BrightSpring offers Dare Board positive view of hospice and health services

On March 7, an official of BrightSpring’s Adoration Home Health and Hospice provided the Dare Commissioners with an upbeat assessment of how the company, which purchased the county’s HH&H operation last September for $2.9 million, was handling the transition and the needs of local residents.

For their part, the commissioners raised questions about the status of BrightSpring’s efforts to reach agreements with some commercial insurance companies.

Jody Moore, BrightSpring’s Vice President of Population Health & Post-Acute Strategy, told the board that, “Every transition, every acquisition we work on has bumps and so did this one. We had a hiccup here or there as we learned, as we got staff in place…but I feel comfortable saying that we’re providing a high level of care to your community.” Currently, Bright Spring’s Adoration Home Health and Hospice is serving 85 patients in Dare County.

Dare County sought to sell its HH&H operation after several years of struggling to secure adequate staffing. The prospective sale triggered concern among some community members that the level of care would suffer under an outside operator. But Moore said that with the exception of a hospice community liaison vacancy, staffing has not been an issue.

Currently, there are seven hospice employees and 19 in home health, he reported to the commissioners. “One thing that we have struggled with is to find a hospice community liaison. That’s a person who works with community members, physicians and hospitals to make sure that we have the right relationships, and we facilitate transitions for patients into our care efficiently.”

Moore said such a community liaison would also educate local residents about hospice.

Moore also told commissioners that Adoration Health Services is still searching for an office location. “We are trying to find the right footprint at the right budget,” he noted, adding that finding a location that was centrally located in the county for staff was a key consideration.

One issue that created some concern among the commissioners was the fact that Adoration Health doesn’t have or currently has pending contracts with insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield and a few other commercial companies. The concern expressed by some commissioners was that some in need may be being turned away and left without care

“We believe the impact was minimal,” Moore told commissioners, adding that Adoration worked with Albemarle Home Health and Hospice to see that a patient received care if Adoration didn’t have a contract with their insurance company. He added that 98 percent of Adoration’s admissions have Medicare as primary insurance. “We do have some commercial payers, but the majority is Medicare,” he noted.

“Our commitment,” he added, “is we’re going to take you regardless of payer status until this is all kind of settled.

As for the current number of patients it is serving, over the two years before the 2020 sale to BrightSpring, Dare County Health and Human Services Director Sheila Davies told the commissioners there were anywhere between 30 to 55 patients that the county serviced. At its peak, back in 2014 and 2015 when the county HH&H was fully staffed, Davies said it was serving about 120 patients.

For his part, Moore said Adoration’s goal is to grow to the point where it is at that level again.