Universal Health Services Q2 2024 Earnings Report

Universal Health Services EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $4.31
• Consensus EPS: $3.37
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.94
• One Year Ago EPS: $2.53

Universal Health Services Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $3.91 billion
• Expected Revenue: $3.87 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$42.53 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +10.10%

Universal Health Services Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2024
• Date: 7/24/2024
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 9:00AM ET

Universal Health Services (NYSE:UHS) (NYSE: UHS) is one of the largest diversified health care management companies in the United States, offering a broad spectrum of services through its acute care hospital and behavioral health segments. The company operates general acute care hospitals, surgical hospitals and ambulatory centers, as well as inpatient and outpatient behavioral health facilities. Its network provides emergency and specialized medicine, diagnostic imaging, laboratory services, advanced surgical care and rehabilitation, complemented by a comprehensive array of behavioral services including psychiatric treatment, addiction programs and developmental disabilities care.

In the acute care segment, UHS’s facilities deliver services ranging from emergency department treatment and intensive care to maternity care and outpatient surgery. Through its behavioral health operations, the company focuses on mental health stabilization, co-occurring disorder programs, and long-term rehabilitation for patients of all ages. Many of its locations also incorporate telehealth offerings and community-based programs designed to expand access to primary and behavioral health care.

Founded in 1979 by Alan B. Miller and headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Universal Health Services has expanded its footprint to include more than 350 facilities across the United States and Puerto Rico, with select operations in the United Kingdom. Under the leadership of its founder and executive chairman, the company has pursued both organic growth and strategic acquisitions to enhance its clinical capabilities and geographic reach. UHS employs tens of thousands of health care professionals and support staff committed to delivering patient-focused care and operational excellence.

Universal Health Services Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Q2 2024 EPS Beat and Guidance Raised: Adjusted net income per diluted share was $4.31, and UHS lifted its 2024 EPS midpoint by 17% to $15.80, reflecting strong first‐half performance.
• Acute Segment Margin Expansion: Acute hospitals saw admissions rise 3.4% and revenue grow 6.6% while premium pay fell 15–20%, driving same‐facility EBITDA up 37% year‐over‐year.
• Behavioral Health Growth with Volume Headwinds: Behavioral hospitals delivered 11% revenue growth (7.2% ex‐Medicaid supplements) and 13% EBITDA increase, though patient day growth remains below target amid staffing and Medicaid redeterminations.
• Robust Cash Flow and Buybacks: Operating cash flow climbed to $1.1 billion in H1; UHS spent $195 million on share repurchases year‐to‐date and boosted its buyback authorization by $1 billion, having repurchased ~30% of shares since 2019.
• Ongoing Facility Investments: UHS invested $450 million in capital expenditures and is developing new freestanding emergency departments and acute and behavioral hospitals set to open through 2026 to support long-term growth.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Q2 2024 Universal Health Services Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising that your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Steve Filton, Executive Vice President and CFO. Please go ahead.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Good morning. Marc Miller is also joining us this morning. We welcome you to this review of Universal Health Services' Results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024. During the conference call, we'll be using words such as believes, expects, anticipates, estimates, and similar words that represent forecasts, projections, and forward-looking statements. For anyone not familiar with the risks and uncertainties inherent in these forward-looking statements, I recommend a careful reading of the section on risk factors and forward-looking statements and risk factors in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, and our Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2024. We'd like to highlight just a couple of developments and business trends before opening the call up to questions.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

As discussed in our press release last night, the company reported net income attributable to UHS per diluted share of $4.26 for the second quarter of 2024. After adjusting for the impact of the items reflected on the supplemental schedule as included with the press release, our adjusted net income attributable to UHS per diluted share was $4.31 for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. Our Acute hospitals experienced a moderation of the demand for their services in the second quarter, with adjusted admissions increasing 3.4% year over year and surgical growth flattening out. Overall, revenue growth was still a solid 6.6%. Meanwhile, expenses were well controlled. Specifically, the amount of premium pay in the second quarter was $61 million, reflecting a 15%-20% decline from the prior year quarter.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

On a same facility basis, EBITDA at our Acute Care hospitals increased 37% during the second quarter of 2024 as compared to the comparable prior year quarter. The increase was 20% if you exclude the impact of the incremental Medicaid supplemental payments in Nevada. During the second quarter, same facility revenues at our behavioral health hospitals increased by 11%, primarily driven by a 9.3% increase in revenue per adjusted patient day. Even after adjusting for Medicaid supplemental payments not included in our original 2024 guidance, same facility revenues increased by 7.2%, and same facility EBITDA for our behavioral health hospitals increased 13% in the second quarter as compared to the comparable prior year period. Our cash generated from operating activities increased by $422 million to $1.1 billion during the first six months of 2024, as compared to $654 million during the same period in 2023.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

