Ahead of Interim HealthCare’s 60-year anniversary, CEO Rexanne Domico is preparing for the company’s next era, including changing the company’s mix of franchise and company-owned agencies. Domico, who assumed the role of CEO on Jan. 1, 2025, is evaluating opportunities to bring some franchises back under corporate management as a somewhat aging network of franchisees […] The post Interim CEO Plans Next Evolution Of Company As It Reaches ‘Crossroads’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.
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Ahead of Interim HealthCare’s 60-year anniversary, CEO Rexanne Domico is preparing for the company’s next era, including changing the company’s mix of franchise and company-owned agencies.
Domico, who assumed the role of CEO on Jan. 1, 2025, is evaluating opportunities to bring some franchises back under corporate management as a somewhat aging network of franchisees begins to consider exit opportunities. Meanwhile, the leader is working to bring new franchisees on board and fill white space in pursuit of double-digit organic growth.
Sunrise, Florida-based Interim provides home health, hospice, palliative and pediatric care, as well as medical staffing, through over 300 care centers.
While evaluating its mix of franchisee- and corporate-owned care centers, the company is investing in tools and technologies that prepare it for value-based care arrangements – but is waiting for payers to get on board with reimbursing for improved outcomes.
Home Health Care News recently connected with Domico to discuss her plans for the company’s “re-emergence.”
The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
HHCN: What are your top strategic priorities for the next one to three years, and what goals for growth do you have in the next three to five years?
Domico: I think there’s a lot of great opportunity at Interim for us to step forward and re-emerge as the company that is more of a leader in the space, because we can be that, and really focus on the power of our overall network.
As I think about our goals, simply put, I would say [that] we’re working on the re-emergence with new, very meaningful branding behind who Interim is to go into celebrating our 60th year and what I would say would be the next evolution of our company. [This includes] a focus on our local owners in their local markets, and how they focus on their communities and the impact that they have in those communities. That’s the big overarching goal, just being a better franchisor to the people that we serve.
It’s doing all of that better than we’ve done it in the past, or at least telling our story better, and making an impact in how we [thoughtfully] present ourselves in the coming years, the work that we do, and the impact that we intend to have on the health care community.
Then there are all the typical things you would expect: growth, high quality, what I would call de novo-type opportunities. We still have white space, so bringing new franchisees alongside on this ride with us is a priority.
And then technology is a priority for us. How do we shore up any areas of technology so that we can make things more efficient? The efficiency we’re looking for this year or in the coming couple of years is really going to be focused on our field locations. How do we make work that happens in the field locations better, quicker and more effective, right down to our clinicians in the field? How do we get technology into their hands to make their lives better?
How would you describe your overall growth strategy?
Our growth strategy will be a healthy double-digit organic growth. We will be growing through adding new franchise partners to our network. If you look at our map, we have a fair amount of white space. We’ve selected some target areas to get started and start fueling that engine again.
We will be looking at opportunities to operate more company care centers.
Being a 60-year-old company, we have somewhat of an aging network. We are blessed to have some franchise partners who have three generations of people running their businesses today. Some of them are also looking at exit strategies because they don’t have that next person to pass something down to. So I think we’re coming into a crossroads where we will be looking at the ability to purchase back some of our locations, and then also just growing new locations on top of that.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a predominantly franchised operation?
The advantage of being predominantly franchised is [that] you work on one thing. You’re really focused on building that support network.
The disadvantage of it is that you get a little bit removed from the business and what it’s like to really own and operate it. So we think it’s probably healthy that we have some company care centers that we are managing and dealing with the real market problems and the real market opportunities on a regular basis. I also think that because of our uniqueness, the fact that we are a 60-year-old company and have franchise partners who are ready to think about their long-range planning [presents an opportunity] for us to look at being able to help some of those franchise partners out and maybe change that mix a little bit.
Paul Mastrapa previously told HHCN that more home-based care companies should be involved in value-based arrangements. What do you think needs to happen for home-based care providers to become more involved with value-based care?
We’ve spent all year in 2025 working on our quality scores and really moving the needle on our ability to position the company to participate in value-based care arrangements. The gap is really being paid for that work. Quality is table stakes. If you’re going to go above and beyond, if you’re going to have technology in the home, if you’re going to provide additional services in the home that patients are going to benefit from, there needs to be some sort of payment mechanism for that. We’re still waiting in certain areas for the industry to catch up in some of those areas.
For example, patient monitoring is a great service. There’s no payment mechanism that really pays for that. So if a provider is going to jump into some of those things because they want to do a better job, they want to have better outcomes, they just understand that that’s an investment in a business where our margins are consistently under attack.
Some of those things, you have to be very mindful about what you’re going to invest in and what you’re going to do, and you’re torn between doing really what’s best for your patients and your families and your employees.
But we think the value-based care is incredibly important. We think there’s an opportunity to keep telling our story better and the ability to get paid for great outcomes. It’s just evolving, and I think it is part of our story, but it’s still not all written yet.
By: Jennifer Murtoff
The post Interim CEO Plans Next Evolution Of Company As It Reaches ‘Crossroads’ appeared first on Home Health Care News.
