Deceased Hospice Staff Invisible to Management

Strange Tony,

Heartless management neglected the memorial service for our longtime social worker.  How would you like to work over twenty years for a company, make it the center of your life, stay positive in buyout after buyout and not have one manager show up and say a few words about your contributions?  That's exactly what this sorry company did.  Fortunately, many former co-workers attended and spoke words of appreciation.  

Humana and two financial rapscallions are behind Kindred Hospice's disconnected management.  We had over 100 patients in June 2018.  They cut and cut and cut staff.  As the number of employees decreased so did patient census.  It's now in the fifties. 

I don't believe our deceased social worker was aware that Humana intends to sell our hospice yet again.  Her condition deteriorated the evening of the announcement and she died the following day.  She's now in heaven where king's ransoms, like the ones sought by our executives, are not allowed.  

Anonymous  (heartbroken and sick of dehumanizing greed)

KAH Executives to Have King's Ransom Payday

Strange Tony,

Kindred Hospice executives will have riches beyond measure for dropping a neutron bomb on our hospice.  A neutron bomb wipes out life but leaves buildings standing.  With staff decimated they moved us to another building, smaller and cheaper.  

For selling on the cheap Kindred at Home management got an equity stake alongside Humana and two financial rapscallions in 2018.  The overall equity stake of all parties rose from $1.66 billion in 2018 to $5.2 billion in 2021.  

KAH executives will make 212% profit on their slice of the company.  Compare that to hard working hospice employee raises, mostly nonexistent, over the same three year period.  

Employees experienced 33% fewer holidays and a 50% cut in holiday pay so executives can have yet another king's ransom payday.

Humana will add to the injury by jettisoning the hospice division under the same person who sacrificed many of my hospice peers for his personal gain.  Greedership is a piss poor model of management, but it is what we continually endure.

Anonymous (being sold for the seventh time)

Kindred Hospice Employees Get Short Shrift

 

Strange Tony,

The pipe dream that Humana would be a more human employer evaporated for Kindred Hospice employees.  It vaporized when our 40% owners said they would buy the rest of Kindred at Home and spin off the hospice division under CEO David Causby.  

The reality is TPG Capital and WCAS, our 60% financial rapscallion owners, trusted Humana to operate KAH over the last three years.  While Humana matched employee retirement contributions up to 6% we received a paltry up to 1%.  Humana took away 33% of our paid holidays and cut holiday pay 50%.

Greed is the reason Humana will sell the hospice division.  It will buy the 60% it doesn't own for an 11x multiple of EBDITA.  Once done Humana will have paid an average of 9.6x EDBITA for all of Kindred at Home.  It can sell Kindred Hospice for up to a 26x multiple.

Humana can earn 167% on their investment for flipping the hospice division, enriching CEO David Causby beyond measure.  Employees know the raw deal imposed by Humana, TPG and WCAS and the abusive treatment from KAH executives.  Keeping us under David Causby is a very bad sign.

Anonymous

Humana to Flip Kindred Hospice like a Financial Rapscallion

Strange Tony,

Humana will do to Kindred Hospice what it chose not to do in 2018 with Kindred Healthcare's inpatient post-acute businesses.  It will buy the rest of Kindred Hospice for a multiple of 11.5 times EBDITA and then sell it for up to 26x EBDITA.  HospiceNews stated:

Multiples in the hospice and home care space reached a record 26x during 2020, according to a research report by PwC’s Health Research Institute. Hospice and home health merger and acquisition activity buoyed the larger health care services sector last year, which saw a decline in transactions largely due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall health care sector multiples hovered near 13.9x, up slightly from 13.8x the prior year, according to PwC.

“We expect that we will be able to capitalize on a robust market for hospice assets by divesting a majority stake in that portion of the business for what we anticipate will be an attractive valuation,” Humana CFO Brian Kane said. 

Humana bought Kindred at Home alongside two financial rapscallions for an 8x EBDITA valuation.  Long time employees lost money on company stock in the buyout.  

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%.   

Employee harming executives will profit handsomely from Humana's buying the rest of Kindred at Home.  It's not clear what multiple Kindred at Home CEO David Causby and Hospice President Larry Graham will sell their company shares.  EBDITA grew from roughly $400 million to nearly $640 million, a 60% increase.  On Indeed and Glassdoor Kindred at Home employees cited going years without raises. 

Humana CEO Bruce Broussard once ran US Oncology, an affiliate of Welsh, Carson, Anderson and Stowe.  He has bought and sold more than one WCAS owned company as Humana's chief executive.  Companies once integral to Humana's strategic direction are deemed disposable.  It happened to Concentra with physician clinics in 2015.  It will happen again with Kindred Hospice in 2021.  

It is probably for the best as CenterWell Hospice would be an extremely ill fitting name.  Head's up fellow hospice employees, there could be another round of layoffs before the spinoff.  It's what financial rapscallions do and Humana clearly is one.

Anonymous

Yet Another Leveraged Sale for Kindred Hospice

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