Charter Healthcare Shakes Up Executive Team with New CEO, COO

California-based post-acute care company Charter Healthcare Group has tapped Cheryl Lovell to become its new CEO and Anna-Gene O’Neal as the company’s first chief operating officer.

Charter, a portfolio company of Pharos Capital Group, provides hospice, home health, complex care management and palliative care services to nearly 13,000 patients in eight states.

“We are excited to build out Charter’s management team with seasoned industry executives who have strong experience in home health and end-of life services and who have also proven adept at growing companies,” Anna Kovalkova, partner at Pharos Capital, said in a statement. “We welcome Cheryl and Anna-Gene and look forward to their contributions in this vitally important area of comprehensive care solutions.”

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Lovell’s career in post-acute leadership spans more than 22 years, beginning with service in the U.S. Navy. Most recently, she was CEO CLC Group, LLC, a health care consulting firm that she founded. The firm advises post-acute companies on matters related to finance, operations, new program development, acquisitions, strategic partnerships and de novo expansion.

This experience should serve her well as Charter as it continues to pursue acquisitions and other avenues of growth. The company completed at least six hospice deals in 2021 on top of four in 2020, in addition to two de novos and a number of home health transactions.

Prior to CLC, Lovell was the chief executive at the Southland Family of companies, where she oversaw the mobile physicians, hospice and palliative care segments and established the home health division.

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“I am excited to be working with the Charter and Pharos teams to support and expand the company’s mission of ensuring a comfortable patient experience while lowering the costs of care,” Lovell said in a statement. “The need for quality palliative care is large and growing, and it is gratifying to offer patients and families the high-quality essential services they deserve.”

O’Neal, the incoming COO, is a registered nurse with 35 years of health care experience, including executive management positions. She most recently worked as an independent consultant supporting operational analysis for post-acute companies.

Previously, she was division president of Brookdale Senior Living’s (NYSE: BKD) health care services segment, which provided home health, hospice and outpatient therapy programs. HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) acquired the segment in 2021 for $400 million and later sold portions of it to LHC Group (NASDAQ: LHCG).

At Brookdale, O’Neal led the company’s health care business through the earliest years of the COVID-19 pandemic while building a new leadership team, growing revenue and expanding payor contracting. Before Broookdale, O’Neal served as CEO of Alive Hospice in Tennessee.

“Charter plays a unique role in bringing a human touch, personalized care, and a family-centered approach to patients navigating the last years of life, and I am proud to join a company whose goals for growth include providing compassionate care to more people in more places,” O’Neal said in a statement.

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