Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Analyst: Hey. Good morning. So you talked about your capital allocation. Of course, there’s a share repurchase of $1 billion, there are dividends to be paid, and you’ve talked about the outreach labs and inpatient hospital labs that you’ve acquired. I wanted to ask what other kinds of assets you’re looking at, perhaps in terms of the field in advanced diagnostics beyond PGDx.

Adam Schechter: Yes. Thanks for the question. And you’re exactly right, our capital allocation, we focus right now we have a $1 billion accelerated repo program. We’ve got our dividend that we’re committed to. We’re going to pay down some maturing debt. And at the same time, we have significant opportunity with hospital laboratories as well as local laboratories as well. And that’s the primary focus of what we see in the near-term. I don’t see us doing anything that would be a significant deal outside of our core expertise. We’re focused on our core and maximizing our core. And as I look at the other parts of our business, I feel like we have a good portion of what we need. There doesn’t seem to be anything strategically that we’re missing. So it’s really going to be about the hospital, local laboratories primarily.

Unidentified Analyst: I appreciate that. And you briefly mentioned PAMA. So wanted to ask what your expectations for PAMA for the forthcoming years? And any updated thoughts on SALSA as well?

Adam Schechter: Yes. So we are hopeful that there’s a path forward on SALSA. ACLA, the trade organization is working on that. But at the same time we realized that we’ve got to be prepared in case PAMA does get implemented again next year. So when we think about next year, we’ve built into a plan about $75 million of downside due to PAMA. I’m hoping that we won’t realize that, but we have to create our business model, assuming that does occur and have our cost base reflected what we would do if that does happen. I am optimistic that people realize the importance of our industry, the importance of what we do. And therefore, PAMA will not be implemented in the way it has in the past, but that’s not what we’re planning for as we look forward.

Unidentified Analyst: Appreciate it. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from the line of Patrick Donnelly with Citi. Your line is now open.

Adam Schechter: Good morning, Patrick. Thanks for the question.

Patrick Donnelly: Hey. How are you? Maybe just a quick one on Ascension; can you just talk about how that’s tracking both on the revenue side? And then you mentioned, obviously the margin piece, I know it’s a big focus in terms of ramping that up to corporate average and then some. So I would love just an update on Ascension, how you’re tracking and the cost side as well?

Adam Schechter: Yes. So I’ll start, and then Glenn can add some commentary. So we’re very pleased with the relationship that we have with Ascension and how the deal is progressing. In particular, the integration is going very, very well. We’ve given kind of a sense of $550 million to $600 million is what we expect the revenue to be. I would say it’s probably contributing more towards the higher end of that than the lower end of that. And if you look at the margins, we said it was going to start up at the low-single-digits and then get to the mid-single digits after the first year, and it’s certainly on track to do that. And then we expect next year and the following years for the margin to continue to improve. Ultimately, because of the mix of Ascension being heavily towards managing their laboratories, the margin will never get to our average margin, but it will continue to improve over time.