LHC Group Forms Joint Venture with Baptist Memorial Health Care

Lafayette, Louisiana-based LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG) has entered into a definitive agreement to form a joint venture with Baptist Memorial Home Health Care. LHC Group, one of the nation’s largest home health care providers, will purchase the majority of Baptist’s home health and hospice operations.

The venture is expected to add $25 million in annualized revenue to LHC Group, accretive in the company’s 2017 earnings per share.

Baptist is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health care systems, with 17 hospitals in West Tennessee, North Mississippi, and East Arkansas, more than 4,00 affiliated physicians, and a multi-specialty physician group with more than 500 providers. Baptist also provides home health and hospice services at eight facilities in Tennessee and Mississippi, which serve more than 900 patients across 50 counties with more than 300 employees.

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LHC Group will assume management responsibility at the time of closing, which is expected to be completed on June 1, 2017, subject to customary closing conditions. The locations will maintain their existing names.

The joint venture comes on the heels of other similar announcements of hospitals selling their home health operations. Earlier this week, Mayo Clinic announced it’s shuttering its home health care operations in some markets, phasing out services or transferring locations.

LHC Group has long bet on partnerships with hospital and health systems as its strategy for its growth and is a joint venture partner with 73 health systems nationwide, consisting of 190 hospitals.

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“This new partnership is an exciting opportunity to combine our talent, assets and experience to reach more patients with quality home health and hospice care,” Keith G. Myers, LHC Group’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Baptist is a highly-respected health care provider with an impressive record of quality and a history of providing leading-edge care.”

The Baptist Reynolds Hospice House will remain part of the Baptist system, as will the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief.

Written by Amy Baxter

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