Option Care Health navigates pressures 

BANNOCKBURN, Ill. – Option Care Health delivered a solid second quarter, even as it navigated pressures from a tight labor market and rising inflation, company execs said on a recent call. 

“Our focus on recruiting our existing team members every single day and recruiting new members to the team helps ensure that we have capacity and vital skills necessary to provide advanced care to our patients,” said John Rademacher, CEO.  

With its recent acquisitions of SPIN and Infinity Infusion Nursing, Option Care Health now has more than 3,000 infusion nurses. The company is still in the “early innings” of integrating both organizations, said Rademacher. 

Option Care Health is seeing rising inflation impact the costs of transportation, packaging materials and petroleum-based plastic medical supplies, said Rademacher. 

“The inflationary cost pressures continue to present challenges, but we remain very focused on offsetting those sectors where possible, primarily through leveraging our technology to drive productivity and operating efficiencies,” he said. 

A well-publicized shortage of certain nutritional formulas, exacerbated by the closure of one of three major formula producers in the United States, presented additional challenges, said Rademacher. 

“Our team has done a tremendous job of helping to navigate through that and make certain that we can support not only our existing patient census but also where we can take on new patients,” he said. “We have dedicated and, really, expert dietitians that are part of our team that work tirelessly to make certain that all of our patients receive the nutrition support necessary as they're executing around the therapy plans.” 

Even as it navigated these pressures, Option Care Health opened six new infusion centers in the second quarter, and it’s on track to open more than 25 by year end, said Rademacher. 

“Center expansion is a vital growth strategy, as it enables us to provide more choice for our patients, (and) drive clinical labor efficiency, while also expanding our ability to collaborate with referral sources to increase our patient expenses,” he said. “Given our investment in infusion centers and technology over the past several years, we continue to cast a wider shadow, so to speak, into new therapies, more rural geographies and a broader base of referral sources.”