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Article Excerpt
OPERATOR: Good day and welcome to the Amedisys fourth quarter 2008 earnings conference call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Kevin LeBlanc. Please go ahead.
KEVIN LEBLANC, IR, AMEDISYS, INC.: Thank you, Laura. Good morning and thank you for joining the Amedisys investor conference call to discuss this morning's fourth-quarter 2008 earnings announcement and related matters. By now you should have received a copy of our earnings press release. If you have not received the press release, you may access it on the investor relations page on our website at www.Amedisys.com.
Joining me on today's call from Amedisys are Bill Borne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; Larry Graham, President and Chief Operating Officer; and Dale Redman, Chief Financial Officer.
Before we get started with our call, I would like to remind everyone that any statements made on this conference call today or in our press releases that express a belief, expectation or intent as well as those that are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements and are protected under the Safe Harbor of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to Amedisys today, and the Company assumes no obligation to update these statements as circumstances change. These forward-looking statements may involve a number of risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's results to differ materially from such statements. These risks and uncertainties include factors detailed in our SEC filings, including our Forms 10-K and 10-Q.
Also, the Company urges caution in considering any current trends or guidance that may be discussed on this conference call. The home health and hospice industry is highly competitive, and trends and guidance are subject to numerous factors, risks and influences which are described in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any obligations to update information on trends or targets other than in its periodic filings with the SEC.
Our Company Web site address is www.Amedisys.com. We use our website as a channel of distribution for important Company information. Important information including press releases, analyst presentations and financial information regarding the Company is routinely on and accessible on the investor relations sub-page of our website which is accessible by clicking on the tab labeled, investors, on our website homepage. We also use our website to expedite public access to time-critical information regarding the Company in advance or in lieu of distributing a press release or a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission disclosing the same information. Therefore, investors should look to the investor relations sub-page of our website for important and time-critical information. Visitors to our website can also register to receive automatic e-mail and other notifications alerting them when new information is made available on the investor relations sub-page of our website.
In addition, as required by SEC Regulation G, a reconciliation of any non-GAAP measures mentioned during our call today to the most comparable GAAP measures will be available on our website on the Investor Relations page under press releases. Thank you, and now I will turn the call over to Bill Borne. Please go ahead, Mr. Borne.
BILL BORNE, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, AMEDISYS, INC.: Thank you, Kevin, and good morning. First let me welcome each of you to this call. We appreciate the opportunity to update you regarding the Company's performance and share our vision for Amedisys.
We had another year of outstanding results. For the fourth quarter we recorded net revenue of $340 million and adjusted earnings per share of $0.98. Growth was 75% and 56%, respectively, over the fourth quarter of '07.
For the full year we recorded net revenue of $1,187,000,000 and adjusted earnings per share of $3.31, up from $697 million and $2.32 per diluted share in '07, net of the Alliance gain, which was growth of 70% and 43%, respectively.
In addition to these financial results, several accomplishments in 2008 furthered our progress towards being the leading provider of high-quality home health services to the chronic co-morbid aging populations. We completed six acquisitions, adding 131 home health locations, 14 hospice locations and over $365 million in annualized revenue. We started 35 new home health agencies and five new hospice agencies over the course of the year. We now operate in 37 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico. We continued the rollout of our Specialty Division. We concluded the largest acquisition in our Company's history and completed the integration in six months. We arranged a new $500 million unsecured credit facility and an initial draw of $395 million in connection with the TLC acquisition. We successfully adjusted our clinical care coordination platform for the new payment system.
Finally, through cash flow from operations we have reduced the debt incurred with the TLC acquisition by $87 million or 22%.
During the quarter we opened 15 new home health agencies as a result of de novo growth and acquisitions in previous quarters. We ended the year with 480 home health locations, 155 more agencies in the fourth quarter of '07; in addition, one new hospice agency in the fourth quarter. As a result of de novo growth and acquisitions in previous quarters, we ended the year with 48 hospice agencies, 19 more hospice agencies than the previous year. So far in '09 we have closed on one acquisition that added two home health agencies in Arizona, and announced that we have signed a purchase agreement for three home health agencies and one hospice agency located in Arkansas. We expect to close on this transaction in March.
In the spirit of full transparency, over the last few months we have been posting relevant information about our clinical profile, quality controls, compliance procedures and IT infrastructure to our Investor Relations page on our website. We have also posted white papers prepared by independent consultants and organizations. We will continue to update this site with relevant facts and information that will help investors in their decision-making process. So, we encourage you to routinely visit this section to learn more about our Company.
As a health care company providing services to the most fragile, vulnerable and costly patients, our mission is to provide services as needed to our target population. Our focus is to care for the complex patients in our nation, providing appropriate care for their condition. In our efforts to be the most transparent health care company in the nation, I want to remind our investors that there is a distinct difference in our interpretation of patient care metrics as they relate to financial metrics versus the market's. Our clinical metrics are reflective of needs of our patients, including such considerations as acuity, research and visits per episode, which will vary and will not always been in alignment with the typical trends expected by the financial markets for its targets.
The trends of these methods are referencing patient needs and not free market trends. In many instances, from our clinical perspective there is no correlation between the two,...
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