Florida-based VITAS Healthcare is taking a more “relationship-based” approach to growth in 2025.

The Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE) subsidiary’s expanding geographic footprint in Florida has been heavily fueled through organic growth. The prospect of acquisitions is playing a larger role, with the hospice company recently setting its sights on expansion across 12 states.

VITAS has been more vocal about demonstrating the value proposition of its hospice services to myriad referral sources, Chairman and CEO Nick Westfall said during Tuesday’s Bank of America Healthcare Conference. This strategy is a key to growing its pipeline, and allows the company to strengthen its reputation across its service region. This can also benefit VITAS when M&A opportunities arise, he stated.

“It’s all relationship-based,” Westfall said during the conference. “We’re a great option for many agencies and organizations out there. We have been much more proactive in making sure they understand we’d like to be a phone call, and dialog about it. There’s more to come. We have the capital and the balance sheet to do it. It’s just comparing that against all the other alternatives, whether it’s share buyback or anything else.”

VITAS’ current geographic service region spans 15 states. The hospice provider last year began to pick up steam in its M&A activity.

VITAS purchased Covenant Health and Community Services for $85 million in 2024. The transaction included Covenant’s hospice assets and marked an important milestone for VITAS, including its entry into the assisted living space and in the Alabama market while extending its geographic footprint across northern Florida. 

The Covenant Health transaction has been a growth engine for VITAS, according to Westfall. Acquiring its hospice assets has yielded growth of VITAS’ hospice revenue, average daily census and admissions. Covenant Health contributed approximately $11.5 million to $12.5 million of VITAS’ revenue in the first quarter of 2025, which reached $407.4 million.

The Covenant deal has helped move the needle toward similar transactions on the horizon, according to Michael Witzeman, vice president, CFO and controller at Chemed Corp.

“Our overall philosophy hasn’t changed,” Witzeman said at the conference. “We’ve always been interested in acquisitions in the right location, at the right valuation. On a more practical basis, the VITAS team [has] started really reaching out to Covenant-sized providers that we would be interested in talking to us about an acquisition. Historically, what we did was more so wait for people to call us. We’re being a little more proactive, particularly based on how well Covenant went for us.”