Business Briefs: CareCentrix, Vistria Group

CareCentrix Extends Contract with Cigna

CareCentrix, a company that provides support and coordination for patients and their families that need home health care services, has extended its contract with Cigna, a global health service company and CareCentrix’s longest standing client since 1996. The contract extension is for two years, and will continue to give Cigna’s customers access to CareCentrix’s core services, including home health and nursing care, durable medical equipment (DME) and home infusion. 

CareCentrix has offered home care services to millions of Cigna customers since 1996. These services are aimed at helping to improve care transitions and reduce hospital readmissions as an alternative to facility-based health care providers.

CareCentrix connects patients with home care through a national network of over 8,000 credentialed provider locations.

Vistria Group Acquires Supplemental Health Care

Chicago-based private equity firm Vistria Group has acquired Supplemental Health Care, a Park City, Utah-based health care staffing firm. Terms of the transaction, which closed in December, were not disclosed.

Vistria’s operating partners, Greg Palmer and Ron Malone, will serve on Supplemental’s board of directors as chairperson and vice-chairperson, respectively. Janet Elkin, Supplemental’s CEO since 2010, will continue in her role along with the company’s existing leadership team. Palmer is the former CEO of RemedyTemp Inc. and has 30 years of experience in the staffing industry. Malone is the former chairperson and CEO of Gentive Health Services and has 30 years of experience in staffing and home health care.

Supplemental Health Care was founded in 1984 and has 60 local offices and four national division that provide clinical and nurse, allied health and physician staffing. The company spun off its outsourcing division, Clinical Magnet, into a new subsidiary in November.

Complete Home Health Care Switching Offices

The Longmont, Colorado, office of Complete Home Health Care will move at the end of February to a new space comprising 4,800 square feet. Complete Home Health Care is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, and has offices in Longmont, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. The deal was brokered by The Colorado Group.

Neighboring Major Medical Supply will take over the current office as part of an expansion. Major Medical Supply is a provider of home oxygen and medical equipment with seven locations within Colorado. It is based in Denver. 

VillageCareMAX Health Plans Partners With eCaring

VillageCareMAX Health Plans, part of the New York-based not-for-profit organization VillageCare, has partnered with eCaring, Inc., a private New York-based company dedicated to improving populations and patient health care with an in-home chronic disease management system.

VillageCareMAX Health Partners serves New York residents with chronic, long-term health care needs and plans to use eCaring’s population health management system. eCaring’s system generates real-time actionable health data from the home. Village Care will deploy the system with its home care workers and care managers to its vulnerable high-risk partners.

In multiple care management programs, eCaring has saved an average of over $4,000 annually per patient, cut hospital use by 40% and reduced specific readmission rates, such as congestive heart failure patients at a major medical center by 60%.

VillageCareMAX plans to issue pre-configured Samsung tablets installed with eCaring’s CareTracker software to 400 of its health plan members over the next few months. Home health workers will be trained to work with eCaring as they provide care to VillageCareMAX members. 

FirstLight HomeCare Names Marcus Thomas LLC as Advertising Agency of Record

FirstLight HomeCare, a non-medical home care provider that serves 2,500 patients in over 170 territories and 30 states, has selected Cleveland-based Marcus Thoms LLC as its advertising Agency of Record. Marcus Thomas LLC is a $160 million, fully integrated marketing communications agency. The selection comes following a competitive national search.

“Marcus Thomas clearly understood the direction that we were headed toward,” FirstLight executive director of brand development Danielle Cantin said in a statement. “Their research into our operations and—most importantly—caregivers and our clients revealed powerful insights that will help us meet our aggressive growth goals.”

The agency will focus on national brand development, marketing support and future caregiver recruitment efforts.