BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. (BTSG) Business
This page reproduces the company's own Item 1 Business text from the linked SEC filing. It is filer text, not grepcent analysis, scoring, or investment advice.
Informational only - not investment advice. See Disclaimer.
Item 1. Business
Who We Are
We are a leading home and community-based healthcare services platform, focused on delivering complementary pharmacy and provider services to complex patients. We have a differentiated approach to care delivery, with an integrated and scaled model that addresses critical services that the highest-need and highest-cost patients require. With a focus on Senior and Specialty patients, which includes Behavioral populations, our platform provides pharmacy and provider services (both clinical and supportive care in nature) in lower-cost home and community settings largely to Medicare, Medicaid, and commercially-insured populations. We are an essential part of our nation’s health delivery network as a front-line provider of high-quality and cost-effective care to a large and growing number of people, who increasingly require a combination of specialized solutions to enable holistic health care management. Our presence spans all 50 states, we serve over 465,000 patients daily through our approximately 10,500 clinical providers and pharmacists, and our services make a profound impact in the lives and communities of the people we serve.
Our model focuses on delivering high-touch and coordinated services to medically complex clients and patients, which is a large, growing, and underserved population in the U.S. healthcare system. These high-need and high-cost Senior and Specialty patients comprise a market of over $2.0 trillion across our business. The chronic conditions and long-term health needs of these patients not only represent an outsized share of health care spend today, according to RAND Health Care, but we believe that they are expected to also drive a disproportionate share of future expenditures. Americans with five or more chronic conditions make up over 12% of the population and account for 41% of total health care spending, on average spending 14 times more on health services than those without chronic conditions. These patients most often require both pharmacy and provider services to achieve the best outcomes, but must often navigate disjointed and separately-administered health services. This can result in uncoordinated care delivery with adverse medical consequences, as compared to receiving timely, proximal, and complete care support in the home and community that improves health and reduces cost.
We have built a significant presence and capability in delivering complementary and high-touch daily healthcare services and programs to complex patients in their homes and in communities in order to address their multiple health needs and requirements more completely. In pharmacy, we leverage our national infrastructure to provide daily medication therapy management to various customer and patient types wherever they reside in the community, including home and in-clinic infusion patients, oncology and other specialty patients in their homes, residents of independent and senior living communities, people receiving hospice care, and neuro clients’ and patients’ homes, residents of skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, hospital patients, and the homes of Seniors who are on a significant number of medications. Within provider services, we address the clinical and supportive care needs of Senior and Specialty populations, including neuro patients, primarily in their homes, as well as some clinic and community settings. Our clinical services consist of home health and hospice and rehab therapy, and our supportive care services address activities of daily living and social determinants of health as well. We also provide home-based primary care for patients in senior living communities, long-term care, and individual homes to directly manage and optimize patient outcomes and to enable value-based care. By providing these complementary and necessary services for complex patients, our care model is designed to address multiple patient needs and better integrate health services delivery to improve quality and patient experiences, while reducing overall costs.
We believe that our Company addresses important needs today and is also well-positioned for the long-term, as it is underpinned by capabilities and characteristics that suggest continued differentiation and growth:
•
Complementary pharmacy and provider services that address multiple patient needs – We have a healthcare platform that can combine pharmacy and provider care in order to address the spectrum of interrelated and chronic needs that Senior and Specialty patients possess. Through our comprehensive care capabilities, we are able to develop longitudinal relationships and views of our patients, which enables us to more closely manage daily medication requirements and adherence, provide primary care and other skilled nursing and therapy clinical services, and address social determinants of health and daily care needs. Moreover, we believe that this integrated model and capability set will increasingly be a more effective approach for providing high-need and high-cost Senior and Specialty populations the pharmacy and care services solutions they require.
•
Effectively serving complex patients in the home and community setting – With over 40 years of experience caring for “must-serve” client and patient populations, we deliver care in preferred and lower-cost settings with strong quality results. Our services reduce cost by providing care for many of these individuals in non-institutional home and community settings and reducing hospitalizations. For example, across our pharmacies, we achieve 99.99% order accuracy and 99.34% order completeness, “excellent” and “world class” NPS, and a reduction in hospitalizations with CCRx, while also driving savings through medication adherence and therapeutic interchanges. We achieve 100% patient satisfaction in our outpatient rehab services, an 87% overall rating of care in hospice, and, as reported by the Agency for Healthcare
1
Table of Contents
Research and Quality, hospitalizations that are 35% lower than the national average in our home-based primary care. We believe that we are positioned to identify potential medical problems and avoid adverse events due to our highly proximate position to patients.
•
Market-leading scale with a focus on operational excellence and coordinated front-line care – We manage one of the nation’s largest independent platforms of both pharmacy and provider services offered on a daily basis in home and community settings – to address the multiple needs of medically complex Senior and Specialty patients. Our leading scale across all 50 states has important benefits. Our scale provides complementary diversification and risk mitigation in payor sources, end markets, and geographies, while also creating exposure and access to a broader set of market growth opportunities. Further, we leverage economies of scale and best practices across the company, including in purchasing and all supplier contracting, quality, technology, human resources, and advocacy and payor relations. Scale from our pharmacy and provider businesses allow us to effectively deliver and coordinate integrated solutions to and across patient types and care settings, which we believe will be more important in the ongoing development of value-based care solutions. Ultimately, our track record of building market density, expanding core services to additional customer and patient types, and replicating this model across new geographies underpins both our historical results as well as our growth strategies.
We are one of the largest independent providers of home and community-based health services in the United States, offering skilled, complementary, integrated, and impactful health care solutions. Almost all of the clients and patients that we serve have chronic conditions and the vast majority of them receive their services on a recurring basis over long periods of time. In our pharmacy business, patients have an average of nine prescriptions at a given time and are supported by our local pharmacy model that delivers daily services, often within an hour or two, from over 175 pharmacies, infusion centers, and specialty oncology locations across all 50 states. We have specifically focused on and built a fast, local, and “white-glove” delivery model that is supported by expert clinical teams in the field, which fulfilled over 43 million prescriptions in 2025 across customer and patient settings and types. Patients who receive our provider services average six chronic conditions per patient, and we delivered approximately 21 million hours of quality and compassionate care in 2025 to home health, hospice, rehab, and home care patients and clients. Combined, our daily pharmacy and provider services are delivered from and to approximately 7,700 office, clinic, and customer locations across the country, with over 465,000 patients serviced at any one time, including approximately 330,000 patients served in their homes at any one time.
Our Platform
We believe our high-quality and complementary health services offerings address significant and important patient and stakeholder needs. In the home and community settings where we operate, patients with chronic conditions often require daily care, closely-managed medication regimens, and specialized clinical treatment, and our service model is defined by core pharmacy and provider services augmented by integrated care capabilities that are intended to maximize outcomes and minimize potential disruptions. The Company’s quality outcomes achieved for Senior and Specialty patients and industry stakeholders are also mostly delivered in patient-preferred and lower-cost settings. We believe our breadth of service capabilities and proven outcomes position us as a provider of choice for patients, families, referral sources, customers, and payors.
Furthermore, scale is important in the industries and service areas that we participate in, for numerous reasons, including realizing economies of scale, for example in purchasing, technology, and related to fixed expenses, leveraging best practices and quality and operational oversight of the service lines, in payor contracting, being able to invest in attractive growth areas, and driving value through revenue, quality, and operational and cost synergies post acquisitions. Our service capabilities extend across all 50 states in the United States, with co-location of our pharmacy and provider services in 40 states. We deliver a higher proportion of services in select regions with favorable demographics and regulatory environments, with approximately 53% of our revenue in 10 states for the year ended December 31, 2025. Our services are organized and managed through two reportable segments: Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services.
The Company’s scale, complementary service offerings, and geographic footprint also enable integrated and value-based care opportunities. Many of our patients today receive both pharmacy and provider services from the Company, thus simplifying their experience and supporting positive outcomes. Our integrated care and value-based care model is based on three important service enablers and three primary strategies. For enablers, we view (i) home-based primary care capabilities, (ii) a customized transitional care management program, and (iii) a clinical care coordination hub as essential to drive optimized quality and reduced cost outcomes. The Company has spent the last several years building out these three integrated and value-based care capabilities. In turn, these enablers are required to execute three key integrated and value-based care strategies, including (i) the coordination of clinically integrated care for patients receiving multiple Company services across settings and over time, (ii) providing multiple integrated (or bundled) services to senior living communities, behavioral providers, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility providers, hospitals, and payors who all require our comprehensive offerings, and (iii) the execution of value-based care contracts, whether internal through
2
Table of Contents
the Company’s own ACO shared savings arrangements and managed care plans or whether external through third-party government or managed care entities.
Pharmacy Solutions
We opportunistically provide pharmacy services when and where demanded and as required to customers and patients in their homes and communities, often in coordination with our provider services. The Company filled over 43 million prescriptions in 2025 from over 175 pharmacies across all 50 states, with services delivered to approximately 6,600 customer locations, approximately 73,000 individual or group homes, and over 410,000 patients, all through over 4,500 unique customer and payor contracts. Our leading pharmacy support across customer and patient settings is achieved through a focus on medication availability and reliability, cost containment, customer staff and patient support programs, clinical and regulatory education and support, and leading customer service. Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy prescriptions and Home and Community Pharmacy prescriptions have grown at more than 27% and 3%, respectively, from December 2024 to December 2025. We have a unique opportunity to increasingly provide more pharmacy services in the future to provider patients and patients transitioning across settings of care. Almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, which we have the opportunity to further address.
Pharmacy services are a universal need and ongoing connection point across medically complex populations. Our pharmacy services delivered into homes and community settings for complex patients are extremely different as compared to retail pharmacy, with more challenging customer and patient needs and service requirements. The average Senior fills approximately 52 medication prescriptions per year, while our average pharmacy patient is usually prescribed approximately nine medications at a given time, or at least two times more than the average Senior. As a result, medication appropriateness, accuracy, and adherence are critical points of emphasis for promoting the overall long-term health and well-being of patients. Non-adherence causes approximately 40% of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year in the United States. Further, non-adherence costs $100 billion annually, according to the JAMDA study. We deliver on our goals with 99.99% order accuracy and 99.34% order completeness.
