Aspire Health

Aspire Health is a Nashville, Tennessee-based palliative care company that operated a group of specialized physician practices delivering home- and outpatient-based care to patients facing serious illness. Its model placed clinicians in patients' homes and other non-hospital settings to manage symptoms and coordinate care for people with advanced illness, positioning it as a non-hospice, community-based alternative to hospital-delivered palliative services.

The company scaled nationally, ultimately serving more than 100,000 patients across 25 states and Washington, D.C., and was described at the time of its sale as the country's largest non-hospice community-based palliative care provider. In June 2018 the health insurer Anthem completed its acquisition of the business; Anthem stated the deal expanded its ability to serve consumers in the home and other settings outside the hospital. After the acquisition, Aspire's chief executive Brad Smith served as chief operating officer of Anthem's Diversified Business Group before moving into federal health policy roles, and several Aspire executives later joined the Nashville firm Russell Street Ventures.

Founding story

Aspire was co-founded by Brad Smith with former U.S. Senator Bill Frist, a physician, and built in Nashville with the aim of scaling palliative care through the private sector; Smith has said the company demonstrated that private-sector delivery could scale services that nonprofit hospice-based palliative programs typically provided to only a few hundred patients.

Business model

Aspire operated specialized physician practices that delivered palliative care to seriously ill patients in their homes and in outpatient settings, working alongside health plans and the broader healthcare community rather than through hospital-based programs.

Traction

The company grew to serve more than 100,000 patients across 25 states and Washington, D.C.

Latest developments

Anthem completed the acquisition in June 2018, stating the deal was neutral to 2018 earnings and accretive in 2019. In March 2021, former Aspire CEO Brad Smith launched Russell Street Ventures, a Nashville firm combining private equity and incubation for healthcare companies, whose team included former Aspire COO Diane Seloff, former Aspire operations executive Bennett Graham and former Aspire chief of staff Brett Jackson.