Health Care

LHC Group, CHRISTUS Health announce joint venture

Partnership between Lafayette and Irving, Texas, health care groups includes home health, hospice, community-based services and facility-based services.

In early August, Lafayette-based LHC Group and CHRISTUS Health, headquartered in Irving, Texas, announced that they had entered into a definitive agreement to form a new joint venture to enhance home health, hospice, long-term acute-care services and community-based services across four states. The joint venture will include 21 service locations of CHRISTUS Health, including seven home health agencies, five hospice programs, two community-based home care services, one inpatient hospice unit and six long-term acute-care hospitals.

The joint venture agreement is expected be completed by the end of the third quarter, subject to customary closing conditions, at which time LHC Group will purchase majority ownership of CHRISTUS Health’s home health, hospice, community-based home care services and the LTACH facilities and assume management responsibility. The facilities will continue to operate under their existing names.

LHC Group (NASDAQ: LHCG) expects annualized revenue from this joint venture of approximately $80 million; additionally, the partnership should not materially affect its 2017 diluted earnings per share.