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
The GAO released a study in 2019 on problems in hospice care delivery:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gao.gov/products/gao-20-10
Hospice RNCM in Nebraska said "Watch Out!"
ReplyDeleteThey say they are all about taking care of the patients and their employees, but they are really all about meeting productivity and there’s definitely favoritism.
^^ Not accurate -- Caseload goals are 12:1 which are superior to any competition and Nebraska has slow walked patients for over 9 months. Don't be mislead.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.indeed.com/cmp/Kindred-Hospice/reviews/watch-out?id=c6c22ff93a89fbd6
DeleteRarely did our site have staff at the level of caseload goals. Not long ago one RNCM had over 30 patients. Our site has never slow walked admissions. It was always add more regardless of staff ability to care for patients. Management, all RN's themselves, never went into the field, no matter how bad staffing levels got.
ReplyDeleteAveannna was mentioned in a report on "Private Equity at Home".
ReplyDeletehttps://pestakeholder.org/report/private-equity-at-home-wall-streets-incursion-into-the-home-healthcare-and-hospice-industries/
Aveanna Healthcare (J.H. Whitney and Bain Capital) was subject to a Bloomberg investigation that shed light on its cost-cutting practices and their relationship to staffing issues and patient neglect.
Former Hospice Homecare Program Manager from Minnesota said "Horrible":
ReplyDeleteDoes not promote work life balance!! Too much gossip among staff. The mileage reimbursement is like .25 per mile. They expect you to take WAY too much oncall on top of working 45-50 hours per week.
Pros
Nothing
Cons
No work life balance
California Kindred Hospice employee said "Declining Census and Community Reputation"
ReplyDeleteKindred has lost nearly 90% of its census in recent years. The long-term employees have sought employment elsewhere and management transitions every six to twenty-four months. There is no continuity, no "team" atmosphere to speak of and the Kindred label has lost respect and credibility in the community. Corporate officers provide the same worn out "rah rah" speeches without correcting issues or solving problems.
Pros
Kindred is a subsidiary of Humana and has deep pockets
Cons
The hospice division is up for sale and yet another transition, more corporate speeches, more of the same.
Glassdoor's most recent reviews of Curo Healthcare noted:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous employee said "Not a healthy work environment"
Cons
Literally everything. I wish I listened to the Glassdoor reviews I read before accepting my offer.
Former Curo Healthcare manager said "Located in office"
Pros
There are no pros for this company
Cons
No guidance, no caring by upper management
Today Humana's CFO admitted their original buyout of KAH was on the cheap.
ReplyDelete"our purchase of the broader Kindred at Home platform, we have been able to achieve our objective to substantively increase our footprint in home care by acquiring one of the leading home health platforms in the country at an attractive valuation for our shareholders."
Aveanna's stock closed at $1.63 a share today.
ReplyDelete"Seeking Alpha" panned Aveanna's stock:
While the situation is not entirely dismal yet, it is still very challenging, as quite frankly, I see no reason to get involved here given the poor track record of the management team since the IPO. At these low levels, it is too dangerous to bet against the company and shares now, but I see no green shoots to get involved here on the long side as well.