Rising demand and a fairly stable reimbursement climate are two propellants attracting PE interest to the hospice merger and acquisition landscape, according to Eugene Goldenberg, managing director at the investment firm Edgemont Partners.

Legitimate companies want the best quality possible for the highest return on their hospice investments, he said.

“What are the underlying tailwinds of the business and how investable is this category of hospice from five years ago to now, a decade from now? Without any hesitation, I would say the [hospice] market will be significantly larger than it is today,” Goldenberg told Hospice News at the Elevate conference in Washington D.C. “In general, I have a hard time thinking of a hospice business owned by a private equity firm that emerged smaller than when private equity made the investments. There’s a significant amount of success stories in hospice and private equity, as opposed to any kind of failures or bankruptcies.”