Comanies In The News
Comanies In The News
Apria shares fall
Shares of Apria Healthcare Group (Costa Mesa, CA) fell 18% one day last week, and the New York Stock Exchange contacted the company regarding unusual market activity of the company’s stock, the Los Angeles Times reported. More than 1.5 million shares traded hands on that day, about five times the average daily volume over the last three months, the Times reported, and that prompted the stock exchange to call on the company to issue a public statement about the trading. The company, however, said that its policy is not to comment on unusual market activity.
Investors were selling the stock because of uncertainties about Medicare policies on reimbursements for the drug Albuterol sulfate, which is used to treat asthma and other breathing disorders, analyst Todd Richter at Banc of America Securities told the Times.
GF signs agreement with VGM
Graham-Field Health Products (GF; Bay Shore, NY) and VGM & Associates (Waterloo, IA), a private, nationwide buying group of home healthcare products, signed a multi-year purchase and supply agreement between the two companies. Under the agreement, the VGM group will continue to have access to sell and distribute the full line of products offered by GF.
Interwest makes purchase
Interwest Home Medical (Salt Lake City) has purchased MaxMed (Colorado Springs, CO) and Continental Health Care (Las Vegas), which provide medical service and equipment, including home oxygen and respiratory products.
Interwest said combined annual income for the two companies is $1 million. About 80% of the revenues is from home oxygen services, Interwest said. The cost of the sale was not disclosed.
The acquired operations will be combined into Interwest’s business in the Las Vegas and Colorado Springs regions. In FY99, Interwest earned $1.9 million, 46 cents per share, on revenues of $33.3 million.
Lincare’s shares hurt
Shares of Lincare Holdings (Clearwater, FL) fell 16% one day last week, following an announcement by the Clinton administration that it would cut Medicare reimbursements for prescription drugs to home health agencies and doctors, reported the Tampa Tribune. But an analyst told the Tribune that the government’s plan shouldn't affect the company long term.
Lincare’s stock price should rebound because only 5% of its $690 million in projected sales this year will come from Medicare reimbursements for prescription drugs, the analyst said.
The proposed reductions "should have very little impact" on Lincare’s operations, said Christopher Caton, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. (Milwaukee). "Investors are reacting to industry uncertainty. Lincare’s stock price has become more sensitive to government reimbursement rates, even though they account for a small portion of revenues."
Option Care buys certain lines of Affiliated Health
Option Care (Bannockburn, IL) agreed to acquire the infusion and home health services businesses of Affiliated Health Services (Mt. Vernon, WA), a public district hospital. Under terms of the agreement, Option Care will provide home care services to the public district hospital system, licensed for 237 beds.
The acquisition, said Option Care President/COO Raj Rai, "meets two of our stated objectives: enhancing revenue through opportunistic acquisitions and increasing the penetration of current markets."
Simione signs agreement with HCA
Simione Central Holdings (Atlanta) announced last week a major agreement with Home Health Care Affiliates (HCA; Cordova, TN) to install its Smart ClipBoard Clinical System. The agreement calls for HCA to implement 160 point-of-care devices at seven locations across the country, Simione said.
HCA chief operating officer Bill Billingsley said there were several factors that "strongly influenced our decision to choose The Smart ClipBoard Home Care System. We looked at a lot of point-of-care service devices and overwhelmingly agreed that The Smart ClipBoard was the best system to do the job the way we want to do it under the prospective payment system (PPS)," he said.
The Smart ClipBoard System contains clinical content developed by the Outcomes Planner System to fully address the clinical challenges of the home care industry in a PPS environment. Smart ClipBoard is unique in that it provides HCA with the ability to define the clinical process, apply the process and determine variances, analyze the findings for process improvement, and then re-define the process based on the success of their evaluation, Simione said.
TLC reports lower FY00 revenues
Tender Loving Care Health Care Services (TLC; Lake Success, NY) reported FY00 ended Feb. 29 total revenues of $255.7 million, compared to $312.5 million in FY99, a drop of $56.8 million or 18.2%, the company said.
TLC saw a net loss in FY00 of $15 million, $1.27 per share, compared to a FY99 net loss of $73.1 million, $6.31 per share. n
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