Amedisys Reports Positive Earnings Despite Missing Estimates

After finishing 2015 on a strong note, Amedisys, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMED) again reported strong earnings during the first three months of 2016 despite barely missing analysts’ predictions of earnings per share.

The Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based home and hospice company reported adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2016 of $10.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share. The earnings just missed predictions by Wall Street analysts of 34 cents per diluted share.

Revenue for the company’s home health assets reached $273 million for the first quarter, up $31 million from the same quarter a year prior.

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The company has taken numerous steps to adapt to changing care models in states with bundled payments and value-based purchasing pilots.

Amedisys is also increasing its Medicare payer base among its patient group.

“A key thing for us is that we are focused on the payer mix,” President and CEO Paul Kusserow said on a public earnings call Wednesday. “We are increasing our Medicare growth. It’s slow, but we are turning the ship.”

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The provider has also taken steps to reduce employee turnover, aiming to cut the voluntary turnover rate to 25% by the end of 2016.

Kusserow remained bullish on the home health sector overall, indicating that the company was still aggressively seeking acquisitions and had 200 prospective acquisitions.

“We are seeing sings of increased activity,” Kusserow said Wednesday. “We have prospected over 200 opportunities and 13 processes underway.”

The home health and hospice provider also has been adapting to bundled payment models in several of the states it holds a presence. While many of the new models are still too new to report statistical data, executives noted that working with hospital partners worked as long as patients received at least five home health visits.

“The results we are seeing are very strong in our ability to work with folks as long as we get over five visits,” Kusserow said. “It’s still a relatively small part of our business.”

About 29% of the company’s home health volume is operating in the event states with value-based purchasing models. In those states, executives touted the strong 3.56-star rating for patient care average and 4.34-star rating for patient satisfaction survey average.

Despite stronger earnings, Amedisys’ stock dropped more than 5% on Wednesday, hovering under $50 by the end of the day.

Written by Amy Baxter

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