Despite COVID-related struggles in its home healthcare and hospice unit, Encompass Health announced solid third quarter earnings late Wednesday.
The company reported its net revenues for the three months ending Sept. 30 grew 9.4% to $1.3 billion dollars, and adjusted earnings per share were $1.03 for the quarter compared to $0.78 during the same period last year. The better performance was buoyed by stronger revenues in Ecompass’s inpatient rehabilitation business. Quarterly revenues for the troubled home health and hospice unit declined 0.2% in the previous year from $374.5 million to $273.9 million in 2021.
“Our home health and hospice business experienced COVID-related headwinds, which limited volume growth and increased costs,” Encompass President and CEO Mark Tarr said in a press release. “We remain very confident in the long-term trends for each of our businesses and in our competitive position. Although we have seen improvement in operating trends during October, we are lowering our full-year 2021 guidance as a result of the current and we believe transient challenges.”
Encompass Health said total admissions for home health and hospice were down just under 1% for the quarter due to challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company plans to spin off that business sometime early next year and said Wednesday it may have news on a deal in the current quarter.
On Tuesday, Encompass announced that it is suing the former CEO of that division. It accuses April Anthony of breaching a non-compete agreement by poaching former Encompass employees for a new business Anthony started after she left the company last summer.
