Chemed Corp

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the ChemEd first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentations, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question at that time, please press star 11 on your telephone. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. I will now turn the conference to your host, Holly Schmidt, Assistant Controller. Ma'am, you may begin.

Good morning. Our conference call this morning will review the financial results for the first quarter of 2023 ended March 31st, 2023. Before we begin, let me remind you that the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 apply to this conference call. During the course of this call, the company will make various remarks concerning management's expectations, predictions, plans, and prospects that constitute forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected by these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors including those identified in the company's news release of April 26 and in various other filings with the SEC. You are cautioned that any forward-looking statements reflect management's current view only and that the company undertakes no obligation to revise or update such statements in the future. In addition, management may also discuss non-GAAP operating performance results during today's call, including earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP results is provided in the company's press release date of April 26th, which is available on the company's website at ChemEd.com. I would now like to introduce our speakers for today. Kevin McNamara, President and Chief Executive Officer of ChemEd Corporation. Dave Williams, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ChemEd. And Nick Westfall, President and Chief Executive Officer of ChemEd's VITAS Healthcare Corporation subsidiary. I will now turn the call over to Kevin McNamara.

Thank you, Holly. Good morning. Welcome to ChemEd Corporation's first quarter 2023 conference call. I will begin with highlights for the quarter and Dave and Nick will follow up with additional operating details. I will then open up the call for questions. Our first quarter 2023 operating results released last night continue to show a return to a more normalized growth and operating results post-pandemic. For VITAS, normalization involves methodically increasing capacity by expanding our staff of licensed healthcare professionals. In the first quarter of 2023, VITAS added 200 licensed professionals, 60% of which are licensed nurses. Since we implemented our hiring and retention program in July 2022, VITAS expanded licensed staffing by 475 professionals. Nick will provide more detailed information on this issue later in the call. Although we continue to see disruption in our referral patterns when compared to pre-pandemic admissions, these disruptions continue to dissipate and reflect methodical improvement in admissions, average daily census, and key pre-admit patient locations. Roto-Rooter had a solid first quarter, increasing revenue 7.9% over the prior year. Revenue in the first quarter of 2023 exceeded our internal estimates, with January 2023 being exceptionally strong. March revenue was somewhat lighter than we anticipated, but still within normal patterns. Overall, demand for key services in both commercial and residential segments continue at levels significantly above our pre-pandemic demand. This is demonstrated with commercial revenue increasing 41%, and residential revenue expanding 73% when compared with the first quarter of 2019. Roto-Root continues to be well-positioned, and we anticipate continued expansion of market share by pressing our core competitive advantages in terms of brand awareness, customer response time, 24-7 call centers, and Internet presence. With that, I'd like to turn this teleconference over to David.