Search this site

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart Published July 21, 2026. Transaction data reflects deals closed between April 1 and June 30, 2026, as tracked by Mertz Taggart At a Glance Home-based care M&A volume stepped down in Q2 2026, with 16 transactions closed during the quarter — down from 27 in Q1 2026 and 29 in Q2 2025. Hospice and home care tied for the lead at 8 closed transactions each, followed by skilled home health at 6. Deal count cooled, but dollar volume did not: General Atlantic's approximately $3 billion acquisition of TEAM Services Group and Kinderhook Industries' $1.1 billion take-private of Enhabit both rank among the largest home-based care transactions on record. New platform formation outpaced add-ons for the first time in years. Home-Based Care M&A Activity in Q2 2026 Home-based care M&A volume stepped down in Q2 2026, with 16 transactions closed during the quarter — down from 27 in Q1 2026 and 29 in Q2 2025. Hospice and home care tied for the lead at 8 closed transactions each, followed by skilled Home Health at 6. Two additional deals were announced but not yet closed as of quarter-end. Two of the quarter’s closings ranked among the largest home-based care transactions on record: General Atlantic’s approximately $3 billion acquisition of TEAM Services Group and Kinderhook Industries’ $1.1 billion take-private of Enhabit. Together they underscore that, even as deal count cooled, large-cap sponsor capital remained firmly committed to scaled home-based care platforms. Cory Mertz, managing partner at Mertz Taggart, noted: “The count came down this quarter, and it’s fair to ask whether the regulatory environment is part of it — the fraud takedowns, the hospice 36-month rule, the new enrollment moratorium and enhanced oversight all make deals more complex to get across the line. But it’s one quarter, and the dollars tell the other side of the story. Sponsors are still writing big checks and, increasingly, looking to return capital to LPs after long hold periods.” How the quarter broke down by buyer type By structure, the quarter comprised six new PE platform investments, four sponsor-backed strategic add-ons, one public-company acquisition, and five post-acute, or independent buyers. New-platform activity outpaced add-ons — a reversal of the add-on-heavy pattern of recent years — as several sponsors established fresh platforms in the sector. Note: Total industry transactions do not necessarily equal the sum of the sub-industries, as many transactions include more than one sub-industry. → Related: Selling a Home Health, Hospice, or Home Care Agency in 2026 Home Health M&A in Q2 2026 Home health saw 6 closed transactions — including two new platform investments, one sponsor-backed add-on, and three other strategic or independent buyers — down from 8 in each of the prior two quarters. Kinderhook Industries completes its take-private of Enhabit The quarter’s headline deal was Kinderhook Industries’ completed take-private of Enhabit, the home health and hospice provider that spun out of Encompass Health in 2022 and spent much of its time as a publicly traded company navigating Medicare home health reimbursement headwinds and investor skepticism. Enhabit shareholders received $13.80 per share in cash — a total enterprise value of roughly $1.1 billion (equity plus roughly $480 million of assumed debt), representing a 10.2x EBITDA multiple on $108 million of EBITDA, a 24% premium to the undisturbed share price and nearly 34% to the 60-day average. Cory Mertz offered this perspective: “The Enhabit deal is a good reminder of why we don’t lead with multiples. Enhabit shareholders received a 10.2x EBITDA, which sounds unremarkable for a billion-dollar, public company. But this was a 24% premium to market and nearly 34% to the 60-day average — significant by any measure.” Other closed home health transactions Among other closings, PruittHealth acquired Georgia Home Health Services, extending its home health presence in South Georgia; Lucent Home Health acquired Chambers Home Health Agency of Northeast Texas, a combined home health and hospice operation; and Renovus Capital Partners-backed Superior Health Holdings added Chant Healthcare, entering Oklahoma across home care, home health and hospice. Heritage Home Health and Hospice and Legacy Hospice formed an Ohio joint venture. Hospice M&A in Q2 2026 Hospice matched home care at 8 closed transactions — three platform investments, two sponsor-backed add-ons, and three strategic or independent buyers — extending the steady, add-on-heavy consolidation that has defined the segment. Webster Equity Partners-backed Bristol Hospice acquired Hope Hospice & Palliative Care, while Norwest made a platform investment in Ennoble Care, a home-based care provider spanning home care and hospice. 5th Century Partners invested in Capstone Hospice, establishing a new platform, and Stillwater Hospice agreed to take over the hospice operations of Campbell County Memorial Hospital. Home Care M&A Non-medical home care tied for the lead at 8 closed transactions — three platform investments, three sponsor-backed add-ons, one public-company deal, and one independent buyer — powered by the quarter’s largest transaction. General Atlantic acquires TEAM Services Group in the quarter's largest deal General Atlantic acquired TEAM Services Group, a San Diego-based, scaled home-based care services company, from Alpine Investors for a reported purchase price of approximately $3 billion — one of the largest home-based care transactions on record. TEAM’s EBITDA was reported, but the transaction’s EBITDA multiple can’t be reliably calculated: only the purchase price is known, not enterprise value. Other closed home care transactions Elsewhere, Warburg Pincus made a platform investment in non-medical home care provider Cornerstone Caregiving, with financing from Monroe Capital; Addus HomeCare acquired HomeCourt Home Care, marking its entry into Indiana; Searchlight Capital Partners-backed Care Advantage added First Priority Home Care; SIG Partners-backed Pillar Health Group acquired Krista Care; and Feature Healthcare acquired Carepoint. Deacon Associates to acquire 31 agencies from HCA Healthcare One of the quarter's most significant announced (but not yet closed) transactions was Deacon Associates' agreement to acquire 31 home health and hospice agencies from HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA) , with terms undisclosed. The divested assets span eight states and will be folded into Central Pyramid, a Deacon subsidiary; the portfolio includes agencies HCA had picked up through its 2021 acquisition of an 80% stake in Brookdale Senior Living's health care services segment. The deal is expected to close in roughly three months, pending regulatory approval. It stands out as a large health system stepping back from home-based care even as operators like Deacon — in CEO Trey Crabb's words — "double down on home health and hospice." Cory Mertz added: “For owners weighing a process over the next 12 to 24 months, this environment rewards preparation. Diligence around billing and compliance has only intensified — especially in the enhanced-oversight states — and the sellers who invest early in getting their house in order are the ones who hold their value all the way through to close.” Key Takeaways 16 home-based care transactions closed in Q2 2026, down from 27 in Q1 2026 and 29 in Q2 2025. Hospice and home care tied at 8 closed transactions each; home health closed 6. Deal count fell but dollar volume did not — two of the largest home-based care transactions on record closed during the quarter. General Atlantic acquired TEAM Services Group from Alpine Investors for a reported ~$3 billion, the quarter's largest transaction. Kinderhook Industries took Enhabit private at roughly $1.1 billion enterprise value, a 10.2x EBITDA multiple representing a 24% premium to the undisturbed share price. New platform formation (6 deals) outpaced sponsor-backed add-ons (4), reversing the add-on-heavy pattern of recent years. Regulatory pressure — fraud takedowns, the hospice 36-month rule, the enrollment moratorium, and enhanced oversight — is making deals more complex to close. Deacon Associates agreed to acquire 31 home health and hospice agencies from HCA Healthcare, a large health system stepping back from home-based care. For owners planning a process in the next 12 to 24 months, billing and compliance diligence has intensified, and early preparation is what protects value through to close. If you are interested, you can also download the .PDF version of the Q2 2026 Home-Based Care M&A Report via the following link:

Kevin Taggart, CM&AP, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance Selling an addiction treatment center involves more than financials, buyer interest, and timing. Trust between buyer and seller is the variable that most often determines whether a transaction closes, and on what terms. Knowing what questions to ask, and understanding what the buyer needs from you in return, can be the difference between a successful exit and a deal that falls apart in due diligence. There has been considerable M&A activity in the addiction treatment industry in recent years, and with it, more questions from owners about what the process of selling actually looks like. This series addresses those questions. Before considering a sale, owners should understand the factors that can make or break a transaction. Here, we focus on the most consequential one: trust. Seller Beware: What to Ask Before You Commit In any transaction, trust means something narrower than friendship: enough confidence that the other side is acting in good faith, understands what they are buying, and can close. When you are the seller, there are questions worth asking before you go very far: Does my company fit into the buyer’s strategic plan? This may be the most fundamental question. If you cannot understand why a buyer wants your facility or program, that gap will show up in every subsequent step. Ask directly: Have they acquired similar providers before? How do they plan to integrate your facility? Where does your company fit in their broader strategy? A buyer who struggles to answer these questions may not have worked through them yet, and that is worth knowing early. Is the buyer operating in good faith? Pay attention to pace and focus. A buyer who is genuinely interested in closing will keep the process moving. One who seems more interested in learning the details of your business than in advancing the transaction may have different motivations. Does the buyer have the financial capacity to close? This question gets asked less often than it should. Do they have an established fund, a credit facility, or sufficient cash on hand? If they plan to use a combination of debt and equity, can they secure that financing? Do they have a track record of closing transactions on agreed timelines? These are reasonable, direct questions, and a credible buyer will have reasonable, direct answers. Will your legacy and your employees be protected? For many owners, this facility represents something built over years, often with a genuine care mission behind it. Make sure you get a clear answer on how the buyer views your staff and your program’s identity. Employees who have stayed through difficult stretches should be viewed as assets by any serious buyer. → Related: How to Prepare Your Behavioral Health Business for Sale in 2026 The Buyer’s Perspective: What They Need From You It is easy to focus on what you need from the buyer. The transaction goes better when you also understand what they need from you. Buyers typically have three main concerns: Are the financials complete and accurate? The buyer is placing a significant amount of money on a valuation derived from your numbers. Complete and accurate financials are the foundation of that valuation. If they do not hold up through due diligence, expect a renegotiation, and possibly a lost deal. Will the seller stay focused on the business while the transaction is in process? This is a fair concern. M&A processes are time-consuming and distracting by nature. If the business deteriorates while the transaction is moving forward, the buyer has grounds to revisit the valuation. It is in your interest, as much as theirs, to keep operations stable through the process. Are there issues that will surface later if not disclosed now? Pending litigation, payor disputes, compliance concerns, labor issues; these things tend to come out during due diligence regardless. Bringing them forward early allows both parties to work through potential solutions while the deal is still on track. Attempting to conceal them is one of the more reliable ways to collapse a transaction late in the process, when significant time and legal cost have already been committed. → Related: Closing the Deal: Overcoming Common Challenges in Home-Based Care M&A Trust Is a Two-Way Process The further a transaction progresses, the more consequential trust becomes. If either party grows uncomfortable, the transaction is at risk, and by that point, both sides have spent real time and money. Communication is the mechanism that keeps it moving. Get your questions answered early, take the buyer’s concerns seriously, and proceed with care. You have spent years building this treatment center. Make sure you walk away with an outcome worth that. Key Takeaways Trust does not require personal familiarity, but it does require both parties to operate in good faith and communicate clearly. Sellers should ask directly whether the buyer has a coherent strategic rationale for the acquisition, and whether they have the capacity to close. Accurate, complete financials are not optional; they are the foundation of the buyer’s valuation and their confidence in the deal. Issues that surface late in due diligence are far more damaging than issues disclosed early. Transparency reduces deal risk for both sides. Keeping the business stable and focused during the transaction process protects the seller’s valuation as much as anything else. Understanding what the buyer needs from you is as important as knowing what to ask of them. Considering a Sale? Mertz Taggart has been advising healthcare services owners on sell-side transactions for over twenty years, with hundreds of successfully completed deals across behavioral health, home-based care, and related sectors. If you are beginning to think about a sale, a confidential conversation is a reasonable place to start.