In the first half of 2024, we spent $450 million on capital expenditures and acquired $1.1 million of our own shares at a total cost of approximately $195 million. Since 2019, we have repurchased approximately 30% of the company's outstanding shares. As of June 30, 2024, we had $1 billion of aggregate available borrowing capacity pursuant to our $1.2 billion revolving credit facility. In our Acute Care segment, we continue to develop additional inpatient and ambulatory care capacity. We currently have 27 operational freestanding emergency departments, as well as 12 more, which have been approved and are in various stages of development.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Also, construction continues on our De Novo Acute Care hospitals, consisting of the 150-bed West Henderson Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is expected to open late this year, the 136-bed Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center in Washington, D.C., which is expected to open in the spring of 2025, and the 150-bed Alan B. Miller Medical Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, which is expected to open in the spring of 2026. In our behavioral health segment, we recently opened the 128-bed River Vista Behavioral Hospital in Madera, California, and we are developing the 96-bed Southridge Behavioral Hospital in West Michigan, a joint venture with Trinity Health Michigan, which is expected to open later this year. I'll now turn the call over to Marc Miller, President and CEO, for closing comments.

[Marc D. Miller, President and CEO at Universal Health Services]

Thanks, Steve. We're pleased with our second quarter results as both our business segments continue to make operational improvements. As we anticipated, Acute Care volumes have moderated somewhat and are gradually beginning to resemble the patterns we experienced prior to the pandemic. The increase in operating income in comparison to last year's second quarter for our Acute Care hospitals is a further step towards a more extended margin recovery we hope to sustain for the next several periods. In our Acute segment, physician expense, which was a significant headwind in 2023, has stabilized at approximately 7.5% of revenues. Based on the generally favorable operating trends in the first half of the year, we are increasing the midpoint of our 2024 EPS guidance by 17% to $15.80 per diluted share, from $13.50 per diluted share previously.

[Marc D. Miller, President and CEO at Universal Health Services]

New supplemental programs being developed in Tennessee and Washington, D.C., which are not yet fully approved, are not included in our revised guidance. Lastly, as announced in yesterday's earnings release, our board of directors has authorized a $1 billion increase to our stock repurchase program, thereby increasing the current aggregate repurchase authorization to $1.228 billion. We're happy to answer questions at this time.

[Operator]

As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question, which comes from Ann Hynes of Mizuho Securities. Your line is open.

[Ann Hynes, Managing Director and Senior Healthcare Services Equity Analyst at Mizuho]

Great, thanks. I just want to focus my question on the supplemental payments. I'm just trying to figure out what inning you are in both the Acute Care and Behavioral for maybe new programs. So you mentioned D.C. That sounds like it might be a new program in Acute Care. And on the Behavioral side going forward, that'd be great. Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. And so I think we had mentioned before that I think from our perspective, while we may understand that individual states are contemplating either new programs or expansion of existing programs, we tend to really not discuss them until there is some formal submission of a program to CMS and sort of pending approvals from CMS within the state. And then both the Tennessee and Washington, D.C. programs sort of fall into that category. As you suggest, Tennessee is a state in which we have exclusively behavioral business. Washington, D.C. is a geography where we have both Acute and Behavioral business, although the Medicaid supplemental program would be primarily beneficial to the Acute business. Both programs, we have been told that the expectation from either the state or the district is that the programs are likely to be approved either later this year or early next year.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Both programs would be retroactive. We believe Tennessee would be retroactive most likely to July of 2024, and that D.C. would be retroactive to October of 2024 of this year. Again, none of these things are guaranteed, and they all depend on CMS approval. Those are the two I'll call them incremental or additional programs we would disclose. But we certainly are aware of other states where expansion of programs or new programs are at least being considered.

[Ann Hynes, Managing Director and Senior Healthcare Services Equity Analyst at Mizuho]

Great. And just one follow-up. I know that you've provided the potential benefit for Tennessee, but can you provide what you think D.C. would be? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So we've disclosed in our 10-Q that we think the potential benefit of our prior 10-Q, the potential benefit in Tennessee would be between $42-$56 million annually. The potential benefit in Washington, D.C. is probably in the $80-$90 million range annually.

[Ann Hynes, Managing Director and Senior Healthcare Services Equity Analyst at Mizuho]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Stephen Baxter of Wells Fargo. Your line is open, Stephen.

