Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2018
Accounting Policies [Abstract]
Nature of Operations	Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (the “Company”) provides management, administrative and operating expertise and services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance and dietary service departments of the healthcare industry, including nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers and hospitals located throughout the United States. Although the Company does not directly participate in any government reimbursement programs, the Company’s clients receive government reimbursements related to Medicare and Medicaid. Therefore, they are directly affected by any legislation relating to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement programs. The Company provides services primarily pursuant to full service agreements with its clients. In such agreements, the Company is responsible for the day-to-day management of employees located at the clients’ facilities. The Company also provides services on the basis of management-only agreements for a limited number of clients. The agreements with clients typically provide for renewable one year service terms, cancelable by either party upon 30 to 90 days’ notice after an initial period of 60 to 120 days. The Company is organized into two reportable segments: housekeeping, laundry, linen and other services (“Housekeeping”), and dietary department services (“Dietary”). Housekeeping consists of managing the clients’ housekeeping departments, which are principally responsible for the cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of a client’s facility, as well as the laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing and other assorted linen items utilized at a client facility. Dietary consists of managing the clients’ dietary departments, which are principally responsible for food purchasing, meal preparation and dietitian professional services, which includes the development of menus that meet residents’ dietary needs.
Unaudited Interim Financial Data	The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and the requirements of Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, these consolidated financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes necessary for a complete presentation of financial position, results of operations and cash flows. However, in the Company’s opinion, all adjustments which are of a normal recurring nature and are necessary for a fair presentation have been reflected in these consolidated financial statements. The balance sheet shown in this report as of December 31, 2017 has been derived from, and does not include, all of the disclosures contained in the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. The results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any future period.
Use of Estimates in Financial Statements	In preparing financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP, estimates and assumptions are made that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates are used in determining, but are not limited to, the Company’s allowance for doubtful accounts, accrued insurance claims, valuations, deferred taxes and reviews for potential impairment. The estimates are based upon various factors including current and historical trends, as well as other pertinent industry and regulatory authority information. Management regularly evaluates this information to determine if it is necessary to update the basis for its estimates and to adjust for known changes.
Principles of Consolidation	The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Healthcare Services Group, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.
Cash and Cash Equivalents	Cash and cash equivalents are held in U.S. financial institutions or in custodial accounts with U.S. financial institutions. Cash equivalents are defined as short-term, highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less at time of purchase that are readily convertible into cash and have insignificant interest rate risk.
Accounts and Notes Receivable	Accounts and notes receivable consist of Housekeeping and Dietary segment receivables from contracts with customers. Accounts receivable initially are recorded at the transaction amount, and recorded after the Company has an unconditional right to payment where only the passage of time is required before payment is received. Each reporting period, the Company evaluates the collectability of outstanding receivable balances and records an allowance for doubtful accounts representing an estimate of probable losses. Additions to the allowance for doubtful accounts are made by recording a charge to bad debt expense reported in costs of services provided. Notes receivable are initially recorded when accounts receivable are transferred into a promissory note. Notes receivable are recorded as an alternative to accounts receivable to memorialize an unqualified promise to pay a specific sum, typically with interest, in accordance with a defined payment schedule.
Inventories and Supplies	Inventories and supplies include housekeeping, linen and laundry supplies, as well as food provisions and supplies. Non-linen inventories and supplies are stated at cost to approximate a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. Linen supplies are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful life of 24 months.
Revenue Recognition	The Company recognizes revenue from service agreements with customers when or as the promised goods and services are provided to customers. Revenues are reported net of sales taxes that are collected from customers and remitted to taxing authorities. The guidance under the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification subtopic 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”) became effective and was adopted by the Company as of January 1, 2018, by applying the modified retrospective method for contracts that were not completed as of January 1, 2018. The standard requires the Company to recognize revenue as the promised goods and services within the terms of the Company’s contracts are performed and satisfied. The amount of revenue which the Company recognizes is based on the consideration which the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for contracted promised goods and services. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact to the Company's accounting for revenue earned relating to the Housekeeping and Dietary segments. The Company also did not recognize an opening adjustment to retained earnings as a result of the adoption of the standard.