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance Exiting a healthcare business involves more than finding a buyer and negotiating a price. Most owners face three financial needs that must be addressed before the transaction closes: replacing the earned income the business currently provides, learning to manage a post-exit investment portfolio with a different skill set than running a company, and reducing the concentrated risk that comes from holding most of your net worth in a single illiquid asset. Addressing all three is what allows an owner to exit and stay financially secure afterward. Most owners spend their energy on the transaction itself, which is understandable, but the financial picture after the closing is where things tend to get complicated. The number matters, of course, but so does what the number has to do, and what happens to it once the deal is done. In my experience, owners who think through the following three needs before going to market tend to exit with fewer regrets. 1. Can Your Investment Portfolio Replace Your Business Income? The most immediate question after a sale is whether the proceeds, prudently invested, can generate the income you need to maintain your lifestyle. For many owners, the answer is less straightforward than it first appears. A business that generates $500,000 a year in owner income does not automatically produce a portfolio that does the same. Depending on the sale price, the investment return assumptions, and the tax consequences of the transaction, the post-exit income stream can fall meaningfully short of what the business was producing. That gap is worth understanding before you sign anything. The tax side compounds the issue. A sale creates a significant taxable event, which reduces the net proceeds available to invest. That smaller base then has to generate income at a higher rate to meet the same lifestyle needs, which usually means taking on more investment risk than a conservative portfolio would carry. There is also the question of what the business was quietly subsidizing. Vehicles, insurance, travel, and cell phones often run through the company. After the sale, those expenses shift to personal, and owners who have not mapped that transition tend to underestimate their actual cost of living, sometimes by a substantial amount. 2. Do You Have the Skills to Manage a Portfolio the Way You Ran Your Company? Running a company and managing an investment portfolio require different instincts. The habits that made you effective as an operator, moving quickly on opportunities, staying close to every decision, treating uncertainty as something to act on rather than sit with, can work against you as an investor. Portfolio management tends to reward patience, discipline, and a tolerance for short-term noise. It also involves delegating decisions to advisors whose expertise you have to trust without being able to fully verify it in real time, which is a different relationship than most owners have with their teams. This is not a reason to delay a sale, but it is a reason to build the advisory relationships before the closing, not after. Owners who wait until the wire hits to start thinking about wealth management often make reactive decisions in the first few months that are difficult to undo. → Related: Have an Offer to Buy Your Home Care Agency? What to Do Next 3. How Much of Your Net Worth Is Riding on the Business Right Now? For most healthcare agency owners, the business represents somewhere between 50% and 90% of total net worth. That concentration is the most underappreciated financial risk in the pre-exit period, and it is also the most actionable. Consider three assets, each worth $5 million: a piece of commercial real estate, a cash account, and your agency. All three have the same stated value, but the risk profile of the third is meaningfully different. If your health changes, or a large payer relationship deteriorates, or a regulatory issue emerges, the real estate and cash hold their value. The agency may not. That is not a reason to panic, but it is a reason to think carefully about what risks you can mitigate before going to market. Four areas that consistently matter to buyers: • Key-person insurance • Documented management depth • Diversified payer relationships • Clean compliance records Each of these reduces the fragility of the asset and, in most cases, improves its value to buyers as well. Owners who address these risks before initiating a process tend to command better multiples and face fewer surprises during due diligence. The ones who do not often find that a buyer’s risk assessment knocks down the price in ways that were entirely predictable. → Related: How to Sell Your Home Care Agency: 3 PE Exit Strategies Key Takeaways Replacing business income from a post-exit portfolio is harder than most owners expect, particularly after accounting for taxes on the sale proceeds and expenses previously covered by the company. Managing an investment portfolio requires different instincts than operating a business. Building relationships with qualified advisors before the closing, not after, tends to produce better outcomes. Holding 50–90% of your net worth in a single illiquid asset creates real pre-exit risk. Proactively reducing that risk, through management documentation, payer diversification, and compliance readiness, protects both your financial security and your eventual sale price. All three financial needs are addressable, but they require planning that should begin well before you decide to go to market. One Chance to Get This Right You can get wealthy by building one business well. Staying financially secure after you sell it requires a different kind of planning. The owners who exit on their terms are usually the ones who started thinking about these questions early, before the offers arrived and before the clock was running. Mertz Taggart has guided healthcare owners through hundreds of transactions over more than two decades. If you are thinking about what an exit might look like for your agency, we are glad to have a confidential conversation. There is no obligation and no pressure, just a straightforward discussion of your options. Contact Mertz Taggart for a complimentary, confidential consultation.

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance Exit planning and retirement are not the same thing, and treating them as inseparable is one of the most common mistakes healthcare business owners make. Ownership, day-to-day involvement, and leadership can each be transferred on a different timeline. Separating these three decisions creates more flexibility, a smoother transition, and a better outcome for the owner, the company, and its employees. Many people assume that when the subject of “exit” comes up with a business owner, the conversation is really about retirement. That assumption is not always accurate, and when advisors or owners treat it as a given, it creates problems: for exit planning, for the company’s transition, and for the owner’s life after the deal. Separating exit from retirement, and approaching them as distinct decisions with potentially different timelines, produces better outcomes across the board. Three Ways Owners Relate to Their Companies Most owners relate to their businesses in three distinct ways: Ownership — you own some or all of the company. Involvement — you are engaged in the company’s day-to-day activities. Leadership — you serve as the chief executive or equivalent. Together, these three elements form the acronym OIL. It’s a useful shorthand, because it captures something most owners haven’t stopped to consider: these three roles don’t have to move together. Why Owners Assume the OIL Flows Together The default assumption, for most business owners, is that ownership, involvement, and leadership are completely intertwined. That assumption is understandable. For most of a career, they have been. The owner holds the equity, runs the day-to-day, and leads the organization. Ownership dominates the financial picture. Involvement is total. But the OIL does not have to flow together, and recognizing that creates significant flexibility in how an exit is structured. An owner can sell some or all of their equity while remaining fully involved in operations and continuing as the company’s chief leader. Alternatively, an owner can retain their ownership stake while bringing in a new CEO to replace them at the leadership level. These are not hypothetical arrangements. They happen regularly in healthcare M&A, and they can be structured to serve the owner’s specific goals. → Related: You’re Not Considering a Sale of Your Agency — How Can an M&A Advisory Firm Help You Today? Three Exit Planning Scenarios Where This Framework Helps Owners who recognize that the OIL doesn’t need to flow together tend to move through exit planning more effectively. Here are three common scenarios where this distinction matters. 1. You want to take some chips off the table, but you don’t want to stop working. The concern isn't about money or valuation. It's about identity and purpose. Many owners genuinely don't want to retire; they want liquidity, but they also want to keep building something. That’s a legitimate goal, and the market accommodates it. Buyers in home-based care and behavioral health regularly seek owners who will stay on, take leadership roles in the combined organization, and contribute their operational knowledge over time. Selling your ownership doesn’t require ending your involvement or your leadership. 2. You want to sell to employees, but you’re worried about maintaining control through the transition. An internal sale to key employees is often the right answer for owners who care deeply about culture and continuity. The concern, typically, is that transferring ownership while staying on as the guarantor of the transition feels structurally unstable. It doesn’t have to be. Ownership can transfer gradually while the owner remains the chief leader throughout the buyout period. Involvement and leadership can stay constant even as the ownership percentage decreases. The OIL framework makes the mechanics of this visible. 3. You want to pass the business to family, but you’re not ready to give up control. Family transitions are among the most common and most complicated exits in healthcare services. Owners often want to transfer equity to the next generation for estate planning or tax reasons, but they’re not prepared to step back from day-to-day operations or give up decision-making authority. Both are possible simultaneously. Ownership can be transferred — partially or fully — without any change to involvement or leadership, unless and until the owner decides otherwise. → Related: 6 Considerations When Choosing a Home-Based Care M&A Advisor Key Takeaways Exit and retirement are separate decisions, each with its own timeline. Ownership, involvement, and leadership (OIL) can be transferred independently of one another. Owners can sell equity while remaining active in operations and leadership. Internal sales to employees can be structured so the owner retains control through the buyout period. Family transfers can happen without any immediate change to the owner’s role. The OIL framework surfaces flexibility that most exit planning conversations miss. Start the Conversation Assuming that exit equals retirement is one of the most common reasons owners delay planning, or approach it with more anxiety than necessary. When you separate these decisions and look at ownership, involvement, and leadership on their own terms, the path forward tends to become clearer. Mertz Taggart has been advising healthcare services owners for over twenty years, across hundreds of transactions in home health, home care, hospice, and behavioral health. Whether you are actively weighing a sale or simply want to understand your options, we welcome a confidential conversation.

