Healthcare Services reports Q1 EPS 22c, consensus 19c

Reports Q1 revenue $ $423.4M, consensus $424.95M. Ted Wahl, Chief Executive Officer, stated, “Our team delivered strong first quarter results, building on our positive momentum in 2023. During the quarter, we managed adjusted cost of services under 86% and continued to grow our new business and manager-in-training pipelines. We remain confident that we will deliver on our goal of year-over-year growth in 2024, with the majority of those new business adds expected in the second half of the year.” Mr. Wahl continued, “On the cash collections front, historically, the first quarter is our most challenging for cash collections, especially on the heels of the fourth quarter, which typically sees our strongest collections. The first quarter seasonality is anticipated and accounted for in our cash flow forecasting. However, what was unanticipated was the February Change Healthcare cyberattack. The resulting disruption had a far-reaching impact across the healthcare landscape and affected the claims submissions and billing activities of long-term and post-acute care providers, many of whom are HCSG customers. In spite of these first quarter headwinds, anticipated or otherwise, we achieved 95% cash collections and would have met our first quarter cash flow forecast if not for the Change Healthcare issue. While this event was disruptive during the quarter, we are confident that the impact on our customers is temporary. We expect to make up for any delays in cash collections in the months ahead, which is why we’re reiterating our 2024 adjusted cash flow range of $40.0 to $55.M.”