Amedisys Partners With NVoq To Improve Clinician Experience

Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMED) , in its effort to upgrade its offerings for non-acute-care services, has collaborated with nVoq, a provider of HIPAA compliant speech recognition solutions for the healthcare industry. The partnership will leverage nVoq's technology platform within Amedisys' home health and hospice business. Further, nVoq's platform supports mobile and care center-based medical professionals in 38 states in the United States and more than 300 locations.

Per the terms of the agreement, Amedisys’ clinicians will be able to accurately capture patient narratives at a much faster rate at the point of care, with nVoq.Mobile Voice. This will help to streamline and simplify the caregiver’s workflow. Apart from this, value-added automation can be harnessed by desktop users through the nVoq platform.

The partnership will thereby strengthen Amedisys’ position in the global home health and hospice market.

Rationale Behind the Partnership

Per Amedisys’ management, the collaboration will equip its home health and hospice segments with the medically relevant speech-to-text capability of nVoq. Amedisys believes that this will improve patient experience, clinician satisfaction and business efficiencies.

Recent Developments

Amedisys signed a deal in July to acquire regulatory assets that will allow it to conduct home health care operations at more counties in New York. The company also signed an agreement with ClearCare in July to establish a partnership between Amedisys’ home-health centers and personal care agencies, helping caregivers of patients to coordinate using ClearCare.

Amedisys finalized an acquisition deal with RoseRock Healthcare (a hospice care provider in Tulsa, OK) in April. Per the terms of the agreement, Amedisys acquired almost all assets of RoseRock, thus expanding Amedisys’ operational capabilities.

Further, Amedisys completed the acquisition of Compassionate Care Hospice (a hospice provider headquartered in Parsippany, NJ). The deal enabled Amedisys to acquire 100% ownership interest in Compassionate Care Hospice for a fixed price of $340 million, thus expanding Amedisys’ hospice footprint.

Industry Prospects

Per a report by Grand View Research, the global home healthcare market size is expected to reach $557.57 billion by 2026, seeing a CAGR of 7.8%. The key factors driving the market are improved patient outcome, cost efficiency and patient convenience provided by home healthcare. The growing incidents of dementia, Alzheimer’s and orthopedic conditions are also major contributors.

Given the potential of the market, the collaboration between Amedisys and nVoq has been formed at the right time.

Price Performance

The company’s shares have gained 25.7% in the past year against the industry’s decline of 29.7%.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Currently, Amedisys sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE:HAE) , NuVasive, Inc (NASDAQ:NUVA) and ResMed Inc (NYSE:RMD) .

Haemonetics, currently flaunting a Zacks Rank #1, has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 13.5%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

NuVasive’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 10.9%. The company currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

ResMed’s long-term earnings growth rate is estimated at 12.9%. It currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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