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a glance If you plan to sell your healthcare company, zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is one of the most underutilized tools available for increasing your sale price. Because valuations are typically calculated as a multiple of adjusted EBITDA, every dollar of sustained expense reduction can translate to several dollars in additional proceeds at closing. ZBB compels a line-by-line examination of every expense, starting from zero, and challenges the assumptions that allow unnecessary costs to persist year after year. Why Expense Reduction Matters as Much as Revenue Growth Sale price is tied to earnings, and earnings can be grown from either direction. Most owners focus on revenue, but expense reduction is often the faster, more controllable path to a higher multiple. When selling for a multiple of earnings, commonly calculated as adjusted EBITDA, every $1 of sustained expense reduction can potentially add several dollars to the final transaction price. That math is worth taking seriously before going to market. In practice, many companies underestimate how much unnecessary expense has accumulated over time, spending that persists not because it is needed, but because no one has challenged it. Expense reduction prior to a sale is a significant opportunity that many owners miss entirely. → Related: What Is Adjusted EBITDA and What Role Does It Play in Your Valuation? What Is Zero-Based Budgeting? Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is a financial management approach in which every expense must be justified from scratch each budget cycle. Rather than starting from the prior year's budget and adjusting incrementally, ZBB starts at dollar zero, requiring management to add each expense back with a clear rationale. The practical effect is a rigorous, line-by-line examination of costs that challenges habits and assumptions at every step. The questions it surfaces are simple ones: Why do we spend money on that? What would we lose if we stopped? Those questions, asked systematically, tend to produce answers that surprise even experienced operators. As McKinsey has described, a well-run ZBB process creates deep visibility into cost drivers and sets aggressive but credible budget targets, with multiple owners tasked throughout the year with managing performance and maintaining a healthy debate on cost management. ZBB Is Surgical, Not Draconian A common misconception is that ZBB means cutting expenses to the bone. It does not. The goal is not elimination; it is justification. Most expenses survive the process. What ZBB removes is the spending that continues by inertia rather than by intent. A useful test during a ZBB exercise is to ask, out loud: would anybody miss that? If the answer within the company is a quiet shrug rather than a clear objection, that expense is a candidate for savings. It is a disciplined question, applied consistently, that separates necessary spending from habitual spending. Properly implemented, ZBB can also shift the culture within an organization, creating a more explicit ownership mentality around costs, where accountability and transparency around expenses become part of standard operations rather than a one-time exercise. The Financial Case for Implementing ZBB Before a Sale Companies that follow ZBB practices and principles can often realize high single-digit or low double-digit percentage reductions in SG&A expenses. Sustained through the period leading up to a sale, those reductions compound into a meaningfully higher transaction value. The math is straightforward. If a business sells at a multiple of six times adjusted EBITDA, a $100,000 reduction in annual expenses can add $600,000 to the sale price. A $250,000 reduction, sustained over two to three years, can represent a material difference in proceeds at closing. The earlier ZBB is implemented, the more credible the savings appear to buyers. A pattern of disciplined expense management, visible across multiple years of financials, is a stronger data point than a single year of reductions just before going to market. → Related: 5 Considerations for Care-at-Home Agency Owners Before Their Exit How to Get Started with ZBB Many business owners, CFOs, and leadership teams are unfamiliar with ZBB and its methods. Some attempt it but get bogged down in the details. Others underestimate that implementing ZBB can require more than just a financial exercise, it can involve rethinking internal reporting, employee communications, and in some cases, executive compensation structures. A practical starting point: task the company CFO or controller with reviewing the methodology and reporting findings to the leadership team. Well-documented resources from McKinsey, Forbes, and other business publications provide a solid foundation. The first ZBB cycle does not need to be perfect to be valuable. Key Takeaways Sale price for healthcare companies is closely tied to adjusted EBITDA; expense reduction directly affects that number. ZBB requires every expense to be justified from scratch each budget cycle, starting from zero, rather than carrying prior-year figures forward. The approach is surgical, not draconian; most expenses survive, but habitual or unjustified spending gets eliminated. High single-digit to low double-digit SG&A reductions are achievable, and at a six-times multiple, those savings can compound significantly into closing proceeds. ZBB is most effective when implemented well in advance of a planned sale, so that reductions have time to demonstrate a sustained pattern. Getting started can be as simple as tasking the CFO with a methodology review and reporting findings back to the leadership team. Ready to Explore What Your Company Could Be Worth? Expense management is one lever. A competitive sale process is another. Mertz Taggart has been advising healthcare services owners for over twenty years, helping sellers across home health, home care, hospice, and behavioral health get to the table prepared and positioned correctly. If you are thinking about a sale, or just want to understand your options, we are glad to have a confidential conversation about your goals and timeline. Schedule a confidential consultation →

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance Hospice deal volume has grown significantly, and buyer demand remains strong — particularly from private equity and strategic acquirers. Clinical records and Medicare compliance documentation are the most scrutinized elements of due diligence in any hospice transaction. Many deals that are announced do not close. Incomplete or unkempt documentation is a common reason. Sellers can protect deal value by conducting third-party compliance reviews, using documentation software, and designating staff to track regulatory changes. Due diligence is an audit, not a survey. Sellers who treat them as equivalent often encounter unexpected problems at the table. The hospice M&A market has attracted strong buyer interest for years, and that interest has not slowed. Deal volume has risen consistently, EBITDA multiples have expanded, and hospice’s position within the broader continuum of care continues to make it a favored target for both private equity and strategic buyers. But a strong market does not guarantee a clean close. The most preventable reason deals fall apart, even well-priced deals with motivated buyers, is documentation. Why Documentation Determines Whether Your Deal Closes Clean documentation demonstrating a history of Medicare compliance is not a formality, it is a primary driver of deal certainty. Unkempt records expose both buyer and seller to liability, and federal scrutiny of the hospice sector has only increased. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General has made hospice a consistent focus area, and buyers price that risk directly into their offers. “We’ve seen a record number of transactions announced, but we are also seeing a number of transactions not closing. Most operators assume that because they recently passed a state or accreditation survey, that they’re in good shape. But due diligence is very different from a survey. It’s an audit.” — Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart Medicare regulations change regularly, and buyers want evidence that a seller has kept pace. A third-party compliance review conducted before going to market accomplishes two things: it signals to buyers that compliance is taken seriously, and it can expand the pool of qualified buyers by differentiating an agency from others on the market. Common Documentation Problems That Surface in Due Diligence Across hospice transactions, the same issues tend to surface. Sellers who address these before going to market are in a materially better position than those who discover them during buyer due diligence. The most frequently cited issues include: Outdated forms, including old language on notice-of-election documents Missing proof that interdisciplinary meetings included all core team members Incomplete face-to-face documentation Inappropriate diagnosis coding Certifications of terminal illness (CTIs) with missing information Gaps in billing compliance, including technical errors in claim submissions Billing compliance deserves particular attention. There is often a knowledge gap between clinical compliance with Hospice Conditions of Participation and the technical requirements for Medicare billing. Both matter in due diligence, and weaknesses in either category will be identified. How to Prepare Your Agency for a Successful Transaction Preparation for a hospice sale is not something that happens in the final quarter before going to market. The agencies that command the strongest valuations and close with the fewest complications are the ones that have built systematic compliance practices long before they start a sale process. Practical steps that help sellers arrive at the table in good shape: Educate staff at all levels on current Hospice Conditions of Participation and Medicare billing requirements Designate a dedicated person to monitor the regulatory agenda from both state and federal perspectives Establish quality assurance programs that track clinical outcomes, billing compliance, and regulatory adherence — and hold the agency accountable to them Use documentation software to maintain records and build confidence in audit readiness Commission a third-party clinical and compliance review before initiating a sale process “Buyers will be looking at acquisitions from an audit risk standpoint, anticipating more industry audit activity going forward, and the potential for significant clawback due to items that may have been overlooked in a survey. These things are easily correctable, but it’s important for agencies to be proactive and consistent with respect to documentation should they ever want to pursue a sale.” — Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart Key Takeaways Due diligence is an audit, not a survey. The sellers who treat them as equivalent will encounter problems. Clean Medicare compliance documentation is a direct driver of deal certainty and buyer confidence. The most common documentation issues are correctable, but only if identified before the deal process begins. Billing compliance gaps are as consequential as clinical compliance gaps and both will be scrutinized. A third-party compliance review before going to market can both protect valuation and expand the buyer pool. Agencies that build systematic compliance practices early are consistently better positioned at the table. Thinking About a Sale? Mertz Taggart has advised hospice owners through hundreds of transactions over more than two decades. We work exclusively with sellers, and we can help you understand where you stand, and what to address before going to market. Reach out for a confidential conversation.

