Claritev Corp (MPLN) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Hello, and welcome to today's MultiPlan Corporation First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference. My name is Bailey, and I'll be the moderator for today's call. (Operator Instructions)

您好，歡迎參加今天的 MultiPlan Corporation 2023 年第一季度收益會議。我叫貝利，我將擔任今天電話會議的主持人。 （操作員說明）

I would now like to hand the conference over to Shawna Gasik, AVP of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

現在我想將會議交給投資者關係副總裁肖娜·加西克 (Shawna Gasik)。謝謝。請繼續。

Thank you, Bailey. Good morning, and welcome to MultiPlan's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. Joining me today is Dale White, Chief Executive Officer; and Jim Head, Chief Financial Officer. The call is being webcast and can be accessed through the Investor Relations section of our website at www.multiplan.com. During our call, we will refer to the supplemental slide deck that is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website, along with the first quarter 2023 earnings press release, issued earlier this morning.

謝謝你，貝利。早上好，歡迎參加 MultiPlan 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。今天加入我的是首席執行官戴爾·懷特 (Dale White)；吉姆·海德（Jim Head），首席財務官。此次電話會議正在進行網絡直播，您可以通過我們網站 www.multiplan.com 的投資者關係部分進行觀看。在電話會議期間，我們將參考我們網站投資者關係部分提供的補充幻燈片，以及今天上午早些時候發布的 2023 年第一季度收益新聞稿。

Before we begin, a couple of reminders. Our remarks and responses to questions today may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements represent management's beliefs and expectations only as of the date of this call. Actual results may differ materially from those forward-looking statements due to a number of risks. A summary of these risks can be found on the second page of the supplemental slide deck and a more complete description on our annual report on Form 10-K and other documents we filed with the SEC. We will also be referring to several non-GAAP measures, which we believe provide investors with a more complete understanding of MultiPlan's underlying operating results. An explanation of these non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to those most comparable GAAP measures can be found in the earnings press release and in the supplemental slide deck.

在我們開始之前，有幾點提醒。我們今天的言論和對問題的回答可能包括前瞻性陳述。這些前瞻性陳述僅代表管理層截至本次電話會議之日的信念和期望。由於多種風險，實際結果可能與這些前瞻性陳述存在重大差異。這些風險的摘要可以在補充幻燈片的第二頁找到，更完整的描述可以在我們向 SEC 提交的 10-K 表格年度報告和其他文件中找到。我們還將提及多項非 GAAP 衡量標準，我們相信這些衡量標準可以讓投資者更全面地了解 MultiPlan 的基本運營業績。對這些非公認會計準則衡量標準的解釋以及與最具可比性的公認會計準則衡量標準的調節可以在收益新聞稿和補充幻燈片中找到。

With that, I would now like to turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Dale White. Dale?

現在，我想將電話轉給我們的首席執行官戴爾·懷特 (Dale White)。戴爾？

Thank you, Shawna. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the call. I am excited to share with you today the meaningful progress we are making on a variety of fronts. It's an understatement to say we've been busy this quarter. So let me give you an update on our business results and progress against our guidance, our most recent contract renewals and most importantly, our growth plan.

謝謝你，肖娜。大家早上好，歡迎來電。我很高興今天與大家分享我們在各個方面取得的有意義的進展。可以輕描淡寫地說我們這個季度很忙。因此，讓我根據我們的指導、最近的合同續簽以及最重要的是我們的增長計劃向您介紹我們的業務成果和進展情況。

First, we've delivered results toward the higher ends of our revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance ranges for the quarter. We will review the details of the quarter in a moment, but I wanted to underscore that the first half is playing out as we expected, and we are reaffirming our 2023 guidance.

首先，我們已經向收入的高端交付了業績，並調整了本季度的 EBITDA 指導範圍。我們稍後將回顧本季度的詳細信息，但我想強調，上半年的情況正如我們預期的那樣，我們正在重申 2023 年的指導。

Second, on our fourth quarter earnings call, we indicated we would renew another multiyear contract with a larger customer in the first half of this year. I'm pleased to announce that we have completed this renewal in Q1. We now have renewed multiyear contracts with 3 of our larger customers since the third quarter of last year. As a result, our visibility in our business has materially improved and we are increasingly confident that our revenues are stabilizing and poised for growth over the next several years. As we communicated last quarter, the cumulative impact of contract renewals with these larger customers, including this latest renewal is already incorporated in our 2023 guidance.

