In January, the VNA announced it had signed an agreement to sell its operations to Cape Cod Health Care, a large consortium which owns the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod. But that agreement fell through. The Cape Cod group did not purchase the business or any of its operational assets as it had intended to. Instead, when the VNA closed its doors on Tuesday the off-Island agency rolled Vineyard patients over to their own program.

 

“The letter of intent previously signed by the Vineyard Nursing Association and the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod expired as of March 5, 2014,” Robin Lord, director of communications for Cape Cod Health Care, said in a statement on Friday. “The parties were not able to secure the regulatory approvals deemed necessary for the [Cape Cod group] to actually acquire the Vineyard Nursing Association.”

 

Robert Tonti, chief executive officer for the VNA, said Friday that about 80 per cent of the VNA's operational revenues come from Medicare reimbursements, the federal health care provider for people over the age of 65.

 

“The deal involved us and them taking over a Medicare business," Mr. Tonti said. "And in the end they chose not to take care of our Medicare business but continue their own. If they didn't want the Medicare business...then there's no need to go further with the whole acquisition.”

 

Mr. Tonti said it's been a tough few days but all patients are receiving service. He said “all but a few” employees are now working for the Cape Cod group. Most of the administrative staff, including himself, will not move over to the new company.

 

“There have been some bumps, but running pretty smoothly,” Mr. Tonti said. “Our number one concern was making sure that patients get taken care of and the employees, too. Now we're just closing down as a business.”

 

VNA board chairman Michael Goldsmith described the transition as a “cooperative effort between two agencies.”

 

“This didn't happen as initially envisioned but we're happy that the patients have been picked up and taken care of, and that service is being continued,” Mr. Goldsmith said Friday. “We're going to wind down our operation accordingly.”