Income Taxes (Tables)

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Deferred Tax Assets and Liabilities [Table Text Block]

Significant components of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities as of December 31, 2016 and 2015 were as follows (amounts in thousands):



	2016			2015
Deferred tax assets:
Allowance for uncollectible accounts	$	9,735		$	9,048
Accrued employee benefits	5,532			5,260
Stock compensation	1,004			1,068
Accrued self-insurance	2,762			2,517
Acquisition costs	1,781			1,651
Net operating loss carry forward	1,880			983
Intangible asset impairment	38			43
Uncertain tax position—state tax portion	63			215
Uncertain tax position - interest expense	90			254
Other	155			93
Capital loss carryforward	154			—
Valuation allowance	(44		)	(44		)
Deferred tax assets	$	23,150		$	21,088
Deferred tax liabilities:
Amortization of intangible assets	(45,622		)	(35,355		)
Tax depreciation in excess of book depreciation	(8,397		)	(8,201		)
Prepaid expenses	(817		)	(655		)
Non-accrual experience accounting method	(255		)	(606		)
Deferred tax liabilities	(55,091		)	(44,817		)
Net deferred tax liability	$	(31,941	)	$	(23,729	)

Income Tax Expense (benefit) from Continuing operations, Less Noncontrolling Interest

The components of the Company’s income tax expense from continuing operations, less noncontrolling interest, were as follows (amounts in thousands):



	2016		2015		2014
Current:
Federal	$	12,563	$	18,094	$	10,195
State	2,371		3,232		1,916
	14,934		21,326		12,111
Deferred:
Federal	6,223		1,389		2,187
State	1,019		133		215
	7,242		1,522		2,402
Total income tax expense	$	22,176	$	22,848	$	14,513

Statutory Rate and Provisions for Income Taxes

A reconciliation of the difference between the federal statutory tax rate and the Company's effective tax rate for income taxes for each period is as follows:



	2016		2015		2014
Federal statutory tax rate	35.0	%	35.0	%	35.0	%
State income taxes, net of federal benefit	3.8		3.9		3.5
Nondeductible expenses	2.6		2.5		2.3
Uncertain tax position	(3.3	)	—		—
Credits and other	(0.4	)	—		(0.9	)
Effective tax rate	37.7	%	41.4	%	39.9	%

Total amounts of Unrecognized Tax

A reconciliation of the total amounts of unrecognized tax benefits follows (amounts in thousands):




Total unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2015	$	3,415
Increases (decreases) in unrecognized tax benefits as a result of:
Tax positions taken during the current period	(2,100		)
Total unrecognized tax benefits as of December 31, 2016	$	1,315