Operator
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the CPSI Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2017 Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Thursday, February 8, 2018. I will now turn the conference over to Boyd Douglas, President and Chief Executive Officer of CPSI. Please go ahead, sir. John Boyd Douglas - Computer Programs & Systems, Inc.: Thank you, George. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. During this conference, we may make statements regarding future operating plans, expectations and performance that constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution you that any such forward-looking statements only reflect management expectations and predictions based upon currently available information and are not guarantees of future results or performance. Actual results might differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements as a result of known and unknown risk, uncertainties, and other factors, including those described in our public releases and reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, but not limited to, our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K. We also caution investors that the forward-looking information provided in this call represents our outlook only as of this date, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or developments after the date of this call. Joining me on the call today will be Matt Chambless, Chief Financial Officer; Chris Fowler, Chief Operating Officer; and David Dye, our Chief Growth Officer. At the conclusion of our prepared comments, we will be available to take any questions that you may have. Our fourth quarter of 2017 concluded with solid results, especially as it relates to revenue and earnings, as adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS were at their highest levels since the acquisition of Healthland and its affiliates two years ago. A significant portion of our Q4 revenues were associated with meaningful use theory (2:25) due to the majority of our clients staying on track with their MU3 implementation schedule. This has driven sales of our MU3 package and we are on track to see a number of clients begin attestation in the first quarter of 2018. In addition, we wrapped up 2017 with strong cash flow of $5.3 million that helps put our financial operations in a steady position as we move into 2018. Speaking of MU3, I want to address the current language and the continuing resolution for the budget proposal in regards to advancing stages of meaningful use. The proposed language removes a requirement that CMS make meaningful use standards more stringent over time. We do not anticipate that the proposed legislation will have an impact on the MU3 portion of the meaningful use program. We view this as positive for our Company as we will then be able to focus our future development efforts on new software and enhancements that our customers desire as opposed to software that will be needed to comply with further federal mandates. We enjoyed nearly an 11% growth in annual bookings due in part to our momentum with replacing competitive community EHRs and an impressive number of returning clients. Also contributing to our booking success is the demand that we are seeing for our TruBridge revenue cycle management solution that consist of both services and software. And in 2017, we closed these two of our largest contracts in the Company's history for our TruBridge revenue cycle management solution. We believe we will continue to see this trend for TruBridge RCM as more and more clients are looking to outsource this complex function that is so critical to their financial success. As mentioned in the press release this afternoon, we are very proud to have launched the CPSI Rural ACO program powered by Caravan Health. We see this as an example of an innovative community health care solution beyond IT and as an example – I'm sorry, and we look forward to bringing more solutions like this to the market in the future. This ACO program is aimed at helping rural providers transition to a value-based care model by minimizing the upfront costs and providing the ongoing tools and training needed to achieve cost savings while increasing revenue. Chris will share more on this in a bit. But partnering with Caravan Health brings us confidence in helping the performance to payment in rural settings, where providers are very committed and driven to improve the health of their community. A sluggish cadence of product enhancements for American HealthTech, particularly in the couple of years leading up to our acquisition, has created significant headwinds to our growth plans in our post-acute business. By making significant investment in the development of the AHT product, we have a clear path towards overcoming those headwinds, but the additional development investment and disappointing revenue trajectory over the past few years have resulted in a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $28 million during the quarter which Matt will touch on later in this call. Moving to the corporate governance front, we are excited about a number of advancements that we have recently announced. Significantly, we have enhanced the breadth of talent and experience on our board by welcoming three new directors to support CPSI and our expanded scale and scope. During the fourth quarter, we increased the size of the board from 7 to 10 directors and appointed Dr. Regina Benjamin, Glenn Tobin and Denise Warren to the board. Dr. Benjamin served as the United States Surgeon General from 2009 to 2013 and is currently a Director of Diplomat Pharmacy, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan and ConvaTec. Dr. Tobin most recently served as Executive Vice President at the Advisory Board Company. He also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Cerner Corporation from 1998 to 2003. Ms. Warren currently serves as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WakeMed Health & Hospitals, a 919-bed healthcare system with multiple facilities in the Raleigh, North Carolina area. She has more than 30 years of experience in operations, finance and executive management and has an extensive track