There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in the pharmacy industry. First, large scale, which our pharmacy platform has and is characterized by, is of critical importance. We are able to leverage our large pharmacy scale in purchasing and all supplier contracting, in operating and fixed expenses, in payor contracting, in technology and systems, in sales and marketing and with brand reputation, in being able to address customer and growth opportunities in more markets, in driving synergies post acquisitions, and in leveraging best practices, for example, in operational, quality, and compliance oversight and human resources and people management. Second, the Company has historically targeted and served home and community pharmacy customers, patients, and channels as different from a retail strategy. We believe that these service settings and channels are more challenging to serve and present the opportunity for greater customization of offerings, differentiation, and value-add to customers. Third, and related to the customer types and channels that we serve in pharmacy, we most often provide our services through a local pharmacy and delivery model. Many of our customers require same day pharmacy service or in-person administration, and this geographical requirement can only be met through local, physical pharmacies. Fourth, many of our customers and patients have different and more significant clinical, educational, and reimbursement needs as compared to the general population’s retail medication profile, which must be addressed through particular expertise and high-touch customer and patient support vehicles and resources. Fifth, and also due to the different setting profile, heightened needs, and medication therapy profile of our patient base, there is an increased importance on service levels and quality measures in our specific pharmacy service types. Companies that outperform on service and quality in our pharmacy customer and patient channels have the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market and with payors.
Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy
We provide infused, injectable, and oral medication services in the home and clinic focused on pharmaceutical therapies that require expert administration and high-touch clinical services to patients by our pharmacists, registered nursing staff, and patient support teams. Infusion therapy services are a specialty form of pharmaceuticals that involve the intravenous administration of higher-cost, specially-handled medications that treat a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions, including, for example, infections, auto-immune illnesses, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and nutritional deficiencies. Oral and injectable medication therapies for complex disease management treat oncology, neurology, dermatology, cardiology, immunology, inflammatory, rare and orphan, and other conditions. Within oncology, as one of the leading independent specialty pharmacies in the United States, our services encompass clinical coordination, patient education, protocol compliance, patient assistance with insurance access and outside funding, and timely delivery of medication. Our certified oncology pharmacists are available 24/7 to provide support for patients and caregivers while working in close coordination with their physicians.
Our customer service and quality metrics are in-line with, or better than, our peers, such as time-to-first-fill (4.1 day average turnaround time, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 8.5 day average turnaround time), overall MPR (92.4%,
3
Table of Contents
which is significantly higher than the generally accepted 80% threshold for compliance, which is also the threshold set forth in the Company’s Blue Cross Blue Shield guarantee), and infusion patient satisfaction scores (94.3%, which is in-line with the 95.6% national average). We offer value-add services including technology integrations and real-time analytics for both suppliers and payors. As a result of our unique capabilities in serving pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotech companies, we have exclusive or preferred relationships in specialty oncology drugs, as manufacturers select our pharmacy – exclusively or as part of a group of a few other pharmacies – to distribute and support their therapies in the market. We currently have 149 limited distribution oncology drugs in the market with an additional 18 still to launch. There are 4 exclusive and 16 ultra-narrow drugs with limited pharmacy access. Further, there are meaningful new opportunities, such as $90 billion expected by 2032 in pharmaceutical industry revenue from oncology drugs not yet launched, drugs that will become generic over the next five years, and over 415 drug therapies in Phase III in the Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy pipeline.
Home and Community Pharmacy
Our home and community-based pharmacy solutions ensure that medications are accessible and clinically supported for patients outside of retail pharmacies. The Company’s footprint of pharmacies covers all 50 states with a localized model that features “white-glove” and customized programs and allows for faster response times and a better customer and patient experience. We service customer locations typically multiple times a day and 24/7 as needed, within a radius of approximately 100 miles of a pharmacy location. Our services focus on achieving leading medication availability, cost containment, and clinical and regulatory education and support for our customers, and they are designed to provide a consistent, best in-class experience for customers accompanied by local concierge support. Centralized intake and order entry drives consistency across operations and markets. Our pharmacy services are all customized to specific settings and patients among the Senior and Specialty populations served, for example whether a patient receiving our medications is in a senior living community, a behavioral group home, or a hospice patient in their own home.
In addition to our very strong service delivery metrics, our pharmacy services and proprietary programs reduce drug costs to customers and patients, for example with a 99.95% generic efficiency rate (the percent of drugs dispensed as generic, when both brand and generic versions of a drug are available) and saving customers an average of $88 per therapeutic interchange. Our customers, supported by several thousand pharmacists, pharmacist consultants, and nurses, perform better than the national average, with our patients consistently outperforming non-patients on overall CMS quality measures. Moreover, we believe we have certain comparative strengths in this large and fragmented pharmacy market due to our large pharmacy scale – and associated drug purchasing capabilities and distribution reach–and robustness of proprietary and customized customer and patient support programs.
In 2021, we launched CCRx, which is a longitudinal medication therapy and risk management program for home health patients, attempting to solve one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in healthcare, which is the ongoing management of complex patients in their homes to reduce adverse health events and hospitalizations. CCRx includes patient and home assessments, initial and ongoing medication review and reconciliation, user-friendly adherence packaging, direct patient engagement, and education by pharmacists and clinicians. The program was built for patients discharged from skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities or hospitals, and/or patients going onto home health. Studies have shown that all-cause hospitalizations are higher in patients with poor medication adherence and that medication management associated issues are a leading cause of emergency room visits and hospitalizations. CCRx has been shown to reduce hospitalizations, and, as such, is a key enabler in managing patients in value-based care constructs. For example, the JAMDA study found that home health recipients who are enrolled in CCRx experience a 73.1% lower hospitalization rate than home health recipients who are not enrolled in CCRx.
Provider Services
We deliver a variety of impactful and valuable provider services to high-need, chronic, and complex patients in home and community settings. Following the Community Living divestiture, these services consist of clinical and supportive care to approximately 16,000 Senior and Specialty populations today, with both census for Home Health Care services specifically, and rehab hours served, having grown approximately 9% and 12% from December 2024 to December 2025, respectively. While the clinical services that we provide have demonstrated attractive volume growth over the past several years, supportive care services have also demonstrated stability and growth due to the valuable nature of these services that address activities of daily living and social determinants of health. Many of our provider patients also receive their pharmacy services through the Company, which helps to optimize their pharmacy and medication care and needs, simplify their experience, and improve their satisfaction. Our patient personal care satisfaction score for provider services patients was 4.59 out of 5.0, per an internal survey. We believe there is greater opportunity to provide integrated services to all of our patients in the future, as almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, and, vice versa, many of the patients we serve in pharmacy have multiple provider service needs, including, for example, home-based primary care, home health, and rehab. To this end, the Company has endeavored to build out home-based primary care over the last several years to coordinate patient services.
4
Table of Contents
There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in our provider services markets. First, we are able to leverage our investments in human resources and people management initiatives and best practices across the enterprise, including in recruiting scale and centralization, onboarding and training, and career paths. Second, quality and patient satisfaction are critical, and we are able to provide increased quality and compliance and operational oversight across all locations through additional regional and enterprise resources and functions. Third, we drive strong sales and marketing best practices across geographies to drive strong referral and volume growth rates. Fourth, we are able to drive economies of scale in supplier and payor contracting, in technology and systems, and in government affairs and advocacy. Fifth, the ability to address market opportunities and geographic coverage through de novo locations and tuck-in acquisitions that benefit from synergies adds value, which we have demonstrated. Moreover, provider services scale is perhaps the most important determinant of sustainability for a provider services business, as it enables a company to be able to execute on the aforementioned success factors. Complementary scale in the pharmacy business is additive to provider services quality and growth, as our pharmacy business’ presence and footprint across geographies provide for a base of integrated care patient opportunities.
On January 17, 2025, we entered into a purchase agreement with National Mentor Holding, Inc. to divest the Company's community living services, home and community based waiver programs, and intermediate care facilities (the “Community Living business”), for $835 million, subject to typical adjustments for working capital and other customary items. The Company expects the divestiture to close in the first fiscal quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. This transaction provides for continuity of important intellectual and developmental disability services while the Company focuses on a concentrated group of customers, patients and stakeholders in the future. We believe the Company’s streamlined service offerings will result in increased strategic focus, operational efficiencies, a refined payor mix, and greater clinical integration and business synergy across the Provider Services segment. The divestiture will also augment the Company’s expected Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA growth rates and maximize exposure to target growth markets that require the Company's needed and valuable solutions, such as home health, rehab, primary care, and hospice. The Company has determined the divestiture of the Community Living business represents a strategic shift that will have a major effect on its business and therefore met the criteria for classifications as discontinued operations. The results of operations of Community Living are excluded from continuing operations in the Company's results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2025 and 2024.
Home Health Care
We provide patient-centric, highly skilled, and compassionate clinical care to Seniors and others in their homes. For Seniors and other patients recovering from surgery or illness or living with chronic diseases, we provide clinical home health care in the home. These services help patients avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, speed up recovery time, and allow people to stay and feel secure in their own homes, which they prefer. Over $40 billion in annual U.S. health care spending is attributed to hospital readmissions, and home health care can reduce 365-day post-discharge costs by more than $6,000 per patient, each per the American Journal of Medicine. We also provide physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort and support primarily for Senior patients with terminal illnesses and their families through our hospice services. Our services have also been shown to help manage end-of-life healthcare spending. Like patients receiving home health care, our interdisciplinary hospice teams tailor individualized plans for patients and their families based on a comprehensive understanding of their needs. Our hospice patients require important daily pharmacy support, which we deliver through our pharmacy services. We have a 9.4 HCI score, calculated using data from CMS provider reports for each of our providers, and we believe that our nurse-to-patient visit frequency and staffing ratio is well above industry averages, as demonstrated by the fact that across our hospice services, our average total visits per patient is 16.9 visits per month as compared to the national average of 15.6 visits per month. Additionally, on average, nursing visits per patient per month was 8.0 as compared to the national average of 7.2 visits per patient per month, which monthly average was based on a MedPac report in 2025. Additionally, for Seniors and others who require supportive care and activities of daily living support that address social determinants of health, including dietary and nutrition management and cognitive and social engagement, among others, we offer these daily or weekly services. We estimate that the average cost per day of supportive home care services is 90% less than hospital care, and as Medicare spends an average of three times more on older adults with functional limitations, we also believe that supportive care services will continue to become a focus for payors to help improve outcomes and delay or prevent unnecessary facility placement.