Mertz Taggart follows the publicly traded home-based care companies and reports on their earnings calls each quarter. As a group, public company performance and share price serve as a proxy for industry performance and investor sentiment, respectively. Historically seen as the “ultimate consolidators”, the publicly traded home-based care trading multiples have a downstream effect on lower middle market home-based care M&A. Addus Homecare (Nasdaq: ADUS) Highlights Addus posted revenue of $377.4 million for the quarter, up 8.0% from Q2 2025. Net income was $27.6 million compared with $22.1 million, in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA rose 11.9% to $49.2 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin of 13.0% compared with 12.6% in the prior year quarter. Growth was led by the Personal Care segment, which represents 78.4% of the business at $296.0 million and grew same-store revenue 6.8% year-over-year. Same-store hours per business day rose 2.2%, within the company’s target range of 2% to 2.5%, and same-store census increased 1.2% sequentially, with growth returning in Illinois, the company’s largest market. The Hospice segment, representing 17.0% of quarterly revenue at $64.2 million, grew same-store revenue 11.1% year-over-year, with same-store average daily census increasing 6.5% to 3,964 and a median length of stay of 24 days. Average daily census exceeded 4,000 in July. The company recorded Medicare Cap expense in its Ohio market, which is excluded from the same-store calculation, and management expects no additional cap exposure for the remainder of the year. The Home Health segment, representing 4.6% of the business at $17.2 million, saw same-store revenue decline 2.8%, an improvement from the 6.6% decline in the first quarter, with sequential gains in revenue, operating income and admissions. Key Financial Figures M&A Activity On May 1, Addus closed the acquisition of the personal care operations of HomeCourt Home Care, based in Fort Wayne, marking the company’s entry into Indiana. CFO Brian Poff said the operation is running slightly ahead of volume expectations and sits close enough to the company’s Illinois, Ohio and Michigan markets to fold under existing regional leadership. A definitive purchase agreement remains in place for a similarly sized personal care operation in the Indianapolis area, which will be combined with HomeCourt once it closes. Management pointed to a wider set of opportunities reaching the market, noting that “recently, we have begun to see an increasing number of personal care opportunities, which we will be actively pursuing.” CEO Dirk Allison said owners have become comfortable that changes to Medicaid are “not really affecting our business or our industry near as much as people thought” and are now willing to bring businesses to market. He confirmed the company is evaluating scaled assets and has held leverage low in order to act on them. Guidance Management continues to expect full-year adjusted EBITDA margin of 12% to 13% and pointed to the higher end of that range, with a step up in the fourth quarter as the hospice rate increase takes effect. Aveanna Healthcare (Nasdaq: AVAH) Highlights Aveanna reported Q2 2026 revenue of $670.5 million, a 13.7% increase over the prior year period, with year-over-year growth in all three operating divisions. Net income was $40.3 million compared with $27.0 million. Adjusted EBITDA rose 8.0% to $95.4 million. Consolidated gross margin was $218.5 million, or 32.6%, compared with 35.8% in the prior year quarter, which included approximately $9 million of non-recurring favorable items in Private Duty Services. The Private Duty Services segment, representing 83% of the business, grew 14.0% to $553.9 million, driven by a 12.3% volume increase to approximately 12.4 million hours of care and a 1.7% increase in revenue per hour to $44.62. Cost of revenue per hour rose 7.8% to $31.74, leaving spread per hour of $12.88. Segment gross margin was 28.9%. The Home Health & Hospice segment grew 14.8% to approximately $69.0 million on 10,500 total admissions and 14,700 total episodes of care, up 18.5% from the prior year quarter. Medicare revenue per episode was $3,202 and segment gross margin was 53.9%. Medical Solutions grew 9.4% to $47.5 million on approximately 95,000 unique patients served, up 4.4%. The company’s preferred payor strategy continued to advance, with three agreements signed in Private Duty Services during the quarter, bringing the total to 37 against a 2026 goal of 38. Preferred payor agreements now account for approximately 64% of total Private Duty Services MCO volumes, up from 60% at the end of the first quarter. In home health, Aveanna reached its full-year goal of 50 preferred payor agreements, while Medical Solutions ended the quarter with 20 against a goal of 25. Key Financial Figures M&A Activity Aveanna closed the acquisition of Family First Homecare, a Florida-based provider of in-home pediatric care, in early June, funding the purchase and closing costs with cash on hand. Shaner described the integration as in its front third, with the back office and EMR transitions still ahead, and expects the work to be complete late in the fourth quarter. He said the transaction strengthened the company in Florida and improved service distribution in Iowa, South Dakota and Illinois. Looking forward, Shaner said “we think the majority of our M&A activity moving forward will be in the adult space,” with home health and hospice the focus now that most Private Duty Services states are filled in. Guidance Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to revenue of greater than $2.68 billion, from a range of $2.63 billion to $2.65 billion, and adjusted EBITDA of greater than $365 million, from a range of $338 million to $342 million. The Pennant Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PNTG) Highlights Pennant Group reported total revenue of $298.0 million for the quarter, an increase of $78.5 million or 35.8% over the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA grew 48.2% to $24.3 million, or $26.1 million prior to non-controlling interests, up 51.0%. The Home Health and Hospice segment delivered revenue of $237.8 million, an increase of $71.8 million or 43.2%, with segment adjusted EBITDA of $37.7 million, up 48.2%. Same-store segment margin improved 70 basis points year-over-year. Hospice revenue grew 40.4% to $103.6 million, with admissions up 38.4% and average daily census up 40.1% to 5,477. Same-store hospice admissions grew 8.8% and same-store average daily census grew 10.8% to 4,089. The company recorded approximately $1.3 million of Medicare Cap in the quarter, approximately $0.5 million below the prior year level, with most of the exposure in California. Home health revenue grew 50.8% to $119.4 million, with total admissions up 62.3% and total Medicare admissions up 70.7%. Same-store home health admissions grew 9.7% and same-store Medicare admissions grew 13.6%. Key Financial Figures M&A Activity The transition of the home health, hospice and home care operations acquired from UnitedHealthcare in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia is three of five waves complete, with the fourth nearing completion and the fifth, one of the largest, started August 1. Management expects the process to be finished by the middle of the fourth quarter and said margins are trending ahead of internal expectations, with volumes holding above the levels at the time of acquisition. In senior living, Pennant has completed seven acquisitions year to date. In May the company acquired the operations and real estate of Copper Canyon Memory Care, a 40-unit community in Tucson. On June 1 it assumed operations of Memory Care of Contra Costa, a 46-unit memory care community in Pleasant Hill, California, and on August 1 it acquired the operations and real estate of River Center Assisted Living, a 63-unit community in Tucson. The additions bring the company’s real estate portfolio to nine properties, five of which were acquired in the last 12 months. On June 4, Pennant announced an equity investment in Hartford HealthCare at Home, which it has managed since 2024 and serves more than 30,000 patients from nine locations in Connecticut. Guidance Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to total revenue of $1,171.1 million to $1,190.1 million, adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.34 to $1.41 and adjusted EBITDA of $94.4 million. BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: BTSG) Highlights BrightSpring posted total revenue of $3.9 billion for the quarter, up 23.0% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA of $206 million, a 44% increase, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 5.3%, an 80-basis point improvement. Net income was $87 million, compared with $9 million in the prior year quarter. Results reflect continuing operations and exclude the Community Living business divested on March 30. Pharmacy Solutions grew revenue 22% to $3.4 billion, with segment adjusted EBITDA of $180 million, up 44%. Specialty and infusion revenue grew 30% to $2.9 billion on 31% script growth, driven by the branded oncology limited distribution drug portfolio, new LDD wins, wraparound fee-for-service programs and brand-to-generic conversions. The company added two ultra-narrow network LDDs in the quarter, bringing its total to 155, and has launched 12 year to date, four as exclusive partner and eight ultra-narrow. Provider Services grew revenue 30% to $466 million, with segment adjusted EBITDA of $75 million, up 33%, and a margin of 16.1%. Home Health grew 51% to $278 million on 54% average daily census growth, de novo expansion and the integration of acquired branches. The Amedisys and LHC branches contributed approximately $78 million of revenue and approximately $8 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter. Rehab grew 12% to $82 million and Personal Care grew 7% to $107 million. Key Financial Figures M&A Activity Management described a full pipeline, with several small tuck-ins and geographic expansions signed during the quarter and further transactions possible in the second half. Rousseau said geographically