After back-to-back file years for healthcare transactions, 2023 was a comparatively tepid time for dwelling well being and hospice dealmaking. That is evident from a latest report from PwC.

Particularly, there have been 95 dwelling care and hospice offers within the 12 months examined by PwC ending November 15, in comparison with 114 in the identical interval final yr. The offers had been price $4.7 billion.

Moreover, these transactions generated a 16% improve in quantity and a 75% improve in worth.

Based on knowledge from mergers and acquisitions agency The Braff Group, there have been 25 transactions in dwelling well being, dwelling care and hospice specifically within the third quarter.

There have been twelve Medicare-certified dwelling care offers, three hospice offers, 9 personal offers, and one Medicaid-based deal.

“We beforehand reported that the M&A market has been in a protracted slowdown since late 2022,” The Braff Group wrote within the report. “At first of the yr, we had been cautiously optimistic that we might see the beginning of a restoration within the second half of 2023. However with the Fed not ruling out additional price hikes and recession fears, whereas much less acute however nonetheless persistent, consumers are nonetheless largely taking part in it protected by not taking part in in any respect.”

Though the transaction has not but closed, one of many standout offers this yr was for UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), in anticipation of its acquisition of Amedisys Inc. The deal was introduced in June and is valued at $3.3 billion.

In early 2021, Amedisys transferred its private care enterprise to Massachusetts-based HouseWorks.

Nevertheless, UnitedHealth Group accomplished its $5.4 billion deal for LHC Group in February.

Based on the PwC report, healthcare deal volumes are down 13% total in comparison with 2022, and the worth of offers has additionally fallen.

Regardless of this, PwC specialists imagine that mergers and acquisitions are more likely to be a significant progress and revenue driver subsequent yr.

“Our outlook for healthcare offers in 2024 is cautiously optimistic,” PwC stated within the report. “Whereas basic concern amongst all events concerned within the deal cycle continues, each corporates and personal fairness gamers proceed to have giant quantities of capital that should be deployed. Enterprise entities acknowledge the significance of enterprise reinvention and portfolio transformation to attain progress and revenue expectations, with mergers and acquisitions seen as a number one solution to obtain these adjustments.”