We are continuing to build out specialized and different primary care capabilities through our home-based primary care medical home model and platform, which we view as central to the future of optimizing patient management, including patient experiences, outcomes, and cost. Many adverse health and/or medication events can be prevented through better understanding patients’ health and risk factors by managing and treating them in the environment where they reside with primary care. In doing so, home-based primary care is more patient-centered and incorporates patients’ specific objectives and goals. Home-based primary care pro-actively addresses gaps in care and triages health events in-place, when possible, thus mitigating avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Home-based primary care coordinates care and resources for patients in pulling together previously disparate information and contact points into one place for more coordinated and informed patient care. Our primary care clinicians, including physicians we directly employ in certain states, optimize clinical and care decisions as they see and manage both Seniors and Behavioral (including I/DD) patients in senior living communities, in individual homes and in group homes, in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, as well
5
Table of Contents
as through transitional care visits after patients leave hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. By engaging with patients more frequently and where they live, the Company’s home-based primary care can mitigate health issues before they escalate further and conduct many applicable treatments and procedures in a home or community setting. Our home-based primary care has delivered leading quality outcomes, including a hospital readmission rate 35% less than the national average and with acute, chronic, and complex patients served still able to spend 360 days per year at home, significantly more than the Healthy Days at Home study of 6.6 million Medicare beneficiaries found, which reported that beneficiaries with three or more chronic conditions spent, on average, 333.7 days at home. For I/DD patients, we have seen reductions in hospitalizations and readmissions of 44% and 84%, respectively, since beginning home-based primary care services.
In addition to many of our provider patients also receiving their pharmacy services from the Company, our patients often receive multiple in-home provider services from the Company to improve outcomes, including home-based primary care and home health or hospice and transitions from home health to hospice. In 2021, the Company implemented CCRx, which provides patients with a more coordinated experience and reduces risks through primary care expertise in the home soon after patient discharge and through optimized medication therapy management in an individual’s home. Within the last three years, the Company has built a Clinical (Nursing) Hub to be the contact and coordination point for patients, families, and their pharmacy and provider services. As more of our patients utilize the multiple needed services that they require and we provide, we pro-actively monitor patients and deploy triage tools through our Clinical (Nursing) Hub to address risks and optimize quality outcomes in real-time, particularly for higher risk patients. Within the Clinical (Nursing) Hub, we centralize on-call and tele-triage, perform high-risk patient monitoring and intervention, conduct “Aftercare” patient calls, and manage care coordination opportunities across the enterprise. We see significant potential for additional integrated care opportunities by leveraging our Home-Based Primary Care, CCRx, and Clinical (Nursing) Hub capabilities to support senior living communities, payors, our hospital partners and their patient discharges, and our skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility customers who alone discharge approximately 400,000 patients a year back into the community and their homes.
Rehab Care
Our Rehab Care services provide highly-skilled patient-centric clinical care to Senior and Specialty clients and patients living with age-related acute or chronic conditions, or recovering from a catastrophic neuro event (ABI/TBI or stroke) requiring intensive therapy. These services support individuals of all ages who need various forms of expert clinical care and therapy, including ABA therapies.
We provide specialized, highly-skilled, and custom-designed rehabilitation services, including physical, speech and occupational therapy and ABA, for clients and patients of all ages with a range of injuries and conditions, including brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, pediatric neuro conditions, and autism. Our programs are principally administered in individuals’ homes and are predominantly based on individual support and clinical care plans designed to encourage greater independence and manage medical conditions.
Personal Care
Our Personal Care services provide home care support that assist with activities of daily living. These services allow Seniors who require long-term care and assistance with activities of daily living to maintain their independence at home with their families. These supportive care activities address social determinants of health, including dietary and nutrition management and cognitive and social engagement, among others, and we offer these daily or weekly services.
Our Team and Culture
We believe an engaged, connected, and mission-driven team of employees across the Company is an essential component of our platform and growth strategy. Our dedicated clinicians, caregivers, field, corporate and other administrative support employees, managers, and leaders are the critical elements that have enabled us to build a differentiated healthcare platform of scale with strong quality outcomes and historical financial performance. We have a combination of long-standing employees at all levels who have worked together for years and talented newer employees that help to contribute best practices and innovation – all bringing a wealth of experience in healthcare.
Our leadership team has driven a clearly defined vision and mission through the organization. It has fostered and developed a focus on quality, operational excellence, and growth across our enterprise, underpinned by strong people, efficient processes, and robust technology and data systems and applications. The Company has consistently innovated its service models to drive results and augment our positioning as a valuable partner to industry stakeholders. Our culture is at the heart of all we do, enabling execution of our strategies. Our commitment and passion for making a difference and helping people guides the way our care and services are delivered, one patient at a time.
As a leading mission-driven and quality-focused health services organization, our employees are fundamental to our ability to maximize our impact in serving clients, patients, families, customers, referral sources and partners, and all healthcare stakeholders.
6
Table of Contents
Focusing on the interests and development of our employees is a top priority, and our ability to attract and retain compassionate and skilled caregivers and pharmacy professionals, as well as talented functional and managerial staff, is fundamental to our future.
Our LEGACY focus guides every member of our team to act as professionally and responsibly as possible with an attention to the following core behaviors:
•
Leadership: Everyone is a leader. Establish purpose and coach to make others better.
•
Environment: Work together among a trusting team, and reward good performance.
•
Get Going: Think. Plan. Act. Take action to set and hit our goals.
•
Attitude: Take a positive, can-do approach, because that is contagious.
•
Communication: Connect, coordinate, and collaborate, so that everyone is in the know.
•
You: Be an example. Stop and reflect. Set high standards, and note progress and wins.
These LEGACY standards show up in all areas of operations, including strategic planning, budgeting, quality and compliance, operations, sales and marketing, technology, management review systems, performance reviews, compensation, and promotions. We believe our culture supports our ability to operate at the highest levels to maximize our collective impact in fulfilling our mission and delivering critically needed care to our clients and patients in a high-quality way. If we do this, we believe that sound and responsible financial results will follow, which enable further investment in people, technology and continuous improvement efforts.
Operational Excellence
Operational excellence is a focus of our Company. It is a key aspect of our performance, and we believe it will be a driver of our continued growth. Our senior leadership’s attention to how we operate and manage our services and enterprise support functions is reflected in continuous improvement efforts in both volume and cost efficiency related areas for improved results. In field operations, processes and teams are empowered with clear strategies and goals and managed from the local level up through regions, with key enterprise functions such as finance and accounting, revenue cycle, information technology, quality, compliance, human resources, legal, payroll, accounts payable, communications, sales and marketing, and government relations working to support front-line and field employees and managers to be as knowledgeable and impactful as possible. In addition to large finance and human resources organizations, dedicated PMO, IMO, and Procurement teams have been in place for the last nine years and serve as control functions, as they evaluate opportunities, drive continuous improvement projects, and support the execution of critical initiatives across all business and enterprise functions in the Company.
Working collaboratively, these teams have a broad mandate and are empowered from the CEO office to support further growth and realize savings through new strategies to drive volume, people and culture enhancements, process improvements and operational efficiencies, synergy capture from acquisitions, and improved purchasing that leverages our scale. The implementation of our PMO-led continuous improvement program over the past nine years at the enterprise level has resulted in approximately $84.7 million of annual savings in 2025 (in addition to annual efficiencies and savings work throughout field operations) from improved processes and working smarter, and these efficiencies have been used to reinvest in employees (both existing employees through wages and benefits and new employees to support key strategies, innovation and infrastructure needs to further scale), quality, technology, and growth initiatives. Our cost initiatives have included various projects such as formulary product focus which then can lead to pricing improvements, delivery route optimization, and vehicle and mileage optimization among many other initiatives focused on reducing waste and improving costs in our network.
We have continued to make investments to improve the overall efficiency and workflow of our business and position ourselves for continued future growth. For example, investments in technology and information systems to support our businesses in recent years have included new and improved EMR and ERP systems across different pharmacy and provider services for continued usability improvements, quality objectives, sales and marketing strategies, enabling mobile and electronic visit verification, implementation of daily pay and other employee support applications, and enhancements to financial, revenue cycle, recruiting and training systems. Our cloud-based data lake (storage) and business intelligence (analytics) capabilities are now a single digital platform and set up to feed real-time quality, operational, and financial metrics tracking across the Company. We continue to explore and invest in automated technologies that are bringing additional efficiency and effectiveness in our processes.
In 2020, we also completed the implementation of a financial systems transformation, including the implementation of Oracle Fusion and a new budgeting and forecasting system. Continued enhancements in revenue cycle systems and processes have included a new accounts receivable collections system to prioritize accounts and team activity and drive DSOs, implementation of our “One Touch” billing and collections program in pharmacy (to comparatively outperform for customers in a complicated industry billing environment using dedicated billing specialists assigned to facilities to proactively lower costs and optimize customer experiences), lockbox capability, and online bill pay. Employee and vendor initiatives have included payroll and accounts payable systems
7
Table of Contents
enhancements and conversions to automate field and people processes, a new enterprise recruiting, hiring and onboarding system, enhanced training systems and programs, introduction of an employee App, or OutReach, that also includes capability for employees to receive daily pay, and a new enterprise travel system to implement policy controls and bulk purchasing for better rates. In turn, we have continued to refine and leverage our scale with IT infrastructure consolidations and efficiencies and ongoing IT security investments in support of enterprise systems and data. Moreover, the Company is on a course to digitize as much information as possible and to automate all relevant processes and tasks possible, and we continue to identify opportunities to take advantage of robotic process automation, a discipline we introduced into the Company that has resulted in the automation of many rote, manual processes, saving time and freeing up employees for higher value-add activities.
Quality and compliance are central to our strategies and mission. We have demonstrated leading and excellent service and customer/patient/family satisfaction scores across the organization, as referenced in prior and other sections of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We continue to invest in quality and compliance resources with 208 enterprise oversight quality and compliance team members, who conduct approximately 350 additional, deep, and next-level audits annually, in addition to ongoing audits at the field operations level. This team also completes monthly record reviews of patient charts, leveraging electronic health records. We have over 550 pharmacies, branches/agencies, and service locations operated by agencies accredited by the leading national and third-party accreditation bodies, including ACHC, CHAP, Joint Commission, CARF, NABP, URAC, and BHCOE. The strength of our quality outcomes has also been validated in over thirty peer-reviewed scientific publications and presentations, and our work has been cited by other authors 122 times.
