HCA Healthcare (HCA) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending March 31, 2023

April 21, 2023 10:00 p.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Welcome to the HCA Healthcare First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today’s call is being recorded.

At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Frank Morgan. Please go ahead, sir.

Frank Morgan

Good morning and welcome to everyone on today’s call. With me this morning is our CEO, Sam Hazen; and CFO, Bill Rutherford. Sam and Bill will provide some prepared remarks and then we will take a few questions.

Before I turn the call over to Sam, let me remind everyone that should today’s call contain any forward-looking statements that are based on management’s current expectations. Numerous risks and uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those that might be expressed today. More information on forward-looking statements and these factors are listed in today’s press release and in our various SEC filings.

On this morning’s call, we may reference measures such as adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. A table providing supplemental information on adjusted EBITDA and reconciling net income attributable to HCA Healthcare, Inc. is included in today’s release. This morning’s call is being recorded and a replay of the call will be available later today.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Sam.

Sam Hazen

Alright. Thank you, Frank, and good morning. Thank you for joining our call. The operational momentum we had at the end of the last year continued into the first quarter of 2023. The company produced solid earnings that reflected strong demand for our services and improvements in our operating costs in particular contract labor expenses.

For the quarter, diluted earnings per share excluding losses on sales of facilities grew by almost 20% to $4.93. Adjusted EBITDA grew close to 8%. Same facility volumes across the company were strong in the first quarter, admissions grew 4.4% year-over-year. Non-COVID admissions were up 12%. Our inpatient business continued to be supported by strong acuity and a favorable payer mix. Inpatient surgeries increased 3.6%. Same facility equivalent admissions increased 7.5%. This was driven by emergency room visits, which grew 10% and outpatient surgeries, which grew 5%.

Other outpatient categories also grew including outpatient cardiology procedures, which increased 7%. The demand increase was broad-based across most of the company's footprint and service lines contributing to same facility revenue growth of 5%, as compared to the prior year.