This news caught me by surprise. I’ve been dealing with Visiting Nurse Association my entire legal career. It’s strange to think they’re going to be out of the home health care business soon.

The story was detailed in the Dallas Morning News recently. Here are excerpts:

Faced with accelerating losses for its home health care programs, the Dallas-based not-for-profit Visiting Nurse Association said it will end those operations by early March.

In a notice filed with the Texas Workforce Commission, VNA said about 400 employees in North Texas would be laid off.

However, VNA president and CEO Robert Carpenter said that the magnitude of the job losses should be significantly lower.

About 270 of the total, Carpenter said, are individuals who care for a relative, funded through government programs so the patients don’t have to go into institutions.

“Probably 99 percent of them will wind up working for someone else,” Carpenter said of those employees.

He expects that about 100 nurses and care professionals in high demand will find work with other providers, leaving about 30 to 40 administrative workers who will have the most difficulty finding jobs.

Founded in 1934, VNA had total revenue of about $28 million in its 2012 fiscal year ending June 30, Carpenter said.

Carpenter said there are 1,400 for-profit home health agencies in North Texas and in that competitive environment, it “didn’t make sense” for VNA to maintain programs that couldn’t sustain themselves.

Now VNA will focus on its Meals on Wheels program and try to build its hospice and private-duty service operations.