Income Taxes	The Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, income tax expense is recognized for the amount of taxes payable or refundable for the current period. The Company accrues for probable tax obligations as required by facts and circumstances in various regulatory environments. In addition, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities. When appropriate, valuation allowances are recorded to reduce deferred tax assets to amounts for which realization is more likely than not. Uncertain income tax positions taken or expected to be taken in tax returns are reflected within the Company’s financial statements based on a recognition and measurement process.
Earnings per Common Share	Basic earnings per common share is computed by dividing income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted earnings per common share is calculated using the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding and dilutive common shares, such as those issuable upon exercise of stock options and upon the vesting of restricted stock and restricted stock units.
Share-Based Compensation	The Company estimates the fair value of share-based awards on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes valuation model for stock options and using the share price on the date of grant for restricted stock and restricted stock units. The value of the award is recognized ratably as an expense in the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income over the requisite service periods, with adjustments made for forfeitures as they occur.
Identifiable Intangible Assets and Goodwill	Identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their respective lives. Goodwill represents the excess of cost over the fair value of net assets of acquired businesses. Management reviews the carrying value of goodwill at least annually during the fourth quarter of each year to assess for impairment, or more often if events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value may exceed its estimated fair value.
Concentrations of Credit Risk	The financial instruments that are subject to concentrations of credit risk are cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, deferred compensation funding and accounts and notes receivable. The Company’s marketable securities are fixed income investments which are highly liquid and can be readily purchased or sold through established markets. At September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, substantially all of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were held in one large financial institution located in the United States. The Company’s clients are concentrated in the healthcare industry and are primarily providers of long-term care. The revenues of many of the Company’s clients are highly reliant on Medicare, Medicaid and third party payors’ reimbursement funding rates. New legislation or changes in existing regulations could directly impact the governmental reimbursement programs in which the clients participate. As a result, the Company may not know the full effects of such programs until these laws are fully implemented and governmental agencies issue applicable regulations or guidance.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements	In February 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2016-02, Leases (“ASU 2016-02”). ASU 2016-02 requires lessees to recognize assets and liabilities on their balance sheet related to the rights and obligations created by most leases, while continuing to recognize expenses on their income statements over the lease term. It will also require disclosures designed to give financial statement users information regarding the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those years. Early adoption is permitted for all entities. The Company will adopt ASU 2016–02 as of January 1, 2019 and will apply certain practical expedients offered in the guidance, such as those that state that the Company need not reassess whether expired or existing contracts contain leases, reevaluate the classification of expired or existing leases, or reassess initial direct costs for existing leases. Management has substantially completed the process of identifying existing lease contracts and is currently performing detailed evaluations of the leases under the new accounting requirements. The Company believes the most significant changes to the financial statements relate to the recognition of right–of–use assets and offsetting lease liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet for operating leases. The actual impact on the consolidated balance sheet will be contingent upon the Company's population of operating leases at adoption, however Management does not expect the standard to have a material impact on cash flows or results of operations. In January 2017, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2017-04, Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment (“ASU 2017-04”). ASU 2017-04 no longer requires companies to perform a hypothetical purchase price allocation to measure impairment, eliminating step 2 of the goodwill impairment test. Instead, impairment will be measured using the difference of the carrying amount to the fair value of goodwill on a reporting unit basis. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019, but early adoption is permitted. The Company has elected to early adopt ASU 2017-04 for the annual evaluation which will be performed during the fourth quarter of 2018.
Reportable Operating Segments	The Company’s accounting policies for the segments are generally the same as described in the Company’s significant accounting policies. Differences between the reportable segments’ operating results and other disclosed data and the information in the consolidated financial statements relate primarily to corporate level transactions and recording of transactions at the reportable segment level using other than generally accepted accounting principles. There are certain inventories and supplies that are primarily expensed when incurred within the operating segments, while they are capitalized in the consolidated financial statements. In addition, most corporate expenses such as corporate salary and benefit costs, certain legal costs, bad debt expense, information technology costs, depreciation, amortization of finite-lived intangible assets, share based compensation costs and other corporate-specific costs, are not allocated to the operating segments. There are also allocations for workers’ compensation and general liability expense within the operating segments that differ from the actual expense recorded by the Company under U.S. GAAP. Segment amounts disclosed are prior to elimination entries made in consolidation.