record working with both public and private equity companies. These new board members bring a high caliber of talent and a valuable set of experience and knowledge, and I look forward to working with them toward our continued growth and success. The second advancement in our corporate governance last quarter was the designation of an independent director to serve in a lead capacity on our board. The board elected Charlie Huffman, a director of the Company since 2004, as the Lead Independent Director. With his experience serving as chair of the audit committee and his accounting expertise, we are very fortunate to have Charlie in this expanded role as he provides great leadership and brings a deep understanding of our business, history and vision. These governance changes that I've highlighted are modifications that we see as a positive adjustment and are representative of our Company's evolution over the past two years. We have experienced growth on many levels, and I speak for all of us when I say that we couldn't be more excited about the future for CPSI and our family of companies. With that, I'll turn the call over to Matt for a look of the financials. Matt J. Chambless - Computer Programs & Systems, Inc.: Thanks, Boyd, and good afternoon, everyone. Our story for the fourth quarter centers around the continuing themes of successful execution of the federal government's meaningful use program and continued momentum of the growth agent that is TruBridge. These themes worked in tandem to elevate revenues to all-time highs and profitability metrics such as non-GAAP EPS and adjusted EBITDA to their highest point since our acquisition of Healthland two years ago despite elevated operating expenses. In total, quarterly revenues were up 16% sequentially and 21% over last year. Adjusted EBITDA, which now excludes NOL utilization, increased 38% from the prior quarter and 74% over last year. Non-GAAP EPS increased 46.5% sequentially, 80% over the fourth quarter of last year. Recurring revenues showed a 2.7% sequential growth and 2.2% (8:54) growth over the fourth quarter of last year. Strength in operating cash flows combined with our recently adjusted capital allocation strategy resulted in net payments against bank debt in the quarter of nearly $3.5 million. This brings total 2017 net repayments of bank debt to over $12 million, which is roughly twice the required term loan amortization, providing clear evidence of our commitment to reducing our leverage on an expedited basis. Expenses for the quarter were heavily impacted by the recognition of roughly $3.2 million of costs associated with the cash bonus plans for our employees, including management. This represents the full amount of such awards earned for the entire fiscal year, with the timing volatility impacted by interim performance for the first nine months of the year versus pro rata targets and other requirements under the respective plans, including compliance with debt covenants. These costs are spread throughout our various cost categories within cost of sales and operating expenses. Bad debt estimates and health claims were also significant detractors from the quarter's profitability as we'll touch on later. We also had a couple of unusual non-recurring expense items during the fourth quarter that you've no doubt noticed in the earnings release. The first and less significant item is a $1.3 million loss on debt extinguishment as October's amendment to our credit agreement resulted in a partial write-off of some previously deferred debt issuance costs. Second, accounting rules required us to take a $28 million non-cash charge to GAAP earnings for goodwill impairment related to our post-acute business. This business is comprised solely of the operations of American HealthTech, which was acquired in the Healthland transaction and accounted for 8.7% of our consolidated revenues for 2017. While we still feel strongly that AHT has the potential to drive further growth for CPSI in the future, we feel that a multi-year development investment is necessary to realize that potential and place AHT Solutions at the forefront of the competitive landscape, reversing the recent declining trend in related bookings and non-recurring revenues and stave off potential attrition down the road. Looking at the balance sheet, you'll see a clear continuation of the theme we highlighted on our last earnings call where market dynamics for our hospital EHR business have clearly shifted away from the upfront payment models of the past to longer-term financing arrangements, whether it be SaaS or financed perpetual license sales. This theme's impact on our balance sheet was furthered by the high volume of MU3 products delivered during the quarter with nearly all of those items financed under 12-month payment terms, with the total result being a $7.8 million increase in total financing receivables during the quarter. Consolidated bookings of $19.8 million were admittedly light during the quarter, particularly when stacked up against the tough comps resulting from the tremendous bookings results of the previous four quarters, during which overall bookings hit record numbers twice and TruBridge reached record levels three times. Our bookings numbers are heavily influenced by low-volume, high-value deals which naturally subject us to periodic volatility when looking at three-month snapshots. Despite the lightness in the fourth quarter, bookings finished the year 10.5% higher than 2016. Of the $14.3 million in system sales and support bookings, roughly $1.5 million is included in our fourth quarter revenues. $12.1 million represents non-subscription sales that should trickle into revenue over the next 12 months with an average lag between booking and install of five to six months. $600,000 represents EHR subscription revenue to be recorded over a weighted average period of five years with a start date in the next 12 months and similar to our non-subscription sales and average lag between booking and install of five to six months. Our $5.5 million of bookings from TruBridge are mostly made up of recurring revenues to be recorded over a one year-period starting in the next four to six months. As for our Thrive implementation