Acquisitions - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $) In Millions, unless otherwise specified			12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended	12 Months Ended	1 Months Ended		12 Months Ended		1 Months Ended
	Sep. 30, 2012 Equity Method Investments	May 01, 2012 Louisiana	Dec. 31, 2012 Louisiana Home health care center	Dec. 31, 2012 Louisiana Hospice care center	Jun. 01, 2012 Florida In-house physicians practice	Dec. 31, 2012 North Carolina	Sep. 30, 2012 North Carolina	Aug. 06, 2012 North Carolina	Dec. 31, 2012 North Carolina Hospice care center	Jun. 07, 2011 Beacon Hospice, Inc. Y	Dec. 31, 2011 Beacon Hospice, Inc.	Jun. 07, 2011 Beacon Hospice, Inc. Hospice care center Unit	Jun. 07, 2011 Beacon Hospice, Inc. Inpatient Unit Unit	Dec. 31, 2011 Hackensack Hospice, Inc.	Nov. 01, 2011 Hackensack Hospice, Inc.	Nov. 01, 2011 Hackensack Hospice, Inc. Hospice care center Unit	Nov. 01, 2011 Hackensack Hospice, Inc. Inpatient Unit Unit
Schedule of Business Acquisitions, Purchase Price Allocation [Line Items]
Acquisition, total purchase price		$ 6.4			$ 2.0			$ 5.8		$ 126.0					$ 4.0
Acquisition, number of care centers acquired			1	4					5			22	1			1	1
Acquisition, recorded goodwill	18.7	6.0			1.9			5.5		110.4					3.7
Acquisition, recorded other intangibles	3.1	0.5			0.1			0.3		10.0					0.3
Acquisition, recorded other assets and liabilities	7.5	0.1								5.6
Accrued liability resulting from acquisition							3.8
Accrued liability paid to seller						3.8
Cash	1.6
Non-controlling interest	15.9
Escrow deposit for indemnification purposes and working capital price adjustments										8.2
Goodwill expected to be deductible for income tax purposes										51.0
Period in which goodwill is expected to be deductible for income tax purposes, in years										15
Business acquisition, revenue											49.6			3.2
Business acquisition, net income (loss)											$ 11.7			$ (0.3)