Performant Financial Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
May 9, 2023

There are 8 speakers on the call.

Operator

Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Performant Financial First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. This call is being recorded on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. I would now like to turn the conference over to Richard Zubek, Vice President, Investor Relations.

Operator

Thank you. Richard, you may begin.

Speaker 1

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone. By now, you should receive a copy of the earnings release for the company's Q1 2023 results. If you have not, a copy is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website. On today's call will be Lisa M, Board Chair Simeon Cole, Chief Executive Officer and Rohit Ramchandani, Chief Financial Officer.

Speaker 1

Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that some of the comments made on today's call, Including our financial guidance are forward looking statements. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including those described in the company's filings with the SEC. Our actual results may differ materially from those described during the call. In addition, all forward looking statements are made as of today, and the company does not undertake to update any forward looking statements based on new circumstances or revised expectations. Also, all non GAAP financial measures disclosed during this call are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP measures the table attached to our press release.

Speaker 1

Lastly, I'd like to formally announce that the company will be hosting its inaugural Investor Day event on June 20 in New York City. Please contact me via e mail if you'd like additional information or have interest in attending. I would now like to turn the call over to Lisa I'm Lisa?

Speaker 2

Thank you, Rich. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our earnings call. We are announcing several changes Today, which make the future of performance even more exciting. I'm proud of the effort that this entire team gives each and every day as it has allowed us to pursue and grow our healthcare business in ways that many thought impossible. Thank you all for your dedication and hard work.

Speaker 2

As you already read in our press release, I am stepping down as CEO of Performant. I intend to continue as our Board Chair, But given that the transition to becoming a pure play healthcare company is complete, it is the right time for me to hand over the ring to Simeon Cole, We'll continue to execute his exciting vision for the growth of Performance Healthcare Solutions. This should come as no surprise to anyone given Sim's dedication to the company and the growth that he and his team have achieved thus far in the Healthcare Payment Integrity space. From the time I first met Simeon, it was very clear to me that He was a visionary with a bright future ahead of him. Damian has served as the Head of our Health Operations Since joining Performant and was promoted to President in March of last year, Semian drove the significant and notably Fully organic growth in our healthcare revenues and led our healthcare business to become the focus of the company.

Speaker 2

We are also pleased to announce the promotion of Rohit Ramchandani to Chief Financial Officer. Rohit has been with Performant for over 9 years and most recently served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Strategy for the past 2 years. In that role, Rohit successfully navigated the actions to transform performance away from its legacy recovery business and continue investing into the healthcare markets. With that, we want to congratulate both Simeon and Rohit on their promotions. I turn the call over to our new CEO.

Speaker 2

Tim?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. I am truly honored for the opportunity to lead this amazing organization of dedicated and talented professionals. With our clarity of vision and a relentless commitment to delivering value to our clients, I am confident that we can achieve our goal and take Performant to new heights. From the time I joined Performant in 2012 through our Q1 of 2023, I have been fully invested in our long term success. As I previously shared, our ability to expand services within existing clients Remains a key pillar of our success and our sales pipeline of new opportunities continues to grow as a result of our increased focus on mid market payers.

Speaker 3

However, key to achieving our growth objectives is the timely conversion of these new opportunities into revenue producing engagements. During Q1 of 2023, we successfully delivered on this objective by completing 11 new commercial implementations. And for context, the 11 new implementations during the quarter It's more than half as many as we did in all of 2022, which was an impressive year of new implementations in its own right. As impressive as our implementation cadence was in the Q1, there is still room for improvement. We are making investments into our platforms and workflows And we expect these investments coupled with the demonstrated commitment of our team to yield dividends during this year and into 2024.

Speaker 3

With regards to the public health emergency, we were encouraged that President Biden ended the national emergency last month And we expect the public health emergency will officially end later this week. Following the end of the PHE, it is expected that the healthcare industry could face a number of administrative challenges. Our clients, however, indicate that these challenges could be minimal and temporary. We will continue to be a strong partner to our clients during this transition period and hopefully the final step toward The return to normalcy from the era of COVID-nineteen. Our revenues in the Q1 of 2023 were lower compared to the Q1 of 2022 due primarily to a decline in demand inventory within our CMS MSP business Beyond what we could have anticipated, demand volume under this contract is driven by industry wide Section 111 reporting.

Speaker 3

This reporting can ebb and flow according to a myriad of factors, many of which are beyond our control. It is worth noting, however, that the demand volumes Already returned to expected levels and we anticipate that there is a potential to recoup roughly $500,000 of revenue over the remainder of the Our audit or claims based business continued to achieve Double digit year over year revenue growth, a trend we anticipate continuing as previously implemented contracts mature combined with the ramping of new programs and our current expectations for future implementation. We are also seeing early results on our initiatives to increase scale and drive greater efficiency within the claims based business. And speaking of implementations and future revenue growth, We are happy to report that during Q2, we completed certain implementation activities for our new RAC region 2. Our teams have made amazing progress in tandem with CMS' dedicated efforts and we anticipate the commencement of some operations this quarter.

