Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) announced on Thursday that the company has reached agreements to divest home health and hospice care centers to affiliates of the Pennant Group (Nasdaq: PNTG) and BrightSpring Health Services (Nasdaq: BTSG).

The news comes four months after Amedisys and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) halted plans to divest more than 100 home health and hospice locations to VitalCaring. The divestitures were designed to mitigate antitrust concerns surrounding Amedisys’ and UnitedHealth’s plans to merge. 

The Pennant Group and BrightSpring divestitures, reached by both Amedisys and UnitedHealth, are contingent upon the successful merger of Amedisys and Optum, UnitedHealth’s services arm. 

The companies did not disclose the number of locations to be sold or the purchase prices. Amedisys did not immediately respond to Home Health Care News’ request for comment.

The BrightSpring affiliates set to buy the home health and hospice locations are: Adoration Home Health Acquisitions, Adoration Hospice Care Acquisitions and Senescence, which does business as All Saints Hospice.

The Pennant Group affiliates listed in the announcement are Cornerstone Healthcare and Tensaw River Healthcare.

Other strategic acquirers bid on the Amedisys and UnitedHealth assets before the companies decided to try and divest centers to VitalCaring, Brian Tanquilut, an equity analyst at Jefferies, previously told HHCN’s sister publication, Hospice News. 

After the VitalCaring divestiture fell through, UnitedHealth said that “diligence processes are already underway to identify qualified buyers that will be able to operate and grow the divested assets.”

The total divestment plans involve a minimum of 121 home health facilities and seven hospice facilities.

Amedisys provides home health, hospice and high-acuity care services, among other offerings, to over 465,000 patients from 522 care centers in 37 states and Washington D.C.

The planned Amedisys and UnitedHealth merger has been fraught with challenges. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sued the companies in November 2024 due to antitrust concerns. In April, it was announced that the case would go to mediation in August. 

UnitedHealth filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit before dropping the motion in February.