schedule, seven customer sites went live with our Thrive financial and patient accounting systems compared to nine in the third quarter and falling short of the 10 planned as of last earnings call as three implementations were pushed to 2018. As for licensing mix, none of this quarter's seven go lives were under a cloud or subscription model compared to one out of nine during the third quarter. At this time, we expect five new client facilities to go live with our Thrive financial and patient accounting systems in the first quarter of 2018, with one expected to go live in a cloud environment. Our employee head count as of December 31 was roughly 2,049 (13:55) which is essentially flat with September 30 numbers. Moving on to the income statement, system sales and support revenue saw a $10.6 million or 24% sequential increase, which is nearly all attributed to increased nonrecurring revenues related to our MU3 products. Year-over-year system sales and support revenue saw a $10.9 million or 25% increase for the same reason. On the cost side, system sales and support margins improved to 64.8% from the third quarter's 57.6%, as the increased nonrecurring revenues were met with costs that were essentially flat, with the only meaningful sequential movement in cost being approximately $1 million related to the aforementioned bonus impact. Year-over-year increased nonrecurring revenues resulted in margins improving nearly 8.5 basis points from 56.3%. TruBridge revenue is increasing nominally or only $300,000 and 1.4% from the third quarter as nonrecurring revenues decreased nearly $600,000. TruBridge recurring revenue however, posted a $900,000 or 4.3% sequential increase behind continued strong demand for our accounts receivable management and coating services, slightly offset by seasonal declines in our private pay collection volumes. This strong demand also drove the year-over-year total Trubridge revenue increase of $2.7 million or 13% with nonrecurring revenues decreasing $0.5 million and recurring revenues increasing $3.1 million or more than 16%. TruBridge margins were flat year-over-year and saw a slight sequential decline from 43.7% to 42.3%, with over 80% of the sequential cost increase due to the aforementioned bonus impact. Excluding this bonus impact, margins improved to 44.1% for the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to last quarter's 43.7% and 42.3% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Product development costs increased $800,000 or 8.9% sequentially with bonus impact accounting for roughly $0.5 million of the increase. Year-over-year costs are up $1.3 million as we've expanded our development resources over the past 12 months to deliver our commitments to improving provider adoption, clinical workflow and increasing the integration of our acute and post-acute EHR products. Sales and marketing costs increased both sequentially and year-over-year mostly as the impact of MU3 products on non-recurring revenues drove commissions to elevated levels. Commission expense increased $900,000 sequentially or nearly 31%. The year-over-year impact was even more pronounced, increasing $2.4 million or 148%. General and administrative costs increased $3.6 million or 38% from the third quarter, with the largest contributing factor being a $2.4 million increase in estimated bad debt expense due to the combined effects of severe collectability determinations related to a handful of customers and increased balance sheet risk arising from the aforementioned expansion and financing receivables. Health claims also increased $1.7 million or 53% behind both increased volumes and severity. Year-over-year G&A costs increased $1.9 million or 17%, with the largest contributing factors being a $1.1 million increase in estimated bad debt expense and the $0.7 million bonus impact. Interest expense showed little movement either sequentially or year-over-year as underlying rate increases on our variable rate debt have been mitigated by pay downs of principal. The quarter's effective tax rate of negative 1.5% is mostly due to goodwill impairment not having a tax effect. This goodwill impairment impact on our effective rate was offset by a $1.9 million tax benefit, resulted from the remeasuring of our overall deferred tax liability to reflect lower federal tax rates arising from recent tax reform for a combined downward impact on our effective rate of 36%. With the newly-revised federal rate, we anticipate a normalized effective tax rate of 21% to 23% going forward. As we sat here one year ago, we expressed our confidence that revenue growth was in the cards, which should translate into improved profitability and cash flows. As you can see from our 2017 annual results, that confidence translating into meaningful growth in revenues, adjusted EBITDA, and non-GAAP EPS. Now, with our eye towards 2018, our expectation is that these arrows will continue to point upward as we feel well-positioned to capitalize on a healthy replacement market and as recent TruBridge bookings continue to fully convert to revenue and continued long-term growth prospects for TruBridge continue to be significant. These factors, coupled with continued execution on our MU3 initiatives and the strength of our significant recurring revenue base, which again makes up nearly 80% of total annual revenues and a continued focus on maintaining our historical success at customer retention have us excited for what 2018 has to offer. And with that, I'll now turn things over to Chris Fowler, our Chief Operating Officer. Christopher L. Fowler - Computer Programs & Systems, Inc.: Thank you, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. As we have covered on previous calls, TruBridge continues to experience healthy sales and revenue growth each quarter. That growth is primarily coming from cross-sell efforts into our client base across the CPSI family of companies. However, 13% of TruBridge revenue is associated with clients outside of our current base. We believe this will be a growing trend for TruBridge as the interest in outsourcing, either all or just a portion of the revenue cycle function continues to rise. I'm also pleased to share that TruBridge entered 2017 on an exciting