Hospice News: VIA Health Partners Acquires Primary Care Company Equity Health

By Jim Parker | September 4, 2025  | hospicenews.com

North Carolina-headquartered VIA Health partners has expanded into the home-based primary care arena with the acquisition of Equity Health. Financial terms were undisclosed.

Michelle Schmerge, president and founder of Equity Health, established the company about five years ago. Equity Health’s model involves offering a full spectrum of primary care services in the home, with the goals of reducing burden on caregivers, reducing hospitalizations and improving chronic disease management. The company also offers patients and families 24/7 access to a nurse practitioner.

“There comes a time in everybody’s life where it’s hard to get out to a clinic. You no longer can drive anymore. You’re dependent on caregivers to get your medical care delivered. There is this massive gap in health care where patients just sort of can’t receive health care in the way they traditionally would, and so they always go to the hospital,” Schmerge told Hospice News. “So we decided to start a home-based primary care practice and deliver care to patients directly in their homes.”

The roots of the transaction took hold when a consultant hired by VIA Health Partners introduced the nonprofit’s President and CEO Peter Brunnick to Schmerge. The two also served together on the board of another organization. Equity Health was already on the hunt for potential partners, and as their conversations developed both parties felt that VIA was the right fit, according to Brunnick.

VIA Health Partners is an independent, community-based not-for-profit provider of hospice and serious illness care, serving more than 5,000 patients and families daily across 38 counties across the Carolinas.

Part of the impetus for the acquisition was to better position VIA for participation in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access and Community Health (ACO REACH) payment model, according to Brunnick. The organization is currently enrolled in ACO REACH, but felt that home-based primary care could boost patient attributions and better coordinate services for patients aligned with the program, he said.

“As we delved into value-based care through ACO REACH, it was very apparent to us that, as a hospice care organization, that we really were not truly managing patient care and therefore getting attribution, because we are somewhat limited,” Brunnick told Hospice News. “And [the Equity Health deal] just seemed like a good opportunity for us.”

Currently, Equity Health’s services are scaled through most of VIA Health Partners geographic footprint, with some expansion to come in South Carolina, according to Schmerge. The company may rebrand but won’t do so immediately, Brunnick said.

In addition to ACO REACH, offering home-based primary care in time may give VIA Health Partners access to additional payment models and revenue streams that are focused on chronic disease management, Brunnick said.

Home-based primary care will also allow for greater continuity of care and smoother transitions into hospice or other specialty services when appropriate.

“Now we have this integration where there’s a disposition for those patients to end-of-life care without really breaking up the continuity of care,” Brunnick said. “We’re learning a lot more about non-hospice services, how to really do it the right way. And [Schmerge’s] team is really being able to benefit from understanding end-of-life care and dealing with death and dying. And so we are learning from each other.”

This article originally appeared on hospicenews.com: VIA Health Partners Acquires Primary Care Company Equity Health - Hospice News