M&A activity in HME, home infusion heats up

PITTSBURGH – The home medical equipment (HME) industry is seeing a significant uptick in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in 2026, based on annualized first half data collected and analyzed by The Braff Group.

There were 22 deals for 2025 and 36 deals for 2026, a 63.6% increase, with potential to reach their highest numbers since 2022, according to the firm’s “Mid-Year 2026 Update: The Rebound Continues.”

“When deal flow plunged from 2021 to 2023, you could be forgiven for fearing it might never come back,” the report states. “Well, if deal flow continues at the same pace as the first half of 2026, back it is.”

The Braff Group counted 50 deals for home infusion/specialty pharmacy for 2025 and 66 for 2026, which puts activity on pace to top last year’s by 32% and marks its highest output over the past 10 years.

The firm says recent deal volumes should be compared to pre-pandemic activity, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t completely play out until the end of 2024. And based on its data, overall health care services transaction volume is poised to eclipse pre-pandemic numbers.

“While post-2023 market conditions (when activity began to tick upward) haven’t been all sunshine and roses – stubbornly high interest rates, inflation remaining above the Fed’s target of 2%, unrest in Eastern Europe and the Middle East and economic uncertainty – buyer activity has nevertheless risen steady,” the report states. “Notably, this is despite the fallout from Medicaid cuts introduced in July 2025 and the Jan. 1 expiration of ACA insurance subsidies without which recent gains would almost assuredly be higher.”

• Read the full report here.
• Check out The Braff Group’s M&A Insider in the September issue of HME News here.