Description of Business and Significant Accounting Policies (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2018

Healthcare Services Group, Inc. (the “Company”) provides management, administrative and operating expertise and services to the housekeeping, laundry, linen, facility maintenance and dietary service departments of the healthcare industry, including nursing homes, retirement complexes, rehabilitation centers and hospitals located throughout the United States. Although the Company does not directly participate in any government reimbursement programs, the Company’s clients receive government reimbursements related to Medicare and Medicaid. Therefore, they are directly affected by any legislation relating to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement programs.

The Company provides services primarily pursuant to full service agreements with its clients. In such agreements, the Company is responsible for the day-to-day management of employees located at the clients’ facilities. The Company also provides services on the basis of management-only agreements for a limited number of clients. The agreements with clients typically provide for renewable one year service terms, cancelable by either party upon 30 to 90 days’ notice after an initial period of 60 to 120 days.

The Company is organized into two reportable segments: housekeeping, laundry, linen and other services (“Housekeeping”), and dietary department services (“Dietary”).

Housekeeping consists of managing the clients’ housekeeping departments, which are principally responsible for the cleaning, disinfecting and sanitizing of resident rooms and common areas of a client’s facility, as well as the laundering and processing of the bed linens, uniforms, resident personal clothing and other assorted linen items utilized at a client facility.

Dietary consists of managing the clients’ dietary departments, which are principally responsible for food purchasing, meal preparation and dietitian professional services, which includes the development of menus that meet residents’ dietary needs.

Unaudited Interim Financial Data

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”) for interim financial information and the requirements of Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, these consolidated financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes necessary for a complete presentation of financial position, results of operations and cash flows. However, in the Company’s opinion, all adjustments which are of a normal recurring nature and are necessary for a fair presentation have been reflected in these consolidated financial statements. The balance sheet shown in this report as of December 31, 2017 has been derived from, and does not include, all of the disclosures contained in the financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2017. These financial statements should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2017. The results of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2018 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any future period.

Use of Estimates in Financial Statements

In preparing financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP, estimates and assumptions are made that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosures of contingent assets and liabilities, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant estimates are used in determining, but are not limited to, the Company’s allowance for doubtful accounts, accrued insurance claims, valuations, deferred taxes and reviews for potential impairment. The estimates are based upon various factors including current and historical trends, as well as other pertinent industry and regulatory authority information. Management regularly evaluates this information to determine if it is necessary to update the basis for its estimates and to adjust for known changes.

Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying consolidated financial statements include the accounts of Healthcare Services Group, Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. All significant intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents are held in U.S. financial institutions or in custodial accounts with U.S. financial institutions. Cash equivalents are defined as short-term, highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less at time of purchase that are readily convertible into cash and have insignificant interest rate risk.

Accounts and Notes Receivable

Accounts and notes receivable consist of Housekeeping and Dietary segment receivables from contracts with customers. Accounts receivable initially are recorded at the transaction amount, and recorded after the Company has an unconditional right to payment where only the passage of time is required before payment is received. Each reporting period, the Company evaluates the collectability of outstanding receivable balances and records an allowance for doubtful accounts representing an estimate of probable losses. Additions to the allowance for doubtful accounts are made by recording a charge to bad debt expense reported in costs of services provided.

Notes receivable are initially recorded when accounts receivable are transferred into a promissory note. Notes receivable are recorded as an alternative to accounts receivable to memorialize an unqualified promise to pay a specific sum, typically with interest, in accordance with a defined payment schedule.

Inventories and Supplies

Inventories and supplies include housekeeping, linen and laundry supplies, as well as food provisions and supplies. Non-linen inventories and supplies are stated at cost to approximate a first-in, first-out (FIFO) basis. Linen supplies are amortized on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful life of 24 months.

Revenue Recognition

The Company recognizes revenue from service agreements with customers when or as the promised goods and services are provided to customers. Revenues are reported net of sales taxes that are collected from customers and remitted to taxing authorities.

The guidance under the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”) Accounting Standards Codification subtopic 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”) became effective and was adopted by the Company as of January 1, 2018, by applying the modified retrospective method for contracts that were not completed as of January 1, 2018. The standard requires the Company to recognize revenue as the promised goods and services within the terms of the Company’s contracts are performed and satisfied. The amount of revenue which the Company recognizes is based on the consideration which the Company expects to be entitled to in exchange for contracted promised goods and services. The adoption of this standard did not have a material impact to the Company's accounting for revenue earned relating to the Housekeeping and Dietary segments. The Company also did not recognize an opening adjustment to retained earnings as a result of the adoption of the standard.

Income Taxes

The Company uses the asset and liability method of accounting for income taxes. Under this method, income tax expense is recognized for the amount of taxes payable or refundable for the current period. The Company accrues for probable tax obligations as required by facts and circumstances in various regulatory environments. In addition, deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized for expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities. When appropriate, valuation allowances are recorded to reduce deferred tax assets to amounts for which realization is more likely than not.

