{"id":49802,"date":"2025-11-17T13:52:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/49802\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T13:52:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T13:52:05","slug":"vitas-expanding-building-density-in-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/49802\/","title":{"rendered":"VITAS Expanding, Building Density in Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), has opened a new location in Pinellas County, Florida, as the company works to build further density in its home state.<\/p>\n

All told, VITAS services 60 of Florida\u2019s 67 counties, reaching 86% of the state\u2019s population. With the Pinellas location and another de novo<\/a> in Pasco County, the company now services Florida\u2019s west-central coast. Florida is a Certificate of Need (CON) state. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe new CON in Pinellas County is a significant opportunity for VITAS,\u201d Joel Wherley, the company\u2019s CEO, said in a Q3 earnings call. \u201cWe will continue to put our best foot forward when applying for these new CONs in the state of Florida, we will continue to focus on providing the best possible care to our patients and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 1978, VITAS provides hospice and palliative care across 15 states. The company\u2019s largest geographic footprint spans several counties throughout its home state of Florida.<\/p>\n

The hospice provider\u2019s net patient revenue rose 4.2% year over year to $407.7 million. VITAS also saw a 2.5% average daily census increase to 22,327 patients. Admissions rose 5.6% to 17,714.<\/p>\n

VITAS also recently opened a de novo in Marion County, Florida. <\/p>\n

Demographic tailwinds are driving hospice demand in the Sunshine State. Seniors 65 and older will represent roughly 30% of Florida\u2019s overall population by 2045, reported<\/a> the state\u2019s Department of Elder Affairs. This age cohort represents nearly one-quarter (21.7%) of its current population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. <\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s swelling aging population is outpacing growth of seniors across 20 other states combined, according to the Elder Affairs report.<\/p>\n

Florida ranked second highest nationwide in hospice utilization, reaching a rate of 55.97% in 2022, reported the National Alliance for Care at Home. Utah held the highest rate at 59.61% that year, the report found.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt VITAS, we\u2019re committed to improving access to high-quality hospice services for more Florida families,\u201d Mark Hayes, senior vice president of operations for VITAS, said in a statement. \u201cWe value the trust that our patients and families place in our care. We\u2019re proud to bring the same compassionate support that VITAS is known for across Florida to this new region.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VITAS Healthcare, a subsidiary of Chemed Corp. (NYSE: CHE), has opened a new location in Pinellas County, Florida,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31752,28,30,29,23620],"class_list":["post-49802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-chemed-corp","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-vitas-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}