Updated June 4 1 p.m. ET
DispatchHealth and Medically Home closed their merger deal on Wednesday, combining the forces of at-home care and hospital-at-home leaders.
Operating under the DispatchHealth brand, the combined company will provide three core service lines. Its hospital-alternative care service, also called hospital at home, provides inpatient hospital-level care at home. The company also provides emergency-level care, when appropriate, to help patients avoid ED visits.
DispatchHealth’s transitional care offering supports patients at high risk of readmission to the hospital after a hospital stay, ER visit or skilled nursing stay.
The merger was announced in mid March. In the coming months, the company will integrate Medically Home’s technology platform and clinical command center for use nationwide, the company said.
The two leadership teams have combined. Jennifer Webster will continue as the CEO of DispatchHealth. Graham Barnes, who took over as CEO of Medically Home in August 2024, is departing to pursue new opportunities. Pippa Shulman, D.O., has assumed the role of chief medical officer, according to a press release.
“This merger brings to life a shared vision in ways neither organization could have achieved alone,” Shulman said in a statement. “It’s about delivering evidence-based care with compassion, creating better experiences for patients and caregivers, and giving our clinical teams the tools they need to do their best work.”
The companies leverage telehealth, virtual call centers and devices in patients' homes to provide high-complexity care, including for oncology patients and organ transplant patients. DispatchHealth and Medically Home tout that their merger creates the nation’s most comprehensive high-acuity care platform delivering care to patients at home.
Medically Home’s technology powers a large swath of hospital at home programs across the country and gives them frameworks to provide hospital at home care with additional support from Medically Home’s technology and staff. Its range of services includes a Medical Command Center that oversees patients’ care 24/7, technology to use at the bedside and a team of clinicians. The company was founded in 2016.
DispatchHealth, founded in 2013, provides full-service hospital at home care to patients across the country. DispatchHealth clinicians attend patients at the bedside and coordinate work and requirements for hospitals. The company also provides in-home urgent care services to patients and post-facility recovery at home.
The combined entity will care for patients in 50 major metropolitan areas with 40 health systems and connections to most major health plans and value-based care entities.
Together, the companies will save up to 62,000 inpatient hospital stays per year and reduce the cost per patient by up to 30% per month by providing acute hospital-level care in patients’ homes, the companies said when the merger was announced in March.
"Healthcare demands innovative solutions that align clinical excellence with financial sustainability," Webster, CEO for DispatchHealth, said in a statement in March. "We've proven the home can be an extension of the hospital while improving the quality of care. This merger brings together two complementary pioneers in hospital-level care at home, accelerating our ability to expand access, lower costs, drive value, and improve capacity for health systems across the country."
The federal waiver for hospital-at-home programs will end on October 1, barring congressional action. Starting during the pandemic, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began offering incentives for hospitals to shift qualifying patients out of facilities and to care for them at home due to hospital overcrowding.
The program has been repeatedly extended since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, albeit for short periods of time. Most recently, Congress extended the CMS’ hospital at home program through Sept. 30, 2025, though there is bipartisan support for a five-year extension.