NYSE:DVA DaVita Q2 2023 Earnings Report $140.21 -1.29 (-0.91%) Closing price 04/17/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$140.26 +0.05 (+0.04%) As of 04/17/2025 06:17 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast DaVita EPS ResultsActual EPS$2.08Consensus EPS $1.66Beat/MissBeat by +$0.42One Year Ago EPS$2.30DaVita Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$3.00 billionExpected Revenue$2.95 billionBeat/MissBeat by +$48.60 millionYoY Revenue Growth+2.50%DaVita Announcement DetailsQuarterQ2 2023Date8/3/2023TimeAfter Market ClosesConference Call DateThursday, August 3, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsDaVita's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 1, 2025, with a conference call scheduled at 5:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Q1 2025 Earnings ReportConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by DaVita Q2 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrAugust 3, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good evening. My name is Michelle, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DaVita Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Operator00:00:15All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period. Mr. Eliason, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, and welcome to our Q2 conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in our company. I'm Nick Eliason, Group Vice President of Investor Relations and joining me today are Javier Rodriguez, our CEO and Joel Ackerman, our CFO. Please note that during this call, we may make forward looking statements within SEC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks, all subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10 Q and other subsequent filings that we may make with the SEC. Our forward looking statements are based on information currently available to us, and we do not intend We will discuss some non GAAP financial measures. Speaker 100:01:38A reconciliation of these non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings press release, furnished to the SEC and available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Javier Rodriguez. Speaker 200:01:53Thank you, Nick, and thank you for joining our call today. I hope that everyone's having a safe and joyful summer. At DaVita, We've been driving operational improvements across our organization. Our 2nd quarter performance reflects strong traction across Those initiatives putting us on a path to deliver strong clinical outcomes and financial results for the year. Today, I will cover the 2nd quarter results, offer some perspective on the industry landscape and drivers of long term performance, Before we get into the Q2 details, I would like to take a moment to celebrate a clinical and technological milestone. Speaker 200:02:39On our February call, we mentioned the rollout of our next generation clinical IT system, which we refer to as Center Without Walls or CWOW. I'm happy to report that after 5 years of development, CWOW! Is now live in each of our approximately 2,700 clinics across the United States. This patient centric cloud based system combines and replaces 4 legacy systems and is designed to provide seamless flow of information across each of our centers and all modalities. This includes real time clinical dashboards, data sharing with our physicians and integrated kidney care platforms and notifications such as critical lab alerts. Speaker 200:03:20For ease of use, it features wristbands for quick teammate login, Improvability to track and reschedule mistreatment, enhanced real time documentation and consolidated reporting for streamline analysis. And while we're enthused about these immediate benefits, the most significant enhancement is the state of the art data structure and platform upon which we can build further capabilities, including artificial intelligence to advance the care delivery in the years ahead. With this groundbreaking platform, our clinicians are able to access the right information at the right time in the right place. Transitioning to our financial performance. In the Q2, we delivered adjusted operating income of 432,000,000 and adjusted earnings per share of $2.08 These results were driven by improvements across our financial trilogy of treatment volume, Revenue per treatment and patient care costs. Speaker 200:04:19I'll touch on each of these in a bit more detail. On volume, We saw our 2nd consecutive quarter of improvements in census and treatments per day. This is encouraging as it is a result of better macro environment and progress in our operating initiatives. We're trending near the top of our original volume range of down 3% to flat year over year. And if these trends continue, we would anticipate delivering volume growth in 2024. Speaker 200:04:49Shifting to revenue and revenue per treatment. Revenue per treatment was particularly strong in the quarter. This was primarily driven by typical seasonal factors from patients meeting their co pays and deductibles along with normal expected rate increases and improvement in mix, including Medicare Advantage. Adding to the RPT increase, We have seen progress from investments we've been making in our revenue cycle capabilities. These investments resulted in higher cash collections and a decline in our DSO. Speaker 200:05:20I'm excited about the investments we've been making in this area, which represent a good example of how we are constantly improving operations. And finally, patient care costs improved as expected in the quarter. Although base wage increases remained well above historic pre pandemic levels, other expenses including contract labor and pharmaceuticals continued to decline. This benefit was partially offset by elevated training costs. While staffing levels in our clinic are in a much better position compared to last year, We continue to experience above average turnover among facility teammates. Speaker 200:05:58As a result, we no longer expect an improvement in our training productivity during the back half of this year. Taking a step back from the most recent results, I would like to offer some reflections The proposed rate increase falls short of expected cost inflation in 2024 and it fails to adjust for the acknowledged inflation forecast miss relative to actual wage and inflation increases over the past 2 years. The kidney care community will continue to advocate for an adjustment mechanism to reconcile these forecast errors similar to what exists today for skilled nursing facilities. In response to the persistent cost inflation, we are continuing our track record of innovation across all areas of our cost structure. Most recently, we consolidated portions of our facility footprint and reduced pharmaceutical costs through our conversion to MIRCERA for anemia management. Speaker 200:07:12These programs are proceeding in line with our expectations. Going forward, we will continue to drive cost efficiencies across the P and L. Through these efforts and continued improvement in our volume trends, we continue to target 3% to 7% long term growth of our enterprise adjusted operating income. Looking forward to the remainder of the year, Given our progress during the Q2, we're revising our adjusted operating income range of $1,475,000,000 to $1,625,000,000 to a new range of $1,565,000,000 to 1,675,000,000 We're also updating our adjusted earnings per share range of $6.20 to $7.30 to a new range of $7 to $7.80 Our performance relative to this guidance will continue to depend heavily on momentum and patient census trends, our ability to manage patient care costs within the broader labor environment and sustained improvement in revenue cycle management. I'll now turn the call to Joel to discuss financial performance and outlook in more detail. Speaker 300:08:29Thanks, Javier. I'll walk through a few factors driving our strong performance in the Q2, starting with treatment volume. In the Q2, U. S. Dialysis treatments per day were up by approximately 0.3% sequentially. Speaker 300:08:45This is the result of continued census gains in the 2nd quarter, driven by an increase in new to dialysis admits. Mortality remains higher than pre COVID levels, but came in lower than Q1 and in line with our expectations for the quarter. Our mistreatment rate continues to be elevated relative to historic levels. Revenue per treatment was up 10 point $0.59 versus Q1. Approximately