Hospice Sales Talk

Strange Tony,

A Kindred Hospice employee wrote on "Indeed":

The hospice division is up for sale and yet another transition, more corporate speeches, more of the same.

Cue the key employee retention bonuses and promises of no changes.  Those no changes turned into massive hospice staff layoffs, reduced holidays, cuts in holiday pay and worse health insurance.

The July 2018 hope of receiving Humana level benefits never materialized for my coworkers.  Humana decided the hospice division was disposable for capital raising purposes.

Kindred Hospice executives David Causby and Larry Graham won't say how many millions they made when Humana bought the rest of Kindred at Home from its financial rapscallion partners.  

We will be sold to the next round of money changers.  Expect more abuse.

Anonymous

PE Stakeholder Project Confuses Kindreds

 

Strange Tony,

In searching for any information on the Senate Finance Committee's review of hospice company private equity ownership I ran across a report from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project.  

Generic Hospice readers know my disdain for financial rapscallions, who along with Humana trashed our once great hospice (nationally recognized).  However, I also value accuracy  in reporting and I found a error in their report table.  

July 2018 saw the take private split up of Kindred Healthcare.  Humana, TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe (WCAS) bought out the home health, hospice and community care parts of Kindred, now known at Kindred at Home.  TPG and WCAS took the hospital portions of Kindred Healthcare, long term acute care and rehabilitation hospitals, as well as outpatient rehab services.  

Humana purchased the rest of Kindred at Home from its financial rapscallion partners in August 2021.  WCAS and TPG monetized the post acute hospital division (Kindred Healthcare) to LifePoint in December 2021.  These were distinctly different deals. 

I looked for a way to submit this information so they could consider correcting their report but found no contact information.  

Last year I wrote:

How did Humana and Kindred at Home executives treat employees after the buyout?  They reduced headcount from 56.000 to 43,000.  They cut the number of holidays by 33% and holiday pay by 50%.  

After buying the rest of Kindred at Home Humana increased its employment number by 40,000.  That is why I submitted that number as a possible correction.  I hope the U.S. Senate report is more accurate in this regard.

 Anonymous 

Humana's CEO Earned 687 Times Hospice CNA

Strange Tony,

I just heard a guest on CNBC say the average worker will continue to fall further behind financially.  Humana released a report yesterday indicating how much it paid its board of directors and executive team.  

CEO Bruce Broussard made nearly $8,000 an hour with a total compensation of $16.5 million.  That does not include his board pay from HP ($190,000 in 2021) or KeyCorp, the parent company of KeyBank ($220.000 in 2020).  

Former CFO Brian Kane made nearly $5.6 million for working half a year.  CFO and the head of Humana's Home Division Susan Diamond took home $4 million.

They can't take it with them when they leave this earth and have to answer for the harm they caused hospice patients.

Anonymous

Crappy Corporate Hospices Change Hands for Executive Profit

Strange Tony,

Something odd happened while waiting for Humana to dump our hospice remnants to yet another financial rapscallion.  Jerry at the Death Nurse blog pondered if private equity firm Advent International might make a bid.  Advent owns AccentCare.  

I countered with an ironic alternative buyer, Bain Capital's Aveanna Healthcare headed by our former CEO Tony Strange.  

Those two names made a recent news report on Encompass' sale of its Enhabit home health/hospice division.

Private equity firms including Advent International and companies including Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc  have expressed interest in acquiring the home health and hospice business of Encompass Health Corp, people familiar with the matter said.

Jerry writes about crappy corporate hospice, a frequent topic at this blog.  DeathNurse linked to a September 2019 story about Caris Hospice firing a nurse while she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. 

A Nolensville hospice care nurse was fired from her job after she was diagnosed and began treatment for breast cancer.

Chrissy Ballard worked for Caris Healthcare, a hospice care company headquartered in Knoxville but with offices in Middle Tennessee.

A Caris LPN included this in a 2020 review:

...over a million profit not enough, projecting more for this yr and stupid enough to tell us

A June 2021 story noted Caris' complete sellout to publicly traded NHC.

NHC acquired the remaining interest in Caris from its founder and managing director, Norman McRae, and McRae Investment Company. NHC already owned a majority stake in Caris prior to the purchase.

Caris CEO Norman McRae serves as Chair of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's board of directors.  He also served as Chairman of Hospice Action Network, the lobbying arm of NHPCO.

NHPCO described the cancer-stricken nurse firing CEO as combining "a heart for mission-driven, community-based hospice with an entrepreneur’s drive for developing and nurturing outstanding teams, running efficient operations, differentiating on quality outcomes, and identifying and meeting community need."

Chrissy Ballard's husband Matt noted:

"The hypocrisy of being a company whose mission statement is Hospice with Compassion, Hospice with Grace," said Matt. "When you are on the flip side of that and you are an employee who is fired after their cancer diagnosis, it is devastating."

Heartless for sure.  There are over a million reasons.

Anonymous 

Humana Launches CenterHell in Seven States

 

Strange Tony,

Humana announced it would rebrand Kindred at Home Home Health offices in seven states to the CenterWell brand.  States where Humana will make the name change include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and North Carolina.

Months ago I offered the CenterHell name, complete with the green H often used by Humana.  I based this on how Humana tortured our once great hospice, turning it into a heartless cash machine for executives.  

When Humana et al purchased us in July 2018 my coworkers believed they were going to improve pay and benefits.  That did not happen.  Humana made nurse salaried and then overworked them terribly under sparse staffing guidelines.  They reduced the number of holidays and cut holiday pay rates 33%. 

Horrible technology added significant work hours and purposefully underpaid staff for miles driven and hours worked.   Talented, dedicated hospice staff were either fired or fled.  All these executive changes harmed patient care and as a result reduced our census over 50%.  

Executives sold us out on the cheap in 2018.  Their deal ensured they would make a 44% return on the stock they alone were allowed to buy.  However, that wasn't enough for David Causby and his C Suite companions.  Staff firings and pay/benefit reductions ensured they would get an additional 22% return.  How many regular employees received a 66% increase in take home pay over the last three and a half years?  Senior executives got just that from their exclusive stock holdings. 

Profit obsessed Humana will garner a big bolus of cash when it sells our hospice, yet again, to a financial rapscallion or group of greedy financiers.  Lord, hear our prayer for relief from the never-ending quest for profit.  Deliver us from the profiteers.

Anonymous