Amedisys to buy Visiting Nurse Association’s home health and hospice services
Visiting Nurse Association signed an agreement to sell its home health and hospice services to Baton Rouge, La.-based Amedisys. The deal is expected to close around July 1, according to a news release.
VNA, which provides home health and hospice care in Omaha, Neb. and Council Bluffs, Iowa, said company leadership has realized they would need external investors to ensure the home health and hospice programs would remain financially strong. As a provider of home health, hospice and personal care, Amedisys fit the bill.
“As VNA reflects on its mission and long history, it has become clear that we should return to our original focus — to serve those in the community who may not have the resources for home health and hospice care services,” VNA CEO James Summerfelt said in a statement. “This was our original mission, and there is still tremendous need in our community. We want to ensure that the needs of individuals and families can be met with expertise and compassion well into the future.”
Through the acquisition, “Amedisys will provide additional scale and resources that will expand our opportunities to care for more patients and expand home health services to more communities across Nebraska and Iowa, especially during these unprecedented and evolving times in the healthcare industry,” Amedisys President and Chief Operating Officer Chris Gerard said in a statement.
News of the purchase comes less than a month after Amedisys signed an agreement that gave it the right to offer home health services in and around Randolph County, N.C., and provided access to 31,000 Medicare and Medicare Advantage enrollees. On May 5, Amedisys announced that it would open a startup care center in the Randolph County area.
After the sale, VNA will continue to provide homeless shelter nursing services, parenting support, mother and child services flu and immunization services, school health programs and home health and hospice services through Amedisys Home Health and Amedisys’ hospice company, AseraCare, in Omaha and western Iowa, according to the release.
Amedisys has 21,000 employees in 514 care centers in 39 states and the District of Columbia and serves more than 418,000 patients and clients every year. It provides home healthcare at 320 locations in 33 states and the District of Columbia.