AMN Healthcare Services, San Diego, exited the home healthcare business with the sale of its home health operations to Bayada Home Health Care, Mount Laurel, N.J., for $9.7 million in cash and retained working capital of $4 million, according to a news release.

The deal, which is effective Jan. 30, will allow AMN to focus more on its workforce offerings amid “significant reimbursement changes” and an uncertain regulatory environment in home health, according to an AMN news release.

Medicare payments to home health agencies this year are expected to fall by about 2.3%, or roughly $430 million, and the industry has come under fire from the Senate Finance Committee, which in October released a report blasting several publicly traded home-healthcare companies for engaging in practices to boost company revenue regardless of patients' needs.