Reliant Rehabilitation and Genesis Rehab Services have each picked up major new contracts, adding thousands of skilled nursing and senior living residents to their rolls.

First, Diversicare Healthcare Services announced it is outsourcing therapy services for its 62 skilled nursing facilities to Reliant. A week later, Pegasus Senior Living announced it was transitioning on-site physical, occupational and speech therapy at its 38 communities to Genesis Rehab. 

“A partnership with Reliant will give our patients and residents access to cutting-edge therapy while giving our therapy team members access to best-in-class training, clinical management and career opportunities,” said Diversicare President and CEO Jay McKnight. 

Brentwood, TN-based Diversicare previously provided therapy services through its own subsidiary, while Pegasus, which is located in Dallas, used a variety of rehabilitation entities across its portfolio. Both companies have said they expect efficiency gains from the agreements.

Jayne Warwick, RN, a compliance specialist at EHR-provider PointClickCare, said an early trend toward in-house therapy provision under the Patient Driven Payment Model appears to be swinging in the opposite direction.

Therapy “services are so specialized that I also think that bringing them in-house may have turned out to be more difficult than anticipated,” Warwick said. “Who has time to figure out all the nuances of (therapy) provision on top of skilled nursing care? It was a lot to take on for facilities. It just makes more sense to let the specialists run the specialists.”

 To help create efficiencies, Genesis Rehab last year launched Insights, a data analytics platform, in partnership with Team TSI/SHP.