David Williams
Analyst · CL King & Associates
Thanks, Kevin. As Kevin mentioned, VITAS’ 5.9% revenue growth was a result of increased ADC of 4.5% driven by an increase in admissions of 4.4%, increased discharges of 4.5% and Medicare price increases of approximately 2.5%. Revenue growth was partially offset by a mix shift between routine home care and our high acuity care.
Average revenue per patient per day in the quarter, excluding the impact of any Medicare Cap, was $204.03, which is 1.5% above of the prior-year period. Routine home care reimbursement and high acuity care averaged $162.90 and $706.19 respectively per patient per day in the third quarter of 2012. During the quarter, our high acuity days of care were 7.57% of total days of care, 15 basis points lower than the prior-year quarter.
The third quarter of 2012 gross margin was 22.2%, which is equal to the gross margin in the third quarter of 2011, when you exclude the impact of the Medicare Cap in the prior-year quarter. Our home care direct gross margin was 52.5% in the quarter, 10 basis points above the third quarter of 2011.
Direct inpatient margins in the quarter were 9.2%, which compares to 12.4% in the prior year. Occupancy of our inpatient units averaged 73.4% in the quarter and compares with 74.3% occupancy in the third quarter of 2011.
There are currently 3 inpatient units classified as startup in the quarter. These startups negatively impacted our inpatient margins by approximately 140 basis points.
Continuous care had a direct gross margin of 19.0%, a decline of 170 basis points when compared to the prior year quarter. Average hours billed for a day of continuous care averaged 18.9 in the quarter, a 3.6% decline over the average hours billed in the third quarter of 2011.
Our selling, general and administrative expense was $20.1 million during the third quarter of 2012, which is an increase of 6.3% when compared to the prior year quarter.
Now let’s turn to the Roto-Rooter segment. Roto-Rooter’s plumbing and drain cleaning business generated sales of $86.4 million for the third quarter of 2012, which was a decrease of $2.1 million, or 2.4% over the prior year quarter. Approximately $1.0 million, or 130 basis points of this decline is attributed to Roto-Rooter eliminating a small HVAC operation in an East Coast market.
In the third quarter of 2012, Roto-Rooter merged one of our local brand plumbing operations into a Roto-Rooter branch, and eliminated the local brand’s HVAC business. This resulted in effectively 0 HVAC revenue in the third quarter of 2012.
Adjusted EBITDA for Roto-Rooter in the third quarter of 2012 totaled $12.7 million, a decline of 15.3%, and the adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.7% in the quarter, a decline of 223 basis points. Our unit-for-unit job count in the third quarter of 2012 declined 3.0% when compared to the prior-year period. During the third quarter of 2012, total residential jobs decreased 4.8%, as our residential plumbing jobs declined 4.6%, and our residential drain cleaning jobs decreased 4.9% when compared to the prior-year quarter. Residential jobs continue to represent about 69% of our total job count.
Total commercial jobs did increase 1.1% with commercial plumbing excavation job count increasing 5.6%, and commercial drain cleaning declining a modest 0.4% when compared to the prior year. The All Other residential and commercial job category, which represents 1.6% of aggregate job count, declined 8.6%.
Now let’s take a look at our consolidated balance sheet. Chemed had total debt of $173 million at September 30, 2012. This debt is net of the discount taken as a result of convertible debt accounting requirements. Excluding this discount, aggregate debt is a $187 million, and is due in May of 2014. Chemed’s total debt equates to less than 1x trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA.
In March of 2011 Chemed entered into a 5-year Credit Agreement that consists of a $350 million revolving credit facility. The interest rate on this Credit Agreement has a floating rate that is currently LIBOR plus a 175 basis points. In addition, an expansion feature is included in this Credit Agreement that provides Chemed the opportunity to increase its revolver and/or enter into term loans for an additional $150 million. At September 30, 2012, this facility had approximately $321 million of undrawn borrowing capacity after deducting $29 million for letters of credit issued to secure the Company’s workers’ compensation insurance.
Our capital expenditures through September 30, 2012, aggregated $26.5 million and compares to depreciation and amortization during the same period of $22.6 million.
During the quarter, the company purchased 9,354 shares of Chemed stock at an aggregate cost of $586,000. The company has $63.5 million remaining under our previously announced share repurchase program.
Our 2012 full-year guidance is as follows: VITAS expects to achieve full year 2012 revenue growth prior to any Medicare Cap of 7.5% to 8.0%. Admissions in 2012 are estimated to increase approximately 4.0% to 4.5%, and VITAS’ full-year adjusted EBITDA margin prior to Medicare Cap is estimated to be 14.5% to 15.0%. Effective October 1, 2012, Medicare increased the average hospice reimbursement rates by approximately 0.9%.
Our guidance assumes VITAS will incur $1.25 million of estimated Medicare contractual billing limitations for the remainder of calendar year 2012. Roto-Rooter expects to achieve full-year 2012 revenue, 2.0% below the prior year. The revenue estimate is a result of increased pricing of approximately 1.5%, a favorable mix shift to higher revenue jobs, with job counts estimated to decrease 3% to 4%. Adjusted EBITDA margin for 2012 is estimated in the range of 15.8% to 16.3%.
Based upon the above, management estimates 2012 earnings per diluted share, excluding non-cash expense for stock options, the non-cash interest expense related to the accounting for convertible debt, and other items not indicative of ongoing operations will be in the range of $5.20 to $5.30. This compares to Chemed’s 2011 reported adjusted earnings per diluted share of $4.78.
I’ll now turn this call over to Tim O’Toole, our Chief Executive Officer of VITAS.