Mark J. Guinan
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Quest Diagnostics
Thanks, Steve. In the first quarter, consolidated revenues were $2.61 billion, down 4% versus the prior-year. Base business revenues grew 6.3%, to more than $2 billion. While COVID-19 testing revenues declined 27.6% to approximately $600 million. Revenues for Diagnostic Information Services declined 3.9% compared to the prior year. The decline reflected lower revenue from COVID-19 testing services versus the first quarter of 2021, partially offset by strong growth in our base testing revenue.
Total volume measured by the number of requisitions increased to 1.3% versus the prior year and was roughly flat on an organic basis. Total base testing volumes increased more than 6% versus the prior year. Excluding acquisitions, total base testing volumes grew nearly 5%. We experienced some modest softening of base testing volumes in January during the peak of the Omicron spread. The volumes rebounded in February and March.
COVID-19 testing volumes surged during the spread of Omicron variant during the winter and volumes peaked in January, but declined through the month of February and into March. Together with our JV partners in our Quest, we resulted approximately 7.2 million molecular tests. Quest, alone resulted roughly 6.3 million molecular tests, down approximately 2 million tests and 1 million test versus the prior year in fourth quarter respectively. We also result in nearly 450,000 serology tests in the first quarter.
Our COVID-19 molecular volumes have generally stabilized and the average of roughly 30,000 test per day over the last four weeks excluding similar at Quest. Revenue per requisition declined 5.2% versus the prior year, driven primarily by lower COVID-19 molecular volume. Base business revenue per rep was up modestly. Importantly, we continue to see an improving price environment. Unit price reimbursement pressure was less than 100 basis points in the quarter.
Reported operating income in the first quarter was $513 million or 19.7% of revenues compared to $660 million or 24.3% of revenues last year. On an adjusted basis, operating income was $554 million or 21.2% of revenues compared to $708 million or 26% of revenues last year. The year-over-year decline in adjusted operating income was primarily related to lower COVID-19 testing volume. A higher portion of COVID-19 molecular testing volume from non-traditional channels, which carry additional expenses and logistics costs. Investments to accelerate growth in our base business and lower average reimbursement for COVID-19 molecular tests. These headwinds were partially offset by strong growth in our base business.
As many of you have heard, the Health Resources and Services Administration or HRSA stop accepting claims to test and treat uninsured patients on March 22nd, due to insufficient funding. HRSA runs the program to provide funding for COVID-19 testing vaccination and treatment for uninsured patients. Approximately 14% of our COVID-19 molecular testing volume has come from uninsured patients, which is much higher, then the 1% to 2% we typically see in our base business. As a result, we were unable to build HRSA for over $20 billion in COVID-19 testing work that was performed just prior to the March 23rd HRSA cut-off date.
Moving forward, we are now billing uninsured patients for COVID-19 testing directly upfront. As a result, we've seen a decline in our uninsured COVID-19 molecular testing volumes in late March and into April and this is reflected in trends I shared earlier. Reported EPS was $2.92 in the quarter compared to $3.46 a year ago. Adjusted EPS was $3.22 compared to $3.76 last year. Cash provided by operations was $480 million in Q1 versus $731 million in the prior year period and we repurchased $350 million of stock in the first quarter.
Now, turning to our updated guidance. Revenues are now expected to be between $9.2 billion and $9.5 billion, a decline of approximately 12% to 15% versus the prior year. Base service revenues are expected to be between $8.35 billion and $8.5 billion, an increase of approximately 4% to 6%. COVID-19 testing revenues are expected to be between $850 million and $1 billion, a decline of approximately 64% to 69%. Reported EPS expected to be in a range of $7.88 and $8.38. And adjusted EPS to be in a range of $9 and $9.50. Cash provided by operations is expected to be at least $1.6 billion and capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $400 million.
Before concluding, I'll touch on some assumptions embedded in our updated 2022 guidance as well as some additional considerations. Our guidance assumes COVID-19 molecular volumes to average approximately 10,000 to 20,000 test per day for the rest of the year. This reflects modest continued declines in Q2 from the roughly 30,000 test per day we are seeing in April. And some degree of stabilization during the second half of the year.
As we look toward 2023, our expectation for COVID-19 molecular and serology testing volumes assumes that the COVID-19 testing run rates in the second half of 2022 continues into next year. Last week the Public Health Emergency was again extended another 90 days through mid-July. We assume average reimbursement for COVID-19 molecular testing to hold relatively steady through this period, while the public health emergency company renewed beyond July, additional expenses are not captured in our guidance. We remain prepared for additional future surges collecting COVID-19 testing volumes from a range of customers. While the PAT is in effect, we continue to incur incremental costs from non-traditional channels for supplies, special logistics rounds and channel expenses for this volume, which can represent roughly $30 in incremental cost per test. Therefore you should not assume the higher reimbursement due to the PHE extension drops straight to the bottom line.
As Steve noted earlier, we're already seeing some returns in our investments to accelerate growth, particularly in the areas of advanced diagnostics and direct-to-consumer testing and would expect a margin tailwind on these investments in 2023. As a reminder, we are planning to spend approximately $160 million on these investments this year. We spent approximately $30 million in the first quarter and are looking for these investments to ramp up in Q2 to support the launch of our new consumer site later this year. A portion of the stand up IT costs are temporary, but variable marketing costs will increase following the launch of the new site. We'll also be adding additional headcount this year to support our consumer offering as well as bioinformatics capabilities within advanced diagnostics.
Finally, we know there's a lot of focus on expectations for 2023, while it's clearly too early to provide specific guidance for next year, based on everything we know and see today, we expect to deliver top line and earnings, consistent with our long-term outlook that we provided at our 2021 Investor Day.
I'll now turn it back to Steve.