Universal Health Services, Inc.

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the fourth quarter 2024 Universal Health Services Earnings Conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you need to press star 1-1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1-1 again. Please be advised, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Steve Filton, Executive Vice President, and CFO, please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Mark Miller is also joining us this morning. We welcome you to this review of Universal Health Services results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2024. During the conference call, we'll be using words such as believes, expects, anticipates, estimates, and similar words that represent forecast projections and forward-looking statements. For anyone not familiar with the risks and uncertainties inherent in these forward-looking statements, I recommend a careful reading of the section on risk factors and forward-looking statements on risk factors in our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024. We'd like to highlight certain developments and business trends before opening the call up to questions. As discussed in our press release last night, the company reported net income attributable to UHS for diluted share of $4.96 for the fourth quarter of 2024. After adjusting for the impact of the items requested in the supplemental schedule included with the press release, our adjusted net income attributable to UHS for diluted share was $4.92 for the quarter ended December 31, 2024.

During the fourth quarter of 2024, on the same facility basis, adjusted admissions to our acute care hospitals increased 2.2% over fourth quarter of prior year. same facility net revenues in our acute care hospital segment increased by 8.7% during the fourth quarter of 2024 as compared to last year's fourth quarter, driven primarily by a 5.3% increase in net revenue per adjusted admission. Meanwhile, operating expenses continue to be well managed. The amount of premium pay in the quarter, for example, which declined from a peak of 153 million for the first quarter of 2022, was 60 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, remaining consistent with the previous two quarters. For the full year of 2024, our strong acute care revenues, combined with effective expense controls, resulted in a 13% increase in EBITDA, even after excluding the growth in Medicaid supplemental payments. During the fourth quarter, same facility revenues at our behavioral health hospitals increased by 11.1%, driven primarily by an 8.7% increase in revenue per adjusted patient day. Excluding the year-over-year growth in Medicaid supplemental payments, the same facility revenue increased with 7.4%.