Ihs

CAMP HILL, Pa. - Where others might see a nursing home industry in trouble, Trans Healthcare Inc. sees an opportunity. That's what lured THI to the bankrupt Sparks-based Integrated Health Services Inc., which it has agreed to buy in a deal valued at $327.5 million. Assuming that the sale wins approval in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, THI will move its headquarters to IHS' Sparks campus, retaining the 675-person work force there. The acquisition would roughly triple Trans Healthcare's size, making it a significant player in the industry and a major presence in the Baltimore area.

Already the country's largest provider of post-hospital care, Integrated Health Services of Owings Mills announced its largest acquisition yet yesterday, as it agreed to pay about $900 million in stock and assumed debt for RoTech Medical Corp. of Orlando, Fla.RoTech brings strength in home respiratory services and durable medical equipment to IHS, which is strongest in home nursing and "subacute" facilities, which provide a higher level of care than a nursing home, but at a lower cost than a hospital.

Dr. Robert H. Elkins, who founded Integrated Health Services and built the Baltimore County company into a Fortune 500 company, will step down as IHS' boss, the company said yesterday. IHS, one of the country's largest nursing home chains, filed for bankruptcy reorganization in February. Joseph A. Bondi, of the New York turnaround consulting firm Alvarez & Marsal Inc., will step in as "chief restructuring officer," and Dr. Elkins will resign as chairman, chief executive officer and president, according to an IHS announcement late yesterday.

Putting an exclamation point at the end of three years of rapid growth, Integrated Health Services Inc. of Owings Mills announced yesterday that it will buy a large chunk of Horizon/CMS Healthcare from Healthsouth Corp. for $1.15 billion in cash and $100 million in assumed debt.IHS gets 139 nursing homes, 12 specialty hospitals, 35 institutional pharmacies and more than 1,000 rehabilitation therapy contracts -- assets Healthsouth, based in Birmingham, Ala., acquired only last week when it closed a $1.65 billion deal for Horizon.

Integrated Health Services founder Dr. Robert N. Elkins will get a package worth more than $50 million for resigning as chief executive, if his separation agreement is approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. Most of the amount would come in forgiveness of loans from IHS to buy company stock - which is now nearly worthless - and the taxes due on that amount, according to a motion filed by IHS late Thursday with the bankruptcy court....

Sparks-based Integrated Health Services, in bankruptcy reorganization for more than two years, is receiving bids on its nursing homes and other assets, several analysts and other industry sources said yesterday. A company spokesman, Robert Mead, said the company has not made a decision to sell its assets rather than try to emerge from bankruptcy as an operating company. The company has an obligation to "examine all the alternatives," he said. There is speculation in the industry that Kindred Healthcare Inc., of Louisville, Ky., is a likely buyer of IHS' nursing homes.

Integrated Health Services Inc. of Hunt Valley said yesterday that it has added two out-of-state nursing homes to its rapidly growing business.In separate moves, IHS said, it bought Silvercrest, a 120-bed nursing home in Las Vegas and leased and will manage Driftwood on the Ashley, a 160-bed nursing home in Charleston, S.C.IHS, one of the fastest-growing companies in long-term nursing care, said it will convert the two homes from traditional acute nursing...

Integrated Health Services Inc. said yesterday that it had acquired three new companies with over $32 million in annual revenue, extending the health services company into new markets.The companies IHS bought in the past two weeks are in keeping with the company's strategy, according to Marc B. Levin, executive vice president of IHS.The Owings Mills-based company bought the home health operations of Health Care Industries, a Deerfield Beach, Fla., company that provides nurses, therapists and aides to about 40 retirement communities.

WILMINGTON, Del. -- Integrated Health Services Inc. hopes to use its bankruptcy reorganization to "restructure the balance sheet through deduction of debt load," Daniel J. Booth, senior vice president of finance, told a creditors' meeting yesterday. Booth said a sale of assets was being considered, but "it's a little early to say exactly what we're going to do." The Sparks-based nursing home chain had said more than a year ago that it might sell its RoTech division, which provides home respiratory services and durable medical equipment.