Hanger and Numotion have announced plans to combine their businesses, creating a large North American healthcare platform spanning prosthetic and orthotic care, complex rehabilitation technology and wider mobility services.
The combined company will be named Hanger Numotion and is expected to serve more than 1.5 million patients annually across the United States and Canada. Its network will include Hanger’s approximately 925 O&P clinics and more than 200 Numotion locations.
The transaction will be structured as Hanger’s cash acquisition of Numotion. Following completion, the combined business will be controlled by healthcare investment firm Patient Square Capital.
The companies expect the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. Until then, Hanger and Numotion remain separate organisations.
According to the official Hanger announcement, both businesses will continue operating under their existing brands and will maintain their respective clinical operations following completion.
Bringing O&P and complex mobility together
Hanger is one of the largest providers of prosthetic and orthotic patient care in the United States. Through Hanger Clinic, it provides customised prostheses, orthoses, paediatric devices and cranial remoulding services.
The company says its clinical network treats approximately one million patients annually through 925 locations and around 1,800 clinical providers. Its wider Products and Services division also distributes O&P components, develops branded and private-label products and supplies post-acute rehabilitation solutions.
Numotion specialises in Complex Rehabilitation Technology, commonly known as CRT. This includes individually configured wheelchairs, seating systems, positioning equipment and associated technologies for people with significant or long-term mobility needs.
Unlike standard mobility products, CRT solutions are normally selected and configured through a clinical evaluation involving therapists, rehabilitation technology specialists, patients and caregivers. The equipment may incorporate customised seating, pressure management, powered positioning, alternative controls and other features selected around the individual’s medical and functional requirements.
Numotion serves more than 500,000 people annually. Its activities extend beyond wheelchairs through speech-generating and augmentative communication technology, catheter products, home-accessibility solutions, online mobility retail and coordinated services for workers’ compensation programmes.
Bringing the two organisations together therefore connects two traditionally adjacent areas of rehabilitation: O&P devices worn by the patient and mobility or positioning technologies used to support movement, posture, independence and participation.
Combined scale exceeds 1,100 locations
The proposed combination will create an organisation with more than 1,100 locations across North America.
Hanger and Numotion say this scale will provide additional resources to expand access, support clinicians and invest in innovation. The companies also describe their capabilities as complementary rather than directly overlapping.
A patient with a complex neurological, congenital or traumatic condition may require several forms of technology during the same rehabilitation journey. These could include an ankle-foot orthosis, spinal brace, prosthetic limb, customised wheelchair, seating system, pressure-relief equipment or communication device.
However, these products are often assessed, funded, supplied and maintained through separate organisations. A closer relationship between O&P and CRT providers could support more coordinated referrals and a better understanding of the patient’s total mobility requirements.
For example, a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy may require both customised seating and lower-limb orthoses. A person with an amputation may use a prosthesis for some activities but continue to depend on a wheelchair for longer distances. Someone with a spinal cord injury may need orthotic management, pressure protection, postural support and environmental adaptations.
The value of the combination will ultimately depend on whether its scale translates into better coordination at patient level rather than simply a larger corporate structure.
Numotion leadership to head combined company
Numotion CEO Mike Swinford will become chief executive of Hanger Numotion after the transaction closes.
Swinford has led Numotion since 2014, overseeing the company’s growth and expansion into additional mobility and assistive-technology services. Before joining Numotion, he spent more than two decades with GE, including serving as president and CEO of GE Healthcare Services.
Hanger’s current CEO, Pete Stoy, said the company had developed a more integrated national platform and increased investment in its workforce, technology and capabilities. He expressed confidence in Swinford’s ability to lead the combined organisation.
Patient Square Capital Managing Partner Jim Momtazee said the investment firm believed the combined expertise of the two businesses could increase their impact on patients.
Opportunities for clinicians and patients
The proposed combination could create several opportunities:
- More coordinated pathways between O&P and wheelchair services
- Shared investment in clinical education and workforce development
- Greater purchasing and operational capacity
- Improved geographic coverage
- Stronger data and outcomes programmes
- Coordinated servicing and repair
- Greater investment in digital assessment and patient-support systems
- More integrated support for people with complex disabilities
Scale can also help organisations invest in areas that may be difficult for smaller providers to fund independently, including clinical research, cybersecurity, regulatory systems, staff development and digital patient platforms.
However, the success of the model will depend on preserving clinical independence and patient choice.
O&P and CRT prescriptions should remain based on individual clinical requirements rather than ownership relationships or standardised commercial pathways. Clinicians must be able to select the most appropriate manufacturer, component and configuration for each patient.
Service quality will also depend heavily on the availability of local professionals. A large national network cannot replace the clinical relationship between the patient, prosthetist, orthotist, therapist and rehabilitation technology specialist.
Significance for the wider O&P sector
The transaction reflects a wider trend towards consolidation and integrated service platforms in rehabilitation and assistive technology.
O&P companies have traditionally focused on prostheses and braces, while wheelchair, home-accessibility, communication and durable medical equipment providers have operated through different channels. Hanger Numotion will test whether these areas can be brought together while retaining their specialist clinical identities.
The proposed scale may also influence manufacturers and smaller providers. A group serving more than 1.5 million patients annually could hold significant purchasing power and play an important role in product adoption, evidence collection and market access.
Independent practices may respond by emphasising local relationships, specialist expertise, speed, continuity and the freedom to select products across multiple suppliers.
Lessons for India, the Middle East and Africa
The Hanger-Numotion combination is centred on the United States and Canada, but it carries useful lessons for rehabilitation systems across the IMEA region.
Patients in many IMEA countries experience fragmented care. Surgery, prosthetic fitting, orthotic provision, physiotherapy, wheelchair assessment and community reintegration may be delivered by different organisations with limited coordination.
The proposed model highlights the potential value of placing these services within a connected mobility pathway. This does not necessarily require a corporate merger. Hospitals, O&P providers, physiotherapy departments, wheelchair services and community organisations can create shared referral protocols while remaining independent.
IMEA providers can also learn from the need to connect device provision with:
- Clinical assessment
- Therapy and functional training
- Seating and pressure management
- Maintenance and repair
- Funding and reimbursement support
- Patient education
- Long-term outcome monitoring
The caution is equally important. Large networks must not reduce rehabilitation to volume, procurement efficiency or the distribution of standard products. Mobility needs remain highly individual, and both O&P and complex rehabilitation technology require specialised clinical judgement.
If completed as planned, Hanger Numotion will become one of the most significant integrated mobility and rehabilitation providers in North America. Its development will be closely watched by O&P professionals, assistive-technology suppliers, investors and healthcare organisations internationally.
- Hanger and Numotion Combination Announcement
- Hanger Corporate Website
- Hanger Clinic
- Numotion
- Numotion: Understanding Complex Rehabilitation Technology
- Patient Square Capital