Our continued build-out of Home-Based Primary Care, transitional care management programs, including CCRx, and Clinical (Nursing) Hub services should further optimize quality outcomes and help to reduce unnecessary ER visits and hospitalizations across all provider service lines, as they will increase transitional care and primary care visits in the homes of high-risk patients, centralize on-call and tele-triage, perform high-risk patient monitoring and intervention (utilizing telehealth), monitor home health and hospice utilization algorithms and bridging, conduct “Aftercare” patient calls, manage care coordination opportunities, and support CCRx with patient monitoring, touch points, and care services coordination as needed. These continued investments in innovation and quality resources should add capabilities to support evolved models of quality and payment initiatives with payors in value-based arrangements in the future.
Our Competition
The U.S. healthcare industry in which we operate is highly competitive. We compete with a broad and diverse set of businesses spanning both pharmacy and provider services. We operate in a highly competitive industry as well. Within our markets, we compete with businesses spanning both pharmacy and provider services markets. In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, we compete with local, regional, and national pharmacies. While no other company singularly competes with us across all of our pharmacy customers and patients, on a nationwide basis we compete with several companies depending on the patient type and related service offering. In our infusion and specialty pharmacy services, we compete in the large and fragmented home infusion and specialty pharmacy markets including Option Care Health, Inc., Coram CVS/specialty infusion services (a division of CVS Health), Accredo Health Group, Inc. (a unit of Cigna), Optum Specialty Pharmacy (a subsidiary of OptumRx, which is a unit of the UnitedHealth Group), and various regional and local providers. In our home and community pharmacy services, owners of senior living and skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities may also provide pharmacy (and provider) services, and on a nationwide basis we compete with Omnicare, Inc., a division of CVS Health, and several others. In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, our continued success depends on our ability to attract and retain pharmacists and other pharmacy professionals. Competition for qualified pharmacists and other pharmacy professionals is robust. The inability to attract, retain, or motivate sufficient numbers of qualified pharmacy professionals could adversely affect our business. Although we have been able to meet our staffing requirements for pharmacists and other pharmacy professionals in the past, our inability to do so in the future would have a material adverse impact on us. In our Provider Services segment, we also compete for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, therapists, and other medical and non-medical personnel that we directly employ to provide healthcare services for our patients and to provide licensed medical services. We face significant competition in attracting and retaining these qualified providers.
Our principal competitors in both of our segments vary considerably in type, identity, and size by market. Our business could be adversely affected if we are not able to continue to penetrate existing markets, successfully expand into new markets, maintain or establish new relationships with health plans and providers, recruit qualified employees, or if we experience significant customer attrition to our competitors. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business.”
Sales and Marketing
In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, potential referral sources and customers include physicians and specialists (prescribers), hospitals, senior living providers, behavioral (I/DD and other) providers, hospice providers, skilled nursing and rehabilitation providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other health providers. We receive substantially all of our Provider Services clients and patients through third-party referrals, including from healthcare providers, such as physicians, hospitals, skilled nursing and
8
Table of Contents
rehabilitation facilities, assisted living facilities, state, county and city departments on aging, rehabilitation, mental health, behavioral health, and social services, MCOs, and other healthcare and social services providers, discharge planners, and case managers.
All of our referral sources are generally made aware of the Company’s available in-home, clinic-based, or community-based pharmacy and provider services through our team of clinical/account liaisons, patient care coordinators, clinicians, and operators, as well as through traditional and digital marketing initiatives and inside inbound/outbounds call center teams. These individuals focus on initiating, building, and maintaining professional and trusting relationships underpinned by value-add and up-to-date education about client/patient conditions and needs, regulatory guidelines and client/patient eligibility, the benefit of relevant and authorized services, and our specific approach to care and outcomes. We also provide ongoing market development through education and outreach to the industries and in the communities we serve in order to inform referral sources and healthcare participants about federal, state and locally sponsored care options, the needs of different patient types, the benefits of our services, and to communicate our role in providing quality home and community-based health services. Our development teams work closely with referral source prescribers and providers to discuss their specific needs and our capabilities, including proprietary programs, clinical support, and performance measures.
We have continued to invest in the leadership and personnel of our development teams across the organization by growing the number of team resources and broadening their geographic coverage, rolling out new and updated training curriculum and programs, and optimizing the use of time through targeting analytics. We have a specialized team of trade professionals that work with pharmaceutical manufacturers to understand their needs and pipeline of limited distribution drugs and construct programs to optimize the distribution, support, and usage of their products. We augment these teams through marketing resources that provide optimized educational content and tools and develop and manage market-specific education events and digital content and lead generation. We utilize customer relationship management, or CRM, technology tools to plan, track, and manage initiatives, activities, and results across teams. We have built an inside team to outreach and educate our target industries and who works in close coordination with the development and marketing teams. Our centralized communications team catalogues and publishes important ongoing news and events, as well as client/patient testimonials, and quality results and white papers, which have been published in many peer-reviewed journals. We also have a dedicated function in the organization that educates and advocates with policymakers at a higher level in partnership with industry associations and advocates, as champions for our clients/patients and employees.
Over the past several years we have increasingly worked with key healthcare system stakeholders, such as health systems (hospitals) and payors, to develop new, direct, and value-add relationships that focus on patient experiences and quality, including ACOs and MCOs that contract with CMS and the states for the servicing of federal and state Medicare and Medicaid programs, respectively. We expect to work more directly with payors and at-risk providers in the future to mutually construct “win-win” programs and payment constructs that are based on quality and overall outcomes and driven by the Company’s blend of service offerings and innovative care management programs that we continue to build.
Our Payors
We are reimbursed for substantially all of our services by federal, state, and local government programs, such as Medicare, including Medicare Part D, and Medicaid state programs, MCOs and other state agencies. In addition, we are reimbursed by commercial insurance, PBMs, and private pay consumers. Our pharmacy services are also reimbursed directly by some skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, hospice providers, hospitals, and other provider customers. Depending on the type of service, coverage for services may be predicated on a case manager, physician or nurse determination that the care is necessary or on the development of a plan for care in the home.
Medicare
Medicare is a federal program that provides medical services to persons aged 65 or older and other qualified persons with disabilities or end-stage renal disease. Medicare Parts A (hospital insurance) and B (medical insurance) provide prescription drug coverage in certain circumstances, while the Part D prescription drug benefit covers many outpatient prescription drugs. For example, Medicare Part A may cover drugs for individuals in skilled nursing facilities that receive Medicare-covered skilled nursing care. Medicare Part B covers some outpatient prescription drugs and biologics provided through our pharmacy services in certain circumstances, such as injectable products administered incident to a physician service. Under the Managed Medicare program (also known as Medicare Part C, or Medicare Advantage), the federal government contracts with private health insurers to provide members with Medicare Part A, Part B and Part D benefits. All of our operations must comply with the extensive conditions of participation in the Medicare program in order to continue receiving Medicare reimbursement.
For our patients and clients that receive certain home health benefits, effective January 1, 2020, CMS transitioned to 30-day periods of care within each 60-day certification of patient eligibility period and implemented the Patient-Driven Groupings Model, or PDGM, as the payment model for services provided to Medicare patients with dates of service on or after January 1, 2020. The PDGM replaced the case-mix system, which used the number of visits to determine payment, and classified patients based on clinical characteristics. The intent of the PDGM is to shift toward a value-based payment system and remove the incentive to overprovide
9
Table of Contents
care. CMS updates the Home Health Prospective Payment System, or HH PPS, payment rates each calendar year. For calendar year 2025, HH PPS rates increased by 2.7%, which reflects a 3.2% market basket update, reduced by a multifactor productivity adjustment of 0.5% as well as permanent adjustments through authority CMS retains to achieve budget neutrality of the new PDGM system through calendar year 2026. Home health providers that do not comply with quality data reporting requirements are subject to a 2 percentage point reduction to their market basket update.
Our Medicare beneficiaries who have a terminal illness and a life expectancy of six months or less may elect to receive hospice benefits in lieu of standard Medicare coverage for treatment. Hospice services are paid by Medicare as a daily rate for each day a patient is enrolled in the hospice benefit. Hospice payment rates increased by 2.6% for federal fiscal year 2026, which reflects a 3.3% market basket update with a 0.7% productivity reduction. CMS requires various providers, including hospice providers, to submit quality reporting data each year. Hospices that do not satisfy quality reporting requirements are subject to a 2 percentage point reduction to the market basket percentage update. Additionally, hospice companies are subject to two specific Medicare payment caps each hospice cap year (November 1 - October 31): the inpatient cap and the aggregate cap. The inpatient cap limits the number of inpatient care days (general inpatient and inpatient respite) for Medicare patients to no more than 20% of the total days of hospice care furnished to Medicare patients during the cap year. If a hospice exceeds the number of allowable inpatient care days, the hospice must refund any amounts received for inpatient care that exceed the total of: (i) the product of the total reimbursement paid to the hospice for inpatient care multiplied by the ratio of the maximum number of allowable inpatient days to the actual number of inpatient care days furnished by the hospice to Medicare patients; and (ii) the product of the number of actual inpatient days in excess of the limitation multiplied by the routine home care rate. The aggregate cap, which is calculated each federal fiscal year, limits the amount of Medicare reimbursement a hospice may receive based on an annual per-beneficiary cap amount and the number of Medicare patients served. If a hospice’s Medicare payments exceed its aggregate cap, it must repay Medicare for the excess amount. In federal fiscal years 2025 and 2026, the aggregate caps are $34,465.34 and $35,361.44, respectively.
Our pharmacy services for eligible Medicare patients are reimbursed through the Medicare Part D program, which makes prescription drug coverage available to eligible Medicare beneficiaries. For our Medicare-eligible patients receiving pharmacy services, we primarily contract with PBMs, who contract with plan sponsors to administer and provide Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage. The Medicare Part D program regulates various aspects of the provision of Medicare drug coverage, including enrollment, formularies, pharmacy networks, marketing, and claims processing. CMS has imposed restrictions and consent requirements for automatic prescription delivery programs, and further limited the circumstances under which Medicare Part D plans may recoup payments to pharmacies for claims that are subsequently determined not payable under Medicare Part D. CMS sanctions for non-compliance may include suspension of enrollment and even termination from the program.