half of this increase was the result of seasonality, primarily due to higher patient responsibility amounts in the Q1. Speaker 300:09:22Approximately $2 came from normal expected rate increases And continued increases in patient mix. An additional roughly $2 was the result of strong cash collections in Q2. As Javier said, we have been investing in improvements in our revenue cycle management systems and processes and are beginning to see the benefits of these efforts In both RPT and DSOs. We were anticipating these improvements, but they came earlier than forecasted. We expect these benefits to persist in the back half of the year and going forward. Speaker 300:09:59As a result, we now anticipate Year over year RPT growth to be 2.5% to 3%. On a non GAAP basis, patient care cost per treatment decreased 1.5% sequentially. While base wage increases remain high, we have successfully reduced Most of the temporary compensation measures we relied on during 2022. At the end of Q2, Contract labor has returned back to pre pandemic levels. Operating income from our Integrated Kidney Care business was approximately Flat with Q1. Speaker 300:10:38The quarter benefited from positive prior period developments in our special needs plans and the timing of expenses that were delayed until later this year. For the full year, we now expect IKC adjusted operating income to be approximately flat to 2022 operating income loss of $125,000,000 Regarding our clinic footprint, In Q2, we closed or consolidated 16 centers in the U. S, bringing our year to date U. S. Closures to 36. Speaker 300:11:12We continue to assess further facility consolidation and closures during the back half of the year. Regarding capital structure, we ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of approximately 3.7 times EBITDA and did not repurchase any shares during the Q2. Our capital allocation strategy remains focused on capital efficient growth, A target leverage ratio of 3 to 3.5 times EBITDA and the return of excess cash flow to investors through share buybacks. Given our increased guidance for the balance of the year, we have increased visibility towards bringing our leverage level back within our target range. That concludes my prepared remarks for today. Speaker 300:11:58Operator, please open the call for Q and A. Operator00:12:02Thank Our first caller is Kevin Fischbeck with Bank of America. You may go ahead, sir. Speaker 400:12:22Good afternoon. Actually, this is Joanna Gajuk filling in for Kevin. Thanks for taking the question here. So thanks for the color around revenue per treatment breakdown in terms of the drivers. There are clearly very strong performance And I appreciate your commentary. Speaker 400:12:38Expect, I guess, a faster growth for the year. So just looking into the pieces because you said Better payer mix, one of the drivers. Can you talk about specific commercial pricing and what kind of rate increases are you getting this year? And also Any indications for how things are tracking into next year? Because I guess that's where maybe one area, because you also You mentioned the Medicare rate update being lower than cost inflation. Speaker 400:13:05So, is the commercial pricing, I guess, tracking better? Speaker 500:13:10Yes. Thank you for the question, Joanna. I'll start off and Joel, you can supplement if I miss anything of importance. Private pay mix is holding up. It picked up 20 bps and we continue to see that our private pay Patients really value their insurance. Speaker 500:13:30As it relates to rate increases, just a reminder, most of our contracts are multi year. So in any given year, we don't negotiate that many contracts. There's nothing really to call out on that. Our rate per treatment increases are in line with expectations. So is there another part to your question that I didn't answer, Joanna? Speaker 400:13:54No, this was yes, this was it, but I guess also related, if I can, a follow-up to that topic. In terms of the Marietta And I guess we spoke before and there's still bipartisan support for FX. So can you give us any update on that? And I guess on that topic, as it relates to pricing, commercial pricing, are you seeing employers using this Decision to restrict networks or are they using it to maybe bring it up in the price negotiations when it comes to pricing Speaker 500:14:27Sure. Let me take a and let me lens up a little since some people are not tracking All of them, Marietta. So it's probably best for me to divide it into what we know and what we don't know. So let me start with what we do know. As we look at our claims year to date, we have not seen much change compared to prior years. Speaker 500:14:52So there's not a lot of volume, but we have learned more about how employers change benefits and mislead members on how it's done. And so we don't want to accommodate this poor behavior. So what we have done is we've implemented a verification process At admission and if an employer eliminates the network dialysis benefit for its member, then we have the right to prevent that plan from having access to our centers. In addition, we continue to have very high interest, bipartisan interest And making sure that policymakers protect our patients. So those are the things that we do know. Speaker 500:15:35What we don't know is how many employer groups are considering carving out dialysis from network in the future and we also don't know If or when members of Congress will introduce the bill and how the CBO will score it. The last part of your question was, Our payers using this in one way or another and it has not come up in one negotiation because this is really more of a dynamic between The employer trying to decide what to do with the plan, not what the payer does with the provider. The provider and the payer both value network. Does that help you Joanna? Speaker 400:16:15Yes, that makes sense. No, no, no. That totally makes sense and I appreciate. So in terms of what's going on in Congress and the score, so is there any indication What we might hear about this or that's not really something that we can predict from the outside? Speaker 500:16:32Yes, there's nothing we can predict from the outside that's left to policymakers, champions and the dynamics of Washington DC. Speaker 400:16:44Great. Thank you. And if I may, just on the guidance, Faith, it sounds like some improvement In the pricing rate and then, I guess, contract labor, sounds like that's better. Is that the way to frame the guidance rate, the 7 The operating income adjusted operating income guidance. Speaker 300:17:04Yes. Joanna, if I were to Kind of give you the pieces of what drove $70,000,000 of increased guidance that's middle of the range to middle of the range on OI. I'd say about half is the RPT as you called it out. The other half is volume. We saw Stronger admissions this quarter and the nature of volume is it's cumulative. Speaker 300:17:28It will never really kick in, in any one quarter In that big a way, but as it accumulates stronger in Q1, stronger in Q2 and we see it better in the back half of the year, For the full year, we think that'll contribute about half of the $70,000,000 beep. Contract labor, it continues to improve, but It's now pretty much in line with what we were expecting. And as we said in the prepared remarks, it's really back down to pre COVID levels And hopefully it won't be much of a topic going forward. Speaker 400:18:06Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for the call. Operator00:18:09Thank you. Our next caller is Andrew Mok with UBS. Sir, you may go ahead. Speaker 600:18:19Hi, good afternoon. I appreciate all the color on the sequential RPT improvement, but just a couple of follow ups there. First, is the seasonality component In line with historical seasonality? Or is there something about the patient benefit design that's creating more acute seasonality this year? Can you go into a bit more detail on what's driving the better cash collections? Speaker 600:18:41Thanks. Speaker 300:18:43Yes, Andrew, thanks. So on the seasonality, no, it was a little bit more than $5 which is per treatment, which is right in line with what we've In terms of collections, look, we have invested in our processes and in our technology To get better information and to give better information to the health plans on everything from prior authorizations to other data required to claim submissions and that's both the quality of