PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Home Health Company BrightSpring Plans to Go Public

home healthcare nurse with patient

Home health company BrightSpring has revived its plans to go public.

The Kentucky-based firm on Tuesday (Jan. 2) filed its plans for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The filing did not include proposed terms for the IPO, though a report by Bloomberg News said the company had said it was aiming to raise $1 billion in its offering. The same report notes that BrightSpring filed for an IPO in October 2021 but pulled back amid a cooling market for new listings.

Backed by investment company KKR, BrightSpring focuses on “medically complex clients and patients,” which it describes as “a large, growing, and underserved population in the U.S. healthcare system,” per the SEC filing.

These are patients with chronic conditions and long-term healthcare needs, and account for a market of more than $1 trillion, BrightSpring said.

That’s nearly a quarter of the entire U.S. healthcare market, as PYMNTS wrote in November on the increasing digitization of that sector.

“Beyond the vagaries of stock prices and sell-side firms’ analysts notes, the data shows that consumers are finding value in using their devices and laptops to gain insight and access to the care they need,” that report said.

For example, online health marketplace GoHealth said in its latest results that it had helped more than 161,000 Medicare consumers assess their coverage, review options and enroll in a plan, a 31% increase from the prior year.

And Amazon — which acquired One Medical in 2022 for $3.9 billion — during its October earnings report offered updates on its push into that sector.

CEO Andy Jassy noted that the tech giant’s healthcare team “is continuing to make healthcare easier for people to access.

“The Amazon Pharmacy customer experience has significantly evolved this year, and customers are responding to that both in their purchasing behavior and qualitative feedback,” he added.

Meanwhile, recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence has found decreasing digital healthcare participation among rural consumers, while urban consumers’ digital connectivity increased.

“Out of the nine digital healthcare activities tracked, rural consumers reported decreased engagement in seven categories year over year, while their urban counterparts increased engagement across all nine,” PYMNTS wrote last month.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024