Deal volume in the home health and hospice sector accelerated in the third quarter of 2020, up 120%, with 22 publicly announced transactions, compared with 10 acquisitions in the second quarter of 2020, according to data from HealthCareMandA.com and Deal Search Online. Compared with the same quarter in 2019, M&A activity increased by 10%. “Unlike most healthcare services sectors dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, home health care and hospice agencies are bouncing back to nearly pre-COVID-19 levels of activity,” says Lisa E. Phillips, editor of The Health Care M&A Report, which publishes the data. “Analysts we’ve talked to expected to see a resurgence of deals in the sector beginning in the third quarter, and they were right. There’s good momentum going into the fourth quarter, too.” The largest transaction in the third quarter was The Providence Service Corp.’s purchase of Simplura Health Group from One Equity Partners, for $575 million.