the data and the timeliness The data and what we're seeing is we're getting paid quicker and that's why you saw DSOs come down last quarter And again, this quarter and we're also seeing we're collecting more and that's what's driving the RPT increase. And I think the most Important thing from our standpoint is this is not a one time thing. These are fundamental changes that we've made that we think will persist. Speaker 600:19:48Great. Appreciate the color. And then as a follow-up, the guidance the OI guidance is up about 5%. I think your free cash flow is up about 10%. Can you help bridge the difference there? Speaker 600:19:58Help us understand why the free cash conversion is better on the new guide? And I think I missed your comments on share repurchase, but we'd love to get your Latest thoughts around there and the potential resumption of share repurchase. Thanks. Speaker 300:20:09Sure. So the big difference between OI and free cash flow is the DSOs. As we see those DSOs come down, That will add to the free cash flow for the year. In terms of share repurchases, we're on Back with what we set out to do. Our leverage levels were above our target range. Speaker 300:20:34I think we were Quite clear with everyone, we wanted to get back down to 3.5% or below. We're making good progress on that. We're at 3.7% for the quarter And we didn't buy back any shares. We don't expect to buy back any shares in Q3, but We feel like we've got better visibility now to get back to the 3.5% or below. Speaker 600:21:02Great. Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue. Speaker 400:21:04Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:21:06Our next caller is Pito Chickering with Deutsche Bank. Sir, you may go ahead. Tito, your line is open. We'll go to the next caller, Lisa Clyde with Bernstein. You may go ahead. Speaker 700:21:28Hi there. Apologies, Javier, if you touched on this in the opening remarks. I was a few minutes late. Speaker 400:21:32But just could you comment Speaker 700:21:33on the CMS rate increase and the fact that You submitted a mistake in the calculations and what the chances are of getting an improvement there. And also just as we think about going into 2025, What would a fair rate increase look like and perhaps what lower number should our expectation around that actually be? Speaker 500:21:56Yes. Thanks for the question, Lisa. It's kind of funny. I've been here for a very long time and not many questions used to come up about the rate increase with Medicare. And so we started to ask ourselves why is this a new dynamic. Speaker 500:22:10And the reality is that the system is Quite complicated, but it works relatively well in times where there's economic stability. And yet when it's when we're experiencing times of inflation or lack of stability, it's really showing that It doesn't work in many ways. But so let me step back. If you were to spend time on trying to understand the methodology, You would really come to the conclusion that it is practically not possible to forecast Because there's just too many things that are either proprietary or use lag data or a benchmark that is not related to dialysis, It's a benchmark related to all healthcare costs and it's all weighted and then discounted with some kind of productivity factor. And so the short answer is, it's a big complicated equation with some variables that we will not have visibility to. Speaker 500:23:13So that's the short answer. We can't forecast it. I can't believe anyone from the outside world can. Secondly, what is an appropriate one and what we are advocating for is let's not have, let's call it winners or losers. We understand that forecasting is difficult, but let's have a reconciliation that is actually linked to actual cost. Speaker 500:23:37And that if cost if you get an increase and it's and exceeds what inflation that there could be a decrease or vice versa. So that's what we're advocating for. As you know, it is very difficult in Washington DC right now on trying to get funding, But we are trying to make our case. Speaker 700:24:01And maybe just touching on medtech's role here. I mean, there is sort of Well, the economic advisor to Medicare, but they don't have any enforcement power. And I think there's sometimes some years there's a big disconnect Between the MedPAC recommendation and the rate and then this year it was actually quite in line. I mean from your perspective, do you guys even look at the MedPAC numbers? I think It seems like it should be a useful data point, but it often isn't. Speaker 500:24:30Yes. The process for med pack is a bit opaque to us. We try to educate and highlight what is really happening with our cost structure. And again, in Periods of stability, it happened to be, give or take within reason acceptable and now The gap is widening and it's widening compounded year after year. So it's really starting to be significant. Speaker 700:24:58Okay. And then last follow-up is, does this have just given how the rate increase was, does this change your Decision on some clinic closures in any way because obviously that's always the worry that if the Medicare rates get too low, you just have clinics here and there where you're on all Medicare and it just doesn't financially make sense anymore? Speaker 500:25:20Yes. There's lots to go into the decision to close the clinic. In particular, we've got to really focus on patient care and making sure that our patients are being taken care of. But it is absolutely a consideration when you look at the economics, but sort of the first filter is continuity of care. The second is, is there a convenient place where that patient can be taken care of? Speaker 500:25:46And then after that, you get into Economic factors such as reimbursement, leases and other things, but we are aggressively looking at our footprint And we continue to right size to make sure that we are thoughtful about our resource allocation and capital allocation. Speaker 700:26:04Great. Thanks for that. Speaker 500:26:06Thank you. Operator00:26:07Thank you. Our next caller is Pito Chickering with Deutsche Bank. Sir, you may go ahead. Speaker 800:26:16Hey, can you guys hear me now? Speaker 500:26:18Yes, yes, Pito. Speaker 800:26:20Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened there. Back to treatment growth here, pre COVID, like you're getting about 4,000 new patients The year about twothree of those in the first half of the year, from nephrologists dropping on and obviously the rest Coming from hospitalizations start dropping to you guys. I guess, how is that tracking this year at this point relative to sort of that 4,000 times 2 thirds, is that what you guys are seeing for new patients at this point? Speaker 300:26:50Yes. So, Pito, the short answer is, if you're looking at admits, We are tracking pretty much to pre COVID levels. The challenge is excess mortality And that remains elevated and that's the reason that we're not yet ready to say We're going to return to pre COVID growth levels. That said mortality has been coming down year after year since COVID started. It's down Q2 versus Q1. Speaker 300:27:30So if mortality continued to decline and return to pre COVID levels, then we back then the math you laid out of 4,000 new patients a year, we'd be back there. Speaker 800:27:44Which is a perfect segue for the next question about mortality. You sort of talked about that sort of coming down. I guess, is there any Wade, you can give us sort of what is the rate of that decline and if it follows the path you've seen for the last three quarters, Is this so what glide path would that indicate? Speaker 300:28:04Yes, that's a it's a tough Piece of analysis to do because it hasn't necessarily been smooth quarter to quarter or year to year. So Look, we're watching it carefully. We all know there's a minor surge going on, but I think minor is the J. Rice:] So we're keeping a careful eye on it, but I don't think We can draw a trend line based on the history to say when we think mortality gets back to 0, Where excess mortality gets back to 0. Speaker 800:28:41Okay. I think is there some way that you can quantify for us to what excess mortality was this quarter and when it's where it was last quarter? Speaker 300:28:49Yes. Last quarter, it was roughly 900 lives. This quarter, it was We've got $500,000,000 $600,000 Remember, we will sometimes update those over time. We get better views of excess mortality as time