Home Health and Hospice M&A Activity Remains Steady in Q3:2018, According to Acquisition Data from HealthCareMandA.com

NORWALK, Conn., Oct. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- For three quarters in a row, there have been at least 20 publicly announced acquisitions of home health or hospice companies, a much higher quarterly volume than during most of 2017. In the third quarter of 2018, the number of transactions rose slightly, to 22 deals from 21 in the second quarter, and was just one deal lower compared with the first quarter's 23 acquisitions. Transaction volume soared 38% over the same quarter in 2017, when just 16 deals were made public, according to new data from HealthCareMandA.com. Only two of the 22 transactions in this year's third quarter disclosed a price, totaling just $1.525 million in dollar volume.

Private equity-backed home health companies were the most prolific buyers in the third quarter. Care Advantage, Inc., a portfolio company of BelHealth Investment Partners, took part in three transactions, acquiring three separate home health agencies in Virginia. Two other companies made multiple acquisitions. AccentCare, Inc., a portfolio company of Oak Hill Capital Partners, purchased two home health and hospice businesses in Denton, Texas. One of those targets, Accolade HomeCare and Hospice, has home health locations in New Mexico (1), Oklahoma (2) and Texas (23), and its seven hospice operations are all in Texas.

Bristol Hospice, a portfolio company of Webster Capital, also made two acquisitions, purchasing Optimal Health Services, a provider of hospice and home health care services at 10 locations in California, and the operations of Suncrest Hospice Colorado, the largest provider of hospice care in the state.

Private equity firms or their portfolio companies accounted for 13 of the 22 acquisitions in Q3:18. Just four publicly traded companies made acquisition, including Amedisys, Inc., The Ensign Group, Nova Leap Health Corporation and Chemed Corporation. "Consolidation is driving the recent activity in this market, despite reimbursement and regulatory headwinds," said Lisa E. Phillips, editor of The HealthCare M&A Report, which publishes the data. "As health systems seek to drive down costs, we expect more to turn to home health care and hospice agencies over traditional post-acute settings like skilled nursing facilities or long-term acute care facilities (LTACs)."

All quarterly results are published in The Health Care M&A Report for all 13 sectors of health care, which is part of the HealthCareMandA.com investment research source. For information, or to order the report, call 800-248-1668. Irving Levin Associates is celebrating 70 years of delivering exclusive M&A intelligence to its sophisticated audience of seniors housing and healthcare investors, and 2017 marked the third year in a row that the firm was recognized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing media companies in the country. The company was established in 1948 and has headquarters in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company publishes research reports and newsletters and maintains databases on the healthcare and senior housing M&A markets.

SOURCE HealthCareMandA.com