Jay Grinney is the former president and chief executive officer of HealthSouth Corporation (now Encompass Health Corporation), having assumed that role in May 2004. He retired from HealthSouth in December 2016 after leading the successful turnaround of one of the nation’s largest healthcare companies. Grinney currently serves as an industry advisor to KKR, a global investment firm, and is chairman of the board of Global Medical Response, a KKR-owned patient transportation company.
After the discovery of a $2.7 billion accounting fraud orchestrated by the company’s founder, many believed HealthSouth would file for bankruptcy. The challenges facing the company were significant. It had been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and was under investigations by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ); had no current, audited financial statements; was in default on its debt covenants; faced a major Class Action lawsuit; was hobbled by a bloated and inefficient corporate structure; and had lost the trust and confidence of its employees, physicians, patients, and business partners.
Upon becoming CEO Grinney recruited a first-class management team and embarked on a multiple-year turnaround. That enormous effort included restating two years of fraudulent financial statements and preparing new, audited financial statements (both of which required more than one million man-hours to achieve); reaching a $100 million settlement with the SEC, a $325 million settlement with the DOJ, and a $445 million settlement to resolve the Class Action litigation; divesting three, non-core business segments to raise $1.2 billion to help satisfy those settlements; recapitalizing its balance sheet; streamlining the company’s operating systems and strengthening its internal controls; and repositioning HealthSouth as a preeminent post-acute healthcare provider. On October 26, 2006, HealthSouth was re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Grinney and his team then focused on growing the company by developing hospitals in new markets and acquiring competitors, including the $730 million purchase of Reliant Health Partners. This growth continued as HealthSouth expanded into home health and hospice services with the $750 million acquisition of Encompass Home Health and Hospice in 2014, followed by the $170 million purchase of CareSouth Home Health and Hospice a year later. In 2018 the company rebranded itself as Encompass Health and is today one of the largest post-acute providers in the U.S. with approximately 43,000 employees providing care to more than 364,000 patients annually.
Prior to joining HealthSouth, Grinney was president of the Eastern Group of Hospital Corporation of America (NYSE:HCA) and before that, senior vice president at The Methodist Hospital System in Houston, Texas where he began his career.
Grinney previously served as a director of Energen Corporation, an NYSE-listed oil and gas exploration company; Envision Healthcare, a KKR-owned physician staffing and ambulatory surgery company; and Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a privately-held bottling and distribution company based in Birmingham, AL. He also served on the board of directors of the Federation of American Hospitals, including a term as its Chairman.
He has been active in civic organizations, serving on the boards of directors of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the United Way of Central Alabama, and the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
Grinney earned a Bachelor of Arts from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota; and both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
He and his wife Melanie reside in Mountain Brook, Alabama. He has three children, Naomi Grinney, Rachel Emami, and Matthew Grinney, and seven grandchildren.