The Medicare Part D program has undergone significant legislative and regulatory changes since its inception, which have had varying impacts on utilization and margin rates. Medicare Part D continues to attract a high degree of legislative and regulatory scrutiny, and applicable government rules and regulations continue to evolve. Accordingly, it is possible that regulatory oversight and legislative and regulatory developments, including changes to Medicare Part D program requirements and reductions in funding, could materially affect our Medicare Part D business, results of operations, or profitability.
Medicaid Programs
Medicaid is a state-administered program that provides certain medical, pharmacy and social services to qualified low-income individuals and is jointly funded by the federal government and individual states. Reimbursement rates and methods vary by state and service type but are typically based on an hourly or unit-of-service basis. Rates are subject to adjustment based on statutory and regulatory changes, administrative rulings, government funding limitations and interpretations of policy by individual state agencies. Within guidelines established by federal statutes and regulations, and subject to federal oversight, each state establishes its own eligibility standards, determines the type, amount, duration and scope of services, sets the rate of payment for services and administers its own program. States typically cover Medicaid beneficiaries for intermittent home health services as well as continuous services for children and young adults with complicated medical conditions and home and community-based services for seniors and people with disabilities. Pharmacy coverage is an optional benefit under federal Medicaid laws and regulations, but states typically provide coverage for outpatient prescription drugs for eligible individuals under state Medicaid programs and may also pay pharmacies directly for the drugs and supplies of eligible Medicaid members.
Some states are moving the administration of their Medicaid personal care programs to MCOs. This transition is due to an overall desire to better manage the costs of the Medicaid long-term care programs. In addition, hospice and home health services are also reimbursed by MCOs in some states. Reimbursement from the MCOs for personal care services is generally on an hourly, fee-for-service basis with rates consistent with or as a percentage of the individual state funded rates. The Company has been increasing its source of reimbursement and revenue from incentive and quality-based contracts with payors and through ACO arrangements and partnerships. In addition to personal care services, we derive reimbursement for our pharmacy services from Medicaid for those Medicaid-eligible and paid patients. Medicaid prescription drug coverage and reimbursement varies by state and is based on the
10
Table of Contents
ingredient cost of the drug, which may depend on factors such as a drug’s acquisition cost and average sale price, and a professional dispensing fee, which may vary based on the type of medication (e.g., brand, generic, specialty, compounded medication) and other factors, such as annual prescription volume.
Pharmacy Benefit Managers
We have a large number of contracts with PBMs including Caremark, Optum, ESI, and Humana. PBMs are third-party administrators of prescription drug programs for commercial health plans, self-insured employer plans, Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and state government employee plans. PBMs typically administer multiple prescription drug plans that provide for varying reimbursement rates. We contract directly with PBMs and other healthcare providers to provide our pharmacy services and derive a portion of our sales from prescription drug sales reimbursed through the prescription drug plans administered by PBMs. Our PBM contracts range from annual to multi-year contracts and expire at various times. If our contracts with one or more of these PBMs are terminated, restricted or subject to material adverse changes, such changes may have a material impact on the reimbursement we receive from the PBMs. PBM fees assessed to pharmacies by PBMs, which may be difficult to predict, may also adversely affect our profitability. There is also increased regulatory and legislative activity and scrutiny of PBMs and prescription drug costs at the federal and state levels that could lead to additional regulatory oversight, adverse legislative or regulatory developments or adverse impacts on our business, financial position, and results of operations.
Other
Healthcare provider pharmacy customers such as hospitals, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, Behavioral (including I/DD) providers, hospice providers, and other healthcare services providers are direct payors for certain of our pharmacy services provided, and we have a large and diversified number of these contracts in place, which are either annual or multi-year and typically either fee-for-service or per diem in nature. Other sources of funding are available to support home and community-based healthcare services in different states and localities. In addition, many states appropriate general funds or special use funds through targeted taxes or lotteries to finance personal care services for senior citizens and individuals with disabilities. Depending on the state, these funds may be used to supplement existing Medicaid programs or for distinct programs that serve non-Medicaid eligible consumers. Any termination or material changes to these contracts or changes to the allocation of state funds or programs could affect our business, financial position, and results of operations.
Commercial Insurance
For patients receiving pharmacy services that are under commercial insurance coverage, we contract with many different commercial insurance plans and through PBMs for payment for their members’ pharmacy services. For certain provider services, most long-term care insurance policies contain benefits for in-home services. Policies are generally subject to dollar limitations on the amount of daily, weekly or monthly coverage provided. Any termination or material changes to such contracts could have a material impact on the reimbursement that we receive and our financial position and results of operations.
Private Pay
Our private pay services are provided on an hourly or type of services basis. Our rates are competitive with those of other local providers. We bill our private pay consumers for services rendered weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. Other private payors include workers’ compensation programs/insurance, preferred provider organizations, and employers.
Supply
In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, we have purchased some of the generic and brand pharmaceuticals that we dispense through wholesaler and GPO agreements. In certain situations, we also purchase branded and generic pharmaceuticals directly from drug manufacturers. We have a sizable and experienced centralized procurement team that oversees inventory management and coordinates all purchasing across suppliers and vendors across the organization to leverage our scale and ensure optimal and cost-effective products.
Intellectual Property
We rely on a combination of intellectual property laws, internal procedures, and contractual provisions to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. We believe our trademarks are valuable assets, including various trademarks and service marks registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
11
Table of Contents
Information Technology
Our information technology systems are essential to our day-to-day operations as well as to our long-term growth strategies. Technology is integrated across all business functions throughout the organization, including in coding, eMARs/EHRs, clinical operations, pharmacy operations, billing and collections, compliance, human resources, payroll, accounts payable, purchasing, sales and marketing, management business reviews, and financial reporting and accounting functions. The focus of information technology for the Company is to provide for efficient workstreams and to strive to deliver real-time, accurate data and effective and secure solutions that enable our employees to perform their daily responsibilities of delivering services and care as best possible, while also determining new and innovative ways to improve both employee and patient experiences. We view information technology as a critical enabler of future results for the Company that must help support consistent, efficient processes and quality in a scaled organization with a large number of offices, customers, and patient service locations.
Our technology capabilities are delivered through a combination of services that utilize third-party software-as-a-service, or SaaS, cloud-based solutions, provider hosted colocation, and on-premises systems. The ability to leverage these different delivery methods allows our Company to customize solutions that meet customers’ needs, support growth, leverage decision systems, and take advantage of evolving technology trends. Paramount in the delivery of all information technology services throughout the organization is a focus on data security and technology-based security solutions that protect the Company’s data with responsible stewardship and efforts to safeguard of data. We have continued to invest greater amounts into technology resources and systems that we believe are required, drive continuous improvement, and reflect leading infrastructure and applications standards in our industries, including investments in automation, digitization, standardization, and modernization initiatives.
We will continue to drive new and innovative approaches to supporting our employees, clients, patients, customers, referral sources, payors, and all stakeholders through integrated technology solutions that help to optimize workflows, data/analytics sharing, and quality and cost outcomes. Over the past several years, we have deployed upgraded and new systems across clinical and compliance (e.g., eMARs/EHRs), pharmacy ERP, revenue cycle, finance, business intelligence, or BI, payroll, human resources, training, sales and marketing platforms, and employee connectivity applications. We are continuing to advance the integration of different systems across the enterprise, and by establishing an electronic lifecycle that supports a continuum of care for a patient. We are focused on continued improvements in the experience and quality of patient care, for example, in addressing healthcare industry challenges related to the navigation of multiple discharge/admissions processes, missing information from previous stages/sites of care, and connecting all patient care services. We believe we can provide a better patient and family experience during an individual’s progression of care through more coordinated care enabled by user-friendly technology.
For more information regarding risks related to our information technology, see “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business.”
Employees and Human Capital Resources
As a leading mission-driven and quality-focused health services organization, our valued employees are fundamental to our ability to maximize the Company’s impact in serving clients, patients, families, customers, referrals sources and partners, and all healthcare stakeholders. Focusing on the interests and development of our employees is a top priority, and our ability to attract and retain compassionate and skilled caregivers and pharmacy professionals, as well as talented functional and managerial staff, is fundamental to our future. We believe the team we have built across the Company, including managers and our dedicated clinicians, caregivers, employees, managers, and leaders, are the critical elements that have enabled us to build an industry leading and differentiated healthcare platform. We have approximately 500 human resources professionals in the Company supporting our businesses and enterprise functions, in groups and teams spanning recruiting, learning, training, organizational development, compensation and benefits, leadership development, M&A integration, employee relations, HR compliance, HR information technology, and generalist HR activities and business partners.
A key strategy of the Company is effectively recruiting, attracting, onboarding, and retaining well-qualified and motivated employees. We use a comprehensive mix of initiatives and tactics to accomplish this, including traditional recruiting resources, traditional media, community events, open houses, job fairs, mailings, digital media candidate lead generation, targeted outreach, and partnerships with job boards, colleges, and non-profits. We continue to focus on the hiring, onboarding, and training process to make it as streamlined and meaningful as possible, while also evaluating and implementing the most up-to-date technology assisted solutions, including those driven by AI. Our LEGACY culture and core behaviors focus on fostering good environments for our employees, healthy communication through real time feedback and collaboration, and positive attitudes and actions that are routinely recognized and rewarded by peers and leaders. As a result, our retention rates across our Company have continued to improve year-over-year. For example, we have had approximately 70% retention of clinical positions in home health care, hospice care, and rehab care from December 31, 2024 to December 31, 2025.
Recognizing the importance of our employee base, we have consistently increased investments in compensation and benefits in support of our multi-faceted efforts to attract and retain people, as demonstrated by our compensation up over 50% in the last four years, and we offer innovative technology solutions to our employees that allow them the option to access their pay daily. We are
12
Table of Contents
continuing to broaden existing relationships that we have with nursing and other professional schools and build out more internal career pathways and talent pipeline programs (e.g., internships, high potential, and international programs) to each of our service lines to grow the pool of available, qualified candidates for rewarding professions and create higher-paying jobs for people through career paths. These career paths are designed to address many different roles in the Company, providing new skills, on-the-job training for employees to elevate their position and with opportunities for enhanced tuition programs to support our employees.
