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Bring it on home

Bring it on home

Theresa just emailed me, “We are certainly going to have fresh stuff for the next Moneyline.”

Moneyline is an email blast we send out each month with the most “business-y” stories from the past 30 days. “Business-y” is our formal term for stories that deal with mergers and acquisitions, financial results, etc.

In case you're not keeping track like us, there have been a number of M&A stories this week.

OptumRx, the pharmacy services business owned by Optum, has acquired AxelaCare, a provider of home infusion services.

C.R. Bard, a manufacturer of medical devices for vascular, urology, oncology and surgical special fields, has acquired Liberator Medical, a provider of home medical supplies, including catheters, ostomy, diabetes and mastectomy.

Last week, ResMed acquired Maribo Medical, a distributor of sleep-disordered breathing medical devices and accessories in Denmark; and Integrated Home Care Investors and its leader Jorge Pereda, the former CEO of All-Med Services of Florida, bought the assets of Univita Health.

In a move that's a little outside our scope, but also of interest, McKesson Ventures, the venture capital arm of McKesson, announced recently that it has provided funding to ClearCare, a homecare tech startup that provides paperless care management software. It's the first time McKesson Ventures has directly invested in home care.

Apparently, I'm all about themes lately, because in a number of these stories, I couldn't help but notice that they're about outside players “buying” their way into the home. OptumRx with AxelaCare, C.R. Bard with Liberator Medical.

Say what you will about what could be concerning dynamics in some of these cases (a manufacturer buying a provider?), it speaks volumes about where the movers and shakers see more care taking place in the future—in the home.

I also spoke with healthcare attorney Elizabeth Hogue this week for a story about Medicare's proposed changes to the discharge planning process at hospitals. The changes include regular re-evaluation of the patient's conditions.

“What CMS wants is a collaboration between acute and post-acute care, not a one-time referral,” she said. “The only way they're going to be able to do this is with really right relationships with all types of homecare providers.”

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