[Stephen Baxter, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo]

Hi. Yeah, thanks. I was hoping you could elaborate a little bit on behavioral volume performance in the quarter. I think you had expectations maybe at the last earnings call that this could improve a little bit in the second quarter. So just wondering if you could talk about some of the drivers of performance in the quarter, and then also how you're thinking about behavioral demand growth in the back end of the year. Thank you.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I think that the dynamics surrounding behavioral volumes have remained pretty much the same. You are correct in your description. Behavioral patient days on the same-facility adjusted basis were up, I think, about 2% in Q1. We expected to equal and maybe better that slightly in Q2. We did not. I think the issues are very familiar to what we've been talking about for some time. While we've made, I think, a lot of progress on filling our labor vacancies around the country, we still find in very specific markets and geographies that certain labor positions, sometimes nurses, sometimes therapists and counselors, sometimes non-professionals or mental health technicians, are difficult to place and can sometimes limit capacity or our ability to admit patients.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think we've discussed in the last few quarters the fact that Medicaid disenrollments, particularly in the southern states, Texas and Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, have had more of an impact on our business as people have gotten disenrolled from Medicaid, and it has taken them some time to get either re-enrolled in Medicaid or into a commercial exchange program. If they get into a commercial exchange program, they often have high copays and deductibles, which make them meeting their financial requirements difficult in our behavioral hospitals. And finally, we have a handful of behavioral facilities that struggled with very specific issues in 2023. I believe they've all improved, but are doing so at a somewhat slower pace than we originally imagined they would.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think ultimately, we still believe that that 3% patient day growth target that we embedded in our original 2024 guidance is an achievable target, probably not in terms of full-year growth, but I think we believe that by the end of 2024, we should be growing at that rate and view that as a sustainable rate of growth going forward.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Ben Hendrix. Your line is open of RBC Capital Markets.

[Ben Hendrix, Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Thank you very much. Just wanted to see if you could elaborate a little bit on the moderation in Acute demand and your surgeries flattening out with trending towards pre-COVID levels. Any trends you can call out specifically in specific categories and any payer mix implications there and how you're seeing that develop? Thank you.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So one comment that I'd make about the 3.4% adjusted admission growth in Acute Care is that that comparable number in the second quarter of last year was 7.7%, and surgical growth in the second quarter of last year was in the 5%-6% range. So those were both very difficult comparisons. I think we had a view that the 3.4% adjusted admission growth, the relatively flat surgical growth, was relatively close to our expectations given the very difficult comparison. We've been talking, I think, for some time about the expectation that Acute Care volumes, both overall admissions and surgical growth, would return to sort of pre-pandemic patterns. I don't know that that's absolutely where we are right today, but certainly, I think we've been preparing for that.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think a lot of the cost management that you saw during the quarter was an expectation and preparing for that, so that as we return to some of those pre-pandemic levels of revenue and volume growth, we could generate the sort of increased EBITDA and margin expansion and remain on that trajectory for at least several more periods.

[Ben Hendrix, Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets]

Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from A.J. Rice of UBS. Your line is open.

[A.J. Rice, Managing Director and Equity Research at UBS]

Hi, everybody. Maybe just first question, and then I'll have a follow-up. First question on the updated guidance. I know you didn't raise the full-year guidance after the first quarter, and there was some outperformance then. You've had some outperformance in the second quarter. And then there's also the supplemental payments maybe that weren't in the original guidance. Can you just sort of parse out how much is just capturing year-to-date trends? How much is an adjustment for supplemental payment information? And then have you made any adjustment to your second-half expectations in this updated guidance?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So A.J., from a high-level perspective, the approach that we took to the revised guidance was obviously to increase the guidance by the amount of the first-half beat, which was substantial, to include in the revised guidance for the back half of the year any supplemental programs and payments that we knew would continue and be present in the second half. We did not, as Mark indicated in his comments, include anything for Tennessee or Washington, D.C. And then we included some of the cost management improvements that we've made, which we believe are certainly sustainable. But for the most part, particularly from, I think, a revenue and a volume perspective, just generally retained our original guidance for the second half of the year.

