Carey Hendrickson
Analyst · the CJS Securities
We will do. Thank you, Chris and good morning everyone. As Chris noted, our momentum built through the first quarter once we moved past the effects of Omicron, which we felt primarily in January. As a result, we posted operating results that were higher than the first quarter of the prior year despite the Medicare rate reductions that were implemented on January 1. For the first quarter of 2022, we reported operating results per share of $0.65 as compared to $0.64 in the prior year’s first quarter. And as Chris noted, our reported adjusted EBITDA was $17.9 million for the first quarter of ‘22, an all-time first quarter high for the company and a $2.3 million or 14.2% increase over the prior year, which was the previous first quarter high. Our Physical Therapy patient volumes per day per clinic were 27.9 in the first quarter, which is also a record high first quarter volume level for the company. That’s 3% higher than last year’s 27.1 average visits per clinic per day. By month, our average visits per clinic per day for all clinics were 25.9 in January, 28.1 in February, and then 29.5 in March. You recall that March of last year is when we reached that 29 level in volume for the first time in our history and we continued at that level or greater for the rest of 2021. So we are happy to see March of this year above 29 again and April trended well also. Our net rate for our Physical Therapy operations was $103 in the first quarter of 2022, which compares to $104.72 that we reported in the first quarter of last year, which was our highest quarterly net rate in 2021. In the most recent fourth quarter of 2021, our net rate was $103.53. So, our first quarter net rate is down 0.5% on a sequential basis from the fourth quarter. Our first quarter ‘22 net rate reflects the 0.75% Medicare rate cut and a 15% decrease in rate for care provided to Medicare patients by Physical Therapy assistant, both of which went into effect of January of this year. As a reminder and as we have disclosed previously, the sequestration relief that we have had since the beginning of the pandemic will start to phase out in the second quarter when Medicare rates will decrease by 1% and then with the remaining 1% of sequestration rate relief coming out in the third quarter. Our total visits increased by almost 116,000 in the first quarter to 1,063,519 visits, that’s an increase of 12.2% from the first quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2022. The increase is due to both organic same-store growth and from the addition of new clinics. As Chris noted, our same-store volumes increased 5.9% in the first quarter versus the prior year and we had 40 more clinics on average open in the first quarter of 2022 than in the first quarter of 2021. Our Physical Therapy revenues were $110.4 million in the first quarter of 2022, which was an increase of 10.6% than the prior year. Revenues for the Industrial Injury Prevention business were at an all-time high, $19.1 million in the first quarter of this year, which was a 90.5% increase over the first quarter of 2021. And as Chris noted, even excluding our IIP acquisition in November of 2021, IIP revenue still increased 22.4%. Our team also continues to do an excellent job managing our cost and keeping our cost increases aligned with growth in revenue and visits. Our operating costs were $105.1 million in the first quarter of 2022 or 79.8% of net revenues, which was up from $86.5 million in the first quarter of 2021. So, that was an $18.6 million increase in costs from the first quarter of the prior year and that was mostly due to the significant increase in visits that we had year-over-year year. When you look at it on a same-store basis, our Physical Therapy operating costs per visit were $81.08 in the first quarter of 2022, up only 0.4% from the first quarter of 2021. And our total Physical Therapy operating costs were $83.09 in the first quarter of 2022, up only 2.4% from $81.18 per visit in the first quarter of 2021. Looking specifically at salaries and related costs, our salaries and related costs for all operations were 57.1% of revenues in the first quarter of 2022, only slightly higher than our 56.8% for the first quarter of 2021. That represents only a 0.5% increase year-over-year in salaries as a percent of revenue. For our Physical Therapy operations only, salaries and related cost were $58.74 per visit in the first quarter of 2022, up only 1.6% from $57.83 in the first quarter of 2021. That was down from $59.20 in the fourth quarter of ‘21. Our gross profit was $26.6 million in the first quarter of 2022, which compares to $25.9 million last year. Our gross profit margin was 20.2% in the first quarter, which compared to 23% in the prior year. Our margin was impacted by the Medicare rate reductions. And as Chris noted, the lower margin profile of the IIP business that we acquired in November of last year, which had a margin of 18.3% in the first quarter. Our corporate office costs were $11.6 million in the first quarter of this year as compared to $10.9 million last year. As a percent of revenue, our corporate costs were 8.8% of revenues in the first quarter of 2022, which was down from 9.7% in the first quarter of last year. A new line on our income statements you’ll know it was our other income includes a gain of $603,000 related to the reevaluation of a put-right liability. As part of the November 2021 IIP acquisition, USPH and the founders of that acquired business agreed to the right for USPH to purchase the second phase of that business in 5 years. We have a liability on our books that represents the value of that put-right. The put-right must be revalued each quarter with any change in value recorded as a gain or loss or another income. The total liability was originally $3.5 million, and it’s now at $2.9 million after recording this change in value in this first quarter. Because it’s not associated with our ongoing operations, we’ve adjusted this gain out of our operating results and will continue to do so going forward, whether it’s a gain or a loss in any given period. Our net income attributable to non-controlling interest was $3.2 million in the first quarter of this year, which is less than the $3.7 million in the first quarter of last year, even though our operating income from our PT and IIP businesses was higher in the first quarter of this year than last year. As a percent of such profits, our non-controlling interests were 12.0% in the first quarter of 2022 as compared to 14.3% in the first quarter of 2021. The reduction in the non-controlling interest percentage is due to the purchase of non-controlling interest from equity – excuse me, from existing partners. In ‘21, we purchased $30 million of non-controlling interest from those existing partners. And we purchased another $2.3 million in the first quarter of this year. Finally, our balance sheet remains in an excellent position. Our cash generation remains strong. We ended the quarter with $118 million drawn on our $150 million revolving credit facility, which includes $11.2 million that was drawn on March 31 to fund the acquisition of the Madden & Gilbert Therapy Company. Our net debt at March 31 was $102 million, which includes the $180 million on our line of credit, $4.2 million in deferred payroll taxes under CARES, and $4.1 million in notes payable net of our $24.2 million in cash. That was $102.1 million this first quarter. Our net debt position at December 31 was $94 million. In the first 3 months of 2022, we funded that $11.2 million acquisition, we invested $2.5 million in fixed assets and we purchased non-controlling interest from our partners of $2.3 million. All of those things together totaled $16.1 million, but our net debt position increased only $8.1 million. As Chris noted in his comments and the press release and also this morning, we expect to have another very productive year on the acquisition front. Our low leverage and our strong cash generation provide us with tremendous flexibility and sufficient capacity for the right growth opportunities as we identify them. Now, Chris, I’ll turn the call back to you.