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Pa. company acquires Forum Health at Home
Employees have the same jobs and rates of pay, and clients the same services.
YOUNGSTOWN — Celtic Healthcare of Mars, Pa., became the new owners of Forum Health at Home, effective today.
Celtic, a for-profit, multistate, regional home health care and rehabilitation services provider, paid $4.2 million for Forum Health at Home, which provided services to patients in their homes, said Lowell Johnson, Forum president and chief executive officer.
Johnson said the sale has changed nothing except the ownership and the name.
All 200 employees have the same jobs today as they had Monday and at the same rate of pay. Clients will still receive services, he said.
The assets of Forum Health at Home include home care, hospice, private duty care, LifeLine, HotMeals and transportation, Forum officials said.
When the sale was announced May 7, officials said the Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of NE Ohio would be renamed Celt- ic Healthcare of NE Ohio, and the private-duty unit would be known as Celtic Community Services of NE Ohio.
The Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice of NE Ohio has nothing to do with the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Youngstown, which is a private nonprofit organization not associated with Forum Health.
Arnold E. Burchianti II, who founded Celtic Healthcare in 1995, said the acquisition will allow the Youngstown area to receive the same community services with an increase in service offerings and quality of care.
Burchianti had previously said benefits to the Mahoning Valley region residents would include implementation of disease management programs, mental health nurses, the addition of a wound care specialist and specialty programs.
Regarding Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital in Howland, Johnson said June 27 that, while there are interested parties and Forum is entertaining offers for the hospital, there is “absolutely no purchaseagreement.”
alcorn@vindy.com