Sometimes the best M&A strategy is re-acquiring what you already built, and Current Health is once again an independent company after co-founder Chris McGhee decided to take back the reins from Best Buy.
Best Buy picked up Current in 2021. The pandemic boom in home health inspired the retailer to move into the space before the ink was done drying on hospital-at-home-waivers.
- The thesis was that Best Buy could leverage its logistics and consumer-tech expertise to supercharge Current’s services, giving it a way to diversify revenue as TV prices plummeted and people held onto their smartphones for longer.
- McGhee steered the ship as CEO before stepping away last year. By then Current had expanded to the point where it was managing about a third of all hospital-at-home volume in the U.S.
Hospital-at-home is a tough business. Best Buy sprinkled plenty of foreshadowing into its recent earnings call, revealing that it’s racked up $109M in restructuring costs as it scales back its healthcare business.
- It sounded like a lot of HaH partnerships have taken longer to develop than initially thought due to health system financial challenges and uncertainty around waivers.
- Medically Home sang a similar tune to investors when structuring its merger with Dispatch Health, then proceeded to leak all the details in a company-wide email.
Current is starting its next act. McGhee announced that he’s returning “to build Current Health into the world’s largest healthcare organization” by honing its focus on high-acuity services where payment models are crystal clear.
- Unlike the murky reimbursement pathways of RPM, high-cost / high-need areas like oncology-at-home (including cell and gene therapies) are where Current is finding its sweet spot of delivering meaningful outcomes through a scalable model.
- While Current will continue to operate HaH and RPM programs, it views leaning in on the highest impact areas possible as the best way to serve its customer base – and move the needle for patients – going forward.
The Takeaway
Current Health is looking to build a healthcare system centered on homes and communities rather than hospital hallways, and it turns out the fastest way to get there isn’t by waiting around for GeekSquad.
