After reporting issues with home care business and selling the current health of a home-focused technology company, Best Buy Health has fired 161 employees.
The layoffs will take effect September 12th, according to the California Worker Coordination and Retraining Notice (WARN) report.
Based in Boston, a subsidiary of Best Buy, Best Buy Health offers virtual care, consumer health products and device-based emergency response services for the elderly.
The layoff announcement comes weeks after Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) sold its current health to the company's co-founder and former CEO Christopher McGhee. Best Buy owned the company for less than four years.
Based in Boston, Current Health operates a healthcare platform that includes remote care management, telehealth and patient engagement tools designed for home care.
Best Buy and Current Health did not respond to Home Health News' comment requests by the time of publication.
The current health sale spent $109 million in restructuring costs in the first quarter of 2025, following the announcement of Best Buy in late May. Costs were primarily related to asset disability.
Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said the company's home care segment is struggling more than expected.
“The business we call active aging, our lively business, or part of care in our home business, remains a very viable business model for the future,” Barry said in the company's first quarter revenue call. “Now it took longer to develop than I thought we were part of the very modest home health care we are working with some of the healthcare industry to offer.”
Barry cited the uncertain future of home exemption hospitals and the financial struggles faced by health care providers in general have increased complexity in the company's home care business.
The Hospital-at-Home exemption program is currently scheduled to expire in September, but lawmakers yesterday introduced a bill extending the program until 2030.
Best Buy Health's entry into the home care space includes a 2023 hospital-home partnership with Atrium Health and a 2018 acquisition of Greatcall, a company that develops and sells technology to support and expands the independence of seniors.