As of December 31, 2025, we had over 23,500 full-time equivalent employees at the Company. Approximately 3,500 full-time equivalent employees are represented by labor unions. We maintain strong working relationships with these organizations, and we have numerous collective bargaining agreements in place, which are renegotiated from time to time. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—Our business may be harmed by labor relation matters.”
Overall, we believe that we have a strong employee relations culture and an inclusive work environment with policies and procedures to maintain safe working conditions for all of our employees. Our Company has received numerous human resources and many people-related awards from external companies over the years, and we remain committed to executing on our vision to be the leading provider of health services in the United States and doing so through an engaged and stable workforce.
Regulation
Our operations are subject to extensive federal, state, and local governmental laws and regulations. These laws and regulations require us to meet various standards relating to, among other things, arrangement and provision of covered healthcare services to our patients and customers, operation and management of provider and pharmacy solutions, dispensing of pharmaceuticals, the manner in which we provide and bill for services and collect reimbursement from governmental programs and private payors, arrangements with physicians and other licensed healthcare professionals, manufacturers and referral sources, facility licensure, personnel qualifications, and maintenance of proper records and quality assurance programs. If any of our operations are found to violate applicable laws or regulations, we could suffer severe consequences that would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, cash flows, reputation, and stock price, including:
•
suspension, termination or exclusion of our participation in government payor programs;
•
loss of our licenses required to operate provider and pharmacy solutions in the states in which we operate;
•
criminal or civil liability, fines, damages or monetary penalties relating to healthcare fraud and abuse, including the Stark Law, the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute, the False Claims Act and/or state analogs to these federal enforcement authorities, or violations of other regulatory requirements, including state corporate practice of medicine and fee splitting laws;
•
mandated changes to our practices or procedures that significantly increase selling, general, and administrative expenses or decrease our revenue;
•
imposition of and compliance with corporate integrity agreements or other agreements that could subject us to ongoing audits, corrective actions, and reporting requirements as well as increased scrutiny of our business practices which could lead to potential fines, among other things;
•
termination or restructuring of various relationships and/or contracts related to our business, including joint venture arrangements, contracts with government payors, and real estate leases;
•
changes in and reinterpretation of rules and laws by a regulatory agency, legislature or court, such as state corporate practice of medicine laws, that could affect the structure and management of our business;
•
negative adjustments to government payment models including, but not limited to, Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D and Medicaid;
•
admissions bans, admissions holds, application denial periods, or reductions in census; and
•
harm to our reputation, which could negatively impact our business relationships, the terms of government payor contracts, our ability to attract and retain patients, customers and referral sources, our ability to obtain financing, and our access to new business opportunities, among other things.
We expect that our industries will continue to be subject to substantial regulation, the scope and effect of which are difficult to predict. Our activities could be subject to investigations, audits, and inquiries by various government and regulatory agencies with whom we contract at any time in the future, including as a result of self-disclosures or self-reported non-compliance. In the past, government and regulatory agencies have taken measures against us and our facilities as a result of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Regulatory Framework.”
13
Table of Contents
Anti-Kickback Statute
The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration, directly or indirectly, in cash or kind, to induce or reward either the referral of an individual for, or the purchase, order or recommendation of, any good or service, for which payment may be made under federal and state healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person does not need to have actual knowledge of the Anti-Kickback Statute or have the specific intent to violate it.
Federal criminal penalties for the violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute include imprisonment, fines, and exclusion of the provider from future participation in federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. Violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute are punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years, criminal fines of up to $100,000 per kickback or both. Larger fines can be imposed upon corporations under the provisions of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the Alternate Fines Statute. Individuals and entities convicted of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute are subject to mandatory exclusion from participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal healthcare programs for a minimum of five years in the case of criminal conviction. Civil penalties for violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute include up to $127,973 in monetary penalties per violation, repayments of up to three times the amount of the remuneration between the parties and potential exclusion from participation in Medicare and Medicaid. Court decisions have held that the statute may be violated even if only one purpose of remuneration is to induce referrals.
The Anti-Kickback Statute includes statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors that protect certain arrangements. These exceptions and safe harbors are voluntary. Business transactions and arrangements that are structured to comply fully with an applicable safe harbor do not violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. However, transactions and arrangements that do not satisfy all elements of a relevant safe harbor do not necessarily violate the law. When an arrangement does not satisfy a safe harbor, the arrangement must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis in light of the parties’ intent and the arrangement’s potential for abuse. Arrangements that do not satisfy a safe harbor may be subject to greater scrutiny by enforcement agencies. For example, we have a dedicated recruiting team whose job functions include recruiting licensed professionals to provide quality care to our patients. From time to time, this team may award sign-on, retention, and other discretionary bonuses to attract, reward, or retain talent. We believe such bonuses and employment agreements are consistent with a safe harbor provision designed to protect payments made to employees, but a governmental or regulatory authority or private party may take a contrary position.
CMS and the HHS OIG published final regulations in 2020 that addressed concerns regarding compensation arrangements between parties that participate in alternative payment models and novel financial arrangements that potentially implicated the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. These regulations modified existing Anti-Kickback Statute safe harbors and created new safe harbors and exceptions that may impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Stark Law
The Stark Law generally prohibits a physician who has (or whose immediate family member has) a financial relationship with a provider from making referrals to that entity for “designated health services” if payment for the services may be made under Medicare or Medicaid. If such a financial relationship exists, referrals are prohibited unless a statutory or regulatory exception is available. “Designated health services” include clinical laboratory services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, physical and occupational therapy services, outpatient speech-language pathology services, certain radiology services, radiation therapy services and supplies, durable medical equipment and supplies, parenteral and enteral nutrients equipment and supplies, prosthetics, orthotics and prosthetic devices and supplies, home health services, and outpatient prescription drugs. The types of financial arrangements between a physician and an entity providing designated health services that trigger the self-referral prohibitions of the Stark Law are broad and include direct and indirect ownership and investment interests and compensation arrangements. The Stark Law prohibits any entity providing designated health services that has received a prohibited referral from presenting, or causing to be presented, a claim or billing for the services arising out of the prohibited referral. Similarly, the Stark Law prohibits an entity from “furnishing” a designated health service to another entity in which it has a financial relationship when that entity bills for the service. The prohibition applies regardless of the reasons for the financial relationship and the referral. Unlike the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law is a strict liability statute where unlawful intent need not be demonstrated.
If the Stark Law is implicated, the financial relationship must fully satisfy a Stark Law exception. If an exception is not satisfied, then the parties to the arrangement could be subject to sanctions. Sanctions for violation of the Stark Law include denial of payment for claims for services provided in violation of the prohibition, refunds of amounts collected in violation of the prohibition, a civil penalty of up to $29,899 for each service arising out of the prohibited referral, a civil penalty of up to $199,338 against parties that enter into a scheme to circumvent the Stark Law prohibition, civil assessment of up to three times the amount claimed and potential exclusion from the federal healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid. Amounts collected on claims related to prohibited referrals must be reported and refunded generally within 60 days after the date on which the overpayment was identified. Furthermore, Stark Law violations and failure to return overpayments in a timely manner can form the basis for liability under the False Claims Act, as discussed below. If CMS or other regulatory or enforcement authorities determine that claims have been submitted for referrals by us that violate the Stark Law, we would be subject to the penalties described above.
14
Table of Contents
CMS and the HHS OIG published final regulations that established exceptions to the Stark Law for certain value-based compensation arrangements between or among physicians, providers, and suppliers. The regulations also created a new exception for arrangements under which a physician receives limited remuneration for items or services actually provided by the physician, established a new exception for donations of cybersecurity technology and related services, and amended an exception for electronic health records items and services. These regulations may impact our business, results of operations and financial condition.
Fraud and Abuse under State Law
Some states have laws prohibiting physicians from having financial interests in or with healthcare facilities to which they refer patients. States also have laws similar to or stricter than the Anti-Kickback Statute that may affect our ability to enter into financial relationships with certain entities or individuals. Some state anti-kickback laws also include civil and criminal penalties. Some of these laws include exemptions that may be applicable to our physician relationships or for financial interests limited to shares of publicly traded stock. Some, however, may include no explicit exemption for certain types of agreements and/or relationships entered into with physicians. If these laws are interpreted to apply to physicians who hold equity interests in our pharmacies and/or centers or to physicians who hold our publicly traded stock, and for which no applicable exception exists, we may be required to terminate or restructure our relationships with these physicians and could be subject to criminal, civil, and administrative sanctions, refund requirements, and exclusions from government healthcare programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, cash flows, reputation, and stock price.
Similarly, states have beneficiary inducement prohibitions and consumer protection laws that may be triggered by the offering of inducements, incentives, and other forms of remuneration to patients and prospective patients. Violations range from civil to criminal and could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
False Claims Act
The False Claims Act is a means of policing false bills or false requests for payment in the healthcare delivery system. Among other things, the False Claims Act authorizes the imposition of up to three times the government’s damages and significant per claim civil penalties on any “person” (including an individual, organization, or company) who, among other acts:
•
knowingly presents or causes to be presented to the federal government a false or fraudulent claim for payment or approval;
•
knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim;
•
knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used a false record, report or statement material to an obligation to pay the government, or knowingly conceals, or knowingly and improperly avoids or decreases an obligation to pay or transmit money or property to the federal government; or
•
conspires to commit the above acts.
•
Under the False Claims Act, private parties can also bring qui tam, or “whistleblower,” suits against healthcare facilities that submit false claims for payments to, or improperly retain overpayments from, governmental payors. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute or Stark Law constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act.
The federal government has used the False Claims Act to prosecute a wide variety of alleged false claims and fraud allegedly perpetrated against Medicare and state healthcare programs, including but not limited to coding errors, billing for services not rendered, the submission of false cost or other reports, billing for services at a higher payment rate than appropriate, billing under a comprehensive code as well as under one or more component codes included in the comprehensive code, billing for care that is not considered medically necessary and false reporting of risk-adjusted diagnostic codes. The ACA provides that claims for payment that are tainted by a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute (which could include, for example, illegal incentives or remuneration in exchange for enrollment or referrals) are false for purposes of the False Claims Act. In addition, amendments to the False Claims Act and Social Security Act impose severe penalties for the knowing and improper retention of overpayments from government payors. Under these provisions, within 60 days of identifying and quantifying an overpayment, a healthcare provider is required to notify CMS or the Medicare Administrative Contractor of the overpayment and the reason for it and return the overpayment. An overpayment impermissibly retained could subject us to liability under the False Claims Act, exclusion from government healthcare programs and penalties under the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute. As a result of these provisions, our procedures for identifying and processing overpayments may be subject to greater scrutiny.