[A.J. Rice, Managing Director and Equity Research at UBS]

Okay. There's been a lot of discussion this quarter about the impact of Two-Midnight Rule, Medicaid redeterminations, and so forth. Can you just maybe make some comment about what you're seeing there and how I know Two-Midnight Rule wouldn't affect the behavioral business, but the redeterminations maybe it has some impact on both sides? Any updated thoughts on what you're seeing in those two areas?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, as far as two midnight goes, and we've commented on this before, and I acknowledge that our comments may be a little bit different than what some of our peers have said, but we've been unable to validate or, I think, precisely identify any real benefit that we're getting from the Two-Midnight Rule change. We don't see any dramatic change in metrics like amount of denials or patient status changes, etc., nor anecdotally do we hear from our personnel who deal with this issue on a daily basis that they've seen real behavior changes on the part of payers. Again, I know some of our peers have suggested otherwise, but we're just unable to really parse out any significant impact from the change in the Two-Midnight Rule. Medicaid redeterminations, I think, on the Acute side have resulted in an increase in commercial exchange patients.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Again, I think compared to some of our peers, probably not as big an increase. We had commercial exchange patients as a percentage of our overall adjusted admissions. Pre the end of the PHE was about 4%. I think that number has climbed to about 5% currently. I know some of our peers have suggested that number has climbed to 6 or 7%. We haven't gotten that high. On the behavioral side, I alluded to this in an earlier response. I do think we're being affected by the Medicaid redeterminations, particularly in the adolescent population. We definitely have seen some weakness in that population in the last, I'm going to say, 2, 3 quarters. I think it's been a slow process for those adolescents to either re-enroll in Medicaid or to get onto a commercial exchange program.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

And if they get onto a commercial exchange program to exhaust the sometimes large copays and deductibles that those plans have. So I think Medicaid redeterminations have probably had a bigger negative impact on the behavioral business. The shift to commercial exchanges on the Acute side has probably been a slight net positive.

[A.J. Rice, Managing Director and Equity Research at UBS]

Okay. Thanks a lot.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Justin Lake of Wolfe Research. Your line is open.

[Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Thanks. Good morning. Steve, first, on the guidance, in terms of just kind of isolating that DPP bucket, I think you started the year at about $810 million in the 10-K that you expected to get this year. You updated it to $860 million with the 10-Q. Just curious what that number is right now that you expect to get this year. So let's just do that in my first question. Then I got one from Marc. Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So we're still working on that disclosure, which we'll have in our 10-K in 8 or 10 days. But I think there'll be a significant step up from the 860, obviously including the Washington and Ohio numbers that we included in the press release, etc. But there'll be a more precise picture that we file our 10-Q in a week or so.

[Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. Do you have a round number you could share with us? Does it go to do you think it goes much higher than 900, or if I add those two numbers in there?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I think it'll go into the low to mid-900s.

[Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. So if we look at your guidance raise of $215 million, you started the year at around $810. If it goes to low- to mid-$900s, is it maybe fair to say that maybe half, give or take, of that guidance raise is coming from these supplemental payments? Is that a reasonable way to think about it? The rest comes from core?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think that's fair.

[Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Okay. And then, Marc, you talked about the improvement in the hospital business in terms of the margins. Curious if there's still a potential ways to go to get back to pre-COVID levels. What do you think a reasonable target is when you sit down with your hospital operators? And do you have a trajectory or a plan at which you kind of timeline, probably the best way to put it, in terms of when you expect to get there? Maybe you could share a couple of the steps you expect to take to get there. Thanks.

[Marc D. Miller, President and CEO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, we have a lot of plans, and there's a lot of discussions on how we're going to continue to incrementally improve. I'm not going to give you a number or a time period right now. But every market's a little bit different, obviously. We've been very pleased with the work that the operators have done, especially the last 12 months, in addressing not only the volume issues, but really getting a better handle on expenses. And I think if we just continue with that trajectory, we'll get to where we need to be fairly soon, but we still have a little ways to go.

[Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research]

Great. Thanks.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Jason Cassorla of Citi, your line is open, Jason.

[Jason Cassorla, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi]

Great. Thanks. Good morning. Maybe just to ask on the Acute pricing and mix in the quarter up 3.5 or so, but kind of normalizing for the supplemental payment dollars this year, maybe only up kind of slightly year-over-year. Is that just simply a function of that lower acuity volume continuing return? I know you made comments around the surgical volume dynamic in the quarter. Or just maybe anything you can give on acuity and payer mix trends within Acute kind of outside of these supplemental payment programs would be helpful.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I think it's a variety of things, Jason. Again, I think we had a pretty difficult comparison. We were comparing to something close to 10% revenue growth last quarter, last year's quarter, rather, high surgical growth, etc. I think we're seeing some settling down, some exhaustion of some of those postponed and deferred procedures that had been postponed and deferred during the pandemic. I think that even exclusive of the supplemental payments, our expectation in the Acute business is we'll get to, as we have historically, a same-store revenue growth sort of trajectory of 5%-6%, split pretty evenly between price and volume.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

And again, I think with the progress that we've made, as both Mark and I have alluded to on the cost management side, that should allow us continued EBITDA growth and margin expansion until we get either completely back to or something close to pre-pandemic margin levels in that segment.

