LHC Group Promotes Proffitt to President; Former CareMore CEO Jain Joins SCAN Group

This week saw a few major leadership shake-ups that in-home care professionals should keep their eyes on.

First, Lafayette, Louisiana-based LHC Group Inc. (Nasdaq: LHCG) announced Thursday that former CFO Joshua Proffitt is being promoted to president. Robert Williams — an executive joining LHC Group from the senior primary care space — will take over as chief financial officer moving forward.

LHC Group is a home health, hospice and personal care services provider that operates in 35 states, employing 32,000 people.

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Prior to serving as CFO, Proffitt held a number of leadership roles within LHC Group, which he joined in 2008. In his new role as president, Proffitt will be responsible for leading the company’s operations, growth, finance, administration, legal and compliance efforts.

“Josh has always kept LHC Group’s mission and the value of our clinicians and caregivers at the forefront of decision-making,” Keith Myers, chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “As he steps into the role of president, he brings with him a depth of financial knowledge and leadership experience that will greatly benefit our team, and most importantly the growing number of patients, families and communities we are privileged to serve throughout the country.”

Myers’ leadership role will remain the same following Proffitt’s promotion, LHC Group confirmed to Home Health Care News.

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Proffitt’s promotion comes during what will likely be considered one of the most challenging stretches in LHC Group’s history.

At the start of 2020, the home health giant had to face the transition to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), a shift that had been going smoothly until March. Like all providers, LHC Group then had to also adapt to the coronavirus and the varying degrees of disruption it caused.

“The number of home health visits missed related to COVID-19 started to become evident the week ending March 14, when we had 412 missed visits,” Proffitt noted during LHC Group’s first-quarter earnings call. “It quickly increased and hit its highest point the week ending March 28, resulting in 8,585 missed visits during that week.”

As CFO, Proffitt helped guide LHC Group during that disruption. More recently, visit totals and new admissions have stabilized for the company. Now that LHC Group is largely out of the COVID-19 woods, it will likely ramp up its M&A activity, trying to capitalize on the “historic” consolidation opportunity it saw going into 2020.

“The other historic opportunity we have been describing up until this point has been the expected consolidation in the highly fragmented home health industry due to the impact of PDGM and the elimination of RAP payments,” Proffitt said during the Q1 call. “With our PDGM care model in place and performing ahead of schedule even in the face of COVID-19, our successful management through this pandemic — when the smaller agencies might be struggling — should get us to an acceleration in volumes in the second half of the year and into 2021 quicker than we had even planned.”

Prior to Williams’s appointment as CFO, he served as vice president of strategic financial operations at ChenMed. Before that, he served as CFO at Altegra Health, vice president of finance with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and CFO of Active Health Management.

In general, LHC Group has long set its sights on landing more value-based payment agreements. The strategic addition of Williams aligns with this ongoing goal, according to the company.

“[Robert’s] broad experience in at-risk contracting and value-based arrangements brings a complementary financial skillset to our team that will prove valuable as we continue engaging with managed care payor partners at a more value-based level,” Proffitt said in a statement. “Robert’s addition to our already deep, experienced and outstanding team of leaders at LHC Group gives me great confidence in our continued growth trajectory and long-term success.”

Jain named CEO of SCAN Group

In other news, SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan also announced Thursday that Dr. Sachin Jain is taking over as CEO and president.

SCAN Group is a nonprofit organization focused on helping senior citizens stay healthy and independent. Founded in 1977, Long Beach, California-based SCAN Health Plan is one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S., serving more than 200,000 members.

Jain succeeds Chris Wing, who previously announced his departure from SCAN Group. Jain’s appointment comes after the organizations’ national search, Francesca Ruiz de Luzuriaga, chairperson of SCAN’s board of directors, said in a statement.

“Sachin has a deep passion for improving the health and wellness of older adults that is truly inspiring,” Luzuriaga said. “His vision for health care’s future and his determination to take on the big challenges facing those we serve is a natural fit with SCAN’s mission.”

Prior to joining SCAN, Jain was CEO of Aspire Health and CareMore Health, both subsidiaries of Anthem (NYSE: ANTM)

Throughout his health care career, in-home care has been a priority for Jain.

“Patients and families would like to explore receiving services that they would otherwise receive in an institutional setting at home,” he previously told Home Health Care News.

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