WellSky announced Thursday that it has completed its acquisition of care coordination software company CarePort Health.
Under terms of the deal — first announced in October — WellSky purchased CarePort from Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (Nasdaq: MDRX) for a price tag of $1.35 billion. Allscripts is a health care information technology provider.
CarePort’s platform helps health systems and hospitals connect with post-acute care providers, including home health agencies.
“We take what is primarily a manual process with nurses and discharge planners, calling around trying to figure out if a provider can take on a patient based on their needs … and we make that into an electronic process,” Lissy Hu, CEO of CarePort, told Home Health Care News.
The Boston-based company currently serves 1,000 hospitals and health systems, as well as 110,000 post-acute provider locations.
Over the years, Hu has seen an increase in the need for home-based care services. That need has only accelerated during the public health emergency.
WellSky — a company that serves more than 15,000 client sites internationally — brings a strong network of home-based care services to the table.
“I think over the next couple years, even as we look post-COVID, we are going to see a lot more patients needing these home-based services,” Hu said. “WellSky delivers home-based care services to about a quarter of home health patients. They have a really robust community-based and social determinants of health network. Those are all the areas that we see post-hospital care going. That’s one of the reasons why the alignment was so natural.”
Additionally, the deal will give CarePort the ability to add further scale. Besides giving CarePort access to a greater referral network, the sale allows the company to grow its team.
Over the next six to 12 months, CarePort will be looking to hire roughly 40 to 50 new employees, according to Hu.
CarePort currently has about 200 employees.
“WellSky is going to be making an investment in CarePort,” Hu said. “They’ve always had a really strong reputation for investing in R&D and innovation in technology. We’re really excited about the commitment that WellSky made, not only to our customers and their benefit, but to our team as well.”
For CarePort, the COVID-19 emergency has only underscored the necessity of the services the company provides.
Hu noted that, prior to the public health emergency, liaisons from home health agencies or other post-acute care providers were able to enter the hospital and screen patients. This has changed drastically.
“As we shifted to hospitals being really restricted to all but the most essential workers, … the need to be able to coordinate this care electronically is even more important,” she said. “It’s even more important to make sure that the places you’re sending patients and the services you’re matching them up with get delivered.”
Ultimately, Hu believes companies like CarePort will play a key role in ensuring the delivery of care.
“We can’t just be satisfied that the patient who was supposed to get home health services actually had a visit,” she said. “The standard with home health is that the first visit occurs within the first 24 to 48 hours of discharge. Having technology that brings together hospitals and post-acute care providers makes sure that those transitions are efficient and high-quality.”
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