BrightSpring Health Services’ (Nasdaq: BTSG) leadership team spent Friday morning fielding questions about the news that Amedisys (Nasdaq: AMED) reached an agreement to divest its home health and hospice care centers to the company.
Though BrightSpring leaders declined to go into detail about deal specifics, due to a confidentiality agreement, President and CEO Jon Rousseau described it on the company’s Q1 earnings call as a “unique situation.” He also pointed out that the company was well-positioned to take on this endeavor.
“It really has been our quality and our overall platform strength as an enterprise that allowed us to be a part of those conversations, as a potential positive party and solution to work with,” Rousseau said. “We also have essentially no geographical overlap, whatsoever, with those locations … but obviously that transaction between those entities has to consummate, and come to completion for our transaction to consummate as well.”
Currently, Louisville, Kentucky-based BrightSpring delivers care to patients in the home and in the community. The company focuses on complex populations, offering primary care, home- and community-based services, pharmacy services and rehab services to over 400,000 consumers throughout 50 states.
Rousseau noted that the Amedisys deal was in line with BrightSpring’s larger acquisition philosophy.
“We’ve been in a mode, for a couple years, of largely doing tuck-ins that have been highly accretive at very attractive pro forma multiples,” he said.
Rousseau cited BrightSpring’s $60 million acquisition of Haven Hospice as a recent example of this.
“[The Haven Hospice acquisition] was a unique situation that we were able to capitalize on, just given our abilities and from an integration standpoint, operational standpoint and our relationships in the market, and we knew that over time that was going to be the multiple that we’d be very pleased with,” he said.
Regarding the Amedisys deal, Rousseau explained that the transaction was unlikely to impact BrightSpring’s leverage goals for this year or the long-term future.
Clinical highs and financial results
Aside from the Amedisys deal, BrightSpring leaders also touched on how high demand for care in home and community settings contributed to the company seeing strong growth in Q1.
“We have consistently driven outsized volume growth in our markets, led by responsive and reliable high-quality care, loyal and expanding referral sources and new market investments,” Rousseau said.
Rousseau also pointed to some of the company’s Q1 clinical highlights.
On the home health side of its business, more than 80% of BrightSpring’s branches are four-star or higher, according to the CEO. BrightSpring’s 60-day hospitalization rate continues to decrease, and the company’s patient satisfaction rate sits at 90%, he said.
The personal care side of BrightSpring’s business reached a 4.6 satisfaction score out of five, a company high for BrightSpring.
Overall, BrightSpring saw a net revenue of $2.9 billion, up 26% compared to $2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
The company’s provider services segment — which includes home health, personal care and more — brought in $346 million in the first quarter. This represents a 12% year-over-year increase.