Speaker 3

We believe that speedy implementation marks a milestone for the CMS RAC program, demonstrating that performance has the knowledge and capability to facilitate the transition of any RAC region or other similarly large audit program. Within the eligibility business, we continue to make progress with our commercial growth initiatives. In particular, the implementations we completed during Q4 of last year and Q1 of 2023 will be key in supporting our growth expectations for the remainder of 2023 and beyond. Within our government eligibility work, the renewed CMS MSP contract is now fully operational. And as I mentioned, the available inventory of demand is trending back to the norm.

Speaker 3

Though the Q1 was weighed down by a dip in the Available MSP inventory, we remain bullish on 2023. Our sales pipeline is robust And our cadence of new program implementation is progressing at or quite frankly at times greater than expected. Both our eligibility and claims based businesses are exceeding milestones in the rollout of new mid market opportunities as well as the expansion of existing national programs and our initiatives to improve scale are showing strong promise. Before I hand the call over to Rohit to go over the results of the quarter, I wanted to take a moment to congratulate him on his promotion to CFO. Rohit has served as a trusted partner during our years of healthcare growth and company transformation.

Speaker 3

I'm excited to continue As we progress into the next chapter of Performant Healthcare Solutions. With that, I'll hand it over to Rohit, our Chief Financial Officer for a discussion of the financials. Rohit?

Speaker 4

Thanks, Sim. I'm really excited to continue serving the company Our many constituents as performance CSO. It's remarkable to have been a part of the journey thus far and have an inside view to all the strategic and financial momentum we have made, And I'm eager to continue contributing toward our ongoing progress. With that, let's dive into the quarter's results. Our Q1 2023 results reflect our continued efforts to grow our healthcare market operations, and we remain pleased and excited with our trajectory.

Speaker 4

Total company revenues in the quarter were $25,700,000 which included healthcare revenues of 22.9 Our Customer Care Outsourced Services business accounted for $2,800,000 during the quarter, a decline from last quarter, But in line with our expectations for this business as we continue to anticipate shrinking customer care market revenues short of the restart process of federal student loan programs. As Sim noted, our healthcare revenues in the Q1 had a downward trend, primarily driven by our eligibility government programs, specifically Our CMS MSP work. But we continue to see strong performance within our commercial clients, a key growth channel. As a result of the government volume declines, revenues from our eligibility services for the Q1 of 2023 were 12,500,000 or a decrease of just over 12% when compared to the roughly $14,000,000 reported in the Q1 of 2022. As Fin mentioned, we've seen the volumes return and anticipate the potential to recoup a portion of the missed revenues across the remainder of the current year.

Speaker 4

I'd also like to note that the rest of our eligibility programs are currently displaying growth consistent with the efforts of historical implementations. Overall, we expect the 2023 annual revenues from eligibility services to meet and likely exceed those of 2022. Within our claims based business, also known as claims auditing, our revenues in the Q1 of 2023 We're roughly $10,400,000 which was an increase of nearly 14% compared to the $9,100,000 in the Q1 of 2022. We anticipate this growth trend to continue. Moving on to expenses.

Speaker 4

Operating expenses in the first quarter were $29,500,000 which equates to approximately $1,000,000 higher compared to the Q1 of last year. This was primarily driven by headcount and salaries and partially offset by lower other operating expenses. We currently anticipate that the increases in salaries and headcount will continue to drive growth in operating in the upcoming quarters as we continue with new implementations and are pleased that we are not experiencing the hiring headwinds we experienced early last year. As Tim mentioned, we're excited about our current implementation cadence and the potential for margin expansion as a result of our various investment activities. I would like to reaffirm our guidance for 2023 Healthcare Revenues to be in the range of $105,000,000 to 110,000,000 And for the full year 2023 adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $2,000,000 to $5,000,000 which is reflective of our ongoing investment and growth initiatives as well as improvements in our operational efficiencies.

Speaker 4

We are excited to continue growing the business and have our eye on both our revenue targets and the expansion of EBITDA margins. Aside from operational improvements as we continue to scale, we anticipate seeing a natural expansion of our margins through operating leverage. This is supported by management's estimated gross margins of the blend of our various markets around 40 as it stands today with a room for expansion. We are encouraged by what we are seeing thus far in 2023. Our long term strategy remains steady and we are excited to continue delivering results as we march toward a larger and stronger future.

Speaker 4

Operator, will you please open up the line for questions?

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer Please standby while we compile the Q and A roster. Your first question comes from the line of George Sutton from Craig Hallum. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, Simeon and Rohit. This is James on for George. Congratulations on the promotions. So first off, the 11 commercial implementations really stood out. I think your expectations were basically for Similar cadence as you saw last year, which means about 5 a quarter.

Speaker 5

So what sort of drove the strength there? Can you talk about the mix between audit and eligibility? And then could you talk about sort of the cadence that you expect throughout the remainder of the year?

Speaker 4

Yes. Hey, James, it's Rohit. Thank you. And I think I can hit your latter questions and then Tim, if you want to comment on sort of The driving of the 11s. Sure.

