Providence fleshed out its partnership with home-based care provider Compassus Wednesday, announcing a finalized agreement for Compassus to manage several care locations in California.
The partners’ joint venture, branded as Providence at Home with Compassus, was unveiled last year and in March saw Compassus take on management of home health, hospital and palliative care locations in Alaska, Texas and Washington. The pair said its ultimate goal was to bring 41 total locations in those three states as well as Oregon and California under the joint venture’s banner.
In Oregon, that effort remains under review by the state’s health regulator, which completed a preliminary review in April, requested more information from the organizations in June and circulated a survey to current and former employees in July.
California, however, is moving ahead. This week’s announcement “builds on the success of the first waive of the joint venture” and outlines 10 home health, one personal home care, six hospice and two community-based palliative care locations for which Compassus will be managing operations.
“This next phase of our joint venture with Compassus is another step toward transforming how care is delivered across our communities,” Terri Warren, chief of community services at Providence, said in the announcement. “By continuing to expand home-based services, we honor our legacy of care and invest in the future of health care where comfort, dignity and support are provided directly in patients’ homes. And we’re just getting started—more innovation and expansion are on the horizon.”
The organizations’ announcement reaffirmed their view that the joint venture helps address demand, reduces hospital stays and readmissions and cuts costs.
Of note, Providence President and CEO Erik Wexler previously outlined the collaboration as a key example of how the nonprofit system is addressing operating headwinds by outsourcing certain services to “other providers that can deliver them more effectively.” As of June 30, the major system has reduced its head count by about 1,800 workers from a year prior and spun out some of its innovation efforts—but still logged a loss during its most recently closed quarter.
Compassus delivers home-based care and other post-acute services in 33 states. The deal with Providence aligns with other management joint ventures it has cut with large nonprofit systems like Ascension, Bon Secours Mercy Health and OhioHealth.