BIRMINGHAM, Ala., April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthSouth Corporation (NYSE: HLS), one of the nation’s largest providers of post-acute healthcare services, offering both facility-based and home-based post-acute services, today reported its results of operations for the first quarter ended March 31, 2015.
“We are off to a very solid start in 2015,” said Jay Grinney, President and Chief Executive Officer of HealthSouth. “Net operating revenues grew 25.3% from both the acquisition of Encompass Home Health and Hospice and strong discharge growth in our inpatient rehabilitation hospitals. We are reaffirming our full-year guidance despite the incurrence of atypical litigation charges in the quarter and a higher than anticipated increase in bad debt.”
First Quarter Consolidated Results
- The Company’s consolidated net operating revenues increased by $149.4 million, or 25.3%, in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of 2014. Approximately $103 million of this increase resulted from the Company’s acquisition of Encompass Home Health and Hospice (“Encompass”) on December 31, 2014. The remainder of the increase predominantly came from the Company’s inpatient rehabilitation hospitals. Net operating revenues from the Company’s hospitals was 8.7% higher for the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same quarter of 2014.
- Income from continuing operations attributable to HealthSouth per diluted share for the first quarter of 2015 was $0.44 per share compared to $0.48 per share for the first quarter of 2014, as the Company’s continued revenue growth was offset by litigation settlements and increases in bad debt expense, depreciation and amortization, and interest. During the first quarter of 2015, the Company resolved legal matters involving General Medicine and an employee sexual harassment matter that was not covered by insurance. The increase in bad debt expense resulted from additional pre-payment claims denials by Medicare Administrative Contractors and continued delays of approximately three years in the adjudication process at the administrative law judge hearing level. Increased depreciation and amortization resulted from the Company’s capital expenditures and development activities throughout 2014 and the first quarter of 2015. Higher interest expense resulted from the debt used to fund the acquisition of Encompass.
- Cash flows provided by operating activities were $102.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2015 compared to $107.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2014. This decrease primarily resulted from $17.7 million in transaction costs and related assumed liabilities associated with the acquisition of Encompass as well as increases in working capital.
- Adjusted EBITDA (see attached supplemental information) for the first quarter of 2015 was $156.1 million compared to $144.1 million for the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 8.3%.
- Adjusted free cash flow (see attached supplemental information) for the first quarter of 2015 was $79.4 million compared to $65.1 million for the first quarter of 2014. Growth in adjusted free cash flow resulted primarily from increased Adjusted EBITDA and lower maintenance capital expenditures offset by increases in net working capital and cash interest expense.
First Quarter Results Inpatient Rehabilitation Segment
- Net operating revenues for the inpatient rehabilitation segment were $630.3 million for the first quarter of 2015 compared to $584.5 million for the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 7.8%. This increase was attributable to a 6.8% increase in patient discharges and a 1.8% increase in net patient revenue per discharge. Discharge growth included a 2.9% increase in same-store discharges and a 3.9% increase in new-store discharges. Approximately 200 basis points of discharge growth from new stores resulted from the consolidation of Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital (“Fairlawn”) in Worcester, Massachusetts effective June 1, 2014, with the remainder resulting from three de novo hospitals that opened in the fourth quarter of 2014 (Altamonte Springs, Florida; Newnan, Georgia; and Middletown, Delaware) and the acquisition of Quillen Rehabilitation Hospital (“Quillen”) in Johnson City, Tennessee in November 2014. The increase in net patient revenue per discharge resulted from Medicare and managed care price adjustments.
- Adjusted EBITDA (see attached supplemental information) from the inpatient rehabilitation segment for the first quarter of 2015 was $164.4 million compared to $166.9 million for the first quarter of 2014. The decrease in Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the first quarter of 2014 primarily resulted from increased bad debt expense, settlement of an employee sexual harassment matter that was not covered by insurance, and incremental costs associated with investments in the Company’s operating platform, including a contractual increase in costs associated with the ongoing implementation of its electronic clinical information system, the addition of staff at the Company’s hospitals to ensure compliance with new Medicare quality reporting requirements, the creation of a new medical services department, and costs associated with the Company’s participation in Medicare’s bundling pilot initiative. As discussed above, the increase in bad debt expense continued to result from pre-payment claims denials by Medicare Administrative Contractors and continued delays of approximately three years in the adjudication process at the administrative law judge hearing level. Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2014 benefited by approximately $2 million from the sale of two investments.
First Quarter Results -- Home Health and Hospice Segment
The Company’s home health and hospice segment reported $110.3 million of net operating revenues and $16.9 million of Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter of 2015. The results of operations for the home health and hospice segment in 2014 include only HealthSouth’s legacy hospital-based home health agencies. The increase in net operating revenues and Adjusted EBITDA (see attached supplemental information) for the Company’s home health and hospice segment in 2015 resulted from its acquisition of Encompass on December 31, 2014.
Debt and Preferred Stock Transactions
In December 2014, the Company drew $375 million under its term loan facilities and $325 million under its revolving credit facility to fund the acquisition of Encompass. In January 2015, the Company issued an additional $400 million of its 5.75% Senior Notes due 2024 at a price of 102% of the principal amount and used $250 million of the net proceeds to repay borrowings under its term loan facilities, with the remaining net proceeds used to repay borrowings under its revolving credit facility. As a result of this transaction, the Company recorded a $1.2 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in the first quarter of 2015.
In March 2015, the Company issued $300 million of 5.125% Senior Notes due 2023 (the “2023 Notes”) at a price of 100.0% of the principal amount, which resulted in approximately $295 million in net proceeds from the public offering. On April 10, 2015, the Company used the net proceeds from the 2023 Notes offering along with cash on hand to execute the redemption of its 8.125% Senior Notes due 2020 (the “2020 Notes”). Pursuant to the terms of the 2020 Notes, this redemption was made at a price of 104.063%, which resulted in a total cash outlay of approximately $302 million to retire the $290 million in principal. As a result of this redemption, the Company expects to record an approximate $19 million loss on early extinguishment of debt in the second quarter of 2015.
During the period between the closing of the 2023 Notes offering on March 12, 2015 and the redemption of the 2020 Notes on April 10, 2015, the Company used the net proceeds from the 2023 Notes offering to repay borrowings under its revolving credit facility and to invest in short-term interest-bearing instruments.
On April 22, 2015, the Company delivered notice of the exercise of its rights to force conversion of all outstanding shares of its convertible perpetual preferred stock (par value of $0.10 per share and liquidation preference of $1,000 per share) pursuant to the underlying certificate of designations. The effective date of the conversion was April 23, 2015. On that date, each share of preferred stock automatically converted into 33.9905 shares of the Company’s common stock (par value of $0.01 per share). The Company completed the forced conversion by issuing and delivering in the aggregate 3,271,415 shares of its common stock to the registered holders of the 96,245 shares of the preferred stock outstanding and paying cash in lieu of fractional shares due to those holders. The conversion will increase the number of basic shares outstanding by 3,271,415 and will not change the diluted share count. On an annual basis, the conversion of the preferred stock to common stock is expected to result in a net positive cash impact of $3.5 million for the difference between preferred dividends and common dividends on these shares, based on the current common dividend level.
“During the quarter, we continued to be proactive in managing our capital structure, as evidenced by our two issuances of senior notes,” said Doug Coltharp, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of HealthSouth. “The proceeds from these notes issuances were used to create a more optimal funding structure for the Encompass acquisition and to refinance our most expensive tranche of debt capital on substantially more favorable terms. These activities, together with the forced conversion of our convertible perpetual preferred stock in April, served to increase the flexibility and reduce the cost of our capital structure.”
2015 Guidance
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