Robert Ortenzio
Analyst · RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us for Select Medical's fourth quarter and full year earnings conference call for 2019. Let me start off by saying Q4 was another a very good quarter for us with all four business segments exceeding same quarter prior year revenue, adjusted EBITDA and margin. 2019 was a solid year for development growth for the company. We added a new 60-bed rehabilitation hospital in partnership with the University of Florida Health System in Gainesville, a new 60-bed rehabilitation hospital in partnership with Dignity in Las Vegas, and a new 30-bed rehabilitation hospital with partners in New Orleans. We also relocated our rehabilitation hospital in Newport News, Virginia that we operate in partnership with Riverside Health into a new 50-bed hospital. In addition, we acquired four critical illness recovery hospitals in two separate transactions and added additional critical illness recovery hospital through a joint venture partnership. We also increased our portfolio of outpatient rehab clinics by 78 clinics during the year ending 2019 with 1,740 clinics under our management. During 2019, we completed the integration of U.S. HealthWorks into our Concentra business, and it fully captured the synergies we outlined when we acquired the business in early 2018.Let me now take you through our operational metrics for the fourth quarter and the full year. Overall, our net revenue in the fourth quarter increased 8.7% to $1.37 billion. For the full year, net revenue increased 7.3% to $5.45 billion. Net revenue in our critical illness recovery hospitals segment in the fourth quarter increased 6.7% to $455 million. The increase was driven by both increase in volume and rate with patient days up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year and revenue per patient day up 1.5% to $1,742 per patient day in the fourth quarter. Occupancy in our critical illness recovery hospital segment was 67% in the fourth quarter compared to 66% in the same quarter last year. For the year, net revenue in our critical illness recovery hospital segment increased 4.7% to $1.84 billion. Again, we experienced an increase in both volume and rate compared to last year. Patient days were up 2.6% and net revenue per patient day was up 2.2% to $1,753 per patient days for the year. Overall, occupancy in our critical illness recovery hospitals was 68% this year compared to 67% last year.Net revenue in our rehabilitation hospital segment for the fourth quarter increased 20.9% to $183 million compared to $151 million the same quarter last year. Patient days increased 15% and net revenue per patient day was up 8% to $1,739 per patient day in the fourth quarter. Occupancy in our rehabilitation hospital segment was 78% in the fourth quarter compared to 75% in the same quarter last year.For the year, net revenue in our rehabilitation hospital segment increased 14.9% to $671 million compared to $584 million last year. Patient days increased to 11.9%, and net revenue per patient day was up 4.9% to $1,685 per patient day for the full year. The increase in patient days for both fourth quarter and the full year was primarily driven by the new hospitals we opened in 2019. Occupancy in our rehabilitation hospital was 76% this year compared to 74% last year.Net revenue on our outpatient rehab segment for the fourth quarter increased 7.7% to $272 million compared to $252 million in the same quarter last year. Patient visits increased 7.2% to over $2.25 million -- 2.25 million visits in the fourth quarter. Our net revenue per visit increased to $104 in the fourth quarter compared to $103 per visit in the same quarter last year.For the year, net revenue on our outpatient rehab segment increased 5% to almost $1.05 billion. Patient visits increased 4.3% to over 8.7 million visits for the year. The overall increase in patient visits resulted from new startup clinics as well as acquired clinics. Net revenue per visit was $103 per visit, both this year and last year.Net revenue in our Concentra segment for the fourth quarter increased 3.4% to $397 million. For the fourth quarter, revenue from our centers was $354 million and the balance of approximately $43 million was generated from on-site clinics, community-based outpatient clinics and other services. For the centers, we had patient visits of 2.9 million, and net revenue per visit was $122 in the fourth quarter. This compares to 2.8 million visits and $124 per visit in the same quarter last year.For the year net revenue in our Concentra segment increased 4.6% to almost $1.63 billion. The primary driver of the increase was the full year effective US HealthWorks acquired February 1, 2018, and additional acquired centers in 2019. Visits in our centers increased 5.6% to almost 12.1 million visits compared to 11.4 million visits last year. Revenue per visit was $122 this year compared to $124 per visit last year. The decline in revenue per visit for both the fourth quarter and the full year was driven by our change. And our business mix put an increase in employer service visits, which are paid at a lower rate.Total company adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter increased 16.9% to $171.9 million compared to $147.1 million in the same quarter last year with consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin at 12.5% for the fourth quarter compared to 11.6% for the same quarter last year. For the year, total adjusted EBITDA increased 10.2% to $710.9 million compared to $645.2 million last year with consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin at 13% for the year compared to 12.7% last year.For our critical illness recovery hospitals segment, adjusted EBITDA was $60.5 million for the fourth quarter compared to $56 million in the same quarter last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by both an increase in our existing hospitals and contribution from the four hospitals acquired in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the segment was 13.3% in the fourth quarter compared to 13.1% in the same quarter last year.For the year, critical illness recovery hospital segment adjusted EBITDA was $254.9 million compared to $243 million last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was driven by an increase in our existing hospitals despite the extended temporary closure of our Panama City Hospital and the contribution from our four hospitals acquired in 2019. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.9% both this year and last year.Our rehabilitation hospital segment adjusted EBITDA increased 51.4% to $43.3 million in the fourth quarter compared to $28.6 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the rehab segment was 23.7% in the fourth quarter compared to 18.9% in the same quarter last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA margin resulted from both increases in our existing hospitals as well as contributions from the hospitals we opened in 2019.For the year, our rehabilitation hospital adjusted EBITDA increased 24.7% to $135.9 million compared to $108.9 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.2% for the year compared to 18.7% last year. The increases in adjusted EBITDA margin resulted from increases in volume and rate across many of our existing hospitals. Adjusted EBITDA losses in our startup hospitals $8.8 million this year compared to $4.7 million last year.Outpatient rehab adjusted EBITDA increased to $40.2 million in the fourth quarter of this year compared to $35 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the outpatient segment was 14.8% in the fourth quarter compared to 13.9% in the same quarter last year.For the year, adjusted -- outpatient rehab adjusted EBITDA increased 6.9% to $151.8 million compared to $142 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.5% compared to 14.3% last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA for the full year was driven by increases in both our existing clinics and contributions from new startup and acquired clinics.Concentra’s adjusted EBITDA increased 6.8% to $56.8 million for the fourth quarter compared to $52.9 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.2% in the fourth quarter compared to 13.8% in the same quarter last year.For the year, Concentra’s adjusted EBITDA was $276.5 million compared to $252 million last year. Adjusted EBITDA margin for the Concentra segment was 17% this year compared to 16.2% last year. The increase in adjusted EBITDA margin for both the fourth quarter and the full year was a result of lower relative operating costs across the combined Concentra and U.S. HealthWorks business.Earnings per fully diluted share was $0.24 for the fourth quarter compared to $0.18 for the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings per fully diluted share was $0.31 per diluted share for the fourth quarter compared to $0.20 in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings per fully diluted share excludes the pre-tax losses on early retirement of debt and its related tax effects in both the fourth quarters this year and last year. Earnings per fully diluted share was $1.10 for the year compared to $1.02 to last year. Adjusted earnings per fully diluted share was $1.24 per fully diluted share for the year compared with $1.03 last year. Adjusted earnings per fully diluted share excludes the pre-tax losses on early retirement of debt and non-operating gains and the related tax effects this year. Last year adjusted earnings per share excluded the loss on early retirement debt, non-operating gains, U.S. HealthWorks acquisition costs and their related tax effects.At this point, I'll turn it over to Martin Jackson for some additional financial details before we open the call up for questions.