AccentCare Makes Big East Coast Move
By VITA REED
Irvine-based AccentCare Inc. is growing fast.
The privately held senior care provider nearly doubled its size and solidified its East Coast expansion plans after nabbing Brooklyn-based Alliance for Health Inc. last week.
Alliance counts some $43 million in annual sales. It has 2,200 workers in all five New York boroughs.
AccentCare and Alliance provide non-medical care to senior citizens living at home. The company also has a small skilled nursing component.
The acquisition of Alliance for an undisclosed amount puts AccentCare’s revenue at some $93 million.
The company’s strategy in the Northeast was to establish a footing with a smaller acquisition and then buy big, according to Joe Davis, AccentCare’s founder and chief development officer.
In March, AccentCare bought Westchester, N.Y.-based Comprehen-sive Home Care, a relatively small-sized care company.
It also was looking for a “larger company that would serve as our platform, that would have a management team in place, have good systems,one that we would start to aggregate around,” Davis said.
Alliance fit the bill.
Culturally, they’re very similar to Accent-Care,” he said.
Founded in the early 1980s, Alliance primarily uses certified home health aides to care for frail seniors, he said.
Elyse Campo, Alliance’s chief executive, is staying on to run the unit, along with Michael Nofi, its chief financial officer.
AccentCare employs some 5,200 workers following the acquisition.
Separately, AccentCare named Biff Compe as its new chief executive. Compe most recently was chief operating officer at Concentra Inc., a $1.1 billion Dallas-based case management company that specializes in helping employers and insurance companies manage workers’ compensation claims.
“He has a tremendous amount of healthcare services experience,” Davis said of Compe. AccentCare’s management and board was looking for a person with large-company experience as AccentCare looks to expand aggressively.
Compe’s career also includes a stint at Premier Inc., the San Diego-based hospital products buyer. There, he worked under Robert O’Leary, now chief executive of Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., where he developed a physician practice management unit.
Davis said privately held, venture-backed AccentCare is in good financial shape. AccentCare has a $10 million line of credit with Comerica bank and got $25 million in venture funds last year from a group led by Menlo Park-based Three Arch Partners and Boston-based Highland Capital Partners.
“We’ve not had to raise capital since our funding last year,” Davis said.
AccentCare plans to concentrate on the tri-state area around New York as a growth center because market characteristics are more favorable toward its business, Davis said in June.
He mentioned urban density, transportation, workers’ compensation, worker availability, wages and “excellent” reimbursement as attractive factors.
The company was founded in 1999, aimed at providing care and life-management services for frail senior citizens who prefer to live at home rather than go to assisted-living or nursing facilities. The company’s in-home services include preparing meals, bathing, dressing and toileting.
But AccentCare has been moving into licensed skilled nursing, which Davis estimated as about 10% of the company’s West Coast revenue.
AccentCare entered skilled nursing through its buy earlier this year of Just Right Home Care Inc. of Torrance and Chicken Soup, a “very small” company based in Northern California, Davis said.
“We think that business represents one of our greatest opportunities for growth,” he said. “It’s a nice diversification of our existing business.”
The company culls business from referrals from institutions, such as hospitals, social agencies, skilled-nursing facilities and aging agencies, the telephone book and relationships with “large aggregators,” such as health maintenance organizations.
AccentCare’s services are paid for by several sources, including some government programs, long-term care insurance or from clients.
As for a possible public offering, Davis said AccentCare hasn’t reached a workable size yet.
“At this juncture, the company’s still too small,” he said. “As we look at the markets today, I think you’ve got to be $200 to $250 million, with $15 to 20 million in (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) to go public, so we’re halfway there.”
