Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) has named a new CEO for its large home health and hospice segment.
The news comes nearly three months after former CEO April Anthony, the original founder of the business, announced she was stepping down. Ultimately, the Birmingham, Alabama-based health care company didn’t have to go far to find Anthony’s successor.
Barbara A. Jacobsmeyer has officially been appointed as the new home health and hospice CEO, Encompass Health announced Monday. Jacobsmeyer had previously been serving as the president of the company’s in-patient hospitals segment.
“Barb is a proven leader with extensive health care operating experience,” Encompass Health President and CEO Mark Tarr said in a press release. “Supported by an award-winning culture and innovative technologies, the home health and hospice business is poised for continued success. We are confident that Barb is the right person to lead this business going forward.”
Anthony’s previously announced departure was effective on June 18.
As Jacobsmeyer transitions to her new role, Tarr will assume the executive’s responsibilities in the in-patient hospitals business until further notice, the press release states. Jacobsmeyer will continue to report Tarr.
Jacobsmeyer was originally named executive vice president of operations for the in-patient hospitals segment in December 2016. She joined Encompass Health, formerly HealthSouth, in 2007.
Throughout her Encompass Health career, Jacobsmeyer served as president of HealthSouth’s central region and also as CEO of the Rehabilitation Hospital of St. Louis, a partnership between BJC HealthCare and HealthSouth. Prior 2007, Jacobsmeyer — a physical therapist by training — served as COO for Des Peres Hospital in St. Louis.
“It’s an honor to be named CEO of home health and hospice,” Jacobsmeyer said in the release. “I look forward to building on our strong foundation developed by April and her broad and deep team. We will continue to provide high-quality, cost-effective home health care and hospice services to our patients.”
Encompass Health offers both facility- and home-based care through its network of in-patient rehab hospitals, home health agencies and hospice agencies. Its home health and hospice footprint spans 344 locations in total.
Jacobsmeyer moves to the home health and hospice business during a time of immense change, both for the segment itself and for health care, more generally.
In December 2020, Encompass Health revealed it was “exploring strategic alternatives” for its home health and hospice business, which posted net operating revenues of about $270.5 million during Q1 of this year.
“The Encompass Health board of director’s review of strategic alternatives for the home health and hospice business, announced on Dec. 9, 2020, is well underway,” the company said in the press release. “Encompass Health expects to provide an update on the status of this process in connection with its second quarter earnings release in late July 2021.”
More globally, the company — like all health care organizations — has been working to find its place in the post-COVID world.
That includes making sense of new referral flows between skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), in-patient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), home health care and other settings.
Jacobsmeyer previously touched on the issue of referrals and SNF-type patients amid the pandemic last July.
“[Referral partners] found that many of the skilled facilities in their markets were hesitant to take them, especially if they were a recovering COVID [patient], or what we call ‘a patient under investigation,’ meaning they had some sort of exposure to COVID,” Jacobsmeyer said. “Our ability to take those patients — and our outcomes have been really strong with those patients — has been something that I think has been a huge help to the acute-care referral sources, so that they could get those patients out of their hospitals and into our facilities.”
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