Uncertain reimbursement future fails to put a damper on the M&A market. The home care market has stayed busy with M&A activity into the new year. National chain LHC Group Inc. has acquired hospice locations in Alabama and Louisiana and entered into a home health joint venture in Kentucky, it says in a release. Lafayette, La.-based LHC bought Alabama-based Hospice Complete Inc. with locations in Trussville, Jasper, Anniston/ Oxford and Tuscaloosa. The locations, which will still operate under the Hospice Complete name, have annual revenue of $4.8 million. LHC also acquired Vital Hospice in Hammond, La., which has annual revenue of $1.5 million. Vital will operate under the name of Feliciana Hospice and Palliative Care. And LHC entered into a joint venture with Marshall County Hospital in Benton, Ky. to furnish home care services in the county, the company says. LHC has more than 60 such partnerships with non-profit hospitals around the country. Meanwhile, Texas-based Harden Healthcare has bought Wichita, Kan.-based Faith Home Health & Hospice, reports the Wichita Business Journal. Faith is the largest home health care provider in the Wichita area, the newspaper says. Last year, Harden bought Voyager HospiceCare Inc., the Journal reports. Voyager provides hospice services in seven states. Harden also owns Girling Healthcare, which provides home care services in 12 states, Harden's website says. Harden bought Girling, Auxi Healthcare (22 agencies in four states), and American Home-Care (13 agencies in Missouri) in 2007, notes an article from the Austin Business Journal. Harden has continued plans for home care expansion. "The public companies that are in the home care space represent 16 to 17 percent of the market," Harden CEO and co-founder Lew Little told the Austin Business Journal last summer. "There is tremendous consolidation opportunity out there. What we've tried to do over the last six to 12 months is do just that, and I think we've gotten ourselves in a place where we can." Harden began with six long-term care facilities in central Texas in 2002, its website says.