Chemed Corporation (NYSE:CHE) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 27, 2022 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Kevin McNamara – President and Chief Executive Officer

Nick Westfall – President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemed VITAS Healthcare Corporation Subsidiary

Dave Williams – Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Holley Schmidt – Assistant Controller

Conference Call Participants

Joanna Gajuk – Bank of America

Ben Hendrix – RBC Capital Markets

Operator

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Chemed Corporation First Quarter 2022 Earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to the speaker today, Holley Schmidt, please go ahead.

Holley Schmidt

Good morning. Our conference call this morning will review the financial results for the first quarter of 2022 ended March 31st, 2022. Before we begin, let me remind you that the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 apply to this conference call.

During the course of this call, the company will make various remarks concerning Management's expectations, predictions, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements as result of a variety of factors, including those identified in the company's News Release of our April 26th and in various other filings with the SEC.

You are cautioned that any forward-looking statements reflect Management's current view only and that the company undertakes no obligation to revive or update such statements in the future.

In addition, Management may also discuss non-GAAP operating performance results during today's call, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA.

A reconciliation of these non - GAAP results is provided in the company's Press Release dated April 26th, which is available on the company's website at chemed.com.

I would like now to introduce our speakers for today. Kevin McNamara, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemed Corporation, Dave Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Chemed, and Nick Westfall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Chemed VITAS Healthcare Corporation Subsidiary. I will now turn the call over to Kevin McNamara.

Kevin McNamara

Thank you, Holly. Good morning. Welcome to Chemed Corporation's first quarter 2022 conference call. I will begin with highlights for the quarter, and Dave and Nick will follow up the additional operating detail. I will then open up the call for questions. Our first quarter 2022 operating results released last night reflect very solid performance for both VITAS and Roto-Rooter. Both operating segments, financial results exceeded our internal estimates despite the continued disruption triggered by the pandemic. For VITAS, this disruptions remains elevated with regard to the hiring and retention of licensed health care professionals. U.S. News & World Report has estimated as many as 20% of licensed health care workers exited the labor market during the pandemic. This has impacted turnover within VITAS's licensed staff and our turnover rate continues to be above our pre -pandemic rate in several of our professional classifications. Fortunately, we are beginning to see indications of normalization as we continue to expand resources focused on hiring and retention initiatives in our markets. Beyond managing staffing levels, we are absorbing increased pressure on salaries and wages. To date, we have managed these pressures with increased pay time off or PTO.