goes on, but somewhere between $506,000,000 is our best estimate for Q2. Speaker 800:29:14Okay. And I definitely understand sort of the complexity of kind of coming up with those for a variety of different reasons. For Medicare Advantage, what Speaker 300:29:32I'd have to do the math quickly in my head. Speaker 500:29:41Peter, I don't want Speaker 300:29:42to give you a bad number. So I'm going to let's Take that offline. Speaker 800:29:47Okay. Next one here is on the managed care rate increase question that was asked earlier. I guess, Are you seeing managed care do anything different in terms not just in the rate increases, but potentially trying to steer patients? Like have you seen any behavior changes For managed care in the last 90 days or so, just obviously, as you're seeing increased utilization elsewhere, just curious if they're trying to control costs within other parts of the business? Speaker 500:30:13No, we haven't seen no changes at all. Speaker 800:30:19Okay, got it. And then just a last one here, On the pace of consolidation for facilities, obviously, you guys do the lowest hanging fruit first. But as you see success of capturing those patients Certainly within other centers, do you get more aggressive about consolidation than maybe you had originally planned for about a year from now? And when these patients are consolidated, do you see an increase of home treatments at that point? Speaker 500:30:45Yes. I think we want to be really careful about being aggressive. We want to be really thoughtful and balanced And all the trade offs that go into closing a center. We have to remember our patients are incredibly vulnerable and one of the most important things It's to be close to their home. And so 90 some odd percent of our patients are within 10 miles of their home. Speaker 500:31:10And that is one of the best things we can For convenience and we talk a lot about health equity issues and not being in the communities. We are in the communities. And so we take that pretty seriously, but as the economics constraints happen and if we are able to accommodate our patients, We are being very thoughtful on that and we have other obligations like leases and other things. So there's a natural time to review a clinic to see If it's appropriate for closure. Speaker 800:31:41Okay. And then And then Speaker 500:31:42the second part to your question, I think, Vito? Speaker 800:31:45Yes. So So I'll sort of ask the same question in different ways. I guess as if a patient is consolidated, do you see an increased utilization of home Treatments, and then the second part of the question is, so what percent of treatments today are being done in the home? Speaker 500:32:01No is the answer. We are not Seeing any changes in whether a patient goes home or not, we continue to be a very much an advocate of home. There's a lot of dynamics and education that go into that. And we want the right modality for the right patient, but we are huge home And the mix on home is roughly around 15%, a little Above that like 15.2% or so, but it's been hanging around that 15%. COVID had a big impact on home that many patients felt more comfortable in that time of insecurity to go and be taken care of by professionals, But we're starting to see a slight pickup in patient choice to go home. Speaker 800:32:52Okay. And then I think the last question for me here. Can we get an update on Medtronic JV? I guess, sort of how much of the drag is that on OI? And just as you look at it Today, kind of what's the pathway to that becoming operating income neutral? Speaker 800:33:10And just can you just refresh us and sort of Why you saw that as a good opportunity for you guys? Thanks so much. Speaker 300:33:17Sure. So just as a reminder, it doesn't hit our Operating income, it's below the OI line, so it hits EPS. It's worth about $15,000,000 pretax per quarter. That's on a non GAAP basis. This quarter, we actually had some positive gain as a result of the transaction. Speaker 300:33:38And we think that number will decline over the next couple of years and we anticipated getting to breakeven in 2 to 3 years. In terms of why we like this look, as Javier mentioned, we are really interested in figuring out ways to help our patients Get home and new technology can be part of that answer. We're looking for other ways to innovate beyond just Service and information capabilities that we can do and we recognize Medtronic as a world class leader in innovation On the medical device side, we just thought their history here combined with our knowledge would make for a great partnership, which is why we invested in Speaker 800:34:25Perfect. All right. And the last quickie for me, maybe I missed it. Did you guys quantify what the turnover was nurses and technicians for this quarter and how that Speaker 500:34:38Thank you for that last question. We did not go into that level of detail. I think What we can say on labor, because we've gone into so much detail in labor, is in the overall category, it is playing out as expected. Some of the underlying components have shifted a bit. And so just to give a little more detail on that. Speaker 500:35:00Base wages are above our normal averages. Our contract labor is back in line to normal And we continue to have elevated training. And so that's how the levers are moving. But overall, The category is as expected. Speaker 800:35:21Great. I'll stop there. Thank you guys very much. Speaker 500:35:24Thank you. Operator00:35:26And at this time, I am showing no further questions, sir. We do have one more question. Andrew Mok from UBS. You may go ahead, sir. Speaker 600:35:36Hi. Just wanted a couple of follow ups on the clinic closures. You closed down 16 clinics, but opened 10 new dialysis clinics. I'm just trying to better understand what's driving the new clinics at this point given I thought a lot of the clinic closures was a result of So what are you seeing in the market that's causing you to open new clinics? Are there any characteristics that you would call out about them whether they're home dialysis programs or anything like that? Speaker 600:36:01Thanks. Speaker 500:36:03In general, you can imagine healthcare is local. And so there are areas where there are literally full clinics. There's sometimes relocation, sometimes as you called out, there might be just a home center that was needed. So there's a little of all, But as you can see, the number is materially smaller as we are very focused on making sure That capacity utilization is where it needs to be and that we're capital efficient. Speaker 600:36:36Got it. And on the mortality, I think you gave us the absolute number in the quarter. Can you give us a sense for how the mortality rate in general is Tracking and how far off are you against pre pandemic levels? Thanks. Speaker 500:36:50The mortality level looks roughly a percentage Or so higher than pre pandemic. And as Joel talked about it, it's a bit cyclical and depending on the surge or if there is one Or sort of the front end tends to have higher mortality at the front end of the year or the back end of the year versus the middle of the year. But I think a good number is roughly 1% or give or take 2,000 patients. Speaker 600:37:23Great. Thanks for all the color. Speaker 500:37:25Thank you. Operator00:37:27And at this time, I'm showing no further questions. Speaker 500:37:31Okay. Well, thank you, Michelle, and thank you all for your questions. As you heard through our comments today, we've continued to drive operational efficiencies and make investments to fuel our performance now into the future years as well. Some of those seeds that we planted are beginning to sprout and some will take additional time and continued effort. We look forward to keeping you Operator00:38:01Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may go ahead and disconnect at this time.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallDaVita Q2 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) DaVita Earnings Headlines3 No-Brainer Warren Buffett Stocks to Buy Right NowApril 19 at 4:30 AM | fool.comWhy DaVita Stock Got Rocked This WeekApril 18 at 6:13 PM | fool.comNow I look stupid. Real stupid... I thought what happened 25 years ago was a once- in-a-lifetime event… but how wrong I was. Because here we are, a quarter of a century later, almost to the exact day, and it’s happening again. April 20, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)DaVita Inc. (NYSE:DVA): A Case of Limited Growth PotentialApril 18 at 3:47 PM | msn.comDVA March 2026 Options Begin TradingApril 16, 2025 | nasdaq.comDialysis firm DaVita hit by ransomware attack, some operations disruptedApril 15, 2025 | msn.comSee More DaVita Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like DaVita? