Two Ohio senior living providers have bought a stake in a regional home healthcare agency as part of a move to expand service offerings and invest in a growing—but consolidating—home care market, reports Cincinnati.com.
Life Enriching Communities, the operator of Twin Lakes in Montgomery and Twin Towers in College Hill, and Episcopal Retirement Homes, the operator of Marjorie P. Lee in Hyde Park and Deupree House in Oakley, each paid seven figures to buy a 10% stake in Home Care by Black Stone.
Black Stone employees will be on site to provide everything from nurses and therapists to other services such as housekeeping and meal preparation.
David Tramontana, chief executive officer of Black Stone, said the deals would add another revenue stream. With 1,200 employees, the company expects about $33 million in sales this year.
The bigger advantage, Tramontana said, comes long term as the company will more easily integrate into places where more seniors live, just as insurers and the federal Medicare system are offering incentives to keep people at home and out of long stays in nursing homes and hospitals.
About one-fifth of Medicare patients are re-hospitalized within a month of being discharged, according to a New England Journal of Medicine study in 2009. More than half go back to the hospital within a year.
Black Stone has joined with several providers in a bundled payment program through Medicare, one of many incentives to share in savings by joining with other providers to bill Medicare once.
“We want to be part of that trend,” said Doug Spitler, CEO of Episcopal Retirement Homes. “It’s meeting a growing need for the residents we have that we didn’t have the capability to meet.”
Read the full piece at Cincinnati.com.
Written by Alyssa Gerace
Companies featured in this article:
Episcopal Retirement Homes, Home Care by Black Stone, Life Enriching Communities
