Jet Health Lands Signal Home Health & Hospice in Ongoing Expansion Push

With its latest purchase of San Antonio, Texas-based Signal Home Health & Hospice, Jet Health continues its strategy of co-locating hospice operations with its home health offerings. That has become a calling card for the company, similar to several other home-based care providers.

Jet Health announced the Signal deal on Monday without disclosing any financial details. The transaction marks the company’s seventh purchase since its founding in 2016.

More deals will likely soon follow, with Jet Health hoping to become a one-stop-shop for a larger continuum of home-based care, CEO Stacie Bratcher told Home Health Care News.

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“Having multiple service lines in each of the marketplaces we serve allows us to place patients in the appropriate level of care based upon their needs,” Bratcher said. “[It also allows us to] prevent the gaps in care that can happen if patients have to move from agency to agency, where information may not be able to be shared seamlessly.”

A home health, hospice and personal care provider, Jet Health currently operates in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and Idaho. The company — partially owned by SV Health Investors and Health Enterprise Partners — is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas.

Operating as a home-based care one-stop-shop has also given Jet Health an advantage with referral sources, Bratcher said.

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“If and when a [patient’s] condition changes, we aren’t hesitant in moving them through the continuum — so there is confidence,” she noted.

When considering acquisitions, Jet Health focuses on home health businesses with fewer than 250 patients on service and hospices with fewer than 100 patients, founder and Chairman Jim Glynn told HHCN sister site Hospice News.

The company is also attracted to companies that align in terms of treating complex clinical patients.

“A lot of times, [these patients] are overlooked because they have a lot of the social determinants that need to be addressed,” Bratcher said. “We look at agencies that have a history of servicing those patients well.”

In other deals, Jet Health purchased Hospice de la Luz in New Mexico earlier this year, along with Texas-based Carrington Hospice Care in 2020. In 2019, the company also purchased Idaho-based First Choice Home Health and Hospice.

Jet Health is focused on growing steadily as opposed to becoming the biggest provider around, according to Bratcher.

“We are doing it in a way that makes sense for the patients, for our investors, as well as for the entire company,” she said.

However, the company will remain bullish when it comes to acquisitions, Bratcher added.

“Acquisitions are a significant focus in our expansion strategy within our current footprint — as well as our target markets going forward,” she said. “We do have a robust pipeline going forward through the remainder of this year and into next year.”

Jet Health has leaned on multiple avenues to move the company forward over the years. In addition to strategic acquisitions, the company has expanded its business through organic growth and de novo development in target markets.

While hospice has been a major focus for the company in recent years, home health remains integral to Jet Health’s overall strategy.

“[Home health] is the key point for most patients to return home after an event or hospitalization,” Bratcher said. “It’s the safety net — and hopefully soon to be the prevention arm, if payment methodology can catch up with patient needs.”

Looking ahead, Jet Health is most enthusiastic about its embrace of telehealth technology as a care delivery model. Specifically, the company has implemented remote patient monitoring.

“[It’s] giving our patients and their families control over the information surrounding their physical well-being and health,” Bratcher said. “We’re really working with them to be the leaders of their health care.”

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