Merger, handshake

Home care leader LHC Group is reaching further into the home through a new partnership announced Wednesday with Lafayette, LA-based SCP Health. LGC Group said the two companies will jointly develop a comprehensive offering of clinical care, including skilled nursing facility (SNF)-at-home and hospital-at-home programs.

“Our collective experience, national scale of clinical boots on the ground, existing proof of concept and minimal investments will accelerate the nationwide service launch in late 2021,” a spokesman for LHC Group told McKnight’s Home Care Daily in a statement.

LHC Group, one of the 10 largest home health providers in the country, provides home healthcare, hospice and community-based services in 35 states and the District of Columbia. SCP Health operates in 30 states, providing acute unscheduled care at home and in hospitals.

The partnership will help LHC Group expand both its footprint and menu of care options. The two companies collectively have partnerships with 745 hospitals nationwide, representing approximately 20 million patient encounters annually.

LHC Group began offering SNF-at-home in 2014. The company said Wednesday an increasing number of hospital partners have recently been asking for both SNF-at-home and hospital-at-home. LHC Group chairman and CEO Keith Myers called SCP Health an “ideal partner” in the company’s effort to expand those services.

Keith Myers, LHC Group

“If this public health emergency has taught us anything, it is that we must all embrace innovative models that allow patients to receive quality care — including more advanced care — at home,” Myers said in the statement.

The SCP Health partnership is the latest move this year by LHC Group to expand its reach into home healthcare. In March, Myers made it clear to investors that the company was poised to play an increasingly critical role in the nation’s healthcare system by spending up to $200 million on acquisitions and forming strategic partnerships.

The company has made good on that pledge. Just last week, LHC Group announced plans to purchase three home health, hospice and palliative care providers in Virginia, Indiana and Arkansas, while finalizing three earlier acquisitions covering Indiana, Oregon, Arizona and Texas. Earlier in the spring, LHC Group announced it was investing $20 million in the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s College of Nursing to help train, recruit and retain health care workers.