Addus HomeCare, a personal care, home health and hospice firm, earned $12.7 million in the first quarter of 2023, a whopping 49.6% increase over the year-earlier quarter. Sales grew by 11% to $251.6 million.
Chairman and CEO Dirk Allison credited the strength of the company’s personal care segment, particularly the Illinois market, as a factor in the company’s performance.
“We have continued to see growing awareness of the value and safety of home-based care,” Allison said in a statement. “As an example of this recognition, our largest personal care market of Illinois recently received CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] approval for its most recent rate increase to be effective on April 1, 2023. This rate increase is in addition to the previously announced rate increase in Illinois that was effective January 1, 2023. There is sustained demand for our services, and Addus remains well-positioned to help serve this demand with a proven operating model across the continuum of home care.”
Ironically, on the same day that Addus revealed strong growth in its personal care services, it released a statement on the proposed rule related to Medicaid home- and community-based services. It took issue with the stipulation that 80% of Medicaid funds for home care go to direct care workers.
“We believe the specific approach and the proposed minimum threshold would be contradictory to the goal of assuring access to Medicaid services, which we fully support, due to the wide variance in state waiver programs which directly impacts the administrative burden in individual states,” the firm said. “We also believe it may adversely affect many smaller providers. Those operating in states with larger rural populations may be unable to continue providing care due to the significant administrative burden required to provide quality, regulatory compliant HCBS services.”
Addus’ personal care revenues grew by 12% in the quarter to $190 million in the quarter ended March 31. Home health sales expanded by 34.6% to $12.5 million. Hospice revenues rose by 2.8% to $49.1 million.
Dirk was optimistic about growth in the coming year.
“In addition to organic growth, we will continue to assess acquisition opportunities in 2023 that align with our overall growth strategy,” he said. “Importantly, we are well-capitalized to continue delivering value to our shareholders.”