其次，在第四季度的財報電話會議上，我們表示我們將在今年上半年與一家更大的客戶續簽另一份多年合同。我很高興地宣布，我們已在第一季度完成了更新。自去年第三季度以來，我們現已與 3 個較大客戶續簽了多年合同。因此，我們的業務知名度得到了實質性提高，我們越來越有信心我們的收入將在未來幾年穩定並有望增長。正如我們上季度所傳達的那樣，與這些大客戶續簽合同的累積影響（包括最新的續簽）已納入我們的 2023 年指導中。

Third, we are executing on our growth plan. We are on pace to launch several new products and enhancements within our core service lines this year. I am also pleased with the significant progress we have made forming our new Data & Decision Science service line, which will be instrumental in expanding our footprint beyond our out-of-network claims processing and deepening our penetration in larger and growing markets like in-network, commercial health and Medicare Advantage. In fact, we will soon be launching the first solution in this service line, which I will be -- which I will describe shortly.

第三，我們正在執行我們的增長計劃。今年，我們計劃在我們的核心服務範圍內推出多項新產品和增強功能。我還對我們在形成新的數據和決策科學服務線方面取得的重大進展感到高興，這將有助於將我們的足跡擴展到網絡外索賠處理之外，並加深我們在更大和不斷增長的市場（如內部市場）的滲透。網絡、商業健康和醫療保險優勢。事實上，我們很快將推出該服務系列中的第一個解決方案，我將很快對此進行描述。

Finally, we continued to demonstrate our capital flexibility. For the second consecutive quarter, we allocated $100 million of our cash balance towards the reduction of our debt. In Q1, we repurchased $137.8 million of face value of our 5.75% senior unsecured notes in the open market. We also took advantage of our reinstated share buyback authorization to repurchase $5.7 million of our shares during the quarter. With $266 million of unrestricted cash at quarter end, we still have ample flexibility to pursue our capital priorities.

最後，我們繼續展示我們的資本靈活性。我們連續第二個季度將 1 億美元的現金餘額用於減少債務。第一季度，我們在公開市場回購了面值 1.378 億美元的 5.75% 高級無抵押票據。我們還利用恢復的股票回購授權在本季度回購了 570 萬美元的股票。截至季度末，我們擁有 2.66 億美元的不受限制的現金，我們仍然有足夠的靈活性來追求我們的資本優先事項。

Turning to our first quarter results, as shown on Page 4 of the supplemental deck. Revenues of $236.6 million and adjusted EBITDA of $156.3 million were both in the top half of our guidance range -- our guidance ranges for the quarter. Revenues and adjusted EBITDA each declined about $5 million sequentially.

轉向我們第一季度的業績，如補充甲板第 4 頁所示。 2.366 億美元的收入和 1.563 億美元的調整後 EBITDA 均位於我們指導範圍（本季度指導範圍）的上半部分。收入和調整後 EBITDA 分別比上一季度下降約 500 萬美元。

The external environmental charges and identified savings in our core commercial health plan segment showing modest sequential growth, helping us absorb some of the anticipated headwinds related to our contract renewals with our largest -- with our larger customers. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 66%, down slightly from 67% in the prior quarter but in line with our expectations.

我們的核心商業健康計劃部門的外部環境費用和確定的節省顯示出適度的環比增長，幫助我們吸收了與我們最大的客戶續簽合同相關的一些預期阻力。我們調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 66%，略低於上一季度的 67%，但符合我們的預期。

Let me provide a few business highlights from the quarter. We had 1 of the best quarters to date in our regional payer and TPA customer segments with strong performance across our service lines, including network-based services and the payment and revenue integrity services that we acquired through Discovery Health Partners. We also had very strong revenues in the quarter in our Blues customer segment, and we added another Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

讓我提供本季度的一些業務亮點。我們的區域付款人和 TPA 客戶群經歷了迄今為止最好的季度之一，我們的整個服務線均表現強勁，包括基於網絡的服務以及我們通過 Discovery Health Partners 獲得的支付和收入誠信服務。本季度我們的 Blues 客戶群收入也非常強勁，並且我們還增加了另一個 Blue Cross Blue Shield 計劃。

Our penetration in this segment is now over 55% of the Blues Association's 34 companies with significant room to expand both within signing another 181 employer groups comprising over 42,000 lives and bringing our total membership to 1.2 million lives. We expect HST's second half outlook to be very strong with new customers and 1 of a number of new add-on products about to launch.

