred at Home President David Causby's $1 million bonus is excreted on 8-1-2017.  Who knew staying employed until a specific day was a marker of outstanding performance?   How many employee retirement matches would $1.15 million fund?  That's a question this board crew won't be asking.

Anonymous from Executive Enriching Kindred

Kindred Stock Plummets after Q3 Earnings Announcement

StrangeTony,

Kindred announced a major strategic shift and associated write downs which resulted in a GAAP loss from continuing operations of $671 million for the third quarter.  The company plans to exit its nursing home business.  Kindred said it would exit its skilled nursing facilities due to "labor cost challenges."  I guess those people aren't willing to work for peanuts.

Kindred President Ben Breier said, "We expect approximately half of Kindred’s earnings before interest and income taxes (“EBIT”) to come from Kindred at Home, the nation’s largest home health, hospice and community care provider."  

As for enhancing shareholder value Kindred's stock is down over 50% from April.  This cannot be good for long suffering Gentiva employees who've been responsible for a third of Kindred's EBITDAR.  More top management attention is not what hospice employees or the people we serve need.

What future benefit cuts await for 2017?  What micro-raises, if any, can employees expect for the coming year?   I have a funny feeling my fellow hospice employees are waking up to our one sided relationship with Kindred.  I wonder how many will exit soon?

Anonymous (from Kindredful)