Just after announcing that its CEO would be stepping down, Genesis HealthCare revealed more changes. The current COO, Paul Bach, the Chief Nursing Officer, JoAnne Reifsnyder, and the CFO, Tom DiVittorio, have all announced they will be leaving the company. They have spent the past 38 years, 10 years and 25 years, respectively, at the company, so a lot of institutional knowledge will be walking out the door.
The new COO will be Melissa Powell, who most recently was the President and COO of The Allure Group, a New York City-based nursing home operator. Orrin Feingold joins Genesis as the new CFO. He has had similar positions with ComplexCare Solutions, which provides home-based services for patients with chronic illnesses, as well as Schweiger Dermatology and Sovereign Health Services. Finally, Mike Sherman, who has been serving as the company’s SVP and General Counsel, will now become EVP and Chief Legal Officer. Before he became General Counsel, he was SVP of Mergers and Acquisitions at the company.
At the same time of the executive announcements, Genesis also announced that it would shift to a “market-based” model that will be vertically integrated in every market. This will include skilled nursing, assisted living, rehab therapy, physician services and other ancillary services, which we assume will include home health. This sounds fairly similar to what Kindred Healthcare was trying to do when Paul Diaz was the CEO. We liked the concept at the time, but it is not easy to implement. We don’t know whether they plan to vertically integrate with acquisitions or through local joint ventures, but we suspect Mr. Sherman will be very busy. The company operates more than 250 nursing homes in 23 states, so there will be a lot to integrate. We wish them success.