目前，我們在這一領域的滲透率已超過藍調協會 34 家公司的 55%，並且還有很大的擴展空間，可以與另外 181 個雇主團體（包括超過 42,000 人）簽約，使我們的會員總數達到 120 萬人。我們預計 HST 下半年的前景將非常強勁，因為新客戶和即將推出的眾多新附加產品之一。

I'd like to turn to the progress we are making on our growth plan as detailed on Page 8 of our deck. As we announced last quarter, we are introducing 4 new organic products and enhancements in 2023, which we estimate will generate $50 million to $100 million of incremental revenue over the next few years. The first of those, a balance bill protection service will launch as scheduled in June for customers of HST's value-driven health plan service. This new product manages a planned member's exposure to balance billing to the benefit of the member, the plan and the provider. It also removes a common barrier to adoption of reference-based pricing solutions for employers with less tolerance for the risk of balanced billing and the potential friction it creates between providers and members.

我想談談我們在增長計劃方面所取得的進展，詳情請參閱我們的幻燈片第 8 頁。正如我們上季度宣布的那樣，我們將在 2023 年推出 4 種新的有機產品和增強功能，我們預計這些產品將在未來幾年內產生 5000 萬至 1 億美元的增量收入。首先，餘額賬單保護服務將於 6 月按計劃為 HST 價值驅動的健康計劃服務的客戶推出。該新產品管理計劃會員的平衡計費風險，以保證會員、計劃和提供商的利益。它還消除了雇主採用基於參考的定價解決方案的常見障礙，這些雇主對平衡計費風險及其在提供商和會員之間產生的潛在摩擦的容忍度較低。

Also on target to launch before year-end, our machine learning enhancements to both our NSA compliance services and our next generation of the out-of-network pricing services. Both will now enable greater flexibility in managing out-of-network medical costs. These enhancements capitalize on our unique access to extensive provider, pricing and claims data to optimally align our solutions with a payer-specific benefit plan and business objectives.

我們還計劃在年底前推出針對 NSA 合規服務和下一代網外定價服務的機器學習增強功能。現在，兩者都將為管理網絡外醫療費用提供更大的靈活性。這些增強功能利用了我們對廣泛的提供商、定價和索賠數據的獨特訪問權限，使我們的解決方案與付款人特定的福利計劃和業務目標保持最佳一致。

In next quarter, we are adding a data mining component to our itemized bill review service, which leverages our expansive payment integrity analytics to help our customers find and address more billing errors in their complex high-dollar claims prior to payment.

下個季度，我們將在逐項賬單審核服務中添加數據挖掘組件，該組件利用我們廣泛的支付完整性分析來幫助我們的客戶在付款前發現並解決複雜的高額索賠中的更多賬單錯誤。

This brings us to our exciting new Data & Decision Science service line. This new service line will deliver decision analytics and software tools to allow our customers to manage the health risk of a population, benchmark important network contracts, assess their plan's financial performance and use data, machine learning and AI to achieve other important business imperatives. We've had numerous conversations with our existing customer base and know that this is an area where there is -- the need is high, and there are few available solutions. Our provider network, our connected technology platform and expansive claims flows position us uniquely to deliver enriched and actionable data to our customers through market-leading products.

這給我們帶來了令人興奮的新數據和決策科學服務線。這條新的服務線將提供決策分析和軟件工具，使我們的客戶能夠管理人口的健康風險，對重要的網絡合同進行基準測試，評估其計劃的財務績效，並使用數據、機器學習和人工智能來實現其他重要的業務需求。我們與現有客戶群進行了多次對話，並知道這是一個需求很高但可用解決方案很少的領域。我們的提供商網絡、互聯技術平台和廣泛的索賠流程使我們能夠通過市場領先的產品向客戶提供豐富且可操作的數據。

The first of these products in our Data & Decision Science service line, scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2023, is a price transparency service that leverages the machine readable payer and provider pricing data now required by regulation to be made public. We are thrilled by how differentiated our solution will be in the market. Not only will we aggregate this vast contracted rate information, but more importantly, we will enrich it in ways that no other company can, by leveraging MultiPlan's extensive demographic and affiliated data on 1.3 million contracted providers, by leveraging our pricing technology that enables comparison to Medicare, median and other financial benchmarks and with our deep clinical billing expertise, which enables normalization across varying rate structures.