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on DaVita and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About DaVitaDaVita (NYSE:DVA) provides kidney dialysis services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure in the United States. The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related lab services in outpatient dialysis centers. It also offers outpatient, hospital inpatient, and home-based hemodialysis services; operates clinical laboratories that provide routine laboratory tests for dialysis and other physician-prescribed laboratory tests for ESRD patients; and management and administrative services to outpatient dialysis centers. In addition, the company offers integrated care and disease management services to patients in risk-based and other integrated care arrangements; clinical research programs; physician services; and comprehensive kidney care services. Further, it engages in the provision of acute inpatient dialysis services and related laboratory services; and transplant software business. The company was formerly known as DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. and changed its name to DaVita Inc. in September 2016. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Good evening. My name is Michelle, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the DaVita Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Operator00:00:15All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer period. Mr. Eliason, you may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, and welcome to our Q2 conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in our company. I'm Nick Eliason, Group Vice President of Investor Relations and joining me today are Javier Rodriguez, our CEO and Joel Ackerman, our CFO. Please note that during this call, we may make forward looking statements within SEC filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks, all subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10 Q and other subsequent filings that we may make with the SEC. Our forward looking statements are based on information currently available to us, and we do not intend We will discuss some non GAAP financial measures. Speaker 100:01:38A reconciliation of these non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures is included in our earnings press release, furnished to the SEC and available on our website. I will now turn the call over to Javier Rodriguez. Speaker 200:01:53Thank you, Nick, and thank you for joining our call today. I hope that everyone's having a safe and joyful summer. At DaVita, We've been driving operational improvements across our organization. Our 2nd quarter performance reflects strong traction across Those initiatives putting us on a path to deliver strong clinical outcomes and financial results for the year. Today, I will cover the 2nd quarter results, offer some perspective on the industry landscape and drivers of long term performance, Before we get into the Q2 details, I would like to take a moment to celebrate a clinical and technological milestone. Speaker 200:02:39On our February call, we mentioned the rollout of our next generation clinical IT system, which we refer to as Center Without Walls or CWOW. I'm happy to report that after 5 years of development, CWOW! Is now live in each of our approximately 2,700 clinics across the United States. This patient centric cloud based system combines and replaces 4 legacy systems and is designed to provide seamless flow of information across each of our centers and all modalities. This includes real time clinical dashboards, data sharing with our physicians and integrated kidney care platforms and notifications such as critical lab alerts. Speaker 200:03:20For ease of use, it features wristbands for quick teammate login, Improvability to track and reschedule mistreatment, enhanced real time documentation and consolidated reporting for streamline analysis. And while we're enthused about these immediate benefits, the most significant enhancement is the state of the art data structure and platform upon which we can build further capabilities, including artificial intelligence to advance the care delivery in the years ahead. With this groundbreaking platform, our clinicians are able to access the right information at the right time in the right place. Transitioning to our financial performance. In the Q2, we delivered adjusted operating income of 432,000,000 and adjusted earnings per share of $2.08 These results were driven by improvements across our financial trilogy of treatment volume, Revenue per treatment and patient care costs. Speaker 200:04:19I'll touch on each of these in a bit more detail. On volume, We saw our 2nd consecutive quarter of improvements in census and treatments per day. This is encouraging as it is a result of better macro environment and progress in our operating initiatives. We're trending near the top of our original volume range of down 3% to flat year over year. And if these trends continue, we would anticipate delivering volume growth in 2024. Speaker 200:04:49Shifting to revenue and revenue per treatment. Revenue per treatment was particularly strong in the quarter. This was primarily driven by typical seasonal factors from patients meeting their co pays and deductibles along with normal expected rate increases and improvement in mix, including Medicare Advantage. Adding to the RPT increase, We have seen progress from investments we've been making in our revenue cycle capabilities. These investments resulted in higher cash collections and a decline in our DSO. Speaker 200:05:20I'm excited about the investments we've been making in this area, which represent a good example of how we are constantly improving operations. And finally, patient care costs improved as expected in the quarter. Although base wage increases remained well above historic pre pandemic levels, other expenses including contract labor and pharmaceuticals continued to decline. This benefit was partially offset by elevated training costs. While staffing levels in our clinic are in a much better position compared to last year, We continue to experience above average turnover among facility teammates. Speaker 200:05:58As a result, we no longer expect an improvement in our training productivity during the back half of this year. Taking a step back from the most recent results, I would like to offer some reflections The proposed rate increase falls short of expected cost inflation in 2024 and it fails to adjust for the acknowledged inflation forecast miss relative to actual wage and inflation increases over the past 2 years. The kidney care community will continue to advocate for an adjustment mechanism to reconcile these forecast errors similar to what exists today for skilled nursing facilities. In response to the persistent cost inflation, we are continuing our track record of innovation across all areas of our cost structure. Most recently, we consolidated portions of our facility footprint and reduced pharmaceutical costs through our conversion to MIRCERA for anemia management. Speaker 200:07:12These programs are proceeding in line with our expectations. Going forward, we will continue to drive cost efficiencies across the P and L. Through these efforts and continued improvement in our volume trends, we continue to target 3% to 7% long term growth of our enterprise adjusted operating income. Looking forward to the remainder of the year, Given our progress during the Q2, we're revising our adjusted operating income range of $1,475,000,000 to $1,625,000,000 to a new range of $1,565,000,000 to 1,675,000,000 We're also updating our adjusted earnings per share range of $6.20 to $7.30 to a new range of $7 to $7.80 Our performance relative to this guidance will continue to depend heavily on momentum and patient census trends, our ability to manage patient care costs within the broader labor environment and sustained improvement in revenue cycle management. I'll now turn the call to Joel to discuss financial performance and outlook in more detail. Speaker 300:08:29Thanks, Javier. I'll