Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) continues to grow its non-Medicare home health business while increasing its patient admissions and total volume. At the same time, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based provider is seeing its cost per visit figures rise.

Those are just some of the main takeaways for Amedisys in the second quarter of 2023. The company released its Q2 financial results Wednesday, skipping the usual day-after earnings call due to its pending sale to United HealthGroup’s (NYSE: UNH) Optum.

One of the largest home health and hospice providers in the nation, Amedisys operates across 522 care centers in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Its core offerings include home health and hospice, in addition to higher-acuity care services.

Overall, net service revenue for Amedisys was $553 million in the second quarter, a less than 1% dip compared to the $557.9 million the provider brought in during the previous year’s same three-month period.

Of note, Amedisys reported a financial loss in the second quarter of $80.3 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year ago. Much of that was tied up in costs associated with Amedisys’ transaction plans, according to the company.

In May, Amedisys announced plans to merge with Option Care Health (Nasdaq: OPCH). By June, it had pivoted to a new buyer – Optum, which is acquiring Amedisys in an all-cash transaction valued at about $3.3 billion, or $101 per share.

“The combination of Amedisys with Optum unites two organizations dedicated to providing compassionate, value-based comprehensive care to patients and their families,” Amedisys wrote in a June 26 announcement.

While Amedisys didn’t have its strongest financial performance in recent memory this past quarter, it did beat many analysts’ expectations.

“AMED’s 2Q23 revenues came in ~3% light vs. both us and Street, while the Adjusted EBITDA margin beat the Street by over 280 basis points,” a research note from Stephens states. “Relative to our model, the EBITDA beat was well-balanced between Home Health and Hospice, and even Contessa (High Acuity) showed a slightly lower EBITDA loss than we projected.”

Home health, higher-acuity care operating highlights

The home health segment for Amedisys reported $349.8 million in Q2 2023 net service revenue, up slightly compared to $341.9 billion in last year’s second quarter. While fee-for-service revenue accounted for the bulk of that $349.8 million, Amedisys grew its non-Medicare revenues by more than $10 million year over year to $130 million.

The company’s home health admissions climbed from 94,063 patients in Q2 2022 to 97,453 in 2023’s second quarter. Total volume similarly jumped to 143,261 patients, compared to 139,884 the prior year.

Visiting clinician cost per visit in the second quarter of 2023 increased to $99.81 compared to $97.68 a year ago. Clinical manager cost per visit likewise increased from $10.77 to $11.14. Total cost per visit increased from $108.45 to $110.95.

Amedisys’ higher-acuity care segment had a pretty big second quarter, company financial results indicate.

The segment grew its number of admitting joint venture markets from nine in Q2 2022 to 11 in Q2 2023, while also growing its full-risk admissions from 104 to 186. The higher-acuity care segment had 534 patient admissions in total.

Net service revenue for Amedisys’ higher-acuity care segment increased 48% from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023, from $2.7 million to $4 million.