Gentiva Health Services (FRA:GHT) Equity-to-Asset : -0.24 (As of Sep. 2014)

Gentiva Health Services Inc is a provider of home health services & hospice services serving patients throughout the United States. The Company provides a single source for skilled nursing; physical, occupational, speech and neurorehabilitation services; hospice services; social work; nutrition; disease management education; help with daily living activities; and other therapies and services. The Companys operations involve servicing patients and customers through its Home Health segment, Hospice segment and Community Care segment. The Home Health segment is comprised of direct home nursing and therapy services operations, including specialty programs and its consulting business. The Company conducts direct home nursing and therapy services operations through licensed and Medicare-certified agencies from which the Company provides various combinations of skilled nursing and therapy services and paraprofessional nursing services to adult and elder patients. Reimbursement sources include government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and private sources, such as health insurance plans, managed care organizations, long term care insurance plans and personal funds. The Community Care segment serves patients who have chronic or long-term disabilities who need help with routine personal care operating in 5 states: Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, North Carolina and Kansas. These services include help with personal needs, such as bathing and dressing, and household activities, such as laundry and shopping, all of which help enable the patient to remain at home. The Companys Hospice segment serves terminally ill patients and their families through more than 210 locations operating in 30 states. Depending on a patients needs, each hospice patient is assigned an interdisciplinary team comprised of a physician, nurse(s), home health aide(s), medical social worker(s), chaplain, dietary counselor and bereavement coordinator, as well as other care professionals. Hospice services are provided in the patients home or other residence, such as an assisted living residence or nursing home, or in a hospital. The Medicare hospice benefit is designed for patients expected to live six months or less. Hospice services for a patient can continue, however, for more than six months, so long as the patient remains eligible as reflected by a physicians certification. The Companys home health and hospice businesses obtain patients and clients through personal and corporate sales presentations, telephone marketing calls, direct mail solicitation, referrals from other clients and advertising in a variety of local and national media, including the Yellow Pages, newspapers, magazines, trade publications and radio. The home health services industry in which the Company operates is competitive and fragmented. The Companys primary competitors for its home healthcare business are hospital-based home health agencies, local home health agencies and visiting nurse associ