Option Care, Amedisys scale up

BANNOCKBURN, Ill., and BATON ROUGE, La. – The merger of Option Care Health and Amedisys creates a home care giant with projected annual revenue of $6.2 billion that’s primed to serve a $100 billion addressable market for everything from prevention and maintenance care to acute and post-acute care to end-of-life care. 

Option Care, the nation's largest independent provider of home and alternate site infusion services, and Amedisys, a leading provider of home health, hospice and high-acuity care, announced the deal, an all-stock transaction that values Amedisys at $3.6 billion, on May 3, just ahead of releasing their separate earnings for the first quarter of 2023. 

“Today, we are seeing not only aging populations and a growing desire for at-home health care services but also increasing therapeutic pathways,” said John Rademacher, president and CEO of Option Care, who will also serve as CEO of the combined company, on a call to discuss the deal. “Importantly, by expanding beyond our existing services we'll be able to better meet increasing demand for alternative site care and we believe the combined company's capabilities and scale will position us to capture a significant share of the market.” 

Mike Shapiro, CFO of Option Care, will also serve as CFO of the combined company, while Richard Ashworth, president and CEO of Amedisys, will move into a special adviser role to support the integration. 

There are numerous complementary synergies between the two companies, says Ashworth. 

“In our home health and our hospice business, we have a pretty good density of patients who need the services that Option Care provides and vice versa, with Option Care providing new services for folks who consume home health and hospice services,” he said. “So, I think there's a fantastic opportunity between both organizations to increase the health outcomes for the patients we have by combining our services.” 

By the numbers 

The combined company anticipates serving 720,000 patients annually, and will operate 674 care centers across 46 states, employing 16,500 clinical professionals, including nursing professionals, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, dieticians, physical, occupational, and speech therapists, social workers and aides. 

Diversified payer mix 

The deal will shift Option Care’s payer mix. In 2022, Option Care’s mix was 88% commercial payers and 12% government payers, compared to Amedisys’ 24% commercial and 76% government payers. Together, their mix will be 65% commercial, 35% government.  

The closing 

Amedisys stockholders will receive 3.0213 shares of Option Care common stock for each share of Amedisys common stock they hold at the closing of the transaction, the equivalent of $97.38 – an approximate 26% premium – based on Option Care Health's closing stock price on May 2, 2023. Upon closing, Option Care Health stockholders will own approximately 64.5% of the combined company, and Amedisys stockholders will own approximately 35.5%.