walk through a few factors driving our strong performance in the Q2, starting with treatment volume. In the Q2, U. S. Dialysis treatments per day were up by approximately 0.3% sequentially. Speaker 300:08:45This is the result of continued census gains in the 2nd quarter, driven by an increase in new to dialysis admits. Mortality remains higher than pre COVID levels, but came in lower than Q1 and in line with our expectations for the quarter. Our mistreatment rate continues to be elevated relative to historic levels. Revenue per treatment was up 10 point $0.59 versus Q1. Approximately half of this increase was the result of seasonality, primarily due to higher patient responsibility amounts in the Q1. Speaker 300:09:22Approximately $2 came from normal expected rate increases And continued increases in patient mix. An additional roughly $2 was the result of strong cash collections in Q2. As Javier said, we have been investing in improvements in our revenue cycle management systems and processes and are beginning to see the benefits of these efforts In both RPT and DSOs. We were anticipating these improvements, but they came earlier than forecasted. We expect these benefits to persist in the back half of the year and going forward. Speaker 300:09:59As a result, we now anticipate Year over year RPT growth to be 2.5% to 3%. On a non GAAP basis, patient care cost per treatment decreased 1.5% sequentially. While base wage increases remain high, we have successfully reduced Most of the temporary compensation measures we relied on during 2022. At the end of Q2, Contract labor has returned back to pre pandemic levels. Operating income from our Integrated Kidney Care business was approximately Flat with Q1. Speaker 300:10:38The quarter benefited from positive prior period developments in our special needs plans and the timing of expenses that were delayed until later this year. For the full year, we now expect IKC adjusted operating income to be approximately flat to 2022 operating income loss of $125,000,000 Regarding our clinic footprint, In Q2, we closed or consolidated 16 centers in the U. S, bringing our year to date U. S. Closures to 36. Speaker 300:11:12We continue to assess further facility consolidation and closures during the back half of the year. Regarding capital structure, we ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of approximately 3.7 times EBITDA and did not repurchase any shares during the Q2. Our capital allocation strategy remains focused on capital efficient growth, A target leverage ratio of 3 to 3.5 times EBITDA and the return of excess cash flow to investors through share buybacks. Given our increased guidance for the balance of the year, we have increased visibility towards bringing our leverage level back within our target range. That concludes my prepared remarks for today. Speaker 300:11:58Operator, please open the call for Q and A. Operator00:12:02Thank Our first caller is Kevin Fischbeck with Bank of America. You may go ahead, sir. Speaker 400:12:22Good afternoon. Actually, this is Joanna Gajuk filling in for Kevin. Thanks for taking the question here. So thanks for the color around revenue per treatment breakdown in terms of the drivers. There are clearly very strong performance And I appreciate your commentary. Speaker 400:12:38Expect, I guess, a faster growth for the year. So just looking into the pieces because you said Better payer mix, one of the drivers. Can you talk about specific commercial pricing and what kind of rate increases are you getting this year? And also Any indications for how things are tracking into next year? Because I guess that's where maybe one area, because you also You mentioned the Medicare rate update being lower than cost inflation. Speaker 400:13:05So, is the commercial pricing, I guess, tracking better? Speaker 500:13:10Yes. Thank you for the question, Joanna. I'll start off and Joel, you can supplement if I miss anything of importance. Private pay mix is holding up. It picked up 20 bps and we continue to see that our private pay Patients really value their insurance. Speaker 500:13:30As it relates to rate increases, just a reminder, most of our contracts are multi year. So in any given year, we don't negotiate that many contracts. There's nothing really to call out on that. Our rate per treatment increases are in line with expectations. So is there another part to your question that I didn't answer, Joanna? Speaker 400:13:54No, this was yes, this was it, but I guess also related, if I can, a follow-up to that topic. In terms of the Marietta And I guess we spoke before and there's still bipartisan support for FX. So can you give us any update on that? And I guess on that topic, as it relates to pricing, commercial pricing, are you seeing employers using this Decision to restrict networks or are they using it to maybe bring it up in the price negotiations when it comes to pricing Speaker 500:14:27Sure. Let me take a and let me lens up a little since some people are not tracking All of them, Marietta. So it's probably best for me to divide it into what we know and what we don't know. So let me start with what we do know. As we look at our claims year to date, we have not seen much change compared to prior years. Speaker 500:14:52So there's not a lot of volume, but we have learned more about how employers change benefits and mislead members on how it's done. And so we don't want to accommodate this poor behavior. So what we have done is we've implemented a verification process At admission and if an employer eliminates the network dialysis benefit for its member, then we have the right to prevent that plan from having access to our centers. In addition, we continue to have very high interest, bipartisan interest And making sure that policymakers protect our patients. So those are the things that we do know. Speaker 500:15:35What we don't know is how many employer groups are considering carving out dialysis from network in the future and we also don't know If or when members of Congress will introduce the bill and how the CBO will score it. The last part of your question was, Our payers using this in one way or another and it has not come up in one negotiation because this is really more of a dynamic between The employer trying to decide what to do with the plan, not what the payer does with the provider. The provider and the payer both value network. Does that help you Joanna? Speaker 400:16:15Yes, that makes sense. No, no, no. That totally makes sense and I appreciate. So in terms of what's going on in Congress and the score, so is there any indication What we might hear about this or that's not really something that we can predict from the outside? Speaker 500:16:32Yes, there's nothing we can predict from the outside that's left to policymakers, champions and the dynamics of Washington DC. Speaker 400:16:44Great. Thank you. And if I may, just on the guidance, Faith, it sounds like some improvement In the pricing rate and then, I guess, contract labor, sounds like that's better. Is that the way to frame the guidance rate, the 7 The operating income adjusted operating income guidance. Speaker 300:17:04Yes. Joanna, if I were to Kind of give you the pieces of what drove $70,000,000 of increased guidance that's middle of the range to middle of the range on OI. I'd say about half is the RPT as you called it out. The other half is volume. We saw Stronger admissions this quarter and the nature of volume is it's cumulative. Speaker 300:17:28It will never really kick in, in any one quarter In that big a way, but as it accumulates stronger in Q1, stronger in Q2 and we see it better in the back half of the year, For the full year, we think that'll contribute about half of the $70,000,000 beep. Contract labor, it continues to improve, but It's now pretty much in line with what we were expecting. And as we said in the prepared remarks, it's really back down to pre COVID levels And hopefully it won't be much of a topic going forward. Speaker 400:18:06Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for the call. Operator00:18:09Thank you. Our next caller is Andrew Mok with UBS. Sir, you may go ahead. Speaker 600:18:19Hi, good afternoon. I appreciate all the color on the sequential RPT improvement, but just a couple of follow ups there. First, is the seasonality component In line with historical seasonality? Or is there something about the patient benefit design