New Contessa, UAMS JV to Provide ‘Full Spectrum’ of Home-Based Care

Amedisys (NASDAQ: AMED) subsidiary Contessa has penned an agreement the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to offer a range of home-based care services, including palliative care. 

The two organizations have formed a joint venture — UAMS Health Comprehensive Care at Home — that will provide primary care; hospital, recovery, and rehabilitation services; home health, and palliative care. The JV will offer each of these services in the home setting.

“UAMS is leading the ambitious goal of making Arkansas the healthiest state in the region, and this strategic initiative supercharges that vision,” said Dr. Cam Patterson, chancellor and CEO of UAMS Health. “We are thrilled to partner with Contessa and Amedisys to bring this first-of-its-kind model to the region and the first Comprehensive Care at Home program to the state.”

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The JV’s patients will have access to Contessa’s Palliative Care at Home services. The program’s care model includes home and virtual visits by UAMS clinicians, 24/7 interdisciplinary care, emotional and spiritual support, and goals-of-care conversations.

Amedisys will provide home health services through the JV in the Searcy and Little Rock, Arkansas markets. Amedisys acquired Contessa last year for $250 million, seeking to build out its range of high-acuity services in the home.

UAMS Health Comprehensive Care at Home will be up and running in early 2023, though the home health service may begin accepting home health patients later this year.

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The partnership is the latest in a string of JVs for Contessa. These partnerships have become a pillar of the company’s business model during the past five years.

Tennessee-based Contessa in 2017 launched a JV with Mount Sinai Health System to provide hospital-at-home services, which later expanded to include community-based palliative care.

In August, the two providers extended their partnership by forming a new entity offering a larger continuum of care, branded as “Mount Sinai at Home,” bringing the health system’s South Nassau, New York-based home health agency into the JV.

During the past 12 months, the company has launched JVs that offer palliative care with Baylor Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Henry Ford Health System. Other existing partnerships include JVs with Penn State Health, Marshfield Clinic Health System, Ascension Saint Thomas, CommonSpirit Health, and Highmark Health, among others.

Contessa reportedly has a pipeline for similar JVs with more than 100 hospitals in 28 states, with the potential to double Contessa’s footprint, according to previous statements by Amedisys executives.

Their lengthening roster of JVs is pushing into palliative care in a big way, the company has indicated.

“[Amedisys CEO] Chris Gerard sees palliative care as really the linchpin of the businesses,” Stein told Hospice News. “So as Amedisys is thinking about palliative care, it really is inserting this care model to be able to function better for patients — where patients are not seeing 30 doctors in their last year of life. We’re able to consolidate that experience, and at least have all of the different parties talking to each other.”

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