LHC Group Chairman and CEO Keith Myers painted an optimistic picture of the home health industry as it emerges from the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic. Myers presented his encouraging forecast Thursday morning during an earnings call with Wall Street analysts.
“Never before have we seen such a sustained and significant emphasis from Congress and from CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] in expanding in-home healthcare services,” Myers said.
Myers, an active advocate for the home care industry on Capitol Hill, predicted CMS will make many pandemic waivers, such as telehealth and hospital-at-home permanent after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends.
“They have to be reimbursed appropriately. They have to be measured and regulated appropriately, but I do feel that a lot of that will stand,” Myers explained.
Choose Home passage ahead?
Myers also remains bullish on the passage of legislation benefiting the home care industry. He said the Congressional Budget Office is scoring or estimating the costs of the Choose Home Care Act introduced by a bipartisan team of lawmakers last year. That legislation lets Medicare-eligible patients receive extended care as an add-on to the existing Medicare home health benefit 30 days following a hospital stay.
“We know of the strong support,” Myers said. “ But then, it will be about what vehicle the Choose Home legislation would attach to.”
On Wednesday, LHC Group reported a challenging 2021 fourth quarter that was hamstrung by the spike in the COVID-19 omicron variant. Despite a $50 million improvement in revenues in the final three months of last year versus the same period in 2020, per-share earnings were off $0.48. Still, LHC Group’s full year revenues and earnings rose about 4%.
Positive signs
LHC Group President Chief Operating Officer Joshua Proffitt told analysts the company is already seeing marked improvement in costs as omicron cases fall. In the final quarter of 2021, approximately 6% of LHC Group’s field staff were quarantined due to the virus, forcing the company to rely more heavily on contract nurses or turn away clients. He said currently fewer than 1% of staff are quarantined.
“Our census on January 15 was roughly 83,000, and earlier this week we pushed 89,300, so we’ve had over a 7% increase in census growth in home health in a five-week period due to this increase in employee capacity,” Proffitt explained.
Despite the improvement, the executives don’t expect the pandemic to be in their rearview mirror until 2023. This year the company expects to repay roughly $235 million in advanced Medicare payments through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES). It also expects the continued shortage of nurses and caregivers will put upward pressure on labor costs for at least another year.
