Florida Paves Way for Hospice Expansion, Doubles 2021 Certificates of Need

Florida’s state government have green lit the expansion of hospice programs in seven counties. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) indicated earlier this year that it would approve four hospice certificates of need in 2021, but ultimately decided to issue twice as many. Hospice utilization runs high in Florida, reaching a rate of […]

VITAS Unveils New Inpatient Unit in Florida

VITAS Healthcare, the hospice subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHEM), has opened a new inpatient facility in Panama City, Fla. The center is housed at a skilled nursing facility, the Community Health and Rehabilitation Center, and replaces a unit that sustained severe damage during Hurricane Michael in 2018. The facility, dubbed VITAS Suites, includes eight […]

VITAS Strengthens Referral Network During Pandemic

VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), has built up and diversified its referral base during the pandemic. This effort has helped the company withstand COVID-19 headwinds and establish a foundation for recovery as the year progresses.  VITAS saw two sequential quarters of strong admissions growth during the latter half of last year, […]

VITAS on Path to Normalization Amid Pandemic Disruption

Restricted access to patients during COVID-19 made for choppy waves last year for VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary company of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), but the company anticipates normalization on the horizon in a post-pandemic landscape. The pandemic’s turbulent tides have continued to disrupt the overall health care system, but signs of recovery are starting to […]

Pandemic Spurring End-of-Life Care Planning

Nearly 70% of 1,000 survey respondents indicated that talking about their wishes and values for end-of-life care was important to them, but only slightly more than half (56%) had actually held these conversations, according to a study by VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE). These numbers were up from a previous study […]

Chemed CEO: Hospice Referrals from Senior Housing Will Rebound in 2021

Headwinds stemming from a lack of access to senior housing facilities during the pandemic took a toll on hospice providers’ margins during 2020, but that market is expected to rebound as the year progresses. The pace of that change remains uncertain, according to Keven McNamara, president and CEO of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE). Chemed is […]

Physician Offices an Engine for Hospice Referral Growth

New physician relationships are anticipated to be a major opportunity for referral partnership growth in 2021 among hospice providers. Communicating the value of hospice care to physicians will be an important key to developing and sustaining this largely untapped area of referring relationships.  Demographics, evolving payment models and shifts in patient accessibility during COVID-19 are […]

VITAS Struck by Disruption in Senior Housing, Expects 2021 Rebound

Disruption in the larger health care and aging services space adversely impacted VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), during 2020. This is particularly due to difficulty accessing patients in nursing homes, assisted living and senior housing operations, as occupancy drops due to the pandemic. The company expects some of that disruption to […]

Top 10 Largest Hospice Providers of 2020

Despite facing forceful pandemic-related headwinds from COVID-19, mergers and acquisitions and organic growth are fueling market share growth among the organizations listed in the LexisNexis 2020 Top Hospice Providers report. VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), led the charge as the largest hospice provider in the United States last year, with 4.42% […]

Top 2021 Hospice Worries: Accessing Facility-Bound Patients, Staffing

Regaining regular access to hospice patients in nursing homes, assisted living or other facilities is a top concern for providers, along with ongoing staffing shortages that pre-date the pandemic, according to organization leaders who responded to Hospice News 2021 Outlook Survey.  The 2021 Hospice News Outlook Survey and Report, sponsored by Homecare Homebase, is informed […]