Emerging Home Health Provider Choice Health at Home Acquires More Texas Assets

An emerging home health provider is back on the M&A trail for the first time in 2022.

The Tyler, Texas-based Choice Health at Home has announced that it is acquiring the Texas assets of Abiding Home Health, which operates in Dallas and San Antonio, Texas.

Choice had a busy 2021 – that included 9 transactions – after gaining backing from both Trive Capital and Coltala Holdings. Founded in 2008, the company wasn’t in the home health market until 2012. Last year, everything changed, as private equity players saw the company as a significant regional player suited for growth.

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In January, the provider secured a $190 million credit facility. It already operates dozens of home health locations in both Texas and Oklahoma, but intends to expand further in the Southwestern part of the U.S. moving forward.

“Our partnership with Trive Capital and Coltala Holdings coupled with the recent credit facility provided by Oxford Finance, AB Private Credit and Maranon Capital have placed Choice in a position to grow. We will continue to look for quality businesses in the home health, private duty and hospice space. ”

For now, it’s building out strong bases in Texas and Oklahoma. But in due time, it wants to span from Louisiana to Southern California, its CEO, David Jackson, formerly told Home Health Care News.

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In addition to home health care, Choice also offers hospice, private duty and rehabilitation services.

“These agencies and the employees will strengthen our ability to serve one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation,” Jackson said in a statement. “The Texas Hill Country specifically has experienced substantial population surge before and throughout the pandemic. The area has considerable need for both quality home health and healthcare professionals.”

In addition to that expansion, Choice wants to have the ability to provide all four of its service lines to patients in the areas it serves.

The Abiding transaction will allow the company to grow organically in Central Texas in particular, an area that Choice has recognized as an important one.

“While the increased market share is very attractive a key component for Choice is how Abiding allows us to expand organically throughout the Central Texas corridor,” Trina Lanier, the president of Choice and co-founder of the hospice and home health service lines, said in a statement. “We anticipate the transaction will enable us to develop additional home health service territories moving both north and west within the state of Texas.”

As private equity has gotten increasingly involved in home-based care spaces, opportunities have – to a certain extent – dried up.

Less and less are there chances to invest in companies like Choice that have a regional footprint, but also the capacity to grow into a more national player. “We were definitely looking, but we were not optimistic that we would find the right one,” Ralph Manning, the co-founder and CEO of Coltala Holdings, told HHCN last year. “And that’s really because the market has gotten so competitive. To find an entry point, with any kind of momentum and scale — that you can afford — is really hard. I’m not going to say we had given up on it, but we were just hopeful.”

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