The penalties for a violation of the False Claims Act range from $5,500 to $11,000 (periodically adjusted for inflation) for each false claim, plus up to three times the amount of damages caused by each false claim, which can be as much as the amounts received directly or indirectly from the government for each such false claim. The Department of Justice has adjusted the per claim penalty
15
Table of Contents
range from $14,308 to $28,619 for penalties assessed after July 3, 2025, so long as the underlying conduct occurred after November 2, 2015. Healthcare providers often resolve allegations without admissions of liability for significant amounts to avoid the uncertainty of treble damages that may be awarded in litigation proceedings. Such settlements often contain additional compliance and reporting requirements as part of a consent decree, settlement agreement, or corporate integrity agreement. Given the significant size of actual and potential settlements for violations under the False Claims Act, it is expected that the government will continue to devote substantial resources to investigating healthcare providers’ compliance with healthcare reimbursement rules and fraud and abuse laws.
In addition to civil enforcement under the False Claims Act, the federal government can use several criminal statutes to prosecute persons who are alleged to have submitted false or fraudulent claims for payment to the federal government. A determination that activities resulted in the submission of false claims could result in monetary liability, prison sentences, and/or exclusion from participation in any healthcare program funded in whole or in part by the U.S. government, including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and state healthcare programs. Any allegations or findings that we have violated the False Claims Act could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In addition to the False Claims Act, the various states in which we operate have adopted their own analogs of the False Claims Act. States are becoming increasingly active in using their false claims laws to police the same activities listed above, particularly with regard to capitated government-sponsored healthcare programs, such as Medicaid fee-for-service and Managed Medicaid programs.
Civil Monetary Penalties Statute
The Civil Monetary Penalties Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7a, authorizes the imposition of civil monetary penalties, assessments, and exclusion against an individual or entity based on a variety of prohibited conduct, including, but not limited to:
•
presenting, or causing to be presented, claims, reports or records relating to payment by Medicare, Medicaid or other government payors that the individual or entity knows or should know are for an item or service that was not provided as claimed, is false or fraudulent or was presented for a physician’s service by a person who knows or should know that the individual providing the service is not a licensed physician, obtained licensure through misrepresentation or represented certification in a medical specialty without in fact possessing such certification;
•
offering remuneration to a federal healthcare program beneficiary that the individual or entity knows or should know is likely to influence the beneficiary to order or receive healthcare items or services from a particular provider;
•
arranging contracts with or making payments to an entity or individual excluded from participation in the federal healthcare programs or included on CMS’s preclusion list;
•
violating the Anti-Kickback Statute;
•
making, using, or causing to be made or used a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim for payment for items and services furnished under a federal healthcare program;
•
making, using, or causing to be made any false statement, omission, or misrepresentation of a material fact in any application, bid, or contract to participate or enroll as a provider of services or a supplier under a federal healthcare program; and
•
failing to report and return an overpayment owed to the federal government.
We could be exposed to a wide range of allegations to which the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute would apply. Substantial civil monetary penalties may be imposed under the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute and may vary depending on the underlying violation. In addition, an assessment of not more than three times the total amount claimed for each item or service may also apply and a violator may be subject to exclusion from federal and state healthcare programs.
We perform checks on our providers and certain affiliates and vendors using government databases to confirm that these individuals have not been excluded from federal programs. However, should an individual become excluded and we fail to detect it, a federal agency could require us to refund amounts attributable to all claims or services performed or sufficiently linked to an excluded individual. Thus, we cannot foreclose the possibility that we will face allegations subject to the Civil Monetary Penalties Statute with the potential for a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Corporate Practice of Medicine and Fee-Splitting Laws
Some of the states in which we currently operate have laws that prohibit business entities, such as us, from practicing medicine, employing physicians to practice medicine, exercising control over medical decisions by physicians or engaging in certain arrangements, such as fee-splitting, with physicians (such activities are generally referred to as the corporate practice of medicine). These prohibitions on the corporate practice of medicine are intended to prevent unlicensed persons from interfering with the practice of medicine by licensed physicians or interfering with the independent professional judgment of physicians as it pertains to treatment
16
Table of Contents
and related clinical matters. Some states have similar doctrines with respect to other professional licensure categories, including behavioral health services. Fee-splitting, which describes the practice of professionals splitting their professional fees with a non-professional or other unlicensed person or an entity owned by an unlicensed person, is also prohibited in some jurisdictions. In some states, these prohibitions are expressly stated in a statute or regulation, while in other states the prohibitions are a matter of judicial or regulatory interpretation. Some of the relevant laws, regulations and agency guidance in states with corporate practice of medicine restrictions have been subject to limited judicial and regulatory interpretations, which are often sparse and not fully developed, complicating compliance efforts. While we endeavor to comply with state corporate practice of medicine laws and frequently engage outside counsel to conduct state analyses in each state in which we operate, the laws and regulations in these areas are complex, changing, and often subject to varying interpretations. For example, in states where the corporate practice of medicine is prohibited, we endeavor to comply with applicable state laws by entering into certain contractual relationships, such as management services agreements, whereby licensed medical practices employ licensed professionals to provide licensed services to our patients and residents.
The enforcement of these laws varies significantly from state to state, and state courts and regulatory authorities have broad discretion to enforce such laws. Penalties for violations of the corporate practice of medicine also vary by state and may result in physicians and licensed professionals being subject to disciplinary action, as well as to forfeiture of revenues from payors for services rendered. For business entities, such as us, violations may also bring both civil and, in more extreme cases, criminal liability for engaging in medical practice without a license.
State laws or regulations prohibiting the corporate practice of medicine may contemplate the employment of physicians and other licensed professionals by certain types of entities, but may not provide a specific exemption for the services we provide. Regulatory authorities and other parties may assert that our employment of licensed professionals in some states means that we are engaged in the prohibited corporate practice of medicine or that how such professionals are paid implicates fee-splitting prohibitions. If this were to occur, we could be subject to civil and/or criminal penalties, our agreements with physicians could be found legally invalid and unenforceable (in whole or in part) or we could be required to restructure our arrangements with licensed professionals, in each case in one or more of the jurisdictions in which we operate. Any of these outcomes may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and reputation.
Licensing Laws and State Directives
Our facilities, healthcare professionals, and pharmacy and provider solutions are subject to various federal, state, and local licensure and certification requirements in connection with our provision of healthcare and other services. Certain states in which we operate have certificate of need or similar programs regulating the establishment or expansion of healthcare facilities, including our pharmacy and provider solutions. The initial and continued licensure of our facilities and certification to participate in government healthcare programs depends upon many factors including various state licensure regulations relating to quality of care, environment of care, equipment, services, staff training, personnel, and the existence of adequate policies, procedures, and controls. Federal, state, and local agencies survey our facilities on a regular basis to determine whether the facilities are in compliance with regulatory operating and health standards and conditions for participating in government healthcare programs. In addition, physicians and other clinicians also must be licensed or certified, as applicable, in the states in which they are providing services.
Our healthcare facilities are also subject to federal, state, and commercial payor audits to validate the accuracy of claims submitted to government healthcare programs and commercial payors. If these audits identify overpayments, we could be required to make substantial repayments, subject to various appeal rights. Several of our facilities have undergone claims audits related to their receipt of payments during the last several years. Liability from audits could potentially exceed established reserves, and any excess could potentially be substantial. Further, Medicare and Medicaid regulations, as well as commercial payor contracts, also provide for withholding or suspending payments in certain circumstances, which could adversely affect our cash flow.
Any failure by us or our service providers to comply with federal, state, and local licensing and certification laws, regulations, and standards could result in a variety of consequences, including cessation of our services, loss of our contracts, prior payments by government payors being subject to recoupment, requirements to make significant changes to our operations, civil or criminal penalties, admissions bans, admissions holds, application denial periods, reductions in census, loss or revocation of licenses, loss of accreditation, administrative or other orders, adverse regulatory actions, settlements or other requirements to take corrective actions, harm to our reputation, or requirements to transfer our service users, to provide reports or other documentation, to demonstrate compliance with licensure or other requirements or to undergo revisit surveys or inspections. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—If we are unable to provide consistently high quality of care, our business will be adversely impacted.”
Our operators, along with our compliance, quality, legal, and government affairs support teams, routinely interact with regulatory agencies and their representatives. In relation to such interactions, our quality and compliance rules require immediate reporting to regulatory bodies when we learn of a reportable event that may put the health and safety of our patients at risk.
17
Table of Contents
Further, failure to obtain CON approval of certain activities can result in our inability to complete an acquisition, expansion or replacement, the imposition of civil penalties, the inability to receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement, or the revocation of a facility’s license, any of which could harm our business. We routinely take the steps we believe are necessary to retain or obtain all requisite licensure and operating authorities. While we endeavor to comply with federal, state, and local licensing and certification laws, regulations, and standards as we interpret them, the laws and regulations in these areas are complex, changing and often subject to varying interpretations.
Data Privacy and Security
Numerous state, federal, and foreign laws, including consumer protection laws and regulations, govern the processing, access to, confidentiality, and security of personal information, including health-related information. For example, HIPAA requires us to provide certain rights to individuals with respect to their health information. HIPAA extensively regulates the use and disclosure of PHI and requires covered entities, which include healthcare providers and their business associates, to implement and maintain administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the security of such information. Additional security requirements apply to electronic PHI. HIPAA also provides individuals with substantive rights with respect to their health information.
HIPAA also requires us to enter into written agreements with certain contractors, known as business associates, to whom we disclose PHI. Covered entities may be subject to penalties for, among other activities, failing to enter into a business associate agreement where required by law or as a result of a business associate violating HIPAA, if the business associate is found to be an agent of the covered entity and acting within the scope of the agency. Business associates are also directly subject to liability under HIPAA. In instances where we act as a business associate to a covered entity, there is the potential for additional liability beyond our status as a covered entity. HIPAA violations may result in triggered settlement payments or civil monetary penalties.