adjacent tuck-ins remain the core of the strategy, that larger transactions for BrightSpring are typically below $30 million to $40 million of EBITDA, and that the company is considering adding to its sevenperson M&A team. Integration of the acquired Amedisys and LHC branches is complete on the company’s home-based platform, and management raised the expected 2026 adjusted EBITDA contribution from those assets to approximately $35 million from approximately $30 million. Guidance Management raised full-year 2026 guidance to total revenue of $15.1 billion to $15.425 billion, including Pharmacy Solutions revenue of $13.2 billion to $13.5 billion and Provider Services revenue of $1.9 billion to $1.925 billion. Total adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be in the range of $820 million to $845 million, reflecting 32.8% to 36.8% growth over full-year 2025 excluding Community Living in both years, and includes approximately $35 million from the Amedisys and LHC branches. Option Care Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPCH) Highlights Option Care posted second quarter revenue of $1.4 billion, up 1.9% compared with the prior year and 7% sequentially, ahead of management’s expectations. Adjusted EBITDA of $117.5 million rose 3.0% year-over-year and 12% sequentially, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.45 increased 9.8%, including a three-cent uplift from share repurchases. GAAP net income was $53.9 million, up 6.7%, or $0.35 per diluted share. Acute therapy revenue grew in the high single digits, with sequential and year-over-year growth across all key therapeutic categories and in the number of patients served. Chronic therapy revenue was in line with the prior year and grew in the high single digits sequentially, led by the IG and neurology portfolio. In the chronic inflammatory disease portfolio, management said the company “began to stabilize our portfolio coming out of the first quarter reset and saw our second quarter patient census rise sequentially,” and expects to build census further through the year. The company continues to expect a full-year revenue headwind of approximately 600 basis points and a gross profit headwind of $55 million from that portfolio and continues to expect Stelara and related biosimilars to represent less than 1% of 2026 net revenue and gross profit. The rare and orphan portfolio grew sequentially and yearover-year, with several newly added therapies not going live until late 2026 or early 2027. Ambulatory infusion clinic utilization continued to increase, with five facilities added in the quarter, more than 190 locations now in the network and visits growing more than 20% year-over-year. The company conducted more than 35% of its nursing visits in one of its suites or clinics during the quarter and continues to add to a portfolio of more than 600 therapies. Key Financial Figures M&A Activity Capital allocation priorities begin with organic investments to drive revenue growth, capacity and cost structure optimization, followed by periodic share buybacks, with acquisitions focused on adjacencies and tuck-ins last. CFO Meenal Sethna said guidance does not include any new or prospective repurchases beyond the $150 million completed in the second quarter. Guidance Management maintained full-year net revenue guidance of $5.675 billion to $5.775 billion and narrowed adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $480 million to $495 million and adjusted earnings per share to $1.85 to $1.92. Operating cash flow is still expected to be at least $320 million, with net interest expense of $50 million to $55 million and a full-year tax rate of 26% to 28%. To download the .pdf version of this report, click below. Disclaimer The information contained in this document is provided for informational and marketing purposes only by Mertz Taggart and is not intended as investment, financial, legal, tax, or other professional advice. The content has been compiled using publicly available sources, including but not limited to SEC filings accessed via EDGAR, Seeking Alpha, and Yahoo Finance. While we strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information presented, Mertz Taggart does not warrant or guarantee the completeness, timeliness, or accuracy of the information, nor shall it be held liable for any errors or omissions. This document does not constitute a solicitation, recommendation, or offer to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments. Any views or opinions expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mertz Taggart or its affiliates. Recipients should not rely solely on the information herein for making investment or strategic decisions. All readers are encouraged to conduct their own independent research and to consult with their professional advisors before making any financial or business decisions. All trademarks, logos, and brand names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are used in this document for identification purposes only.

As part of our Behind the Curtain webinar series, we’re committed to giving agency owners a transparent, unfiltered view of what drives M&A activity in home-based care. In this session, we welcomed Rich Tinsley, Chief Development Officer at Help at Home, to share how one of the nation’s largest personal care providers thinks about acquisitions, integration, and value. Hosted by Michael W. Lloyd and Cory Mertz of Mertz Taggart, the conversation covered everything from culture and compliance to rate stability, integration, and why some deals never make it past the finish line. The Help at Home Playbook Help at Home is a 50-year-old company founded in Chicago, now operating in 11 states with more than 60,000 clients and over 60,000 caregivers. The company focuses almost exclusively on personal care services in the home and has more than doubled in size over the last four years through a mix of organic and acquisition-driven growth. Tinsley emphasized Help at Home’s density-driven strategy: “We believe in density… we are one, two or three in every state that I mentioned. Probably one in 80% of them and then two or three in the others. That’s by design.” That density is designed to make Help at Home a stronger partner to states and payers, and to support higher-quality, more consistent care at the local level. What Makes a Deal Attractive? When evaluating acquisitions, Help at Home focuses on three core attributes: culture, compliance, and economics. 1. Culture: The First Gate Across small tuck-ins, mid-sized platforms, and larger transactions, culture is the starting point. “Culture is the number one thing we look at.” Help at Home is looking for owners who are caregiver- and client-focused, not just chasing short-term financial results. That shows up in the way sellers talk about why they started, why they’re exiting, and what they find hardest about the business. “We are very focused on customers and caregivers. We believe that our business is very, very hard… But the reality is the P&L… is pretty simple. The secret behind that is the culture and being caregiver and client focused.” When culture is weak at the top, Tinsley noted, it tends to bleed into compliance, operations, and even caregiver behavior. 2. Compliance: Intent and Discipline The second lens is compliance — both on the client side and the employee side: Regulatory adherence Hiring and onboarding Documentation and file quality Help at Home audits client and caregiver files and expects clear evidence that the organization is trying to do things the right way. “We want people to want to be compliant. We want them to do their best. We understand people make mistakes… but we want to make sure the quality is there.” Systematic caregiver pay issues or improper treatment of employees are particularly challenging because of the long-tail liability they create. 3. Economics: Performance and Sustainability Only after culture and compliance clear the bar does Help at Home focus on economic performance: Revenue and margin profile Rate environment Growth trajectory High margins can be attractive, but not if they’re clearly temporary or disconnected from caregiver wages: “When you start talking about 20 to 30% margins, those aren’t sustainable right long term… we’ll give you some credit for it… but we also will perform it at what we think is a longer window of what we think the rates really will be.” In other words, they’re buying the sustainable business, not a short-term spike. How Help at Home Evaluates States and Markets Beyond the individual agency, Help at Home pays close attention to state-level dynamics: Payer structure (managed care vs. traditional Medicaid) Historical rate behavior and predictability Support for home- and community-based services Labor environment and ability to recruit at viable wage levels “We like stability or at least a plan. It’s okay to have changes… we like that. But the more stable in the way it’s planned… that makes it hard or easier for us to get our density and do what we want to do.” Even when a first acquisition in a state is compelling, Help at Home wants to know whether it can double or triple its presence over time. Opportunistic entry — such as inheriting a smaller footprint in a new state as part of a larger deal — is common, but follow-on density still matters. Deal Flow, Filtering, and LOIs Help at Home evaluates far more deals than it closes, with a dedicated development team of six to seven professionals screening opportunities before they ever reach LOI. “We look at more deals than we can do. We look at more deals than we want to do, right? But you’re trying to find the right ones.” The team: Reviews each opportunity Brings it to Tinsley in weekly calls Runs multiple rounds of questions and analysis before issuing an LOI Pre-LOI work can take a week to several months, depending on how prepared and responsive the seller is. Internally, Help at Home also secures approvals at the same level that would ultimately sign off at closing, to minimize surprises later. On volume, Tinsley estimated: “Somewhere between 5 to one and 10 to one. It depends on the market.” Common Deal Snags — and What Actually Kills Deals Tinsley underscored that