Enhabit Home Health & Hospice (NYSE: EHAB) has completed its spinoff from Encompass Health Corporation (NYSE: EHC).

The move is over a year and a half in the making, after Encompass Health first announced it was exploring “strategic alternatives” for its home health and hospice segment in December of 2020.

“Today marks a new and exciting chapter for our company, and we look forward to embarking on this next phase of growth with our team,” Enhabit President and CEO Barb Jacobsmeyer said in a statement. “As an independent company, we will have enhanced strategic and operational flexibility to put the interests of our patients, people and investors first as we strive to bring high-quality, compassionate care to every patient where they are most comfortable: in their homes.”

Enhabit immediately becomes one of the largest home health entities in the country. Its footprint at the outset will consist of 252 home health locations and 99 hospice locations across 34 states.

For context, while still underneath Encompass Health umbrella in Q1, the segment reported home health revenue of about $224 million, up 2.3% year over year.

After Encompass Health initially announced that it was exploring a separation of its home health and hospice business, it was considering three alternatives: a spinoff, merger or sale.

Its board ultimately landed on the spinoff, but both its own investors and other potential buyers of the home health and hospice segment forced temporary reconsiderations.

Nonetheless, the spinoff branding process began in February, and the company has hit its previously set goal of being listed on the public market by July 1. Each Encompass Health stockholder has received one share of Enhabit common stock for every two shares of Encompass Health common stock they were holding as of June 24.

“[Our top priorities] are continued focus on recruitment and retention, for one. That’s huge, because obviously, our growth is relying on that,” Jascobsmeyer told Home Health Care News in February. “Then the effort that we’re going to need to put in with the rebranding, so that we can make sure that we don’t miss a step when it comes having our new identity out there. And then finally, really continuing our focus on growth – through organic growth, de novos and acquisitions.”

In that vein, Enhabit has allocated anywhere from $2 million to $3 million to fund de novo locations for the remainder of the year, according to 2022 guidance, and has also put aside $50 million to $100 million per year for M&A purposes.

In addition to traditional, core growth, the company had also previously said that it wanted to “continue to evaluate evolving alternatives and expand into adjacent service offerings both organically and through strategic acquisition.” 

Enhabit also announced that it has appointed two new members to its board, Tina Brown-Stevenson and Susan La Monica. Notably, Brown-Stevenson was the former senior VP of health system analytics and decision support at UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH).

La Monica, on the other hand, is the chief human resources officer and head of corporate social responsibility for the banking and financial services company Citizens Financial Group (NYSE: CFG).