[Jason Cassorla, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi]

Okay. Great. Thanks. And then maybe just a follow-up with the $1 billion increase to the share repo program. I know you accelerated it a little bit in terms of share repo activity in the quarter, maybe with the Illinois lawsuit kind of dynamics going on. But with the increase there in the repo program, is the expectation that you're still aiming to spend around $500-$600 million on share repo for this year, or how should we think about the share repurchase dynamics? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So I think your suggestion is largely on point. Our original guidance suggested that we would spend the bulk of our free cash flow, which would be $500 million or $600 million, on share repurchase. And I think that is still our intent. And I think, frankly, the main point of including that announcement in this quarter's release was to just reinforce that idea that we believe we're still on track and obviously would need the reauthorization to be able to accomplish that.

[Jason Cassorla, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Sarah James of Cantor Fitzgerald. Your line is open.

[Sarah James, Managing Director and Equity Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald]

Thank you. I was hoping you could talk a little bit about the embedded adjusted admissions growth baked into your guidance for the second half. Are you assuming that first-half levels stay flat or decelerate? And could you talk a little bit about what the drivers are for that assumption?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So our volume assumptions, I think, in the back half of the year are not terribly different than our original guidance. On the Acute side, I think it's adjusted admissions growth in the 3%-4% range, just sort of continuing kind of how we're exiting the second quarter. I think on the Behavioral side, practically, it will be a tall order to get to 3% patient day growth for the full year. But I do think that we still believe that we'll get to that 3% by the end of the year and that that will be a sustainable level or a level of growth that we can sustain for the foreseeable future after that.

[Sarah James, Managing Director and Equity Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald]

Got it. And on the behavioral side, do you think about getting to that 3% as mostly capacity-driven? And do you have any updates on how your hiring practices are going? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, I think it's a combination of things. I ticked off, I think, the things that have been progressing a little more slowly than we expected. I think we believe they'll accelerate. We believe we'll continue to have more success in hiring, particularly in pockets that have been somewhat troublesome. I think that the impact of the Medicaid disenrollments, which I do think has weighed down our volumes in the last 3 or 4 quarters, will get better as more of these people get either re-enrolled in Medicaid or in commercial exchange products and exhaust their copays and deductibles. And I believe the progress on the handful of residential facilities that have been a drag, which have been progressing, but at a somewhat slower rate than we expect, will continue.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

All that will help and allow us to get back to the 3%, which I think, again, was our original plan. It's just happening a little bit more slowly than we originally anticipated.

[Sarah James, Managing Director and Equity Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald]

Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Andrew Mok of Barclays. Andrew, your line is open.

[Andrew Mok, Director and Equity Research at Barclays]

Hi. Good morning. Just wanted to follow up on the Medicaid supplemental payment programs. First, can you give us a sense where these programs stand relative to average commercial rates? And second, how does the higher Medicaid reimbursement change the relative attractiveness of patients in that payer class? Is this a category that you would lean into from a referral and service line perspective? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I think at least one of my Acute Care company peers made this point that even though there have been these substantial increases in Medicaid supplemental payments around the country, that for the most part, and I think this is particularly true on the Acute side, our Medicaid reimbursement remains well below commercial rates, mostly well below Medicare rates, and quite frankly, in most cases, still below our costs. So we've made the point before, and I'll reinforce it again because it's an important one, that these Medicaid increases are really intended to, I think, make up for the inadequate reimbursement of the last several years, particularly the cost pressures that accelerated during the pandemic, just broadly inflation pressures, but also the particular wage pressures that were exacerbated during the pandemic.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think on the behavioral side, at least in some of the states, the Medicaid supplemental payments do, in some cases, approach Medicare reimbursement, in some cases, sort of probably between Medicare and commercial. I think in those states and in those facilities, it does sort of change our approach, and it, I think, encourages us to focus on those referral sources and on those community resources that tend to produce Medicaid patients. I think it does inform our approach in those markets, and we are, I think the phrase you used was leaning into that. I think on the Acute side, the vast majority of our Medicaid business comes through our emergency room, so there's not a whole lot of proactive actions that we take to seek that business out. We get the business we get, and we're just being reimbursed for it at a more adequate rate.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

But yes, on the behavioral side, I do think that in those states where these programs increase the Medicaid reimbursement to a level that makes it more attractive, we are using your phrase, leaning into that business and trying to work with referral sources to get more of it.