我們的數據和決策科學服務系列中的第一個產品計劃於 2023 年第三季度推出，它是一種價格透明度服務，利用機器可讀的付款人和提供商定價數據，這些數據現在按法規要求公開。我們的解決方案在市場上的差異化讓我們感到非常興奮。我們不僅會匯總這一龐大的合同費率信息，更重要的是，我們將以其他公司無法做到的方式豐富它，通過利用 MultiPlan 130 萬合同提供商的廣泛人口統計和附屬數據，通過利用我們的定價技術來進行比較醫療保險、中位數和其他財務基準以及我們深厚的臨床計費專業知識，可以實現不同費率結構的正常化。

With this data enrichment, we will drive value well beyond simply having access to publicly available somewhat messy dataset. Our road map includes sophisticated and strategic use cases that help our customers improve their competitive positions such as benchmarking plan performance, driving network contracting strategies and innovating network design.

通過這種數據豐富，我們將推動價值遠遠超出簡單地訪問公開可用的有些混亂的數據集。我們的路線圖包括複雜的戰略用例，可幫助我們的客戶提高其競爭地位，例如對計劃性能進行基準測試、推動網絡承包策略和創新網絡設計。

Our Data & Decision Science service line will open up significant opportunities and is a critical part of our plan to expand our footprint beyond our out-of-network claim processing and deepen our penetration in large and growing markets like in-network commercial and Medicare Advantage. As you can see, we have been hard at work. We have strong customer demand and significant opportunities to grow our business. We are executing on our concrete plan to capture these opportunities. and the energy and enthusiasm inside the company is as high as I've ever seen it. But we get it. We have -- we understand we have to deliver results as we progress through this pivotal year. We are excited to discuss all of this and more at our Investor Day coming up on June 28.

我們的數據和決策科學服務線將帶來重大機遇，是我們計劃的重要組成部分，旨在將我們的足跡擴展到網絡外索賠處理之外，並加深我們對網絡內商業和醫療保險優勢等大型和不斷增長的市場的滲透。正如您所看到的，我們一直在努力工作。我們擁有強勁的客戶需求和發展業務的重要機會。我們正在執行我們的具體計劃來抓住這些機會。公司內部的活力和熱情是我所見過的最高的。但我們明白了。我們知道，在這一關鍵的一年中，我們必須取得成果。我們很高興能在 6 月 28 日的投資者日討論所有這些內容以及更多內容。

With that, let me turn it over to Jim.

那麼，讓我把它交給吉姆。

Thanks, Dale, and good morning, everyone. Today, I'll do the usual walk-through of our Q1 financial results, provide some commentary on our Q2 outlook and discuss the state of our progress towards our fiscal '23 guidance. And I'll close with some commentary on our balance sheet and provide an update on our capital allocation plans.

謝謝戴爾，大家早上好。今天，我將按照慣例概述第一季度的財務業績，對第二季度的前景提供一些評論，並討論我們在 23 財年指導方面的進展情況。最後，我將對我們的資產負債表進行一些評論，並提供有關我們資本配置計劃的最新信息。

As shown on Page 4 of the supplemental deck, first quarter revenue was $236.6 million, declining 21% from Q1 '22 and declining 2% from the prior quarter, but landing in the top half of our range of guidance for the quarter.

如補充資料第 4 頁所示，第一季度收入為 2.366 億美元，比 22 年第一季度下降 21%，比上一季度下降 2%，但仍處於我們本季度指導範圍的上半部分。

Turning to revenues by service line, as shown on Page 5 of the supplemental deck, network-based and payment and revenue integrity service lines showed strength sequentially. Network-based services declined about 17% from the prior year quarter and increased about 5% sequentially. Analytics-based services revenues declined about 22% from the prior year quarter and declined about 5% sequentially. And Payment and Revenue Integrity services revenues declined about 19% from the prior year quarter and increased about 3% sequentially. And as Dale said, we continue to execute well on the regional player, Blues and TPA customer channels, and we're seeing robust growth in the services acquired through HST and Discovery Health Partners.

