HCA Healthcare, Inc. (NYSE:HCA) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unfortunately, we are dealing with the Valesco integrations and we’ll overcome that. But I think you could reasonably expect that our core trends that we’ve seen year-to-date should for the most part continue at a reasonable pace.

Sarah James : Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Joshua Raskin with Nephron Research. Your line is open.

Joshua Raskin: Hi, thanks. I hate to beat this dead horse, but just on the reduction in revenues on Valesco as the claims were getting processed, I’m just curious, what was causing that reduction in revenue? Was that, a lower rate issue, was that payer mix, was that reduction in code submitted versus paid or was that just less services? And then I know there’s been some challenges to the No Surprises Act underway. I know the arbitration process just started back up again. Is any of that going to mitigate any of the impact there?

Sam Hazen: Yes. Yes, so it’s hard to attribute the shortfall in any one area. As I said, we were operating on maybe some incomplete historical data as our model is, and probably an array of other issues that potential other hospital providers are experiencing. And so, yes, we’ve got a number of initiatives that we’re going to try to address that we’ve talked about. We can continue to see – we prefer to be an in-network providers to avoid the out of – the surprise billing and that IVR process. And so we’re working with our payers diligently to be in-network and to get reasonable rates going forward, and that’s going to be part of our action plan.

Operator: Our next question comes from Brian Tanquilut with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Sam Hazen : Brianna, I think we’re done, if you want to close the queue.

Operator: Thank you. Seeing no further questions, I will now turn the call back over to Frank Morgan for closing remarks.

Frank Morgan: Brianna, thank you so much for your help today, and thanks to everyone for joining on the call. I’m around this afternoon if I can answer any additional questions you might have. Have a great day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.