Owens & Minor rebrands to sharpen focus on home-based care

RICHMOND, Va. – Owens & Minor is rebranding to reflect its strategic focus on the Patient Direct business, according to Edward Pesicka, the company’s president, CEO and director. The move follows the company’s October announcement of a definitive agreement to sell its Products & Healthcare Services (P&HS) segment to Platinum Equity for $375 million in cash. 

“As I think about the future, following the divestiture of Products & Healthcare Services, I am thrilled that we can fully align around a single business,” said Pesicka on a recent call to discuss the company’s third quarter earnings. “Our capital allocation, strategic priorities and execution are no longer split. They are unified around advancing the future of home-based care through Patient Direct.” 

Taking a ‘preferred position’ with Optum 

A major driver of Patient Direct’s growth is a new national provider agreement with Optum Health, which Owens & Minor is actively scaling, said Perry Bernocchi, executive VP and CEO of Patient Direct. 

“We have 450 forward-facing salespeople that are marketing to over 100,000 potential referral sources within Optum,” he said. “What it does do is give us a preferred position within the Optum closed network as Apria and Byram as the leading home care home-based DME provider. So that is a go-to-market strategy from a push and a pull perspective within Optum.” 

Smaller categories show ‘phenomenal growth’ 

While Owens & Minor is working to regain momentum in its diabetes segment, growth remained relatively flat compared to the third quarter of 2024. Nationally, payers have increasingly limited access to continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to pharmacy-only models. Owens & Minor is leveraging its own pharmacy to help mitigate that impact, said Jonathan Leon, executive VP, CFO and corporate treasurer. 

Other product categories—including sleep therapy, ostomy and urology—showed year-to-date growth, along with several smaller segments, Leon said. 

“Smaller categories, including chest wall oscillation, which although is still small, has shown a phenomenal growth and demonstrates our ability to successfully expand our therapy portfolio,” he said. 

Debt paydown remains a priority 

As of Sept. 30, Owens & Minor reported net debt of $2.1 billion, an increase from year-end 2024. The rise is attributed to costs associated with exiting its planned acquisition of Rotech Healthcare, which was terminated in June. Owens & Minor paid a $100 million break-up fee. 

Additional expenses were incurred from launching a new kitting facility for the P&HS segment. Although the company sold the segment, it retained a 5% ownership stake. The facility startup has temporarily disrupted inventory levels, said Pesicka. 

“We are diligently focused on controlling our balance sheet through debt paydown, managing operational cost controls and lowering the cost to serve and accelerating our cash flow generation,” he said.