Covered entities must notify affected individuals of breaches of unsecured PHI without unreasonable delay but no later than 60 days after discovery of the breach by a covered entity or its agents. Reporting must also be made to the HHS Office for Civil Rights and, for breaches of unsecured PHI involving more than 500 residents of a state or jurisdiction, to the media. All impermissible uses or disclosures of unsecured PHI are presumed to be breaches unless an exception to the definition of breach applies or the covered entity or business associate establishes that there is a low probability the PHI has been compromised. Various state laws and regulations may also require us to notify affected individuals in the event of a data breach involving personal information without regard to the probability of the information being compromised.
Violations of HIPAA by providers like us, including, but not limited to, failing to implement appropriate administrative, physical and technical safeguards, have resulted in enforcement actions and in some cases significant civil or criminal penalties. Further, state attorneys general may bring civil actions seeking either injunction or damages in response to violations of the HIPAA privacy and security regulations that threaten the privacy of state residents. There can be no assurance that we will not be the subject of an investigation (arising out of a reportable breach incident, audit or otherwise) alleging non-compliance with HIPAA in our maintenance of PHI. States attorneys general may also negotiate settlements for related cases and on behalf of their respective residents.
HHS proposed revisions to HIPAA regulations in December 2020 that, if finalized as proposed, would modify existing provisions regarding individuals’ rights to access health information, increase information sharing between healthcare organizations, including through direct sharing of electronic health records, and restrict certain fees that we may charge for medical record retrieval services. If certain of these proposed amendments are finalized as proposed, we will be required to establish and implement new policies and procedures to ensure compliance with such amendments. Additionally, HHS proposed revisions to HIPAA regulations in April 2023 that, if adopted as proposed, would modify privacy protections for reproductive health information, limit uses and disclosures of PHI for certain purposes, and establish new attestation requirements to protect sensitive PHI. If certain of these proposed amendments are adopted as proposed, we will be required to establish and implement new policies and procedures to ensure compliance with such amendments.
Any creation, use, or deployment of artificial intelligence, or AI, may also subject us to additional risks under HIPAA and other health privacy laws and regulations. To the extent we use PHI to train AI, we are required to follow laws, regulations, and contractual requirements on uses and disclosures of PHI, which may require us to obtain patient authorizations, or to de-identify PHI. In addition, the FTC has announced that they are taking a closer look at how AI is developed and used, including evaluating claims by companies regarding AI that could be false or misleading to take appropriate steps to reduce biases.
In addition to HIPAA, numerous state, federal, and foreign laws and regulations govern the processing of PHI and personal information, some of which are more stringent than HIPAA and many of which differ from each other in significant ways and may not have the same effect, thus complicating compliance efforts. Data privacy and security laws, regulations, and other obligations are constantly evolving, may conflict with each other to complicate compliance efforts, and can result in investigations, proceedings, or actions that lead to significant civil and/or criminal penalties and restrictions on data processing. For example, on July 15, 2020, the
18
Table of Contents
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, issued a final rule on the protection of substance use disorder, or SUD, treatment records under 42 C.F.R. Part 2, or the Part 2 Rule. The Part 2 final rule aims to reduce delays and burdens in care coordination by more closely aligning Part 2 with the HIPAA privacy rule, while maintaining certain privacy protections specific to Part 2. This final rule became effective August 14, 2020. Under the CARES Act, Congress also made significant modifications to the authorizing statute for the Part 2 regulations and required greater alignment of the Part 2 laws with HIPAA. The law directs the Secretary of HHS to revise the Part 2 regulations such that the amendments would apply to uses and disclosures of SUD records on or after the date that is 12 months after the date of enactment of the CARES Act, which was enacted on March 27, 2020. On December 2, 2022, HHS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on the Part 2 regulations.
Further, the CCPA went into effect on January 1, 2020, and limits how we may process personal information about California residents and may require us to modify our data processing practices and policies and incur substantial compliance-related costs and expenses. The CCPA imposes severe statutory damages and provides consumers with a private right of action for certain data breaches. Further, the CPRA, which went into effect on January 1, 2023, expands the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements that may impact our business, and establishes a regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing those requirements. The requirements and effects of the CCPA and the CPRA are potentially far-reaching and may require us to modify certain policies and practices regarding the processing of certain personal information. Similar laws have been passed in other states, and are continuing to be proposed at the state and federal level, reflecting a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the United States.
Additionally, in Canada, PIPEDA and similar provincial laws may impose obligations with respect to processing personal information. PIPEDA requires companies to obtain an individual’s consent when collecting, using, or disclosing that individual’s personal information. Individuals have the right to access and challenge the accuracy of their personal information held by an organization, and personal information may only be used for the purposes for which it was collected. If an organization intends to use personal information for another purpose, it must again obtain that individual’s consent. Failure to comply with PIPEDA could result in significant fines and penalties.
Data privacy and security laws and regulations are often contradictory and subject to change or differing and evolving interpretations. The complex, dynamic legal landscape regarding privacy, data protection, and information security creates significant compliance challenges for us, potentially restricts our ability to process data (including personal information), and exposes us to additional expense, and, if we cannot comply with applicable laws in a timely manner or at all, adverse publicity, harm to our reputation and liability. Although we make reasonable efforts to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and have invested and continue to invest in data privacy compliance efforts, there can be no assurance that we will not be subject to regulatory action, including fines, in the event of an incident or other claim. We or our third-party service providers could be adversely affected if legislation or regulations are expanded to require changes in our or our third-party service providers’ business practices or if governing jurisdictions interpret or implement their legislation or regulations in ways that negatively affect our or our third-party service providers’ business, results of operations or financial condition.
Healthcare Reform Efforts
The U.S. federal and state governments continue to enact and seriously consider many broad-based legislative and regulatory proposals that have had a material impact on or could materially impact various aspects of the healthcare system and our business, operating results, and/or cash flows. In addition, state and federal budgetary shortfalls and constraints pose potential risks for our revenue streams. We cannot predict how government payors or healthcare consumers might react to federal and state healthcare legislation and regulation, whether already enacted or enacted in the future, nor can we predict what form many of these regulations will take before implementation. Some examples of legislative and regulatory changes impacting our business include:
In March 2010, broad healthcare reform legislation was enacted in the United States through the ACA. There have since been numerous political and legal efforts to expand, repeal, replace, or modify the ACA, and there may be additional political, legislative, or other efforts to repeal, replace, or change the ACA. On June 17, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the most recent judicial challenge to the ACA brought by several states without specifically ruling on the constitutionality of the ACA. We anticipate continued changes with respect to the ACA, which may occur as a result of legislation, court challenges, or executive, administrative or other actions, which may significantly impact our business operations and results of operations.
In February 2018, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which, among other things, adopted policies further integrating Medicare and Medicaid benefits for dual-eligible beneficiaries, repealed the Independent Payment Advisory Board that was established by the ACA and intended to reduce the rate of growth in Medicare spending, and extended sequestration cuts to Medicare payments through 2027. As a result of the CARES Act and subsequent legislation, the 2% aggregated reductions to Medicare payments will remain in effect through 2032.
19
Table of Contents
In March 2020, ONC and CMS issued complementary new rules that are intended to clarify provisions of the Cures Act regarding interoperability and information blocking and create significant new requirements for healthcare industry participants. It is unclear at this time what the costs of compliance with the new rules will be, and what additional risks there may be to our business.
While there may be significant changes to the healthcare environment in the future, the specific changes and their timing are not yet apparent. Specifically, changes in Medicare and Medicaid could lower pharmacy and provider solutions rates or increase our expenses. Any failure to successfully implement strategic initiatives that respond to future legislative, regulatory, and executive changes could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.
In December 2020, CMS and the HHS OIG final regulations established exceptions to the physician self-referral or the Stark Law for certain value-based compensation arrangements between or among physicians, providers, and suppliers. The regulations created a new exception for arrangements under which a physician receives limited remuneration for items or services actually provided by the physician, established a new exception for donations of cybersecurity technology and related services, and amended an exception for electronic health records items and services. These changes in federal regulations are anticipated to have a significant impact on healthcare providers and other stakeholders. In addition, we anticipate that additional changes will continue to be proposed in the future.
Other Regulations
Our operations are subject to various state hazardous waste and non-hazardous medical waste disposal laws. These laws do not classify as hazardous most of the waste produced from medical services. Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations require employers to provide workers who are occupationally subject to blood or other potentially infectious materials with prescribed protections. These regulatory requirements apply to all healthcare facilities, including our pharmacy and provider solutions, and require employers to make a determination as to which employees may be exposed to blood or other potentially infectious materials and to have in effect a written exposure control plan. In addition, employers are required to provide or employ hepatitis B vaccinations, personal protective equipment and other safety devices, infection control training, post-exposure evaluation and follow-up, waste disposal techniques and procedures, and work practice controls. Employers are also required to comply with various record-keeping requirements.
Federal and state law also governs the dispensing of controlled substances by pharmacists and physicians. For example, the Prescription Drug Marketing Act governs the distribution of drug samples. Any allegations or findings that we or our providers have violated any of these laws or regulations could have a material adverse impact on our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition.
Corporate and Available Information
Through our predecessors, we commenced operations in 1974 and have grown organically and through acquisitions. We were incorporated in Delaware on July 19, 2017, as Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc., in connection with KKR Stockholder’s and Walgreen Stockholder’s acquisition of PharMerica Corporation, which was completed in December 2017. In March 2019, we acquired BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries. We changed our name to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. in May 2021. We completed our initial public offering (“IPO”) in January 2024 and our common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “BTSG”.
Our principal offices are located at 805 N. Whittington Parkway, Louisville, Kentucky 40222. Our telephone number is (502) 394-2100. We maintain a website at www.brightspringhealth.com.
Our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports filed with or furnished to the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act are available free of charge on our website, under the “Investors - Financial Information - SEC Filings” caption, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with, or furnish them to, the SEC. We also make available through the Investors section of our website other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC under the Exchange Act, including our proxy statements and reports filed by officers and directors under Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act, as well as our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Corporate Governance Guidelines and Board committee charters. The information on our website (or any webpages referenced in this Annual Report on Form 10-K) is not part of this or any other report that we file with, or furnish to, the SEC. The SEC also maintains a website (www.sec.gov) where you can search for annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding us and other public companies.