GROWTH STRATEGY
The Real Challenge After Diversifying
Integration is becoming the next competitive advantage in homecare
By Kelsey Braak & Christian Kerr
Diversification has become one of the defining growth strategies in home-based care. Providers are expanding beyond a single service line by adding home health, hospice, personal care, palliative care and other offerings to better serve patients while creating new avenues for growth.
The timing makes sense. America's population is aging rapidly, with adults age 65 and older projected to make up nearly one-quarter of the United States’s population by 2065. At the same time, more than half of Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans, where payers are increasingly focused on reducing total cost of care through better coordination, fewer hospitalizations and improved outcomes.
For many organizations, the strategy has been straightforward: Build or acquire additional service lines and create a broader continuum of care. But adding services is only the first step. The real challenge, and increasingly the real competitive advantage, is making those services work together.
Many providers have successfully diversified. Far fewer have built an integrated operating model where information flows seamlessly, care transitions are coordinated and every service line contributes to a single, connected patient journey. As home-based care evolves, integration will separate true care platforms from organizations that simply own multiple service lines.
Diversification Doesn't Automatically Create Coordination
Many providers expected that expanding into multiple service lines would naturally generate more internal referrals and stronger patient retention. In reality, those benefits often prove harder to achieve.
Different teams may document care in separate systems, follow different workflows or have limited visibility into what happens before or after their portion of a patient's care. Internal referrals frequently depend on individual relationships rather than standardized processes, creating inconsistencies in how patients move across the organization.
The result is that providers offering multiple services can still deliver a fragmented experience.
Consider a patient recovering at home after a hospitalization. They begin with home health services, but over the following months they need additional support with activities of daily living. Eventually, they may benefit from palliative care or hospice. In many organizations, each transition requires new referrals, repeated assessments and separate care teams. Patients and families are left to navigate what feels like multiple organizations rather than one coordinated care experience.
Organizations that integrate those transitions can maintain continuity, strengthen relationships with patients and referral partners and better demonstrate value to payers.
What Integrated Care Really Looks Like
Integration is often viewed as a technology initiative, but technology is only one piece of the puzzle. The strongest organizations align people, processes and data so care can move seamlessly across service lines.
Three capabilities are becoming increasingly important.
1. Build a shared view of the patient.
Care coordination starts with visibility. Too often, home health, hospice and personal care teams maintain separate records, making it difficult to understand the full picture. A shared view of the patient, often enabled by a data warehouse that can identify patients across multiple electronic medical records/athlete management systems, allows clinicians to access service history, current care plans and changing clinical needs without relying on manual communication between departments.
That broader perspective, enabled through integrated technology, allows care teams to anticipate future needs instead of simply reacting when a patient qualifies for another service.
2. Make care transitions intentional.
Technology alone won't improve coordination if organizations continue relying on informal communication.
The most successful providers establish standardized workflows that identify transition opportunities early, define ownership and ensure referrals happen consistently. Rather than waiting until discharge to discuss next steps, care teams proactively evaluate whether patients may benefit from additional services before gaps in care develop.
When transitions become part of a repeatable operational process instead of an exception, organizations improve both patient experience and operational efficiency.
3. Turn data into action.
Collecting data is no longer enough. Leading organizations are using analytics to continuously improve care delivery.
Instead of simply measuring referral volume, providers should ask questions such as:
- Where are patients experiencing delays between services?
- Which care transitions have the highest success rates?
- Where are hospital readmissions occurring?
- Which referral sources generate the strongest long-term patient relationships?
Answers to these questions help organizations identify opportunities to improve coordination while demonstrating measurable value to health systems and payers.
Why Integration Matters More Than Ever
Integration is becoming even more important as value-based care continues to expand.
Today, more than 35 million Americans receive coverage through Medicare Advantage plans, and those plans increasingly reward providers that can improve outcomes while reducing unnecessary utilization. Providers that can demonstrate coordinated care across service lines are better positioned for shared savings and other value-based payment models.
Integration also strengthens relationships with hospitals, physician groups and other referral partners. These organizations increasingly want confidence that patients will experience smooth transitions after discharge. Providers that consistently coordinate care and communicate across service lines become more valuable long-term partners.
Most importantly, integrated care improves the patient experience itself. Patients and families should not have to repeat the same information multiple times or wonder who is responsible for the next step in their care. When service lines function as one connected system, care becomes simpler and better aligned with each patient's evolving needs.
Questions Every Provider Should Be Asking
As organizations continue investing in growth, leaders should evaluate whether they're building a collection of services or a truly integrated platform.
A few questions can help guide that assessment:
- Can clinicians easily access patient information across service lines?
- Are internal referrals supported by standardized workflows rather than informal relationships?
- Do we consistently identify patients who may benefit from another service before transitions occur?
- Are we measuring outcomes that reflect the entire patient journey, not just individual episodes of care?
- Do our technology investments make coordination easier or reinforce operational silos?
Answering these questions honestly often reveals where the greatest opportunities for improvement exist.
Looking Ahead
Diversification will remain an important growth strategy in home-based care as demographic trends, payer expectations and the continued shift toward care in the home drive demand for broader service offerings.
But competitive advantage won't come from how many service lines an organization owns. It will come from how well those services work together.
The organizations that lead the next phase of home-based care will connect people, processes and technology to create a more coordinated patient journey, stronger referral relationships and better outcomes.
As diversification becomes commonplace, integration will separate true care platforms from portfolios of disconnected services.
Kelsey Braak is a director in West Monroe's healthcare mergers and acquisitions practice, with a focus on serving home-based care and healthcare providers. She specializes in post-close value creation, integration planning and large-scale transformations. Braak helps organizations navigate complex operational and technology initiatives.
Christian Kerr is a senior manager in West Monroe's healthcare mergers and acquisitions practice, specializing in process optimization and revenue cycle management. He helps healthcare organizations improve operations through practical, capability-driven solutions.
