Bain Capital Creates National Home Care Platform Through Impact Investing Play

Bain Capital Double Impact has acquired and will combine two regional health care companies, Arosa and LivHome, to create a national in-home care provider.

This is the first home care investment for Bain Capital Double Impact. The company, which is the impact investing arm of Boston-based Bain Capital, has been tracking the industry for years and actively looking at opportunities for the last year, principal Peter Spring told Home Health Care News.

Bain Capital is a global private investment firm with approximately $105 billion of assets under management, and its Double Impact business focuses on health and wellness, sustainability and community building. Another part of the company, Bain Capital Private Equity, acquired Dallas-based Epic Health Services, a national home health care services and pediatric skilled nursing company, in 2016.

The newly combined company, Arosa+LivHome, plans to focus on caregiver satisfaction by offering better benefits and educational programs and providing high-quality care to patients and their families, according to the company.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Arosa+LivHome will be led by Arosa owner and CEO Ari Medoff. He plans to lead the company by example; Medoff is a certified nursing assistant.

Durham, North Carolina-based Arosa invests in the health care service industry, with affiliate companies including Nurse Care of North Carolina and Development Therapy Associates. Through its companies, Arosa provides non-medical in-home care, skilled home care, pediatric therapy and facility staffing.

Los Angeles-based LivHome is a suite of in-home care and care management solutions serving residents of California, Illinois and Texas through a network of experienced senior care managers.

A strong caregiver or care-partner focus is at the forefront for Medoff.

“Our mission is to attract, train, retain and treasure the best care partners,” Medoff told HHCN. “Our hypothesis is that a well-trained, well-supported care-partner leads to a happier, better supported client. We are going to spread that mission throughout the entity.”

Bain Capital has previous investing experience in the health care services sector, with companies such as Aveanna, Beacon Health Options, EPOCH Holdings and HCA, Inc., according to the company.

“I think one of the ambitions we have [with Arosa+LivHome] is both to expand our reach but to also become a true innovator in this market,” Spring said. “One of the things that attracted us to Ari is that shared vision of what this business can become and we are really excited about partnering with him and supporting him.”

Arosa+LivHome plans to expand operations into other states by opening new offices and by acquiring other high-quality care management businesses.

“We want to redefine what these direct-care jobs look like and continue to improve them,” Medoff said. “And as we do that, we aim to be national, we want to be in all the major metro markets … The demand for what we do is only going one way and we look forward to meeting that challenge.”

Private equity has been highly active in the home health and private duty sectors of late, seeing the coming wave of aging baby boomers, and health care trends that are heightening the importance and value of in-home services.

In another example of regional players combining into a national platform under PE ownership, Blue Wolf Capital Partners and Kelso & Company brought together Jordan Health Services, National Home Health Care and Great Lakes Caring earlier this year. The combined entity has re-branded as Elara Caring.

In other high-profile transactions, TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe teamed up with insurance giant Humana (NYSE: HUM) to acquire Kindred Healthcare — including Kindred at Home, the nation’s largest home health provider — and Curo, one of the largest U.S. hospice providers. The Kindred deal was valued at more than $4 billion and the Curo purchase rang in at $1.4 billion.

Written by Kaitlyn Mattson