[Andrew Mok, Director and Equity Research at Barclays]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Pito Chickering of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open, Pito.

[Pito Chickering, Senior Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Hey. Good morning, guys. So on the Acute labor side, can you talk about where turnover is today, where net hiring is, and how to think about those in the back half of the year, as well as contract labor? And also, as length of stay comes down due to better staffing, how does length of stay reductions help your EBITDA growth?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So as far as Acute Care turnover, Pito, I think that we're down into the low and mid-20s, which is kind of where we were in sort of the pre-pandemic period. Obviously, we still view that turnover rate as high, but to be fair, the hospital and Acute Care industry has had turnover rates in the high 20s and low 30s nationally for a long time. And while we view those as still very inefficient and not necessarily ideal, and we continue to work to lower them, part of that is it's just the nature of the business. But obviously, as I indicated in my prepared comments, our ability to reduce premium pay, which has been reduced almost probably by two-thirds from its height at the very height of the pandemic, indicates more success in hiring and filling these permanent positions.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think you also see it in just our deceleration or reduction in the rate of acceleration in wage inflation in the Acute business, the reduction in incentive payments, recruitment incentive payments, etc., all indicate, I think, a settling out of the labor supply-demand dynamic and just greater success on our part in filling our open vacancies. As far as the length of stay dynamic, because the vast majority of our payments are made on a per-discharge basis, the lower our length of stay, the more efficient we are in being able to treat patients and fully treat them and discharge them to the appropriate setting, whether that's home or to some sort of subacute facility. To the degree that we reduce length of stay, we're really reducing our cost per discharge or cost per admission.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

And again, I think that we've lowered our length of stay dramatically from the height of the pandemic, but even continue to do so incrementally. And again, I think that's partly reflected in our very successful cost management and cost reduction initiatives that you can see on our income statement.

[Pito Chickering, Senior Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. There's been some negative press recently, including the Senate Finance Committee on residential care. Are you seeing that impact to your referrals at all?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. Honestly, Pito, we really have seen virtually no impact from the Senate hearing and report. I think the greatest impact we would expect perhaps to have seen would be from referral sources. But I think what we kind of believe is the lesson from this is that referral sources understand the business very well. They understand this is a very difficult patient population. They understand that our hospitals, I think, do overall a very admirable job. And I think the outcomes and the patient satisfaction results suggest that patients are generally satisfied and highly satisfied with their care in these facilities. And I think referral sources recognize that. So no, we've really seen no impact on our volumes, no impact from referral sources, not necessarily any additional incremental regulatory oversight. So we're pleased with that.

[Pito Chickering, Senior Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Perfect. Great. Thanks so much, guys.

[Operator]

Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Michael Ha of Baird. Your line is open.

[Michael Ha, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Baird]

Thank you. So on Behavioral, volume still yet to fully rebound. Pricing remains powerful. I was wondering if you could help us break out roughly how much of the volume headwind is Medicaid redeterminations versus labor-related constraints? Is it 50/50, maybe more redetermination-related? And would it be fair to say as redetermination impact tails off into the back half this year that it creates a positive backdrop and against easier second-half volume comps that should help to bounce back naturally in behavioral volumes? And then if you could discuss the source of behavioral pricing strength, I think you said 7.2% ex the supplemental payments. So if you could discuss some of the dynamics there, what's happening in payer pricing, that would be helpful. Thank you.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, again, I would just make the point that the shortfall from where our behavioral volumes are, the 1.4% patient day growth in the quarter versus where we thought we would be, which would be a continuation of Q1 at around 2% or maybe a little bit higher than that, it's not an enormous shortfall. And it's 60, 70, 80 basis points. And therefore, it's hard to parse with great precision between the two or three issues that I elaborated on, the staffing, the Medicaid redeterminations, the handful of residential facilities. So that's difficult to do.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I think broadly, as your question suggests, we do believe redeterminations get or the impact from redeterminations get better in the back half of the year, as we do believe these other issues, the staffing and the residential facilities, will get better in the back half of the year and allow us to reach that 3% target.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Kevin Fischbeck of Bank of America. Your line is open.

