Company: EHC
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000785161-25-000009
Chunk: 122

Company: Encompass Health Corp
Filing Date: 2025-02-28
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 122
---
paid.

•Substantive and procedural deficiencies in the administrative appeals process associated with denied Medicare reimbursement claims, including from various Medicare audit programs, could delay or reduce our reimbursement for services previously provided, including through recoupment from other claims due to us from Medicare.

•Efforts to reduce payments to healthcare providers undertaken by third-party payors and conveners could adversely affect our revenues or profitability.

•Medicare quality reporting requirements could adversely affect our operating costs or Medicare reimbursement.

•Changes in our payor mix or the acuity of our patients could reduce our revenues or profitability.

Other Regulatory Risks

•Changes in the rules and regulations of the healthcare industry at the federal, state or local levels, including those contemplated now and in the future as part of national healthcare reform and deficit reduction (such as the re-basing of payment systems, the introduction of a unified post-acute payment system or case-mix weightings across post-acute settings, and other payment system reforms) could decrease revenues and increase the costs of complying with the rules and regulations.

•Compliance with the extensive and frequently changing laws and regulations applicable to healthcare providers, including those related to patient care, coding and billing, data privacy and security, consumer protection, anti-trust, and employment practices, requires substantial time, effort and expense, and if we fail to comply, we could incur penalties and significant costs of investigating and defending asserted claims, whether meritorious or not, or be required to make significant changes to our operations.

•Our inability to maintain proper local, state and federal licensing, including compliance with the Medicare conditions of participation and provider enrollment requirements, such as the CMS vaccine mandate, could decrease our revenues.

ii

Other Operational Risks

•Incidents affecting the proper operation, availability, or security of our or our vendors’ or partners’ information systems, including the patient information stored there, or business continuity could cause substantial losses and adversely affect our operations, and governmental mandates to increase use of electronic records and interoperability exacerbate that risk.

•Any adverse outcome of various lawsuits, claims, and legal or regulatory proceedings, including disclosed and undisclosed qui tam suits, could be difficult to predict and could adversely affect our financial results or condition or our operations, and we could experience increased costs of defending and insuring against alleged professional liability and other claims.

•Our inability to successfully complete and integrate de novo developments, acquisitions, investments, and joint ventures consistent with our growth strategy, including realization of anticipated revenues, cost savings, productivity improvements arising from the related operations and