Dive Brief:
- Community Health Systems continues to shed debt, this time by agreeing to sell a majority stake in its home health division to a subsidiary of Almost Family.
- Under the definitive agreement announced Monday, Louisville-based Almost Family will acquire 74 home health and 15 hospice branch sites in 22 states, giving it an 80% ownership interest in the business, Modern Healthcare reported.
- Annual revenues of CHS’ home health division total about $200 million.
Dive Insight:
The deal — expected to close in Q4 — furthers CHS’ strategy to “focus on a more sustainable and successful portfolio of hospitals and regional healthcare systems,” CEO Wayne Smith said in a release.
Earlier this year, CHS spun off 38 hospitals into an independent company named Quorum Health. The hospital chain also divested its share in a four-hospital joint venture. Then in June, CHS announced plans to sell 30 hospitals by the end of 2017 and focus on regional hubs.
And last month, CHS said it would unload four hospitals in addition to 12 hospitals that were already up for sale.
CHS’s has struggled financially since its 2014 acquisition of Naples, FL-based Health Management Associates, which owned 23 hospitals and numerous clinics, all in Florida. CHS paid $3.6 billion for the package, but since then lower earnings and low margins at HMA hospitals have dragged CHS done.