[Kevin Fischbeck, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

Thanks. Just to follow on that comment there about the site volume improvement, I guess two questions. First one is, is there any sign, I guess maybe outside of the Medicaid population, that demand in any way, shape, or form is being impacted, or is this really just about kind of capacity and then redeterminations? And then second, when you think about that labor dynamic, to get back to 3% by the end of the year and to consistently be growing 3%, I mean, you're going to have to be adding staff at that pace. Are you currently adding staff at that pace generally that would support that? It sounds like you're not quite there yet. So just trying to understand what you're doing between now and year-end that should be getting you to kind of sustainably add that type of capacity. Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah, Kevin. So I think, and part of the reason that I think we have been confident that behavioral volumes should and could increase to sort of more historically normative levels is that we believe the underlying demand is strong. And we measure that in a couple of different ways. We measure it sort of from a macro basis. There's a lot of sources of incidents of behavioral illness and the need for treatment in a whole variety of diagnoses, including opioid illness and many others. And again, we believe that virtually across the board, demand for behavioral treatment continues to increase. And so this really becomes an issue of what do we have to do to satisfy that demand? And that sort of plays into the labor dynamic. Yeah, we are our net high. We continue to have net hires.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

I would say we have had positive net hires for between the last 18 and 24 months. Again, it's been incremental and a little slower than we thought, but we continue to have that. I think one of the major areas of focus more recently is we had a question earlier, I think, from Pito about Acute Care turnover. Behavioral turnover tends to be probably twice what Acute Care is. That creates a lot of inefficiency. Even though we're hiring a lot of people, they're leaving. Again, I think this is not just a UHS issue. I think it's an industry-wide issue.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

But we are very focused on the things that we can do and want to do to reduce that turnover rate, which includes mentorship programs and educational opportunities and career development opportunities so that when we hire people, they really have an incentive to want to stay with the organization, to stay with the facility. And I do believe if we can reduce our turnover rate, which I think is a practical objective, that'll be one way in which we'll be able to satisfy some of that outstanding behavioral demand that we've really been unable to satisfy as much as we'd like to in recent periods.

[Kevin Fischbeck, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

All right. Great. Is there an actual physical capacity dynamic too that you need to be adding beds, or is there enough bed capacity? It's really just the labor that's the constraint?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. So I think it's sort of a catch-22. I think we dramatically reduced the pace at which we were adding beds during the pandemic because we had a view that, well, what's the point of adding new beds if we can't staff the beds that we already have? I think as we make more and more progress, and again, this is an individual facility, individual market kind of calculation in each case, but as we increase our ability to fill those vacancies, etc., and sort of see a path and a ramp to being able to fill those vacancies, I think we're going to be more willing to resume the pace of bed additions that we were running at before the pandemic.

[Kevin Fischbeck, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America]

All right. Thanks.

[Operator]

One moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Whit Mayo of Leerink Partners. Whit, your line is open.

[Whit Mayo, Senior Managing Director and Equity Research at Leerink Partners]

Hey, Steve. I have one more labor dynamic question. What's interesting is this is the fourth consecutive quarter where your SWB per patient day has moderated. I'm just really trying to square this against the comments on the challenges in filling positions. You said you're hiring maybe a little bit slower than you thought, but it's not pressuring the salary line at all. And I guess I would have thought intuitively the opposite would happen, but maybe there's something optical with the mix of RTC versus Acute or something. How do I make sense of this?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, I think what you saw during the pandemic was people leaving subacute industries, and that obviously included behavioral, but it included, I think, lots of other subacute industries like nursing homes and skilled nursing facilities and home health. And they were leaving those industries to work in Acute Care settings where they were able to make a significant premium to their existing salaries. And I think there's always been for sure a gap in that Acute Care compensation rates were always higher than subacute care compensation rates, but that gap widened dramatically during the pandemic. I do think it has since narrowed.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

So really, that's I'm trying to answer your question in the sense of so it really got to be an issue of it didn't matter when a nurse told us, a behavioral nurse told us that she was leaving to make three times her salary in an Acute Care setting, raising her salary by $2 an hour, etc., was not going to have any impact, which is why I don't think you saw dramatic pressure on our behavioral rates during the pandemic. And which is why, as you're suggesting, I think you're seeing moderation actually in our salaries and wages per patient day because the way we're solving this problem is not necessarily through higher premium payments and incentive payments, although we certainly did that during the pandemic, and we do it in markets where we still think it's necessary.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

But I think our real focus is on how do we make people feel that working in a behavioral setting is rewarding, is creating career opportunities for them, is a place that they're going to be valued, etc. And I think that's our focus. Look, certainly, and particularly with the availability of some of these Medicaid supplemental payments, etc., in some markets, if we believe that paying higher compensation could be an answer, we'll pursue that. But again, I'm going to suggest that I think in most cases, this is not a problem that throwing money at it just automatically solves it, but we'll invest more money where we think it makes sense.