Help at Home does a lot of work up front and tries hard to avoid mid-process price reductions. When issues arise, the biggest recurring problems are: Undisclosed compliance issues uncovered in diligence Caregiver pay or employment missteps that carry tail risk Non-responsiveness and delays from sellers Operational decline once a sale decision is made “Selling your business is a full-time job… businesses that are declining or start to decline once they decide to sell, that sometimes is really hard for us to get over.” He summed it up bluntly: “Declining businesses are tough.” Help at Home will typically look for ways to solve around issues when a seller is reasonable — through structure (escrows, reps and warranties) and a practical view of risk. But if performance slides and information is slow or incomplete, the probability of closing drops quickly. Deal Structure Preferences: Cash Up Front, No Earnouts On structure, Help at Home’s position is clear: Tuck-ins: almost always 100% acquisition of the business Larger transactions: more flexibility on keeping owners involved or structuring payouts Earnouts: essentially off the table “We don’t do earnouts, right? They’re just hard… I find that earnouts, no one’s happy at the end.” That doesn’t mean sellers can’t stay involved in the business — especially in larger transactions — but it does mean Help at Home prefers clean economics at closing rather than long, subjective earnout tails. What Happens After the Sale? Integration and People For many owners, the biggest concern isn’t just price, but what happens to their team and legacy. Help at Home’s integration approach depends on size, market, and performance: Small in-market tuck-ins: often integrated in weeks, with a quick move to the Help at Home brand and centralized back-office functions. Larger or new-state platforms: integration is more gradual; dual branding can remain for a time, and the pace adapts to what’s working locally. Back-office functions like recruiting, billing, and collections are centralized to free up front-line leaders: “The first rule is don’t do any harm.” And on people, Tinsley was explicit: “I don’t have a barn full of good people.” Help at Home is acquiring clients, caregivers, and the teams who support them, not trying to replace them: “The assets that we buy are really clients and caregivers, right? I mean, that is the business.” For employees who want to stay and grow: “The runway here is really long because we’re growing and you can grow within our company.” The Current M&A Environment: Strong, But Different from 2021 From Tinsley’s vantage point, today’s home-based care M&A market is: Stronger than long-term historical norms Clearly below the peak valuations seen during and immediately after COVID “I think buyers have lowered their prices. I think sellers have lowered their expectations, but I still think there’s a gap.” He believes the COVID/post-COVID period may have been a “once in a lifetime” pricing environment for this sector, and that owners waiting for those multiples to return may be disappointed. Uncertainty around policies such as the 80/20 rule and other reimbursement changes is a bigger drag on deal volume than cuts themselves: “It’s not necessarily the cut. If we knew what the cut was… it’s easy for somebody to model that… When things are changing, that uncertainty just creates… it’s hard to pull the trigger.” Advice for Sellers: Preparation That Actually Matters Asked what owners should focus on 8–12 months before going to market, Tinsley cautioned against cosmetic, last-minute changes: “Last minute changes don’t tend to work, right?” Instead, he highlighted a few practical steps: Professional financials – ideally monthly, with clear visibility into revenue, pay rates, bill rates and margin. Clean records – organized client and caregiver files, compliance documents, and contracts ready to share. Integrated past acquisitions – if you’ve bought agencies, get them fully integrated (systems, reporting, processes) and let that stability show up in your numbers. Operational consistency – keep running the business like you’ll own it for years; buyers want to see stability, not a short-term pre-sale push followed by decline. “Being ready to sell and answering those questions is really important. It really speeds up the process.” Looking Ahead: Demand Isn’t Going Anywhere Despite policy shifts and reimbursement debates, Tinsley is confident about the long-term fundamentals of home- and community-based personal care: “My services aren’t going away… the demand for my services, the desire to have it in their home isn’t going away.” Help at Home’s strategy is built around that reality: dense local markets, strong culture, compliant operations, and disciplined acquisitions that can be integrated and grown over time. Final Thoughts Rich Tinsley’s session offered a clear view into how a scaled, strategic buyer in personal care services thinks about value, risk, and partnership. His emphasis on culture, compliance, sustainable economics, and preparation aligns closely with what we see across the broader M&A market in home-based care. Whether you’re actively preparing for a transaction or simply planning for the next 3–5 years, these are the levers buyers are looking at long before they ever submit an LOI. 👉 To watch the recording of the full webinar, visit: https://www.mertztaggart.com/behind-the-curtain Are you contemplating a sale of all or a portion of your healthcare services company? Arrange a confidential discussion with our M&A experts via info@mertztaggart.com.

Insights from David Jackson, CEO of Choice Health at Home Mertz Taggart recently launched its “Behind the Curtain” webinar series, aimed at providing agency owners with a transparent look at the inner workings of healthcare M&A. In our first session, David Jackson—Founding Partner & CEO of Choice Health at Home—shared his playbook for sustainable growth and acquisition success. Joined by Mertz Taggart’s Cory Mertz and Michael Lloyd, Jackson detailed what strategic buyers are really looking for in today’s market—and how operators can position themselves for a premium outcome. "If you're driving toward quality, you're already driving toward value-based care." – David Jackson, CEO, Choice Health at Home From Therapist to CEO: Building a Scalable Healthcare Platform Jackson’s journey began as a physical therapist inspired by personal family experiences. That early passion led to the founding of a rehab business in 2007, which evolved into today’s Choice Health at Home—a diversified provider spanning home health, hospice, personal care, and rehab, with thousands of employees across seven states. “We started with three credit cards and a bad line of credit. But we had a vision—to deliver care in the home and build something that lasts.” – David Jackson What Buyers Like Choice Health At Home Look For Whether you're preparing to sell now or positioning for a few years down the road, here’s what stands out most to strategic buyers like Choice: Compliance First Buyers conduct compliance audits before anything else. A history of failed audits or unclear documentation is often a dealbreaker. “Compliance precedes everything else. If there’s a red flag, it’s a non-starter.” – David Jackson Quality Metrics That Matter From HHVBP performance to CMS star ratings, quality metrics directly affect enterprise value. Jackson emphasized that quality and financial health are closely linked. Well-Organized Financials Accrual-based accounting, clean P&Ls, and clearly defined gross margins are critical. Jackson cautioned that “cash-based” books create complications during diligence. “Get your financials in order. $2,500 a month with a good accountant could be the best investment you make pre-sale.” – David Jackson Sustainable Payer Mix Buyers expect your payer mix to align with your market. If you are in a market dominated by Medicare Advantage, yet 90% of your revenue comes from traditional Medicare, it can be concerning. Home Health, Hospice, and Personal Care: Tailored Strategies for Each Sector Jackson broke down his acquisition lens across each of Choice’s three core service lines: Home Health Top priorities: Compliance, CMS quality scores, gross margin structure, and alignment with local payer trends. Bonus: Regional density can command a premium. “Home health remains the most viable vehicle for reducing re-hospitalization and delivering care at the lowest cost.” Hospice Focus: Regulatory compliance is the #1 challenge in today’s transactions, especially in enhanced oversight states like Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and California. Outlook: AI is creating real opportunities to automate compliance workflows and pre-screen documentation. Hospice Enhanced Oversight States (2024) “We’re excited about AI’s ability to audit 100% of our hospice charts. Compliance in this sector is everything.” Personal Care Challenges: Labor compliance, Medicaid rate uncertainty. Strategy: Diversification. Choice maintains a 60/40 Medicaid-to-private-pay mix to protect against policy swings. “We want to care for people, regardless of what the government hands us. Being diversified helps us do that.” David Jackson, Founding Partner & CEO, Choice Health at Home The Value of Using an Advisor As a buyer who has executed 20 transactions since recapitalization, Jackson had some clear advice for founders: “You’ve built something valuable. When it’s time to sell, get help. A good advisor can prepare you, manage the process, and protect your interests.” He added that some of Choice’s most successful deals came after initially being a backup bidder—only to win the deal when others fell short. Looking Ahead: Growth in the Southwest and Beyond Jackson and his team at Choice remain active buyers, with a current focus on home health and personal care assets in the Southwestern U.S. But their disciplined approach to building density, scalability, and long-term value will resonate in any geography. “We're not just buying businesses. We're building infrastructure for the next decade of care.” Watch the Full Webinar Catch the full discussion between David Jackson, Cory Mertz, and Michael Lloyd for deeper insights: 👉 Visit this link.

