LHCG
#About 783,000.
I will take the first and then <UNK> can talk about the outlook.
Those couple were actually dragging that.
And when we closed them down, our Elk Valley made the aggregate push up.
And on the long-term outlook for CPS, we are really high on the service line.
But it is ---+ our ability to be successful in it is dependent on reimbursement, which is state specific, but we have to look at that on a state-by-state business.
It is unlike home health and hospice.
And we don't lead in a market with CPS.
So once we have a presence in a market in home health, then we look to see what the state reimbursement is like; if it is favorable.
And we look to add that service.
Patients need it everywhere and benefit from it.
It is just a matter of having stable reimbursement.
Well, it is not absent for any reason, that we just tend to focus on Medicare, I guess.
I did say that because of our relationships with hospitals and health systems, I think we are sourced more than most home health providers to really tackle that problem head on.
And so we spend a lot of time at it.
At a high level, I can tell you this.
From 2014 to 2015, when you look at that year, we improved our margin on that business by 500 basis points.
That is a pretty big number.
So that comes from a combination of ---+ and we grew the volume quite a bit, as you will see.
But in that mix are contracts that got terminated, which led to renegotiations.
Some of it was renegotiating contracts already in place.
And some of it was operational, where there were contracts ---+ maybe <UNK> can speak a little bit to this.
Where in some of our home health locations, we were doing the same thing to those managed care referrals.
And not in terms of patient care.
All the patient care is the same, but all the paperwork we do internally that might be required for Medicare, but not required for the commercial payer, we were still doing.
So I know <UNK> and the operators did a great job of streamlining some of that.
All of that led to our ability to expand the margin in that business and make it more profitable.
No, <UNK>.
We didn't even address it in the prepared comments.
And really nothing has changed since that last call.
I had talked about the net income effect for 2016 after mitigation being about $1.9 million or $0.06 per share.
And we were on track there.
We may be able to eke out a little bit in the betterment side, but I wouldn't model that in right now.
And to that mitigation, obviously, part of our mitigation ---+ there are kind of two trains of thought.
You either go straight to the MSDRGs that are just going to be LTACH appropriate or you work toward site neutrality blending.
And ours is the latter.
In our rural markets and in the HIH world that we are in, we simply didn't have the latitude from a pipeline standpoint to do that.
So our strategy is to manage those site neutrality patients, open up that pipeline, because it is an opportunity to provide services to those newly qualified patients.
Number two, we are meeting with every host hospital to ask for their help in decreasing some of the ancillary and rents, as appropriate.
And it is tough for them, too, but they see the alternatives.
And then honestly, where we do have any opportunity with agency or contract labor and some of the nuances inside the walls, mitigate that as much as we can.
So those three in combination lead to that $1.9 million.
And I said it on the last call, and I think we have to sit where we said then is that you have got to bake that in double for 2017.
That is kind of where we are headed.
No.
What I mean by that is this takes effect for us on the costs report on the last half of this year.
So as people keep asking us what do you look at for 2017.
If you take that effect on the last half of this year, I would just multiply that time two on that EPS effect going forward into 2017.
In July.
Yes.
That is in ---+ in July, it does.
That is correct.
So you're absolutely right.
The lion's share of this will start in the September earnings period and go through, of course, December.
Thank you, operator.
And thank you, everyone, for joining the call this morning.
As always, if any questions that you have between earnings calls, please feel free to reach out to us.
First to <UNK>, and if you need to get to <UNK> or <UNK> and myself, <UNK> will arrange that.
So thanks so much.