[Whit Mayo, Senior Managing Director and Equity Research at Leerink Partners]

Okay. And my follow-up, I haven't heard you talk about the health plan business in some time. Wondering how that's performing versus expectations and how you guys think of that as a core business for UHS, or do you think differently at all about it? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I mean, we've talked about the health plan from time to time. I think like any provider-sponsored health plan, and this is really an Acute Care dynamic, we only operate the health plan in markets in which we have Acute Care hospitals. And it is a way for us to create narrow networks in which our hospitals participate. It's a way for us to create further alignment with Medicare physicians, particularly in plans that are focused on Medicare Advantage patients. And we think ultimately, even though the plan operates largely at a break-even level currently, that it's still less expensive and greater sort of return investment than some other options like physician employment or other similar options, although we certainly do those things as well. And so, yeah, the health plan continues to do that.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

It continues to provide us, again, I think, a narrower network and a funnel of patients in certain markets, and we'll continue to operate it with that aim.

[Whit Mayo, Senior Managing Director and Equity Research at Leerink Partners]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Our last question will be coming from Joshua Raskin of Nephron Research. Joshua, your line is open.

[Joshua Raskin, Research Analyst at Nephron Research]

Hi. Thanks. Just one more, Steve, I guess. I heard the 5% of patients are coming with exchange-based insurance. But what percentage of revenue is coming from those individual exchange patients? I'd be curious across both segments. And if you could comment on the margins of those patients relative to your other segments. And then why do you think that 5% is lower than peers? Is that network strategy and contracting, or do you think that's geographic-based?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

As far as the second question goes, I don't really know the answer to that, Josh. As far as the first one goes, because I think commercial exchange reimbursement tends to be somewhere between Medicare and commercial, probably a little closer to Medicare, I would say. I don't have this data right in front of me, but my guesstimate would be the 5% of admissions would be something pretty close to what percentage of revenue it would be because I would think that sort of midpoint between commercial and Medicare is probably about the midpoint of our reimbursement.

[Joshua Raskin, Research Analyst at Nephron Research]

Okay. And margins, you think similar to somewhere between Medicare and commercial then?

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. But yes.

[Joshua Raskin, Research Analyst at Nephron Research]

Okay. Thanks.

[Operator]

We did get an additional question from Ryan Langston. That's Ryan Langston of TD Cowen. Your line is open, Ryan.

[Ryan Langston, Director and Senior Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thanks. Good morning. Thanks for squeezing me in. Just real quick on the new facilities that are coming online, both, I guess, in the Acute and Behavioral. Can you just remind us generally how long it takes those facilities to get to break-even and do the geographies or any other dynamics in those markets? Have any changes to that, maybe faster or slower? Thanks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

Yeah. I would say generally the ramp of the facility to break-even is probably in the 6-12-month range. Then to what I would consider to be divisional averages, probably the 18-24-month range. In markets like Las Vegas, that time frame tends to be compressed. Again, I think there's little impact this year in 2024 because the facility that we're opening in Las Vegas will be very late in the year. So I don't think it's going to have much of an impact on our earnings this year. We'll get more precise feedback on the impact of both West Henderson and the Washington, D.C. facility when we give our 2025 guidance early next year.

[Ryan Langston, Director and Senior Analyst at TD Cowen]

Thanks.

[Operator]

Okay. I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the conference back to Steve Filton for closing remarks.

[Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services]

We would just like to thank everybody for their time this morning and look forward to speaking with everybody again next quarter. Thank you.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Marc D. Miller, President and CEO

Analysts

• A.J. Rice, Managing Director and Equity Research at UBS
• Andrew Mok, Director and Equity Research at Barclays
• Ann Hynes, Managing Director and Senior Healthcare Services Equity Analyst at Mizuho
• Ben Hendrix, Equity Research at RBC Capital Markets
• Jason Cassorla, VP and Equity Research Analyst at Citi
• Joshua Raskin, Research Analyst at Nephron Research
• Justin Lake, Analyst at Wolfe Research
• Kevin Fischbeck, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bank of America
• Michael Ha, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Baird
• Pito Chickering, Senior Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Ryan Langston, Director and Senior Analyst at TD Cowen
• Sarah James, Managing Director and Equity Analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald
• Stephen Baxter, Senior Equity Research Analyst at Wells Fargo
• Steve Filton, EVP and CFO at Universal Health Services
• Whit Mayo, Senior Managing Director and Equity Research at Leerink Partners