Speaker 4

But in terms of them, the split is actually pretty healthy between audit and eligibility.

Speaker 3

And we're pleased to see this because

Speaker 4

I think as we've shared in the past year, we had a little more skewing towards claims auditing implementations Adding into our pipeline across 2022. So happy to see that return to more of a healthy split in this year. And I think We do anticipate that this strong cadence similar to last year or better as you've seen should continue.

Speaker 6

Yes. And James, it's Simeon here. So look, I think it's also a reflection of what we've been talking about in terms of A healthy sales pipeline and the efforts the team has in terms of converting those sales to sign deals. So we look at some of the opportunities and we have a focus right now on trying to push them through the pipeline as quickly as we can to get them to contracted opportunities. And then once they're contracted, it really is around what we've discussed and you've heard in the prepared remarks around how we have an internal initiative to really try to move from contracting to revenue.

Speaker 6

And so in doing that, we have a focus around just trying to expedite the timeframe Of getting data in house, getting audits or eligibility depending on the service ramped up. And so that Ultimately seeing a larger number there is just a pure reflection of we've made some progress in expediting that kind of onboard process.

Speaker 5

Great. And then some of the larger payers and CMS have sort of made moves to reduce pre authorizations. I would assume that'd be a positive for your business, particularly on the audit side. I'm just kind of curious if that's come up in conversation.

Speaker 6

Yes. It's a good call out, right? So I think historically depending on policy of the various payer, Anything that's pre auth is something that we typically can't look at from an audit perspective, As you might imagine, and so again, it depends payer to payer and various policies, but certainly removing that pre authorization does give us More opportunity to look at claims that would otherwise be designated as a no review.

Speaker 5

Great. Last one for me. Are you able to sort of speak to any success that you've seen so far through your relationship with CAQH and I will hop back in the queue. Thanks.

Speaker 6

Yes. No, we appreciate it. We are both on in terms of opportunities As we anticipated, I think the payer community is recognizing the value that Both organizations CAQH and Performant bring together in terms of leveraging their asset, their data asset through the capabilities and skills that we have. So we're seeing increased opportunities in the pipeline as we anticipated And though still a little bit in the early innings here, but we are meeting or exceeding expectation in terms of just some of the operational components with a few clients that we have underway.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Jacob Stefan from Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Hey, guys. I'd like to extend my congratulations as well. I guess, first, just focusing in here. Could you talk about the Commercial payer revenue, I know last quarter you guys had broken it out, growing 66%. But, just wondering if you could update us On revenue from commercial payers.

Speaker 4

Hey, Jacob. Thanks. And yes, so last quarter, we've broken it out on an annual basis We will endeavor to do so again this year. I think particularly the way we guide to an annual number and the cadencing between quarters, we believe that split It's more meaningful to dig into on an annual basis, something we'll continue to evaluate if it ends up becoming a different view. For now, what I can share is I think the commercial programs are still showing a very strong growth rate, double digits And should drive the expectations we shared last quarter of sort of a lot of our current year growth continuing to stem from the commercial side.

Speaker 7

Okay. That's helpful. Maybe just focusing on the public health emergency ending here. Have you guys heard any more kind of Any way to quantify maybe how many claims may become available and kind of how those may, I guess, bleed out Over the coming years?

Speaker 6

Yes. So to answer the question specifically, the answer is no. We have not been able To quantify that, and I think in context, we're talking 2 components, right? One is a historical look Right. So is there any tailwinds associated with claims that were untouchable because there was a COVID diagnosis?

Speaker 6

And Once the PHE expires, do some of those claims get moved back into the system as long as statute of limitations haven't expired, etcetera. And so we've been working with the CMS and the various payers to just try to understand what the appetite for those claims are and what the policies are going to be. We're looking forward to trying to get greater clarity around that once this PHE at the end of this week is finally expired. But we don't have any real good indication to share with you what that might look like in terms of upside. I can tell you though that it's beyond just the historical Claims that have been turned off because of COVID in terms of our access to them.

Speaker 6

But There is also claims that would otherwise be in our system that were also kind of put to the sideline because They had some correlation with COVID. So if you think about our concepts and what we ultimately look at, they could have things such as Oxygen and DME durable medical equipment that are tied to a COVID diagnosis and we had many of our payers Also restrict some of those particular concepts, which impacted inventory. So, it's a 2 pronged. We are going to start learning more. I'm certainly more bullish on the fact that we'll see those concepts turn on quicker than we'll get access So an understanding of what possibility are for historical inventory.

Speaker 6

But look, overall, as we've been saying, having this PHE behind us It's only a helpful component of our business, but I think it's important to point out that these things don't happen overnight and we're just going to have to work through

Speaker 7

Okay. That's helpful. That does it for me. Best of luck going forward, guys. Thanks.

Speaker 6

We appreciate it. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to

Speaker 6

We thank you for joining us today, and we I appreciate all of the support of our investors, appreciate all the hard efforts of the Performant team members, and we look forward to Rejoining you on next quarter's conference call. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you, sir. Thank you so much presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Have a lovely

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Performant Financial Q1 2023
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