Two Private Equity Firms Reportedly Back Self-Directed At-Home Care Enabler Public Partnerships

Two large private equity firms have made under-the-radar investments in the self-directed, at-home care enabler Public Partnerships (PPL).

That’s according to a new report from Axios, which said that “few other details are known about transaction.” The two backers are the Park City, Utah-based DW Healthcare Partners and the Chicago-based Linden Capital Partners.

Other details that are known, according to Axios, include:

– Linden made the investment through its “structured capital vehicle”

– The joint investment follows a Covington Associates-run sale process that began several months ago.

– A divestiture process was set forward by Public Consulting Group Inc. (PCG), of which PPL is an affiliate business. PCG is a Boston-based firm that partners with “health, education and human services agencies to improve lives.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, PPL, DW Healthcare and Linden Capital Partners had all not responded to Home Health Care News’ request for comment on the matter.

PPL has 10 U.S. offices scattered across the country and also operates in the U.K. The company does not provide any care itself, but instead, acts as a back-end platform that allows family members, friends and other loved ones to act as the primary caregiver for patients in their own homes.

Those caregivers, then, are generally paid out by state Medicaid programs.

Overall, PPL operates 43 self-directed programs and has over 120,000 participants in those programs, according to its website.

Broadly, self-directed home care programs allow states to cut out traditional home care providers, enabling family caregivers to be paid for their work and for patients to pick their own caregiver as they see fit. States generally like the model because it provides jobs and also usually helps keep patients out of more costly settings – like most home care does.

At the same time, self-direct programs have often been rife with fraud, as it is harder to regulate than agency-provided home care.

On the backers’ side, DW Healthcare generally invests in mid- to late-stage companies in the health care space. Some of its other portfolio companies include CareXM, 360 Behavioral Health and Champion Manufacturing.

Meanwhile, Linden Capital Partners was founded in 2004 and has invested $2.5 billion in various health care companies. Its portfolio includes Vital Care Infusion Services, ProPharma Group and the revenue cycle management company Aspirion, among others.