Uncertain income tax positions taken or expected to be taken in tax returns are reflected within the Company’s financial statements based on a recognition and measurement process.

Earnings per Common Share

Basic earnings per common share is computed by dividing income available to common shareholders by the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding for the period. Diluted earnings per common share is calculated using the weighted-average number of common shares outstanding and dilutive common shares, such as those issuable upon exercise of stock options and upon the vesting of restricted stock and restricted stock units.

Share-Based Compensation

The Company estimates the fair value of share-based awards on the date of grant using the Black-Scholes valuation model for stock options and using the share price on the date of grant for restricted stock and restricted stock units. The value of the award is recognized ratably as an expense in the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income over the requisite service periods, with adjustments made for forfeitures as they occur.

Identifiable Intangible Assets and Goodwill

Identifiable intangible assets are amortized on a straight-line basis over their respective lives. Goodwill represents the excess of cost over the fair value of net assets of acquired businesses. Management reviews the carrying value of goodwill at least annually during the fourth quarter of each year to assess for impairment, or more often if events or circumstances indicate that the carrying value may exceed its estimated fair value.

Concentrations of Credit Risk

The financial instruments that are subject to concentrations of credit risk are cash and cash equivalents, marketable securities, deferred compensation funding and accounts and notes receivable. The Company’s marketable securities are fixed income investments which are highly liquid and can be readily purchased or sold through established markets. At September 30, 2018 and December 31, 2017, substantially all of the Company’s cash and cash equivalents and marketable securities were held in one large financial institution located in the United States.

The Company’s clients are concentrated in the healthcare industry and are primarily providers of long-term care. The revenues of many of the Company’s clients are highly reliant on Medicare, Medicaid and third party payors’ reimbursement funding rates. New legislation or changes in existing regulations could directly impact the governmental reimbursement programs in which the clients participate. As a result, the Company may not know the full effects of such programs until these laws are fully implemented and governmental agencies issue applicable regulations or guidance.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

In February 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2016-02, Leases (“ASU 2016-02”). ASU 2016-02 requires lessees to recognize assets and liabilities on their balance sheet related to the rights and obligations created by most leases, while continuing to recognize expenses on their income statements over the lease term. It will also require disclosures designed to give financial statement users information regarding the amount, timing, and uncertainty of cash flows arising from leases. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2018, and interim periods within those years. Early adoption is permitted for all entities. The Company will adopt ASU 2016–02 as of January 1, 2019 and will apply certain practical expedients offered in the guidance, such as those that state that the Company need not reassess whether expired or existing contracts contain leases, reevaluate the classification of expired or existing leases, or reassess initial direct costs for existing leases. Management has substantially completed the process of identifying existing lease contracts and is currently performing detailed evaluations of the leases under the new accounting requirements. The Company believes the most significant changes to the financial statements relate to the recognition of right–of–use assets and offsetting lease liabilities in the consolidated balance sheet for operating leases. The actual impact on the consolidated balance sheet will be contingent upon the Company's population of operating leases at adoption, however Management does not expect the standard to have a material impact on cash flows or results of operations.

In January 2017, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update 2017-04, Simplifying the Test for Goodwill Impairment (“ASU 2017-04”). ASU 2017-04 no longer requires companies to perform a hypothetical purchase price allocation to measure impairment, eliminating step 2 of the goodwill impairment test. Instead, impairment will be measured using the difference of the carrying amount to the fair value of goodwill on a reporting unit basis. The guidance is effective for annual reporting periods beginning after December 15, 2019, but early adoption is permitted. The Company has elected to early adopt ASU 2017-04 for the annual evaluation which will be performed during the fourth quarter of 2018.

Reportable Operating Segments

The Company’s accounting policies for the segments are generally the same as described in the Company’s significant accounting policies. Differences between the reportable segments’ operating results and other disclosed data and the information in the consolidated financial statements relate primarily to corporate level transactions and recording of transactions at the reportable segment level using other than generally accepted accounting principles. There are certain inventories and supplies that are primarily expensed when incurred within the operating segments, while they are capitalized in the consolidated financial statements. In addition, most corporate expenses such as corporate salary and benefit costs, certain legal costs, bad debt expense, information technology costs, depreciation, amortization of finite-lived intangible assets, share based compensation costs and other corporate-specific costs, are not allocated to the operating segments. There are also allocations for workers’ compensation and general liability expense within the operating segments that differ from the actual expense recorded by the Company under U.S. GAAP. Segment amounts disclosed are prior to elimination entries made in consolidation.