Companies in the News
Companies in the News
AHOM posts FY99, 4Q99 losses
American HomePatient (AHOM; Brentwood, TN) reported 4Q99 ended Dec. 31 revenues of $86.6 million, down from 4Q98 revenues of $96.1 million. The company posted a 4Q99 net loss of $84.2 million, $5.52 per share, compared to a net loss in 4Q98 of $36 million, $2.44 per share. The net loss in 4Q99, AHOM said, includes a $17 million charge on additional accounts receivable reserves, a $40 million write-off of impaired goodwill, a $20 million valuation allowance for deferred tax assets, and a $1.5 million restructuring charge.
Due to accounting charges recorded in 4Q99, AHOM is not in compliance with certain financial covenants and does not expect to be in compliance with certain other financial covenants over the next 12 months, AHOM said. The company is negotiating with bank representatives to obtain an amendment to the bank agreement. If it does not obtain the amendment by the due date of the Form 10-K, AHOM will be required to reclassify its long-term debt to a current liability as of Dec. 31, the company said.
For the year, AHOM posted a net loss of $99.9 million, $6.55 per share, compared to a FY98 net loss of $39 million, $2.60 per share. The company saw FY99 revenues of $357.6 million, compared to FY98 revenues of $403.9 million.
Extendicare sees net loss in FY99, 4Q99
Extendicare (Markham, Ontario) saw a net loss in 4Q99 of $136.5 million, $1.82 per share, compared to a 4Q98 net income of $4.2 million, 6 cents per share. The company reported total revenues in 4Q99 of $444.9 million, compared to total 4Q98 revenues of $523.3 million.
For the year, Extendicare saw total revenues of $1.9 billion, down from FY98 revenues of $2.1 billion. Extendicare posted a net loss in FY99 of $159.7 million, $2.14 per share, compared to a net income in FY98 of $65.3 million, 85 cents per share.
Gentiva teams with United Therapeutics
Gentiva Health Services (Melville, NY) and United Therapeutics Corp. (Silver Spring, MD) have formed a strategic alliance to distribute subcutaneous prostacyclin therapy (Uniprost) to hospitals and patients in the United States.
The alliance grants Gentiva, formerly known as Olsten Health Services, the right to distribute Uniprost medicine to hospitals and patients participating in United Therapeutics’ clinical trials. The agreement also authorizes Gentiva to handle clinical management, product distribution, reimbursement, and patient support services for the therapy upon approval from the Food and Drug Administration (Washington). Gentiva said it will also provide patient education and compliance monitoring, as well as collection of drug utilization data.
Numed unable to pay employees
Numed Home Health Care (Clearwater, FL) has not paid its employees for the past few weeks as it has been struggling with accounting errors and slow payments. The company cares for Medicare patients through its Total Professional Home Health subsidiary and private-pay patients through its Countryside Health Services division, reported the St. Petersburg Times.
The company told dozens of employees last week that it was unable to meet payroll. The workers also learned from their banks that the previous week’s payroll checks bounced because of insufficient funds, the Times reported. Numed officials have asked the employees to continue to report for work, saying that they expect to cover all the checks soon and that everything should improve.
The company last Monday alerted the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration about the potential for patients to go untended if enough of Numed’s employees opt to stay home. But Numed told the Times last week that it was unclear how many patients had been transferred to other agencies because of a worker shortage.
Sunrise re-aligns operations
Sunrise Medical (Carlsbad, CA) will combine its Home Healthcare Group and the U.S. portion of its Continuing Care Group to form a sales and manufacturing organization in North America. The development of the new division is part of a plan Sunrise has to re-align its operations into three focused operating groups. A president for the new organization in North America will be named in the near future, Sunrise said. The two businesses will continue to operate separately until that time. Tom O’Donnell, current president of the Home Healthcare Group, will retire in October, the company said.
In addition to the sales and manufacturing group in North America, Sunrise said it will combine previous divisional functions of product development, product management, and strategic supply chain activities to form the Global Business Group. This organization will report to President Ben Anderson-Ray, previous president of the Continuing Care Group. Also, sales and manufacturing operations in Europe will be managed by a European Operating Group, led by President Raymond Huggenberger.
The new groups are being created to better focus and prioritize internal resources on activities that will allow Sunrise to streamline decision-making and compete on a global level, the company said. The changes are not expected to affect service to customers, said Sunrise.
Subscribe Now for Access
You have reached your article limit for the month. We hope you found our articles both enjoyable and insightful. For information on new subscriptions, product trials, alternative billing arrangements or group and site discounts please call 800-688-2421. We look forward to having you as a long-term member of the Relias Media community.