Home healthcare company AccentCare Inc. plans to move its headquarters from the Irvine Spectrum to Dallas later this year.
The company is moving to be more centrally located after a big acquisition in late 2010, said Chief Executive William “Biff” Comte.
Comte and nine others are moving to Dallas.
“This decision was not made easily or lightly,” Comte said in a statement. “Irvine has been our home since this company began. In order for us to remain competitive, it is more efficient for us to be centrally located.”
Local Workers Staying
Much of AccentCare’s local workforce is staying put. The company, which employs some 16,500 people overall, will have 300 workers remaining in its Irvine support center and at local branch locations and in its Irvine support center, which will stay open until October.
An AccentCare spokeswoman said that workers who aren’t relocating to Dallas will move to a Newport Beach location after October.
AccentCare will begin its move to Dallas in July.
AccentCare provides skilled nursing and non-medical services such as dressing, bathing and bathroom help to seniors in their homes.
AccentCare’s move was driven by its December buy of a Tennessee-based home health provider for an undisclosed price.
The company acquired Guardian Home Care Holdings of Brent-wood, Tenn., a Nashville suburb. Guardian serves more than 12,000 patients in Tennessee, Georgia and Texas and provides home healthcare and hospice services.
With the Guardian deal, AccentCare ex-panded to serve some 30,000 patients in 10 states.
AccentCare’s Texas Home Health unit will have 200 jobs available in Dallas. The company plans to give some workers displaced by the headquarters move the chance to apply for positions and relocate, according to a report on the website of KFDM-TV in Beaumont, Texas.
The company, which has more than $200 million in annual sales, primarily is owned by Stamford, Conn.-based Oak Hill Capital Partners, a private equity firm with more than $7 billion under management.
Oak Hill bought out AccentCare’s previous financial backers in 2010. Early AccentCare investors included Three Arch Partners of Menlo Park and Boston’s Highland Capital Partners LLC.
AccentCare’s changed how it does business through the years.
Early on, it primarily provided non-medical services. By 2009, skilled nursing made up about half of its business, Comte said in an earlier interview.
• Headquarters: Irvine, moving to Dallas
• Business: home healthcare services
• Yearly sales: more than $200 million
• Employees: 16,500, more than 300 local
• Ownership: Oak Hill Capital Partners
“In California, for sure, we’re one of the largest providers of home health Medicare services,” said Comte, a former chief operating officer of Concentra Inc., a Dallas company that helps businesses and insurance companies manage workers’ compensation claims.
Reducing Health Costs
AccentCare’s services are paid for by federal programs Medicare and Medicaid, long-term care insurance or by clients themselves or their adult children.
Comte has said that AccentCare and other home healthcare companies can play a part in reducing healthcare costs.
The company said studies have shown that people who receive healthcare in their homes were less likely to have repeat hospitalizations or visit the emergency room—two major factors in cost increases.
Competitors include Amedisys Inc. of Baton Rouge, La., Gentiva Health Services of Atlanta, National Healthcare Corp. of Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky.-based Almost Family Inc.
AccentCare doesn’t compete with Apria Healthcare Group Inc. of Lake Forest, one of the largest home healthcare providers.
Apria primarily provides breathing treatments to patients in their homes along with intravenous drug treatments, services that AccentCare doesn’t provide.