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance Due diligence is the buyer’s detailed review of your business after you sign a letter of intent. Over roughly 60 to 90 days, their team verifies your financials, compliance, and operations before the deal closes. Most of it is predictable, and owners who are organized and prepared tend to move through it faster and hold on to the value they negotiated. By the time you reach due diligence in the M&A process, the hardest decisions are mostly behind you. You have run a process, weighed your offers, and signed a letter of intent with the buyer you chose. What comes next is the buyer’s turn to look closely at the business before the deal becomes final. Due diligence is that close look, the most intensive phase of a sale, and for many owners the least familiar, because selling a business happens once and most of diligence stays out of view until you are in the middle of it. Knowing what to expect, and preparing for it, is most of what makes it go smoothly. When diligence starts, and what the buyer is doing Due diligence begins once you sign the letter of intent, and it runs on an exclusive basis, which means you have agreed to work only with that buyer while it is underway. Diligence is a confirmatory process: during the sale, the buyer formed a view of your business from the materials and conversations you provided, and this is where they verify that view before signing a definitive purchase agreement. That review runs on two tracks: confirming that the business is what you represented, and identifying material liabilities that were not apparent in the materials you provided, particularly exposure with payers and government agencies such as CMS, the IRS, and the Department of Labor. Most reviews run roughly 60 to 90 days, though larger or more complex businesses can take longer. The shared goal is a clean close, with the buyer confident in what they are buying and you holding the terms you agreed to. What buyers actually examine Diligence covers far more than the financials. The buyer’s team reviews the business across several areas at the same time, usually through a secure online data room where you post documents as they are requested. The main areas include: Financial. Validating your reported earnings, anchored by the quality of earnings review covered in the next section. Legal and corporate. Contracts, leases, ownership records, and any past or pending litigation. Regulatory and compliance. Licenses, Medicare and Medicaid provider numbers, accreditation, and billing and HIPAA compliance. This is where healthcare diligence runs deeper than most industries. Operational. How the business runs day to day, including staffing, referral sources, and payer mix. Clinical. In care-delivery businesses, a review of a sample of patient charts, typically 30 to 200 depending on the size of the business. People. Payroll, employee classification, key staff, and employment agreements. These run in parallel rather than one after another, which is why the volume of requests early on can feel heavy, though it eases as you work through it. The quality of earnings review is the center of it Of all the workstreams, the financial review draws the most attention, and at its center is the quality of earnings review, usually called a QoE. In a QoE, the buyer hires a third-party accounting firm to confirm that your reported earnings are accurate and sustainable. The firm works through the detail behind the numbers, transaction by transaction, including your add-backs. Add-backs are expenses you remove from earnings because they will not carry over to the new owner, such as a one-time legal cost or an owner expense the business will no longer have. The QoE tests whether each one holds up, because those adjustments feed directly into the value. If the review supports your earnings, it confirms the basis for the price. If it raises questions, the buyer may revisit the number. Much of how a QoE goes is settled long before it starts. We prepare our clients for these questions before they go to market, so that by the time the buyer’s accountants dig in, there are rarely surprises. → Related: How to Prepare Your Behavioral Health Business for Sale in 2026 It is not only documents: site visits and interviews Diligence is not entirely a paper exercise. At some point the buyer will want to see the business in person and meet the people who run it. Expect one or more site visits, where the buyer assesses the operation firsthand, and interviews with you and sometimes a few key members of your team. These are not interrogations. The buyer is trying to understand how the business actually works and who makes it run, which is part of what they are paying for. This is also where confidentiality gets sensitive, because staff often do not know the business is for sale. A well-run process manages who is told and when, so the people you rely on hear it the right way. The harder challenge is less visible: diligence runs while you are still operating the business, and letting performance slip during it is one of the costlier mistakes an owner can make, because the buyer is watching current results the whole time. How problems surface, and how the agreed price can change Diligence is also where surprises come to light, and where the number you agreed to can move if they do. When the review turns up something material, the buyer may ask to revise the price or the terms. That could be overstated earnings, a compliance gap, or more customer concentration than they expected. Reducing the offer after the LOI is common enough to have a name, re-trading, and it is most likely when something in diligence does not match what the buyer was told. Most re-trades trace back to something that could have been found and fixed earlier. Clean financials, current licenses, organized records, and a management team ready for the questions all reduce the chance of a late price reduction, and most of that work is done before diligence ever starts. Your job during diligence is to respond to requests quickly and accurately, and to keep the business performing. Consistent file naming and timely responses sound minor, but delays slow the deal and can wear down a buyer's confidence. Your attorney handles the purchase agreement and legal risk, your accountant works through the QoE and working capital, and your advisor coordinates across everyone to keep the deal moving A lot of advisors step back once the LOI is signed. We stay closely involved through diligence, because pushing the deal to closing efficiently is a large part of what we are there for. → Related: Overcoming Common Challenges in Home-Based Care M&A Key Takeaways Due diligence begins after you sign the LOI and runs on an exclusive basis, usually about 60 to 90 days. The buyer reviews the business across several areas at once: financial, legal, regulatory and compliance, operational, clinical, and people. The quality of earnings review verifies that your reported earnings are accurate and sustainable, including your add-backs. Expect site visits and interviews, not only document requests, and plan for how confidentiality is handled while you keep the business running. The agreed price can change if diligence turns up material problems, so the preparation you do before diligence is what protects your value. Responsiveness and organization keep the deal moving, and your advisor, attorney, and accountant each carry part of the work. Due diligence rewards preparation more than almost any other part of a sale, and the owners who move through it cleanly are usually the ones who got ready long before a buyer was at the table. Mertz Taggart is a healthcare M&A advisory firm that has represented owners across home health, home care, hospice, behavioral health, and infusion therapy for over twenty years. We prepare our clients before they go to market and stay closely involved through diligence and closing, so the value you negotiated is the value you keep. If you are getting ready to sell, or want to understand what diligence will ask of you before you start, it is worth a confidential conversation. Let’s talk.

Behavioral Health M&A By Kevin Taggart, CM&AP, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart Published August 2026. Transaction data reflects deals closed between April 1 and June 30, 2026, as tracked by Mertz Taggart. At a Glance Behavioral health M&A slowed in Q2 2026. A total of 27 transactions closed during the quarter — 21 traditional M&A deals and 6 growth deals — making it the lightest quarter for closed traditional volume in the Mertz Taggart data set going back to 2022. Mental health led all sub-sectors with 14 closed deals, followed by autism and I/DD with 6 and addiction treatment with 2. Two new private equity platforms formed, nonprofit and health-system combinations accounted for roughly a third of closed traditional volume, and several of the quarter's largest transactions were announced rather than closed. A total of 27 closed transactions — 21 traditional M&A deals and 6 growth deals — were reported in Q2 2026. Traditional M&A volume declined from 34 closed deals in Q1 2026 and 29 in Q2 2025, making it the lightest quarter for closed behavioral health M&A in our data set going back to 2022. The six growth deals carried a combined disc`losed value of approximately $183.8 million across the six rounds with disclosed terms. Note: Total industry transactions do not necessarily equal the sum of the sub-industries, as many transactions include more than one sub-industry. "Volume was down, but the composition of the quarter is more interesting than the count. Two new private equity platforms formed, one of the largest nonprofit combinations we've seen in years closed, and the sponsor-backed strategics that have driven this market for three years kept buying — just in smaller bites. What we're not seeing is the mid-size auction. Buyers are there; sellers of scale largely sat out the quarter." — Mertz Taggart Managing Partner Kevin Taggart said. Why nonprofit combinations stood out Nonprofit and health-system combinations were unusually prominent, accounting for roughly a third of closed traditional volume. Several were driven by Medicaid economics, with acquired organizations citing scale as the path to absorbing reimbursement shortfalls. It is one quarter, not a trend, but worth watching as state budgets tighten. "Anyone underwriting behavioral health right now is underwriting Medicaid more cautiously than in years past, but we expect this to pass as things eventually quiet down in DC. Buyers with capital are being deliberate — paying up for clean, in-network, growing businesses and being more diligent on everything else. For an owner, that spread is the whole story." — Taggart said. → Related: What Behavioral Health Owners Should Understand Before Comparing Offers Addiction Treatment M&A Two addiction treatment deals closed in Q2 2026, down from 6 in Q1 2026 and 7 in Q2 2025, and the lowest quarterly total in our data set. Substance use disorder deal flow has trailed its 2022 pace for several consecutive quarters as platforms work through integration, payer contracting and, in a few cases, balance sheet repair. MKH Capital Partners forms a new platform with Haven Health Management The most significant addiction treatment transaction of the quarter was MKH Capital Partners' platform acquisition of Haven Health Management, a Palm Springs, Florida-based operator of 22 Joint Commission-accredited mental health and substance use treatment locations across nine states and Puerto Rico with nearly 2,000 employees. Brands include Indiana Center for Recovery, The Haven Detox and The Recovery Team. Terms were undisclosed but described as nine figures. MKH concurrently acquired United Billing Solutions to support in-network billing across Haven's brands, and named Brian Thorn chief executive officer. Advantage Behavioral Health highlights A sizable behavioral health transaction was also announced (not closed) during the quarter: Advantage Behavioral Health agreed to be acquired by QCF/I, Inc. in a transaction financed through a planned $610 million non-rated municipal bond issuance, although the deal had not closed as of quarter-end. Clearview Capital, Advantage’s founders and management were expected to receive approximately $415 million at closing, with the potential for an additional $100 million tied to performance milestones. We classified the transaction within mental health because mental health is Advantage’s primary line of business, although the company also provides substance use disorder services. The announcement is another positive signal that investors remain interested in scaled SUD platforms. Also in the quarter, Abacus Investments-backed Recover Now closed its merger with Widespread Wellness, a Tennessee-based outpatient provider. “Two closings is a low number, and I don’t want to over-read it. SUD is where the gap between good assets and everything else is widest right now. Platforms are still looking, but they’re selective on payer mix and length of stay, and some are still cleaning up what they bought in 2021 and 2022. For a quality operator, there’s very little competing supply. It was also encouraging to see a transaction like Haven close and Advantage Behavioral Health get announced, largely because of the scale of both businesses,” Taggart said. Mental Health M&A Fourteen mental health deals closed in Q2 2026, down from 18 in Q1 2026 and 20 in Q2 2025. The sub-sector continues to account for the majority of behavioral health transaction volume, with activity split between technology-enabled platforms consolidating and