Business Briefs: Optima Acquires Hospicesoft

Optima Healthcare Solutions Acquires Hospicesoft

Optima Healthcare Solutions, a provider of cloud-based software for post-acute care providers, has acquired Hospicesoft, a supplier of cloud-based software for hospices. Palm City, Florida-based Optima is a portfolio company of Alpine Investors V, LP and affiliated funds.

Hospicesoft offers a complete EMR and billing solution that eliminates the need for providers to deal with OASIS questions and workarounds common in hospice solutions adapted from home health products. Optima plans to maintain and expand the hospice-specific capabilities of the application and integrate it with their home health product.

The companies did not disclose the purchase price.

The acquisition is meant to round out Optima’s offerings to stretch across the continuum of post-acute care, Optima’s Director of Product Marketing Daneen Heislitz told Home Health Care News. The company now offers business performance and patient care solutions across contract therapy, skilled nursing facility-based therapy, home health, and hospice providers.

Optima declined to say exactly how many customers Hospicesoft currently serves, but the solution was appealing as an acquisition because it appeals to both smaller and larger provider organizations, Heislitz said.

“The satisfaction level is through the roof,” she said of Hospicesoft’s current users. “They’re very happy with the product but also the service, and in that they parallel what we do at Optima. We invest in our support people.”

Corum Group, a mergers and acquisition services firm, facilitated the sale.

New Jersey Home Care Providers Combine Services

Two New Jersey health systems are combining their home home health and hospice agencies in a joint venture. The two organizations, Hackensack Meridian Health and St. Joseph’s Healthcare system, expect to expand their services and will be called Visiting Health Services of New Jersey and VHS Hospice Services of New Jersey.

The provider will serve the Jersey Shore to Bergen, Passiac and parts of Morris Counties, according to NorthJersey.com. Combined, the two systems have 1,125 employees and provided an estimated 400,000 home visits last year.

Last year, Hackensack Meridian, which has 11 hospitals, reached about $75 million in home health care revenue, while St. Joseph’s, which has two hospitals in Passaic County, totaled $10 million, NorthJersey.com reported.

The new partnership has joined with Seton Hall University with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to improve cancer care, and has also partnered with the New Jersey Institute of Technology to develop new technologies and analytical tools.

Lifematters Teams up with Lyft

Lifematters, the largest employer-based home care company in the D.C. metropolitan area, has teamed up with ride share service provider Lyft to schedule ride for clients and caregivers.

Lifematters can arrange rides through Lyft’s Concierge feature to schedule rides for caregivers to arrive at clients’ homes. Clients needing a ride can call Lifematters client services team member, who can arrange the ride and provide the client with the name of the driver, the make and model of the car, and the estimated time of the driver’s arrival.

Lifematters was founded in 2004, and provides a full range of in-home services.

Comfort Keepers of San Diego Partners with Mission Home Health and Hospice

Comfort Keepers of San Diego has partnered with Mission Home Health and Hospice.

“We are motivated to partner and work with a company that offers our current clients, caregivers and all our new referrals the best home care in the nation,” the Mission board of directors said in a statement. “They have a very impressive training program and advanced technology systems that will benefit both our caregivers and clients.”

Written by Amy Baxter