至於按服務線劃分的收入，如補充資料第 5 頁所示，基於網絡的服務線以及支付和收入誠信服務線依次顯示出實力。基於網絡的服務較上年同期下降約 17%，環比增長約 5%。基於分析的服務收入較上年同期下降約 22%，環比下降約 5%。支付和收入完整性服務收入較去年同期下降約 19%，環比增長約 3%。正如 Dale 所說，我們繼續在區域參與者、Blues 和 TPA 客戶渠道上表現良好，並且我們看到通過 HST 和 Discovery Health Partners 獲得的服務強勁增長。

Our first quarter revenues were driven by a modest sequential uplift in core volumes which partially offset a contraction in our revenue as a percentage of savings. As detailed on Page 6 of the supplemental deck, medical charges processed increased 2% from Q4 '22 to $39.7 billion and potential medical cost savings increased 3% from Q4 '22 to $5.6 billion.

我們第一季度的收入是由核心銷量的適度連續增長推動的，這部分抵消了我們收入佔儲蓄百分比的下降。正如補充資料第 6 頁所述，處理的醫療費用比 22 年第 4 季度增加了 2%，達到 397 億美元，潛在的醫療成本節省比 22 年第 4 季度增加了 3%，達到 56 億美元。

In the core commercial health plans category, the sequential increases in medical charges processed and potential medical cost savings identified were also 2% and 3% sequentially. This growth in volumes helped absorb some of the anticipated headwinds related to our contract renewals with our larger customers, which was the main contributor to the 21 basis point decline in our revenue as a percentage of savings, as shown on Page 7 of the supplemental deck.

在核心商業健康計劃類別中，處理的醫療費用和確定的潛在醫療成本節省也分別連續增長 2% 和 3%。銷量的增長幫助吸收了與我們與大客戶續簽合同相關的一些預期阻力，這是我們收入佔節省百分比下降 21 個基點的主要原因，如補充甲板第 7 頁所示。

Turning to expenses. Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA expenses were $80.3 million, up $7.7 million from the prior year quarter and up less than $1 million sequentially. Both the year-over-year and sequential comparisons were driven by structural cost increases and investments in the business, partially offset by actions we began taking in the fourth quarter of '22 to reduce costs in 2023.

轉向開支。第四季度調整後 EBITDA 費用為 8030 萬美元，比去年同期增加 770 萬美元，比上一季度增加不到 100 萬美元。同比和環比都是由結構性成本增加和業務投資推動的，但我們在 22 年第四季度開始採取的 2023 年降低成本行動部分抵消了這一增長。

Adjusted EBITDA was $156.3 million in Q1 '23, down 31% from $225.4 million in the prior year quarter and down 3% from $161.5 million in Q4 '22. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 66.0% in Q1 '23 versus 75.6% in Q1 '22 and 67.0% in the prior quarter.

23 年第一季度調整後 EBITDA 為 1.563 億美元，比去年同期的 2.254 億美元下降 31%，比 22 年第四季度的 1.615 億美元下降 3%。我們的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率在 23 年第一季度為 66.0%，而在 22 年第一季度為 75.6%，上一季度為 67.0%。

Moving on to our outlook. I'll start with Q2 and then discuss our progress towards our full year 2023 guidance. In Q2, we anticipate revenues of $220 million to $235 million and adjusted EBITDA of $140 million to $155 million. As we've been anticipating since the outset of the year, we expect Q2 revenues to be slightly below our Q1 results by a few percent. Due to typical Q2 seasonality and some residual run rate effect of contracts adjustments that were not fully present in our Q1 results. We are forecasting a steady underlying volume environment in Q2 relative to Q1 before consideration of seasonality. Our Q2 adjusted EBITDA guidance reflects the volume and rate dynamics just mentioned, and modestly higher expenses, around $2 million to $3 million, reflecting incremental investments we're making to support our platform and our growth plan as well as merit increases enacted in Q1.

繼續我們的展望。我將從第二季度開始，然後討論我們在 2023 年全年指導方面取得的進展。第二季度，我們預計收入為 2.2 億至 2.35 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 1.4 億至 1.55 億美元。正如我們自今年年初以來一直預計的那樣，我們預計第二季度的收入將略低於第一季度的業績幾個百分點。由於典型的第二季度季節性因素以及合同調整的一些剩餘運行率影響，這些影響並未完全體現在我們第一季度的業績中。在考慮季節性因素之前，我們預計第二季度的基礎成交量環境將相對於第一季度保持穩定。我們第二季度調整後的 EBITDA 指導反映了剛才提到的數量和利率動態，以及適度增加的費用（約 200 萬至 300 萬美元），反映了我們為支持我們的平台和增長計劃以及第一季度製定的績效增長而進行的增量投資。

As shown on Page 9 of the supplemental deck, we are reaffirming our full year 2023 guidance. Our first half performance is tracking closely to our expectations, and we are encouraged that the vital signs of our business are progressing as planned, as we work through the contracts adjustments and experience a more normalized volume environment.

