Private company purchases Health Department in-home services
by June 22, 2016 8:29 am 152 views
The Arkansas Department of Health has sold its in-home health care operations to Louisville, Kentucky-based Kindred Healthcare for $39 million after a competitive bidding process, the company announced Monday.
Kindred is purchasing the Department of Health’s 74 home health locations, which serve 69 counties, and seven offices providing hospice services in 42 counties. It also is purchasing the department’s personal care services business. Kindred now will provide home health, hospice and personal care services in 70 counties. It currently provides home health and hospice services in four Arkansas counties from six offices.
The agreement requires Kindred to retain all current employees and serve all current patients.
In a press release from the company, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said, “This is a success for the state of Arkansas. We are not in the business of competing with the private sector. The Arkansas Department of Health provided an important service while it was necessary, and now private sector companies can fill this need. I am pleased that Kindred Healthcare will continue the excellent work of the ADH In-Home Services program.”
With 102,000 employees and annual revenues of about $7.2 billion, Kindred Healthcare is a Fortune 500 company and one of the top 90 private employers in the United States. It provides healthcare services in 2,700 locations in 46 states.
Benjamin A. Breier, Kindred’s president and chief executive officer, said in a press release, “This transaction provides a tremendous opportunity to expand our Kindred at Home operations in Arkansas. As the national leader in home health and hospice, we are excited to bring in our care and clinical protocols to these operations to improve the ability of patients to safely return home or to remain in their home.”
Nathaniel Smith, MD, MPH, director of the Arkansas Department of Health and state health officer, said, “The agreement we have signed will help to assure sustainability of services to our patients and allow the private sector to take over where the state has begun.”