Newton, MA-based Five Star Senior Living has formally announced its plans to expand its rehabilitation and wellness services to communities that it does not operate, issuing a press release on Wednesday.
Five Star President and CEO Bruce Mackey had said the move was coming in the company’s first-quarter earnings call. It would mark a first for the company, he said at the time.
The division formerly known as Five Star Rehabilitation & Wellness has been renamed Ageility Physical Therapy Solutions.
“The Ageility name reflects our belief that physical strength and independence are important no matter your age,” Denise Kelly, vice president of rehab and wellness, said in an announcement Wednesday. “We will offer rehab services, wellness programs and personal fitness with customized treatment plans to individuals of all ages,” she added.
The services will be offered by the 1,000 physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists who already work at Five Star’s communities, the company said. Expansion will occur through partnerships with other senior living providers.
Five Star Senior Living operates more than 280 independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities and continuing care retirement communities across the country. The Ageility division currently operates 85 outpatient and 48 inpatient clinics.
Five Star saw a 20% increase in ancillary revenue, including its rehabilitation and wellness business, in the fourth quarter of 2016, Mackey had said in the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
At Five Star communities, he said at the time, the company’s Rehab to Home initiative “makes us a preferred provider in the markets where we have these units.” Under that initiative, existing skilled nursing beds in its CCRCs are converted to private rehabilitation suites targeting younger Medicare-eligible patients for shorter stays.
Since the launch of Rehab to Home, the company had opened 125 units in five communities as of the March call, Mackey said. Additional projects were underway in Indiana, Ohio and Arizona, and the company had expected all of them to open in the second quarter.
