Thursday, April 29, 2021

Humana to Buy Rest of KAH and Sell Hospice Division


Strange Tony,

Kindred Hospice employees hoping to receive Humana's much richer retirement benefit (6% vs 1% match) will be disappointed to know Humana's buyout of the rest of Kindred at Home includes dumping the hospice division.  

For the most senior of hospice employees this could be be their fifth, sixth or seventh buyout, Family Home Hospice, Vistacare, Odyssey, Gentiva, Kindred, Humana/WCAS/TPG and now the looming Humana spinoff.  Raises slowed when Gentiva took over and virtually stopped under Kindred and Humana.  Those hoping to be included in Humana's pay and benefit scales will remain under penny pinching CEO David Causby.

While KAH’s hospice and community care operations are included in the transaction, Humana intends to ultimately only maintain a minority interest in this portion of the asset. The company is exploring, among other things, a public listing (IPO), conditions permitting, or another potential transaction (sale), and intends for the future independent company to be led by David Causby, the current Chief Executive Officer of Kindred at Home.

Causby will make another king's ransom for making life difficult for hospice employees, adding mountains of work and never adjusting pay.  Causby is part of the executive team that partnered with Humana and financial rapscallions in Summer 2018.  His holding down employee wages flowed directly to his personal pocketbook.  The man does not need the money.  He received two $1 million retention bonuses under Kindred.  He also received a bonus for growing employee turnover.

How did Kindred at Home go from a $3.4 billion company to $8.1 billion?  It's not clear at all.  Kindred at Home/Curo Health had a combined $3.028 billion in revenue when the buyout occurred Summer 2018.  Moody's stated "fiscal year end December 31, 2020 revenues are approximately $3 billion."  That's better than Causby's performance in the Harden Healthcare deal where Harden's revenues evaporated, however it is minuscule revenue growth over two and a half years. That doesn't support a 140% increase in the value of KAH.

Humana will enrich rapscallions TPG, WCAS (Welsh Carson Anderson and Stowe) and Kindred at Home executives.  Kindred at Home's home health will be rebranded CenterWell Home Health.  That division fits into Humana's long term plans while hospice does not.  Kindred Hospice employees have long been abandoned.  Humana is just the latest to do so.

Anonymous