Strange Tony,
Our hospice will become part of a leveraged sale after Humana buys the rest of Kindred at Home from financial rapscallions TPG and WCAS. Consider what the last leveraged buyout did to our company.
Kindred at Home had 46,000 employees and Curo Health had 10,000 for a combined 56,000 when the deal closed summer 2018. By February 2019 headcount shrank to 50,000. It's now 43,000. That's a reduction of 13,000 positions or 23%.
Management scores itself via a stacked financial measure, earnings before depreciation, interest, taxes and amortization (EBDITA). Personnel is the largest expense. Our hospice staffing was cut in half after Curo installed its crappy, expensive, time wasting technology. Customer service scores plummeted, horrifying staff. Management didn't care. Financial measures mattered. Patient care did not.
In addition management robbed employees of fair pay for hours worked by making nurses salaried, cut holidays 33% and reduced holiday pay, and only paid employees mileage for the outbound trip to the patients home. Getting fair reimbursement for miles driven took too much time for busy hospice professionals trying to meet patient/family needs while understaffed. Employees threw up their hands trying to get fair mileage pay. The bottom line grew to the benefit of executives.
When the deal closed EBDITA was just over $400 million. It's now $645 million, up almost 60%. This is the measure producing the outrageous purchase price ($8.1 billion) and enriching already super wealthy executives. Revenues remained stagnant, around $3 billion annually.
With every buyout, Gentiva, Kindred and Humana executives profited handsomely. Employees got lip service and nothing else. Humana and its financial rapscallion partners paid 6x EBDITA for Kindred at Home, then planned to transfer the rest at 10 to 11.5x EBDITA. That's nearly a double for greedy financiers and KAH executives. Job cuts and wage/benefit theft added even more to the final purchase price, of which executives get a piece.
Our hospice does not need another leveraged buyout. We need and deserve an employee owned company. It is our blood, sweat and tears that kept the company operating on a daily basis. Instead Humana CEO Bruce Broussard and CFO Brian Kane will sell our hospice yet again and keep us under CEO David Causby. .
Executives repeated proved they don't value employees. This greedy group values their pocketbook. A pox on their abodes. They might value hospice if they have to get end of life care.
Anonymous
"After the merger it sucked" said Nursing Home Reimbursement employee:
ReplyDeleteThis company went downhill almost from the moment CURO took over - don't let the name fool you kids; it's not JUST Kindred at Home anymore. The incoming mngmnt wouldn't listen to a thing the experienced billers were trying to tell them. They started not paying clients on time, which effed Kindred's reputation. They fired one of the best supervisors they had (mine) an hour before they fired me THEN issued an email LYING to our team making it sound like we quit. Horrible, wouldn't come back to them if they begged me to.
Pros
competitive wage
Cons
No support, no true company events, overloads workers, bottom line is the only concern
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kindred-At-Home/reviews/after-the-merge-it-sucked?id=24e1e888ab3e59f8
Leadership employee said "Run, don't walk":
ReplyDeleteAfter several buyouts kindred has now been assumed for the third time by Curo health. Humana has bought 40%, And will possibly buy The remaining 60% which will mean more problems. My experience with this company was very poor, leader ship was poor, training was almost absent, they are all about the numbers and no quality. Pay for visiting nurses as a joke, I couldn’t keep help because of the low pay and the dismal work life balance of constant on call.
Pros
Keeping your soul
Cons
Marketing drives every decision
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kindred-At-Home/reviews/run-don-t-walk?id=207e8a8a36230c82
"Beware of corporations" said medical social worker:
ReplyDeletePoor management, poor leadership, regional director is the root problem but runs her region into the ground, social work is not supported, high caseloads, no support for a difficult job, corporate makes loads of money but cuts costs at the service level, over all I love the work but had to walk away due to poor management leading to poor quality of patient care.
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kindred-Hospice/reviews/beware-of-corporations?id=04406a0263039f77
Kindred at Home therapist said
ReplyDeleteLots of changes have occurred over the years that I have worked here. Some good, most were not. No pay raises have been given in the past 8 years and overall pay has trended downward. Initially there was a lot of autonomy with patient's plan of care however more and more upper management is involved in care decisions. Some local management are very good. Some are harsh and authoritarian. The good ones tend not to last.
Pros
Make your own schedule
Cons
Schedule is feast or famine, more documentation than other settings
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kindred-At-Home/reviews/less-independence-than-some-companies?id=71cd89031327df32
If Humana really is a human company it will give stock to Kindred Hospice employees in the IPO/selloff:
ReplyDeleteWSJ says:
As part of the deal, KKR and Leonard Green have agreed to make all of Charter Next Generation’s roughly 1,700 employees owners of the business. Granting stock to hourly wage earners at portfolio companies as a means of combating inequality is a priority for Pete Stavros, KKR’s co-head of private equity for the Americas. The deal marks the first time a rival has joined KKR in the effort, signaling the possibility of wider adoption of the ownership model in the buyout world.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/kkr-to-invest-in-charter-next-generation-joining-leonard-green-11620295200?mod=itp_wsj
Humana steals wages from its employees as well. It's not just Kindred Hospice workers. Software engineer said:
ReplyDeleteHumana does NOT care about you. They boast about incredible benefits and work/life balance, and then turn around and do the exact opposite. If you are salaried, they abuse you with expectations of working "overtime" (unpaid) every week. They treat their employees as if we aren't even human. They ignore their employees requests and just overall have a complete lack of care. Some managers even go out of their way to make employees feel unappreciated. By far, worst place I have ever worked.
Cons
Abusive managers, mandatory overtime, non-existent work/life balance
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Humana/reviews/zero-work-life-balance?id=2c1a7140b7804092