EEHCEncompass Health Corporation

Encompass Health runs rehabilitation hospitals — where patients go after a stroke or major surgery.

This is neither an ordinary hospital nor a care home: the patient spends several weeks here in intensive sessions with physicians and therapists to regain the ability to walk and manage on their own. The government programme pays more for that than for a stay in a nursing home, and that shapes the economics.

Demand grows with an ageing population while supply is constrained: in many states a new hospital can only be opened with a regulator's permission, after demonstrating regional need. The company builds where such approval has been obtained. Risks: reimbursement revisions, clinical labour costs and audits of admission appropriateness. A dividend is paid.