Encompass Health Corp. (NYSE: EHC) on Wednesday announced a new joint venture with Saint Alphonsus Health System in a move that expands the company’s hospice and home health reach in Idaho. Financial details of the transaction were undisclosed.

The joint venture is the latest in a swelling hospice reach for Encompass. The company last year projected a robust hospice and home health pipeline, driven by industry-wide accelerated M&A activity. In addition to external growth, Encompass has managed to improve same-store admissions as part of its growth strategy.

The joint venture brings Saint Alphonsus hospice and home health locations in Boise, Idaho, under the company’s fold, as well as Encompass Health locations in Nampa, Idaho.

“This joint venture combines the expertise and resources of Encompass Health with the trusted health care provider Saint Alphonsus, with more than four decades of home health service in Idaho,” said Barb Jacobsmeyer, president and CEO of home health and hospice at Encompass. “We look forward to working collaboratively with Saint Alphonsus Health System to serve together as a compassionate and transformative healing presence within our communities.”

The Encompass footprint includes 95 hospice and 249 home health locations across 42 states in the United States and Puerto Rico. The company provides facility- and home-based patient care through a network of hospice and home health agencies and inpatient rehabilitation hospitals.

Encompass’s hospice and home health segments bring a combined total of roughly $1.1 billion in annual revenue. Its hospice line pulled in $52.8 million alone during the third quarter of 2021, up from $51.2 million in the prior year’s quarter.

Saint Alphonsus Health System serves patients in southwestern Idaho, Oregon and Nevada through multiple, similarly branded facilities. The system has a network of primary and specialty care providers at roughly 70 locations, the Saint Alphonsus Health Alliance, which employs upwards of 2,100 staff and independent providers.

Saint Alphonsus is a member of Trinity Health. The health care delivery system provides care across 22 states nationwide, with 94 hospitals and 122 hospice and home health programs, continuing care facilities, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) center locations.

The move to join forces adds weight upon an existing joint venture in Idaho between the two organizations established during 2019 that includes Encompass Health inpatient rehabilitation services, according to Odette Bolano, CEO and president of Saint Alphonsus Health System.

“We are excited to establish a new joint venture with Encompass Health as a valued home health and hospice provider with a proven ability to provide high-quality, cost-effective care while avoiding unnecessary hospital readmissions,” said Bolano. “Encompass Health’s home health and hospice operational expertise will enhance the high quality of care we provide in the communities we serve in Idaho.”

Demographics are fueling demand for end-of-life and serious illness care in Idaho. Seniors 65 and older represent 16.3% of the state’s overall population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hospice utilization among Medicare decedents runs high in the Gem State, reaching 51.9% in 2018, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. This climbed above the national average of 50.3% that year.

Expanding in the Midwest with the Saint Alphonsus joint venture comes at a time when the company continues to consider a strategic repositioning of its hospice and home health business.

Leadership in Dec. 2020 announced a potential spin off, merger, sale, initial public offering or other transaction. Toward the end of 2021, company executives hinted that a public spinoff would likely be the best course of action.

On Dec. 28, however, Reuters reported that an activist investor – Jana Partners – was urging the company to further explore a merger with interested third parties, according Hospice News sister publication Home Health Care News.