One of the nation’s largest home health and hospice providers is looking ahead to some new beginnings in 2016.
Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) has sold its corporate headquarters building on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for $20 million. The buyer, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, is also based in Baton Rouge.
Meanwhile, Amedisys has also entered into a multi-year partnership with Intel-GE Care Innovations to extend remote care management (RCM) services across the company’s 34-state footprint. The program design began last month, with full implementation expected to start in January 2016.
The sale of Amedisys’ corporate headquarters has been a long time coming. Amedisys’ South Sherwood Forest Boulevard building has been on the market since the summer, The Advocate reported. The company originally purchased the building in February 2005 for $4.2 million, putting more than $23 million into the space before it was officially made corporate headquarters in April 2007. In September, an Amedisys spokeswoman explained the building was too big for the company’s current needs.
The Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, the parent company of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, plans to consolidate its administrative support departments in the building that are currently spread across multiple leased properties, The Advocate reported.
Amedisys, meanwhile, plans to move its corporate offices to a different building in Baton Rouge— but that building is currently being renovated. Consequently, the home health and hospice company is set to remain in its old building for the next six months, sharing office space with the new tenants.
Approximately 400 Amedisys staff members currently work at the offices on South Sherwood Forest Boulevard, The Advocate reported. Amedisys recently transferred 33 of its top executives to a satellite office in Nashville, a medical epicenter where it claims it can recruit top administrators more easily.
In July, Amedisys CEO Paul Kusserow said the headquarters for the home health care company and for its general financial functions would remain in Baton Rouge.
Meanwhile, under a partnership announced Dec. 1, Amedisys is set to work with Intel-GE Care Innovations to incorporate best practices and a tailored approach for deployment of RCM solutions. According to a press release, the effort will initially concentrate on individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, depression and associated co-morbidities.
The two companies will also be working together to create customized approaches and care interventions, specific to conditions and severity of illness, based on a combination of traditional clinical data and activities of daily living.
Care Innovations is also expected to manage Amedisys’ complete RCM program from recruiting to logistics, application integration services and data analytics. Additionally, the company is set to collaborate with Amedisys to develop new market segments and care model design applications, delivering a multi-tiered approach to managing acuity, including wellness and population health management, complex care management and targeted care management.
Care Innovations Health Harmony, Intel-GE Care Innovations’ fourth-generation RCM platform and the platform at the foundation of Amedisys partnership, is intended to simplify remote monitoring by providing easy-to-use, intuitive technology allowing individuals, care providers, clinicians and family caregivers to collaborate for better care in the home and within normal daily routines.
Written by Mary Kate Nelson