如補充資料第 9 頁所示，我們重申 2023 年全年指導。我們上半年的業績與我們的預期密切相關，隨著我們進行合同調整併經歷更加正常化的銷量環境，我們業務的重要跡象正在按計劃進展，這讓我們感到鼓舞。

As we stated in our Q4 call, we expect the results for the second half of '23 to be higher than the first half. As volume normalizes, as we realized growth from our HST and Discovery services and as we reap early gains from the growth initiatives we plan to launch this year.

正如我們在第四季度電話會議中所說，我們預計 23 年下半年的結果將高於上半年。隨著銷量正常化，我們從 HST 和 Discovery 服務中實現了增長，並且我們從計劃今年推出的增長計劃中獲得了早期收益。

Turning to balance sheet and capital management. As Dale mentioned, in the first quarter, we repurchased $137.8 million face value of our 5.75% senior unsecured notes using $100 million of cash from our balance sheet. Separately, we repurchased a modest amount of our shares in the open market, $5.7 million during the quarter ended March 31 and about $9 million cumulatively through yesterday, May 3. Operating cash flow was $64.2 million in the first quarter and leveraged free cash flow was $41.1 million. Both of these amounts included a $22 million cash payment for the settlement of the Delaware litigation. As a reminder, our cash flow tends to be higher in the first and third quarters, given the timing of our tax and interest payments.

轉向資產負債表和資本管理。正如戴爾提到的，在第一季度，我們使用資產負債表中的 1 億美元現金回購了面值 1.378 億美元的 5.75% 高級無擔保票據。另外，我們在公開市場上回購了少量股票，截至 3 月 31 日的季度回購了 570 萬美元，截至昨天 5 月 3 日累計回購了約 900 萬美元。第一季度的運營現金流為 6,420 萬美元，槓桿自由現金流為4110 萬美元。這兩項金額均包括用於和解特拉華州訴訟的 2200 萬美元現金。提醒一下，考慮到我們的稅款和利息支付時間，我們的現金流在第一季度和第三季度往往較高。

As shown on Page 12 of the supplemental deck, we ended the quarter with $266 million of unrestricted cash. Net of cash, our total and operating leverage ratios were 6.3 and 4.5x, respectively.

如補充資料第 12 頁所示，本季度末我們擁有 2.66 億美元的非限制性現金。扣除現金後，我們的總槓桿率和運營槓桿率分別為 6.3 倍和 4.5 倍。

Our capital allocation priorities remain unchanged. Our highest priority is investing into the business, both organically and through M&A to drive growth and long-term value. As we noted on our last earnings call, we have earmarked $20 million to $30 million for incremental investment in 2023 through the P&L and CapEx to support the core platform and fund our new growth initiatives that Dale mentioned. In terms of M&A, we continue to focus on small-to-midsized acquisitions, particularly on targets that could accelerate our new Data & Decision Science service line.

我們的資本配置重點保持不變。我們的首要任務是通過有機投資和併購來投資業務，以推動增長和長期價值。正如我們在上次財報電話會議上指出的那樣，我們已通過損益和資本支出指定 2000 萬至 3000 萬美元用於 2023 年增量投資，以支持核心平台並為戴爾提到的新增長計劃提供資金。在併購方面，我們繼續關注中小型收購，特別是那些可以加速我們新的數據和決策科學服務線的目標。

Next is debt reduction. Consistent with our actions over the past couple of quarters, our goal is to reduce our debt over the next several years, and we expect this to be the largest portion of our capital allocation. Lastly, as share buybacks, which remain a smaller allocation of our capital. In our view, there is a disconnect between our security prices and the state of our business as we see it, particularly in light of the growth opportunities we are pursuing. But as Dale said, we also know that we need to deliver results as we work through this pivotal year and that you will measure us on our progress to improve the position of the company and grow the business.

接下來是債務削減。與我們過去幾個季度的行動一致，我們的目標是在未來幾年減少債務，我們預計這將成為我們資本配置的最大部分。最後，作為股票回購，我們的資本配置仍然較少。我們認為，我們的證券價格與我們所看到的業務狀況之間存在脫節，特別是考慮到我們正在追求的增長機會。但正如戴爾所說，我們也知道，在這一關鍵的一年中，我們需要取得成果，並且您將根據我們在提高公司地位和發展業務方面取得的進展來衡量我們。

That brings me to the end of my comments. I'll turn it back over to Dale.