that's creating more acute seasonality this year? Can you go into a bit more detail on what's driving the better cash collections? Speaker 600:18:41Thanks. Speaker 300:18:43Yes, Andrew, thanks. So on the seasonality, no, it was a little bit more than $5 which is per treatment, which is right in line with what we've In terms of collections, look, we have invested in our processes and in our technology To get better information and to give better information to the health plans on everything from prior authorizations to other data required to claim submissions and that's both the quality of the data and the timeliness The data and what we're seeing is we're getting paid quicker and that's why you saw DSOs come down last quarter And again, this quarter and we're also seeing we're collecting more and that's what's driving the RPT increase. And I think the most Important thing from our standpoint is this is not a one time thing. These are fundamental changes that we've made that we think will persist. Speaker 600:19:48Great. Appreciate the color. And then as a follow-up, the guidance the OI guidance is up about 5%. I think your free cash flow is up about 10%. Can you help bridge the difference there? Speaker 600:19:58Help us understand why the free cash conversion is better on the new guide? And I think I missed your comments on share repurchase, but we'd love to get your Latest thoughts around there and the potential resumption of share repurchase. Thanks. Speaker 300:20:09Sure. So the big difference between OI and free cash flow is the DSOs. As we see those DSOs come down, That will add to the free cash flow for the year. In terms of share repurchases, we're on Back with what we set out to do. Our leverage levels were above our target range. Speaker 300:20:34I think we were Quite clear with everyone, we wanted to get back down to 3.5% or below. We're making good progress on that. We're at 3.7% for the quarter And we didn't buy back any shares. We don't expect to buy back any shares in Q3, but We feel like we've got better visibility now to get back to the 3.5% or below. Speaker 600:21:02Great. Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue. Speaker 400:21:04Thank you. Thank you. Operator00:21:06Our next caller is Pito Chickering with Deutsche Bank. Sir, you may go ahead. Tito, your line is open. We'll go to the next caller, Lisa Clyde with Bernstein. You may go ahead. Speaker 700:21:28Hi there. Apologies, Javier, if you touched on this in the opening remarks. I was a few minutes late. Speaker 400:21:32But just could you comment Speaker 700:21:33on the CMS rate increase and the fact that You submitted a mistake in the calculations and what the chances are of getting an improvement there. And also just as we think about going into 2025, What would a fair rate increase look like and perhaps what lower number should our expectation around that actually be? Speaker 500:21:56Yes. Thanks for the question, Lisa. It's kind of funny. I've been here for a very long time and not many questions used to come up about the rate increase with Medicare. And so we started to ask ourselves why is this a new dynamic. Speaker 500:22:10And the reality is that the system is Quite complicated, but it works relatively well in times where there's economic stability. And yet when it's when we're experiencing times of inflation or lack of stability, it's really showing that It doesn't work in many ways. But so let me step back. If you were to spend time on trying to understand the methodology, You would really come to the conclusion that it is practically not possible to forecast Because there's just too many things that are either proprietary or use lag data or a benchmark that is not related to dialysis, It's a benchmark related to all healthcare costs and it's all weighted and then discounted with some kind of productivity factor. And so the short answer is, it's a big complicated equation with some variables that we will not have visibility to. Speaker 500:23:13So that's the short answer. We can't forecast it. I can't believe anyone from the outside world can. Secondly, what is an appropriate one and what we are advocating for is let's not have, let's call it winners or losers. We understand that forecasting is difficult, but let's have a reconciliation that is actually linked to actual cost. Speaker 500:23:37And that if cost if you get an increase and it's and exceeds what inflation that there could be a decrease or vice versa. So that's what we're advocating for. As you know, it is very difficult in Washington DC right now on trying to get funding, But we are trying to make our case. Speaker 700:24:01And maybe just touching on medtech's role here. I mean, there is sort of Well, the economic advisor to Medicare, but they don't have any enforcement power. And I think there's sometimes some years there's a big disconnect Between the MedPAC recommendation and the rate and then this year it was actually quite in line. I mean from your perspective, do you guys even look at the MedPAC numbers? I think It seems like it should be a useful data point, but it often isn't. Speaker 500:24:30Yes. The process for med pack is a bit opaque to us. We try to educate and highlight what is really happening with our cost structure. And again, in Periods of stability, it happened to be, give or take within reason acceptable and now The gap is widening and it's widening compounded year after year. So it's really starting to be significant. Speaker 700:24:58Okay. And then last follow-up is, does this have just given how the rate increase was, does this change your Decision on some clinic closures in any way because obviously that's always the worry that if the Medicare rates get too low, you just have clinics here and there where you're on all Medicare and it just doesn't financially make sense anymore? Speaker 500:25:20Yes. There's lots to go into the decision to close the clinic. In particular, we've got to really focus on patient care and making sure that our patients are being taken care of. But it is absolutely a consideration when you look at the economics, but sort of the first filter is continuity of care. The second is, is there a convenient place where that patient can be taken care of? Speaker 500:25:46And then after that, you get into Economic factors such as reimbursement, leases and other things, but we are aggressively looking at our footprint And we continue to right size to make sure that we are thoughtful about our resource allocation and capital allocation. Speaker 700:26:04Great. Thanks for that. Speaker 500:26:06Thank you. Operator00:26:07Thank you. Our next caller is Pito Chickering with Deutsche Bank. Sir, you may go ahead. Speaker 800:26:16Hey, can you guys hear me now? Speaker 500:26:18Yes, yes, Pito. Speaker 800:26:20Sorry about that. I'm not sure what happened there. Back to treatment growth here, pre COVID, like you're getting about 4,000 new patients The year about twothree of those in the first half of the year, from nephrologists dropping on and obviously the rest Coming from hospitalizations start dropping to you guys. I guess, how is that tracking this year at this point relative to sort of that 4,000 times 2 thirds, is that what you guys are seeing for new patients at this point? Speaker 300:26:50Yes. So, Pito, the short answer is, if you're looking at admits, We are tracking pretty much to pre COVID levels. The challenge is excess mortality And that remains elevated and that's the reason that we're not yet ready to say We're going to return to pre COVID growth levels. That said mortality has been coming down year after year since COVID started. It's down Q2 versus Q1. Speaker 300:27:30So if mortality continued to decline and return to pre COVID levels, then we back then the math you laid out of 4,000 new patients a year, we'd be back there. Speaker 800:27:44Which is a perfect segue for the next question about mortality. You sort of talked about that sort of coming down. I guess, is there any Wade, you can give us sort of what is the rate of that decline and if it follows the path you've seen for the last three quarters, Is this so what glide path would that indicate? Speaker 300:28:04Yes, that's a it's a tough Piece of analysis to do because it hasn't necessarily been smooth quarter to quarter or year to year. So Look, we're watching it carefully. We all know there's a minor surge going on, but I think minor is the J. Rice:] So we're