Amedisys has been doing something that started a couple years ago and caught many by surprise. Their acquisition of private duty home care providers seems to be gaining steam. Starting with the purchases of a large, regional private duty agency in Massachusetts, Amedisys has been creeping into the Medicaid and private pay arena.
Now, Amedisys has purchased another large provider of personal care services based in Tennessee. The Knoxville agency, East Tennessee Personal Care Service, whose census is about 600 patients was purchased by Amedisys’ private duty subsidiary, Associated Home Care for an undisclosed amount.
These acquisitions indicate that Amedisys is aware of the potential for larger margins utilizing Medicaid and other payer sources with higher margins based on volume. This should be a wakeup call for some agencies who still prefer to deal only with Medicare and not diversify payer sources and new lines of business.