Bridges Announces Series of Mergers; Pennant Lands Hospice Agency

Bridges announces series of mergers

Los Angeles-based Bridges Health Services has announced a series of new merger agreements.

In Nevada, Bridges will join forces with Las Vegas-based home health and hospice companies Gentlecare Home Health and Renaissance Hospice. Meanwhile, in California, the provider will merge with Supreme Healthcare Inc. and Supreme Hospice Inc.

All merger targets are Medicare-certified and provide community-based services with similar missions, cultures and visions for transforming health care, according to Bridges, a more than 10-year-old company with a national footprint.

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Originally founded by Carolyn Romero, a home health and hospice nurse, Bridges provides a range of in-home health care services across its markets. In addition to its recent mergers, the provider also implemented a new artificial intelligence platform designed to help identify patients who are in critical need of their services as soon as possible in their disease trajectory.

“The traditional approach of our health care delivery system focuses on treatment rather than prevention,” Romero said in a statement. “At Bridges Health Services, we pride ourselves on integrating promotive, preventative, curative and palliative health solutions with the use of revolutionary AI technology and our highly skilled health care professionals.”

Bridges Health Services has also partnered with a crisis management team to help redefine its COVID-19 response. The provider hopes to strengthen its home health and hospice relationships with both assisted living and independent living facilities through the partnership.

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Pennant lands hospice agency, closes Scripps JV

The Pennant Group Inc. (Nasdaq: PNTG) is back at it on the M&A front.

The parent company of affiliated home health, hospice and senior living companies, the Eagle, Idaho-based Pennant has acquired Harmony Hospice, located in Las Vegas. Prior to the transaction, Harmony was one of three affiliated hospice agencies Pennant acquired earlier this year, with the other two being Prime Hospice and Harmony Hospice of Arizona.

The closing of the Harmony deal was effective Oct. 1.

“We are thrilled to add Harmony Hospice to our growing presence in southern Nevada,” Pennant CEO Daniel Walker said in a statement. “This acquisition was not broadly marketed, but instead was sourced through our extensive local network.”

Pennant expects it will continue to find “many more opportunities” like the recent Harmony acquisition moving forward, Walker noted.

Overall, Pennant Group is a holding company of independent operating subsidiaries that provide health care services through 73 home health and hospice agencies, plus 54 senior living communities. Its network spans more than a dozen states, with a concentration across the South and Southwest.

In a separate transaction, Pennant has also closed on its previously announced home health joint venture with Scripps Health.

Select Rehab to purchase Kindred’s RehabCare

Kindred Healthcare has announced the pending sale of its RehabCare business line to Select Rehabilitation, further putting distance between former skilled nursing heavyweight Kindred and the sector.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upon the deal’s completion, Illinois-based Select will emerge as an even larger player in the contract rehabilitation space, expanding its footprint from 35 to 43 states.

“Select’s acquisition of RehabCare presents exciting growth opportunities based on the companies’ shared cultural foundation of clinical excellence, quality care provision, and outstanding customer service,” Select CEO and co-founder Anna Gardina Wolfe said in a statement.

The combined company will employ 17,000 therapists and cover 2,300 sites of care — including skilled nursing facilities, senior living campuses, schools and home health agencies. Kindred and Select expect the deal to close sometime before the end of 2020.

Cypress at Home acquires home health agency

Cypress at Home, an aging services provider serving older adults in southwest Florida, is expanding in the home health space. It is doing so through its recently announced acquisition of the skilled home health service operations of All About Home Care Inc.

All About Home Care — accredited by Community Health Accreditation Partner (CHAP) — has been providing skilled home health services to the southwestern Florida market for 13 years. Its core offerings include post-hospital care, in-home monitoring services, home infusion, social services, wound care, skilled nursing care and more.

“Health care continues to experience a shift within the care environment as providers look to improve outcomes and lower the cost of care by changing how, when and where it can be provided,” Troy H. Churchill, CEO of Cypress Living, said in a statement. “This evolution has created an opportunity for Cypress at Home to create a new patient-centric approach to care, which wraps compassionate services and innovative solutions around the client to provide extra security and support while they are in their home.”

Adding skilled home health services to Cypress at Home will create a seamless, well-coordinated approach to care that supports aging-in-place for older adults, he added.

Cypress at Home is a nonprofit organization that’s under the Cypress Living umbrella.

Texas home health providers rebrands

Home Health Care of North Central Texas has officially changed its name to “GoJo Home Health.” The rebrand is due to the expansion of its service areas beyond north central Texas.

A division of Gordon Jordan Healthcare Management, GoJo Home Health has been serving North Central Texas patients in their homes since 2006. GoJo Home Health offers a range of medical, social and therapeutic treatments in the home setting.

Additional reporting by Alex Spanko, editor of Skilled Nursing News.

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