keeping a careful eye on it, but I don't think We can draw a trend line based on the history to say when we think mortality gets back to 0, Where excess mortality gets back to 0. Speaker 800:28:41Okay. I think is there some way that you can quantify for us to what excess mortality was this quarter and when it's where it was last quarter? Speaker 300:28:49Yes. Last quarter, it was roughly 900 lives. This quarter, it was We've got $500,000,000 $600,000 Remember, we will sometimes update those over time. We get better views of excess mortality as time goes on, but somewhere between $506,000,000 is our best estimate for Q2. Speaker 800:29:14Okay. And I definitely understand sort of the complexity of kind of coming up with those for a variety of different reasons. For Medicare Advantage, what Speaker 300:29:32I'd have to do the math quickly in my head. Speaker 500:29:41Peter, I don't want Speaker 300:29:42to give you a bad number. So I'm going to let's Take that offline. Speaker 800:29:47Okay. Next one here is on the managed care rate increase question that was asked earlier. I guess, Are you seeing managed care do anything different in terms not just in the rate increases, but potentially trying to steer patients? Like have you seen any behavior changes For managed care in the last 90 days or so, just obviously, as you're seeing increased utilization elsewhere, just curious if they're trying to control costs within other parts of the business? Speaker 500:30:13No, we haven't seen no changes at all. Speaker 800:30:19Okay, got it. And then just a last one here, On the pace of consolidation for facilities, obviously, you guys do the lowest hanging fruit first. But as you see success of capturing those patients Certainly within other centers, do you get more aggressive about consolidation than maybe you had originally planned for about a year from now? And when these patients are consolidated, do you see an increase of home treatments at that point? Speaker 500:30:45Yes. I think we want to be really careful about being aggressive. We want to be really thoughtful and balanced And all the trade offs that go into closing a center. We have to remember our patients are incredibly vulnerable and one of the most important things It's to be close to their home. And so 90 some odd percent of our patients are within 10 miles of their home. Speaker 500:31:10And that is one of the best things we can For convenience and we talk a lot about health equity issues and not being in the communities. We are in the communities. And so we take that pretty seriously, but as the economics constraints happen and if we are able to accommodate our patients, We are being very thoughtful on that and we have other obligations like leases and other things. So there's a natural time to review a clinic to see If it's appropriate for closure. Speaker 800:31:41Okay. And then And then Speaker 500:31:42the second part to your question, I think, Vito? Speaker 800:31:45Yes. So So I'll sort of ask the same question in different ways. I guess as if a patient is consolidated, do you see an increased utilization of home Treatments, and then the second part of the question is, so what percent of treatments today are being done in the home? Speaker 500:32:01No is the answer. We are not Seeing any changes in whether a patient goes home or not, we continue to be a very much an advocate of home. There's a lot of dynamics and education that go into that. And we want the right modality for the right patient, but we are huge home And the mix on home is roughly around 15%, a little Above that like 15.2% or so, but it's been hanging around that 15%. COVID had a big impact on home that many patients felt more comfortable in that time of insecurity to go and be taken care of by professionals, But we're starting to see a slight pickup in patient choice to go home. Speaker 800:32:52Okay. And then I think the last question for me here. Can we get an update on Medtronic JV? I guess, sort of how much of the drag is that on OI? And just as you look at it Today, kind of what's the pathway to that becoming operating income neutral? Speaker 800:33:10And just can you just refresh us and sort of Why you saw that as a good opportunity for you guys? Thanks so much. Speaker 300:33:17Sure. So just as a reminder, it doesn't hit our Operating income, it's below the OI line, so it hits EPS. It's worth about $15,000,000 pretax per quarter. That's on a non GAAP basis. This quarter, we actually had some positive gain as a result of the transaction. Speaker 300:33:38And we think that number will decline over the next couple of years and we anticipated getting to breakeven in 2 to 3 years. In terms of why we like this look, as Javier mentioned, we are really interested in figuring out ways to help our patients Get home and new technology can be part of that answer. We're looking for other ways to innovate beyond just Service and information capabilities that we can do and we recognize Medtronic as a world class leader in innovation On the medical device side, we just thought their history here combined with our knowledge would make for a great partnership, which is why we invested in Speaker 800:34:25Perfect. All right. And the last quickie for me, maybe I missed it. Did you guys quantify what the turnover was nurses and technicians for this quarter and how that Speaker 500:34:38Thank you for that last question. We did not go into that level of detail. I think What we can say on labor, because we've gone into so much detail in labor, is in the overall category, it is playing out as expected. Some of the underlying components have shifted a bit. And so just to give a little more detail on that. Speaker 500:35:00Base wages are above our normal averages. Our contract labor is back in line to normal And we continue to have elevated training. And so that's how the levers are moving. But overall, The category is as expected. Speaker 800:35:21Great. I'll stop there. Thank you guys very much. Speaker 500:35:24Thank you. Operator00:35:26And at this time, I am showing no further questions, sir. We do have one more question. Andrew Mok from UBS. You may go ahead, sir. Speaker 600:35:36Hi. Just wanted a couple of follow ups on the clinic closures. You closed down 16 clinics, but opened 10 new dialysis clinics. I'm just trying to better understand what's driving the new clinics at this point given I thought a lot of the clinic closures was a result of So what are you seeing in the market that's causing you to open new clinics? Are there any characteristics that you would call out about them whether they're home dialysis programs or anything like that? Speaker 600:36:01Thanks. Speaker 500:36:03In general, you can imagine healthcare is local. And so there are areas where there are literally full clinics. There's sometimes relocation, sometimes as you called out, there might be just a home center that was needed. So there's a little of all, But as you can see, the number is materially smaller as we are very focused on making sure That capacity utilization is where it needs to be and that we're capital efficient. Speaker 600:36:36Got it. And on the mortality, I think you gave us the absolute number in the quarter. Can you give us a sense for how the mortality rate in general is Tracking and how far off are you against pre pandemic levels? Thanks. Speaker 500:36:50The mortality level looks roughly a percentage Or so higher than pre pandemic. And as Joel talked about it, it's a bit cyclical and depending on the surge or if there is one Or sort of the front end tends to have higher mortality at the front end of the year or the back end of the year versus the middle of the year. But I think a good number is roughly 1% or give or take 2,000 patients. Speaker 600:37:23Great. Thanks for all the color. Speaker 500:37:25Thank you. Operator00:37:27And at this time, I'm showing no further questions. Speaker 500:37:31Okay. Well, thank you, Michelle, and thank you all for your questions. As you heard through our comments today, we've continued to drive operational efficiencies and make investments to fuel our performance now into the future years as well. Some of those seeds that we planted are beginning to sprout and some will take additional time and continued effort. We look forward to keeping you Operator00:38:01Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. You may go ahead and disconnect at this time.Read morePowered by