De novos remain a growth engine for Enhabit Inc. (NYSE: EHAB). Coupled with organic growth, new locations led the company to strong third quarter results in 2025.

Enhabit is within range of completing its goal of opening 10 de novos during calendar year 2025, according to CEO Barb Jacobsmeyer. The company’s seventh new location for the year opened in October.

“To complement our organic growth strategy, our de novo strategy is positively impacting total growth in quarter three, we opened two de novos [in Q3] for a total year-to-date of six, we opened our seventh location in October, and continue to be on pace for a total of 10 de novos in 2025,” Jacobsmeyer said in a Q3 earnings call. “As evidenced by our organic and de novo focus, our admissions and census growth are a big part of our strategy. However, whether it is pricing or a continued shift toward Medicare Advantage, we must be as efficient as possible to have necessary resources to strategically invest in people and technology. Therefore, our cost structure is critical to future success.”

Both of Enhabit’s third quarter de novos were hospice locations.

All told, Enhabit earned $263.6 million in net service revenue, with an adjusted EBITDA of $27 million. This is up nearly 4% from $253.6 million in Q3 2024. The company’s hospice segment brought in $63.1 million, up nearly 20% from $52.6 million year over year.

Hospice average daily census grew 12.6% between Q3 2024 and the same period this year to 4,077 patients. This marks seven sequential quarters for census growth for Enhabit. Hospice admissions rose 1.4% year over year to 30,89.

Other investments by Enhabit helped fuel these results. One key initiative was the case management model introduced in 2022.

Employing an updated case management model has helped Enhabit in reinforcing its hospice clinical workforce. The company in 2022 began leveraging the model to reduce turnover, seeing the strategy bearing fruit in stronger retention, clinical capacity and census growth.

The case management model has allowed the company to focus greater attention on growing its business development and admission department teams with a goal of more timely patient access and faster referral responses, according to Jacobsmeyer.