Contessa Health, an Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) company, has teamed up with Memorial Hermann Health System to provide home-based care services to its patients.
Specifically, the partnership will allow Memorial Hermann to deliver acute hospital care, post-hospitalization skilled nursing care and palliative care services in the home setting.
This new offering will increase accessibility for the organization’s patients, according to Dr. David Callender, president and CEO of Memorial Hermann.
“Our new partnership with Contessa exemplifies Memorial Hermann’s commitment to deploying innovative care models by transforming our service lines to put the patient experience front and center,” he said in a press statement. “Offering at-home care options gives our patients more convenient choices and truly puts them at the center of care delivery.”
The Houston, Texas-based Memorial Hermann Health System owns and operates 14 hospitals and is a 29,000-employee practice.
Contessa Health is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and delivers high-acuity care in the home. The company’s hospital care at home model has been able to lower readmission rates by 44%, and decrease hospital length of stay by 35%.
Through the partnership, eligible patients that consent will be discharged and transferred home with remote patient monitoring devices. These patients will receive daily in-person and virtual visits from their care team.
Additionally, these patients will have the opportunity to receive rehabilitation care at home.
Patients who are eligible for palliative care at home will receive in-person or virtual visits from Memorial Hermann care team members, as well as 24-hour services such as physical, emotional and social services.
In general, hospitals are often looking to increase their bed space while extending care, but they don’t always have the resources to accomplish this. Partnering with health care organizations in order to provide these resources has long been a calling card for Contessa.
With Amedisys’ purchase of Contessa – for $250 million in June 2021 – the companies’ combined capabilities have allowed Amedisys to provide further value to its partners.
“I think the transaction that we completed with the Amedisys … allows us to offer our partners a true comprehensive continuum of services in the home,” Travis Messina, CEO of Contessa, told Home Health Care News earlier this month. “And by partners, I mean health systems and health plans. We all know that there are a lot of problems in health care related to the fragmentation of home care services.”
For Amedisys, having Contessa under its umbrella allows the company to cover higher-acuity care members.
“If you think about it, they’re predominantly a traditional home health and hospice provider, with very essential and critical services,” Messina said. “But that ability to treat that upper-end of the acuity spectrum was a void that they had — and we fill that void.”
Messina also noted that Contessa puts Amedisys in a “risk-based care mindset.”
“All of our contracts with managed care organizations are value-based in nature,” he said. “All of the services, expertise and knowhow that we have related to managed care, that’s something that was really desired by the Amedisys team as part of the transaction.”
In terms of Contessa’s current partnership with Memorial Hermann Health System, Messina believes that the two companies align seamlessly.
“Memorial Hermann is committed to investing in community-based care,” he said in a press statement. “Contessa’s comprehensive home-based care model mirrors that vision and ensures patients have access to the right care, at the right time, and in the right place. Together, we are redefining health care for Southeast Texans.”
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