Bluegrass Care Navigators

Bluegrass Care Navigators

Fowler became CEO in 2015 after serving as the organization's chief clinical officer, steering a provider originally named Hospice of the Bluegrass through a rebrand that reflected its expanded mission. The non-profit now delivers hospice, palliative, transitional, and grief care through a network concentrated entirely in Kentucky. Its financial assets include an investment portfolio and two endowment funds managed in partnership with the Blue Grass Community Foundation. The organization's endowment backs a vertically integrated care model that owns physical hospice centers in Lexington, Hazard, and Frankfort, alongside regional clinical offices. Rather than a traditional grantmaking posture, Bluegrass Care Navigators operates these facilities and funds direct patient services, with the endowment providing a financial buffer for uncompensated care. The strategy tilts toward capital preservation through a fund-of-funds and diversified investment approach, though the firm does not publicly name portfolio managers. In April 2024, Bluegrass Care Navigators and Louisville-based Hosparus Health signed an affiliation agreement to form Everent Health, a new parent organization that will govern both legacy non-profits. The deal was designed to achieve back-office scale in a state where Medicare hospice reimbursement rates challenge standalone operators. At the transaction's close, Bluegrass CEO Liz Fowler became CEO of the combined entity, with Hosparus CEO David Cook slated to succeed her. The organization maintains professional affiliations with NHPCO, the Center to Advance Palliative Care, and the Kentucky Hospital Association, and runs a clinical partnership with UK HealthCare for a dedicated hospice unit. What separates Bluegrass Care Navigators from a standard community foundation is its operating-company DNA. The endowment exists to insulate a clinical service provider from reimbursement volatility, not to make grants. That structure — a charitable asset pool held primarily through the Blue Grass Community Foundation and deployed to back fixed operating costs — creates a distinct governance challenge: how to invest for long-term return when the beneficiary is your own payroll and patient census, not a diversified grantee list. The Everent merger doubles down on this model, betting that regional consolidation can stretch charitable dollars further than any investment strategy alone.