Business Briefs: Amedisys’ New Board Members

Amedisys Welcomes Three New Board Members

Amedisys Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) appointed three new members to its Board of Directors: Jeffrey Rideout, M.C., M.A., FACP; Julie Klapstein; and Richard A. Lechleiter. The new appointees’ positions became effective April 20.

Rideout is currently president and CEO of the Integrated Healthcare Association, a statewide multi-stakeholder group in California that promotes the improvement of health care quality, accountability and affordability. He is a former Rhodes Scholar and a current consulting professor at Stanford University on health research and policy and a lecturer at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Previously, Rideout served as senior medical advisor for Covered California, the state-based insurance exchange. He was also previously senior vice president and chief medical officer for the TriZetto Group; chief medical officer for Cisco Systems and global leader of its health care division; and SVP and chief medical officer for Blue Shield of California.

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Klapstein was the founding CEO of Avality, one of the nation’s largest health care information networks, which currently serves more than 900,000 physicians, providers and every health plans in the U.S. and processes more than 7 million transactions daily. She served as CEO and a board member at Avality for 11 years and has held executive roles throughout her 30-plus years in the health care information technology industry, including CEO of Phycom, Inc., and executive vice president of Sunquest Information Systems, GTE Health Systems and Siemens Medical Systems. She serves on the boards of Dominion Diagnostics and the Grand Canyon Association.

Lechleiter retired in 2014 as executive vice president and chief financial officer for Kindred Healthcare (NYSE: KND), the country’s largest provider of post-acute services. During a 19-year tenure at the company, he also served as vice president, controller, chief accounting officer and treasurer. Prior to his time at Kindred, Lechleiter was part of the team that transformed Humana, Inc. from a national operator of hospitals into a managed care and health benefits enterprise. He also served as chief accounting officer for Galen Health Care, as well as on the Board of Stock Yards Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYBT) since 2007.

Amedisys also hired executive search firm Chartwell Partners to lead its search for a senior vice president and chief compliance officer.

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Genesis HealthCare Completes Divestiture of Home Health and Hospice Operations

One of the nation’s largest post-acute care providers, Genesis healthCare, has completed the previously announced sale of the majority of its home health and hospice operations to Compassus, a nationwide network of community-based hospice and palliative care programs, for $72 million in cash and a short-term $12 million promissory note.

Genesis’ home health and hospice businesses had aggregate revenue of approximately $70 million in 2015. The company plans to use the proceeds of the sale to pay repay its debt.

Sienna Senior Living Completes Sale of Home Health Business

Sienna Senior Living Inc. (TSX: SIA) has closed the previously announced sale of its home health care business, Preferred Health Care Services (PHCS), to Spectrum Health Care LP for $16.5 million in cash proceeds.

Spectrum Health Care is one of Ontario’s leading providers of patient-centered home care, non-urgent patient transfer, companionship care and event medical services. Sienna is among Canada’s largest owners of senior housing and the largest long-term care provider in Ontario.

“The sale to Spectrum will enable PHCS to grow and focus on high quality service delivery apart of a larger organization solely focused on home and community care, and we are committed to facilitating a seamless transition for the PHCS team and its clients,” Lois Cormack, Sienna’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “The disposition of the home care business is consistent with Sienna’s strategy and concentrate on growing our core business of high-quality retirement living and long-term care portfolio assets in Canada.”

VNAA Adds New Board Members

The Visiting Nurse Associations of America (VNAA) has appointed three new board memberts: Patrick Brown, Penn Home Care and Hospice Services; Keith Crownover, Delta Health Technologies; and Marki Flannery, Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

Brown is the CFO for Penn Home Care and Hospice Services and has more than 20 years of experience working in home health and hospice finance. He is also a member of the VNAA Financial Managers Group.

Crownover is president and CEO of Delta Health Technologies and brings more than 33 years of home health, hospice and private duty home care information technology experience to his new board member role. He has been with Delta for the majority of his career, having held positions in implementation, support, sales and sales management.

Flannery serves as executive vice president and chief of provider operations of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York. Prior to that, she spent 32 years with Partner in Care, an affiliate of Visiting Nurse Service of New York and served as president of the organization from 1996 to 2015.

Katherine Browne will be departing from the board. She served as deputy director of the Robert Wood Johnson Aligning Forces for Quality Program.

MedOptions Acquires Vericare

MedOptions, the nation’s largest outsourced provider of behavioral health services to skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire San Diego-based Vericare, the second largest behavioral health clinical care provider in the United States.

Together, the combined business will become the sole national provider of outsourced behavioral health services to long-term care facilities, serving more than 180,000 beds across more than 1,500 facilities.

Both companies provide a similar integrated behavioral care model to deliver services to seniors through an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, including s psychiatrist (MD), clinical psychologist (PhD), specialized nurse practitioner (APRN) and clinical social workers (LCSW). Teams serve patients with a range of mental health needs, including those with cognitive or memory impairment.

MedOptions uses clinical care maps to reduce the use of antipsychotic medications often used with elderly in long-term care. This approach aims to reduce hospital re-admissions and may enable patients to transition to care in home settings. The transaction is scheduled to be completed in late May 2016.

Maxim Healthcare Services Replaces CEO, Appoints Two Senior Clinical Leaders

Maxim Healthcare Services, Inc., a home health care, medical staffing and population health and wellness services provider with more than 250 locations across the country, has named Cherry Nelson as senior vice president of clinical innovation and delivery and Melissa Fannin as senior vice president of clinical operations. The company also promoted William “Bill” Butz to take over as CEO, replacing outgoing CEO W. Bradley Bennett, who held the position since 2009.

Butz joined Maxim in 2012 as chief financial officer. He previously worked as president of Erickson Living, a Baltimore-based retirement community operator.

Nelson will focus on nursing advocacy and workforce development in this newly created role. She joined Maxim in 2010 as vice president of clinical operations for the west region before being promoted to senior vice president of clinical operations in 2013. She has more than 40 years of clinical and operations management experienced in critical care, acute care, home care, wound care and staffing. She has worked across a variety of settings, including hospitals, health systems and multi-site operations.

Fannin will assume the role of chief nursing officer in 2017. In her new position, she will design and implement a strategic nursing plan and work with other clinical leaders to establish a nursing governance structure to ensure care is delivered consistently across the company’s operations. She previously served as vice president of clinical operations for Maxim’s mid-Atlantic region. She has more than 20 years of experience as a nurse, as well as expertise in health policy and law, business development and program management.

Amada Senior Care Expands in San Antonio

Amada Senior Care, a non-medical in-home care provider and assisted living placement counseling company, opened its newest office at its San Antonio West location. Amada Senior Care is headquartered in San Clemente, California, and has franchises across the country.

Rick Stockton, the franchise partner who opened the San Antonio West location, has spent over 10 years in medical device sales. The location held a grand opening on April 29.

Written by Amy Baxter

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