a steady base of outpatient psychiatry and community provider combinations. The quarter's largest mental health transactions PsychPlus acquired Koa Health, a multinational digital mental health company, in a combination the buyer describes as the largest technology-enabled mental health platform globally, serving more than six million patients across the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia-Pacific. PsychPlus operates more than 200 U.S. locations; Koa founder Dr. Oliver Harrison becomes president of PsychPlus. Spring Health closed its acquisition of Alma, the mental health provider marketplace, materially expanding Spring Health's in-network provider supply. The deal was announced in Q1 and closed May 1st. WPS Health Insurance acquired Mavida Health, a women's mental health platform — one of the quarter's few payer-side acquisitions of a virtual provider. Other closed mental health transactions: Thurston Group-backed Arc Health acquired North Carolina Mental Health & Psychiatry Group. Hillandale Advisors-backed Sidekick Therapy Partners acquired Word of Mouth Clinical Associates, a Tennessee pediatric therapy practice. Curio Digital Therapeutics acquired the Nora Mental Health franchise system, adding a national outpatient footprint to its digital platform. Unyte Health acquired Vital Links and Vital Sounds, the developers of Therapeutic Listening. Sweetser acquired Common Ties Mental Health, and Keystone Human Services merged with Mikayla's Voice — both nonprofit combinations. UConn Health assumed operation of the state-run Albert J. Solnit Children's Center in Middletown, Connecticut; Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center acquired Kansas-based Ashley Clinic; and Xpress Wellness Urgent Care acquired Wichita's Midwest Counseling Services. Mental health deals highlights Several larger mental health transactions were announced but had not closed at quarter end. Clearview Capital agreed to exit Advantage Behavioral Health, a New Jersey-based operator of more than 30 mental health and sober-living facilities in eight states, to nonprofit QCF/I, Inc., financed by a planned $610 million non-rated municipal bond issuance. Clearview and ABH's founders and management are expected to receive roughly $415 million at closing, with up to $100 million more tied to milestones. ABH is projected to generate approximately $170 million of revenue and $78 million of EBITDA this year. Mental health growth capital in Q2 2026 HPS Investment Partners agreed to take majority ownership of Discovery Behavioral Health in exchange for a substantial debt reduction, subject to regulatory approval. Universal Health Services' $835 million acquisition of Talkspace was approved by shareholders May 30 and is expected to close in Q3 2026. On the growth side, mental health accounted for all six of the quarter's rounds. Click Therapeutics raised $50 million in a Series D from Boehringer Ingelheim to commercialize CT-155, a prescription digital therapeutic for schizophrenia symptoms. Tava Health raised a $40 million Series C led by Centana Growth Partners; Instride Health raised $30 million from Echo Health Ventures; Klinic raised $24 million; Zocalo Health raised $22.8 million from EO Ventures; and Vanna Health raised $17 million from Health Velocity Capital. Autism and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities M&A Six autism and I/DD deals closed in Q2 2026, down from 10 in Q1 2026 and roughly in line with the 7 closed in Q2 2025. New platform formation and nonprofit consolidation drove the quarter. Merakey and I Am Boundless: the quarter's largest behavioral health transaction The largest transaction of the quarter in any behavioral health sub-sector was Merakey's acquisition of I Am Boundless, an Ohio nonprofit serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and behavioral health needs. Merakey, a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit operating in 12 states, and Boundless will together generate up to $1 billion in annual revenue, with Boundless keeping its name and leadership. Boundless had grown revenue from $20 million to an expected $200 million through five acquisitions in seven years, and its CEO pointed to Medicaid shortfalls as the reason it sought a larger partner. Cathay Capital launches Ascendia Autism Care Cathay Capital launched Ascendia Autism Care, a new applied behavior analysis platform built around a founding affiliate operating 20 centers across eight states with more than 400 clinicians. Ascendia focuses on early intervention for children ages two to six and plans to grow through de novo expansion and additional clinical partnerships. Additional Q2 autism and I/DD transactions: Gryphon Investors-backed LEARN Behavioral acquired Little Leaves Behavioral Services from FullBloom. Frontline Healthcare Partners-backed JoyBridge Kids acquired A Bridge to Achievement, its first step into adult services. Doma acquired MPA Services, an Ohio I/DD provider. The founders of North Arrow ABA in Michigan converted the practice to 100% employee ownership. "ABA and I/DD are still where the most consistent buyer interest is, and Cathay's launch is a good example — a firm entering around a single high-quality founding group rather than buying a built rollup. The other story is the nonprofit side moving. Merakey and I am Boundless exists because the Medicaid math doesn't work at smaller scale according to I am Boundless, and I expect more of those combinations over the next 18 months." — Taggart said. → Related: How to Prepare Your Behavioral Health Business for Sale in 2026 If you are interested in downloading the PDF version of the Q2 2026 Behavioral Health M&A Report, click the download link below:

By Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart At a Glance A behavioral health owner who grew a solo practice into a much larger New York City business shares ten lessons from selling it. Among them: get clear on why you are selling, interview several advisors and compare them side by side, choose a behavioral health specialist you trust, protect confidentiality from the first conversation, and organize your financials long before going to market. No matter where you are in your home-based care journey, it is never too early to ask: what comes next? One of the most common questions owners raise is who, exactly, buys home health, home care, and hospice companies. The answer varies more than most people expect. This article breaks down the buyer universe into its main categories, explains what motivates each type, and gives you enough grounding to recognize which buyers might be relevant to your eventual exit. The Two Buyer Types: Strategic and Financial There are two broad categories of home-based care buyers: strategic buyers and financial buyers. Because their goals differ fundamentally, how they approach a transaction, including what they pay and what they require from a seller, can differ significantly. Strategic buyers tend to dominate the M&A landscape in terms of deal volume. They usually operate in the same or closely connected industry and can realize synergies from an acquisition. Those synergies, whether in the form of cost savings, referral relationships, or value-based care arrangements, represent a real financial benefit, which means they can often support a higher acquisition price than a buyer who cannot capture them. Financial buyers, by contrast, are acquiring with a targeted return on investment and a defined exit horizon in mind. They are not operators in the traditional sense, which means they typically need an existing management team or an operating partner to run the business after close. → Related: Home-Based Care M&A Report Strategic Buyers Strategic buyers in home-based care generally fall into three groups. Public Companies Public companies operate under Wall Street scrutiny and face reporting requirements that influence how they approach acquisitions. The price-to-EBITDA multiple at which their own shares trade can factor into whether and at what price an acquisition makes sense. Examples include Amedisys, Addus, Enhabit, Aveanna, and The Pennant Group. This group has also expanded to include ‘payviders’, the large managed care organizations playing an active role in value-based care. Cigna (Signify), United's Optum Ventures (LHCG), and Humana's Centerwell, along with Gentiva (co-owned with Clayton Dubilier Rice), are examples of that category. Private Equity Portfolio Companies These are companies formed through a private equity fund's initial, or platform, investment in the sector. Their typical growth strategy involves add-on or tuck-in acquisitions around that platform. Their cost of debt, a function of the interest rate environment and their existing leverage, shapes how actively they pursue deals. Examples of PE-backed home-based care portfolio companies include Elara Caring, Help at Home, AccentCare, Care Advantage, and Compassus. Non-PE-Backed Strategic Buyers Every strategic buyer that is neither publicly traded nor backed by a private equity fund falls here. Their acquisition appetite depends on their size and operational sophistication. This category includes for-profit and not-for-profit health systems, such as Trinity Health, as well as larger not-for-profits, which are particularly active in the hospice segment. Financial Buyers Financial buyers are investors, not operators. They acquire with a specific internal rate of return and exit date in mind, though both are subject to change depending on market conditions. To reduce execution risk, they typically incentivize existing management or bring in an industry operating partner by offering equity in the platform. Private Equity Groups Private equity groups raise capital from limited partners, such as pension funds or high net worth individuals, and deploy it through funds that typically run seven to ten years. They acquire stakes in businesses they intend to improve and sell at a profit, with returns shared with their LPs. In home-based care, most PE firms pursue a roll-up strategy. A platform is acquired, then the firm adds smaller companies in new markets over time. The goal is to build a larger, more efficient entity that benefits from economies of scale and increased market share. The underlying concept is multiple expansion: the combined company can sell at a meaningfully higher EBITDA multiple than the individual companies that were acquired. Debt financing is typically used to maximize returns. Active private equity sponsors in home-based care include KKR & Co. Inc., TPG Capital, Webster Equity Partners, Vistria, and Lorient Capital. → Related: What Do Buyers Know That You Don't? Family Offices Family offices manage capital on behalf of one or a small number of high net worth families. That structure gives them more flexibility on holding periods and investment strategy than a fund with a defined life. Like PE firms, they need a platform acquisition to enter the industry. Examples in home-based care include Dorilton Capital, through its investment in Traditions Health, and Kaltroco, which owns New Day Healthcare. Independent Sponsors Independent sponsors, sometimes called fundless sponsors, are individuals or small groups who identify and pursue acquisitions without a committed fund behind them. They are often former investment bankers or private equity professionals with the deal experience to source and execute transactions. They tend to target industries where they have prior expertise. Unlike traditional PE, independent sponsors typically do not raise equity until they have identified a specific target. They work through various capital channels, including private equity firms, family offices, hedge funds, and pension funds. Search Funds The search fund model, which dates to 1984 and has grown in visibility in recent years, involves an MBA graduate, typically from a top business school, who raises capital from alumni and other backers to acquire and operate a profitable private company. Backers may include school alumni, faculty, and established debt partners. The MBA graduate serves as the operator post-close. Key Takeaways Strategic buyers, including public companies, PE-backed platforms, and non-PE operators, account for the majority of home-based care deal volume. Strategic buyers can often pay more because they capture synergies a financial buyer cannot. Private equity typically pursues a roll-up strategy, building value through multiple acquisitions and then selling the combined platform at a higher multiple. Family offices and independent sponsors represent a smaller share of activity but can be flexible and competitive buyers for the right business. The type of buyer matters as much as the price: each brings different motivations, timelines, and expectations post-close. Working with an experienced M&A advisor can help you assess which buyers are realistic for your business and how to run a process that generates competitive tension. Considering Your Options? Understanding the buyer universe is one piece of exit planning. Knowing how to position your business within it, and how to run a process that surfaces the right buyers, requires a different kind of work. Mertz Taggart has advised healthcare services owners for over twenty years, across hundreds of transactions in home health, home care, hospice, and adjacent services. If you are thinking about what comes next, a confidential conversation is a reasonable place to start. Home-Based Care M&A, Selling a Home Care Agency, Home Health Buyers, Private Equity Home Care, Strategic Buyers Healthcare, Home Care Exit Planning, Hospice M&A, Healthcare M&A Advisors, Sell My Home Care Company