Goodwill (Schedule of movement in Goodwill) (Details)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2017 USD ($) item
Goodwill [Line Items]
Beginning balance	$ 472,366,000
Business combinations	481,000
Foreign currency adjustments	177,000
Ending balance	473,024,000
Segment VITAS [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Beginning balance	328,301,000
Business combinations
Foreign currency adjustments
Ending balance	328,301,000
Roto-Rooter segment [Member]
Goodwill [Line Items]
Beginning balance	144,065,000
Business combinations	481,000
Foreign currency adjustments	177,000
Ending balance	$ 144,723,000
Number of Business Combinations Completed \| item	1
Business comination, cash	$ 525,000

Cash received from business comination

No definition available.

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Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Number of Business Combinations Completed

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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Namespace Prefix:	che_
Data Type:	xbrli:integerItemType
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- Definition

Amount after accumulated impairment loss of an asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 1
-Subparagraph (a)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=35741047&loc=d3e13816-109267

Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 1
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=6388280&loc=d3e13770-109266

Reference 3: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 350
-SubTopic 20
-Section 45
-Paragraph 5
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=77989000&loc=SL49117168-202975

+ Details

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Balance Type:	debit
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of increase in asset representing future economic benefits arising from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized resulting from a business combination.

+ References

+ Details

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Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Amount of foreign currency translation gain (loss) which increases (decreases) an asset representing future economic benefits from other assets acquired in a business combination that are not individually identified and separately recognized.

+ References

+ Details

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- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

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- Details

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Namespace Prefix:
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- Details

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