note, when our RCM product, formerly known as Rycan was awarded the Peer Reviewed by HFMA designation. HFMA's peer review process is an objective third-party evaluation of business solutions used in the healthcare workplace. The rigorous 11-step process includes a panel review comprising current customers, prospects who have not made a purchase, and industry experts. This is a considerable milestone for TruBridge as only a very small fraction of RCM companies have been awarded this designation. As the engine that fuels the growth of crucial service offerings both within and outside the CPSI current client base, we continue to dedicate the resources needed to support the success of TruBridge well into the future. I'd like to touch on the progress we've made with our business intelligence dashboard. We now have 20 clients live on the BI Dashboard services. Development is complete on new clinical panels for ED, radiology, and chronic care management. We also expect the clinical panels for lab to be complete later this month. Integrated into our development process is the input and testing bar pilot sites so we can have assurance that what we deliver will meet the needs and expectations of our clients. We have begun development on the next wave of financial panels which will be focused on 25 HFMA MAP keys and also Cash Forecasting. The 25 HFMA MAP keys are industry standard metrics or KPIs used to track an organization's revenue cycle performance using objective, consistent calculations. The Cash Flow Forecasting panels and correlating TruBridge services will help organizations increase and expedite cash flow by linking the data to hospital volume, thus giving an accurate depiction of business office performance compared to collectible cash. As Boyd mentioned earlier, we are very proud to have launched the CPSI Rural ACO program powered by Caravan Health. As of January 1, the program is officially underway and will run for three years. The program is made up of four ACOs which include nearly 30 hospitals from the CPSI client base and a third that are non-CPSI clients. With approximately 28,000 covered lives, these hospitals are positioned to jumpstart population health programs in their community and produce both quality and financial wins. Based on Caravan's health care – based on Caravan Health's experience and proven results, we estimate savings of $163 per member per year, which will yield approximately $14 million worth of savings of these hospitals. Over the next three years, we will take the experiences and learnings from this program and integrate them into our TruBridge service offerings to further our efforts in helping hospitals transition successfully to value-based care. Finally, over the course of 2017, we have reinforced our commitment to furthering secure interoperability and effective health data exchange. 15% of our Evident client base is live on the CommonWell network and are able to leverage the type of scalable exchange that will help break down the barriers that have existed when it comes to sharing patient health data between care providers. Also, CPSI has been a founding member of CommonWell since 2013 where Scott Schneider, CPSI Executive Vice President, currently serves as the board chair. We look forward to the additional exchange locations, which will be supplied by CommonWell connections to care quality implementers. In addition to our efforts for CommonWell, we've made significant investments to ensure that the patient data our solutions generate and depend upon has high availability. Our development strategy across our product lines leverages an expanding common set of micro services which allow us to scale out to thousands of connections to third parties going live each year. And with that, I'll turn the call over to David. David A. Dye - Computer Programs & Systems, Inc.: Thanks, Chris. As Boyd stated, our sales efforts over the last year are now producing meaningful top and bottom line growth. We expect this growth to continue for the full year 2018. Our bookings in the fourth quarter were weak compared to previous record quarters, as well as our expectations. The quarter did not include any of the large TruBridge deals that we have had in recent quarters and add-on sales to our EHR-base were light. However, we did sign seven net new hospital clients in the quarter. Looking forward, Evident system sales in 2018 are off to a good start as we have executed four new acute EHR contracts so far, and expect several more in the quarter. The development efforts that Chris described with our business intelligence offering are translating into an increasing add-on sales pipeline that we expect to grow throughout 2018. And our TruBridge pipelines include several larger hospital RCM opportunities outside of the CPSI EHR customer base that we believe will close in the first half of this year. Our TruBridge top line revenue performance for the fourth quarter was below expectations, due largely to timing issues with Rycan implementation and training fees and business intelligence license fees. Based on our 2017 TruBridge bookings which were up 41% year-over-year, we expect solid growth for TruBridge in 2018, and we are confident that TruBridge will eclipse the $100 million revenue milestone for the full year. The core of our long-term growth strategy into 2019 and beyond centers on recurring revenue and customer retention. Our customer retention rate for Evident clients for 2017 stands at 96%, and for Healthland, 93%. Our AHT retention rate for 2017 was 96%, and 95% of total TruBridge revenue is recurring. So as that business continues to grow, it noticeably improves our CPSI recurring revenue makeup. As Matt stated, 2017 recurring revenue as a percentage of total CPSI revenue was approximately 80%. We expect this recurring revenue percentage to be in excess of 80% in 2018 and to continue to grow. We also believe the acute care EHR system replacement market will be robust for the next several years, as hospitals look to upgrade from legacy and underperforming solutions. As such, we are confident in our growth outlook for 2018 and excited about the potential for 2019 and beyond. And, George, if you would please open the call for questions.