iRhythm Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ:IRTC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

David Rescott: Okay. Just…

Quentin Blackford: David, I would just add to that. I was just going to say to your point is it more of a prior year issue or anything we’re seeing in the business? This year absolutely nothing we’re seeing here in the business say from Q3 into Q4. Everything’s right in line. To Brice’s point, it’s much more about last year and the higher MAC rate that we were dealing with. But I would just point out as well most of these discussions with the large national commercial payers these discussions have been had or in the midst of and nothing that gives us any meaningful concern around pricing heading into 2024 either. So I think we feel good around the pricing environment. And finally after years of having navigated this from a reimbursement perspective we see some pretty steady and stable pricing and feel good about that on a go-forward basis.

David Rescott: Okay. So net-net I guess outside of any changes to maybe what national reimbursement in 2024, nothing new on the pricing front. Is that right?

Quentin Blackford: Yeah, nothing new on the pricing front and frankly I think CMS just dropped their final rule in the midst of our call right here and it looks like everything’s right in line with the proposed rule from everything that we can tell. So I don’t expect any meaningful noise around price as we head into 2024 and that’s great news.

David Rescott: Okay. Great. And then just a follow-up on margins next year. Appreciate the comments kind of on the gross margin side. When you think about the $15 million to $20 million or so in this adjusted OpEx that’s getting worked through this year are there still opportunities into 2024, either that you’re still working through or new opportunities to get into where you can work on improving kind of some of the underlying margin aspects of the business and really any colour on how we should think about maybe margins improving into 2024 more on the OpEx or just EBITDA side?

Quentin Blackford: Yeah. So there are absolutely other opportunities. I will tell you us having the GBS setup now it allows us an area for us to look at other opportunities where there are functions that could have some presence over there. And so really this year was the foundational year of setting up the GBS, but also putting in place some outsourcing opportunities and some other levers that that $15 million to $20 million allowed us to stand up. And so that will allow us leverage well into the future and we’re excited about that. For me I think it’s important to understand, over the last two years, we’ve created about 1,100 basis points of adjusted EBITDA benefit from 2022 and then into 2023 with where we are from a guidance perspective, we’re seeing major movement and major leverage and we’re well on our way. And we absolutely believe that 15% range in the long run is achievable. And again, we’ll do our best to drive that out as quickly as we possibly can.

David Rescott: Okay, great. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Marie Thibault from BTIG. Marie, your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst: Hey, good afternoon. This is Sam on for Marie. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe I can just start here on CAMELOT and Quentin maybe some of your comments on changes in payer policies. Just try to understand how widespread that is maybe those changes in prior authorizations and maybe if that’s enabling quicker pull through of patients onto the Zio?

Quentin Blackford: Well, I think you go back to my prepared remarks. It’s early days. But the early success that we’ve had already has the potential to impact more than 16 million covered lives just by reducing or removing sort of the prior auth required of a halter before you step onto a long-term monitor. That’s encouraging. And I think CAMELOT data is very, very clear, not specific only to long-term cardiac monitoring relative to these other modalities but specific to Zio in particular. And when the payers see that and when the at-risk entities see that it gets their attention. And we’re having more conversations than we’d ever had around why exactly is Zio different and better than the competitive offerings that are out there.

Historically, it’s been long-term cardiac monitoring is one and the same and they’re all the same. We’re having more conversations today than ever around why it’s unique and why it’s different. And when we have the opportunity to get our CMO to sit down with the CMO in these plans, I like our chances. I think we’ve seen some incredible success when we’re able to really articulate the differentiation around it and couldn’t be more bullish on what CAMELOT’s doing into the future. As a matter of fact, we’re not stopping with CAMELOT, as it is today. I think there’s the opportunities to expand that into other data sets that we can start to articulate our value as well and make this an even stronger argument. So you’re going to continue to see us invest in those ways.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. Well understood. And we’ll be certainly looking out for those new data sets. Maybe I can just use my follow-up here on international and I might have missed this in the prepared remarks but – have you gotten any initial feedback yet on the Japanese regulatory submission? I know it was pretty recent so it might still be too early but any feedback you’ve heard from there? And is late 2024 early 2025 still the right time to think about maybe some initial revenue contribution once you start to build reimbursement there? Thanks.

Quentin Blackford: Yes, it’s a great question. And the reality is yes, we absolutely are engaged with the Japanese regulatory authorities as we speak. They came back very quickly with our submission, which I think articulated and sort of identified just how excited they are to get this new product into their market. And again, having the high medical needs designation is significant in that market. And I want to reiterate, it’s not high medical needs specific to long-term patch monitoring. This is high medical needs specific to Zio in particular. And so I think it has their attention. We’re engaging with them. As a matter of fact we’ll be in person with them later this year as we continue to work through this. But they’re very much engaged and the questions are going back and forth as we speak right now.

Unidentified Analyst: Very helpful. Thanks for taking the questions.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Suraj Kalia from Oppenheimer. Your line is now open. Please go ahead.

Suraj Kalia: Good afternoon, Quentin, Brice, an you hear me all right?