我的評論到此結束。我會把它轉回給戴爾。

Jim, thanks. Let me close with 1 more comment. We are going to deliver a lot in 2023, but we are not stopping there. We have several additional product and service line expansion opportunities slated for launch in 2024 and are already advancing those initiatives this year. We look forward to expanding on all of this at our Investor Day on June 28. Please join us.

吉姆，謝謝。讓我再發表 1 條評論作為結束。我們將在 2023 年交付大量產品，但我們不會就此止步。我們計劃於 2024 年推出一些額外的產品和服務線擴展機會，並且今年已經在推進這些舉措。我們期待在 6 月 28 日的投資者日上進一步闡述這一切。請加入我們。

Operator, will you kindly open up the call for Q&A, please.

接線員，請您打開電話進行問答。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our first question today comes from the line of Joshua Raskin from Nephron Research.

我們今天的第一個問題來自 Nephron Research 的 Joshua Raskin。

Can you provide a little bit more color on NSA in terms of the update? I'm just curious how trends are emerging early in the year. I'm also curious, there's been sort of a lot of media attention on the long backlog on arbitration cases. I'm curious how that's impacting your business and how you're working with your clients on that?

您能否就 NSA 的更新提供更多信息？我只是好奇今年年初的趨勢是如何出現的。我也很好奇，仲裁案件的長期積壓已經引起了很多媒體的關注。我很好奇這對您的業務有何影響以及您如何與客戶合作？

Sure, Josh. That's a great question. I think as you know, in 2022, we reported that we repriced about 1.75 million claims through NSA. We processed about 150,000 requests from providers who asked for -- who asked to negotiate a settlement. And of those 150,000, we closed 124,000 of them, and it was only at 6% higher than what the QPA and the QPA is the median contracted rate of the providers was that it was just slightly higher than what the original payment was. And of that, when you get down the -- down to the arbitration component of it, is -- in -- last year -- all of last year was 57,000 claims and we closed about 11,000 of them. Why so little is because, as you said, the arbitration process was in a state of flux.

當然，喬什。這是一個很好的問題。我想如您所知，2022 年，我們報告稱，我們通過 NSA 重新定價了約 175 萬項索賠。我們處理了大約 150,000 個來自提供商的請求，他們要求通過談判達成和解。在這 150,000 個中，我們關閉了其中的 124,000 個，它只比 QPA 高出 6%，而 QPA 是提供商的合同費率中位數，僅略高於原始付款。其中，當你仔細考慮其中的仲裁部分時，去年，去年總共有 57,000 起索賠，我們結案了大約 11,000 起。為什麼這麼少是因為，正如你所說，仲裁過程處於不斷變化的狀態。

Going into Q1, we see the same kind of activity in terms of volumes. And we're -- they're on par with what we expected. So in Q1 of 2023, we repriced about 560,000 claims through the NSA process of that. So that's the lion's share of the claims. The claims comes in, they get repriced, they return to the payer, the payer adjudicates it and pays the claim. 557,000 claims. Of that, just a small percentage, about 92,000 of that came to us through negotiations where the provider asked to negotiate. Of that, we settled 74,000 of those claims, right? 74,000 of the 92,000 were settled through the negotiation process and only 28,000 or 5% of the total NSA volume went to arbitration. Inside of that, when the Fed resumed -- told the arbiters to resume processing cases, we saw about 7,100 claims settled.

進入第一季度，我們在數量方面看到了同樣的活動。他們與我們的預期相當。因此，在 2023 年第一季度，我們通過 NSA 流程重新定價了約 560,000 項索賠。所以這就是大部分的主張。索賠進來，重新定價，返回給付款人，付款人做出裁決並支付索賠。 557,000 份索賠。其中只有一小部分，大約 92,000 是通過供應商要求談判的談判來到我們這裡的。其中，我們解決了 74,000 起索賠，對吧？ 92,000 件中的 74,000 件通過談判程序解決，只有 28,000 件（即 NSA 總數量的 5%）進入仲裁。其中，當美聯儲恢復——告訴仲裁者恢復處理案件時，我們看到大約 7,100 項索賠得到了解決。

So it is -- maybe a quick takeaway, Josh, on this. This is Jim here. The kind of the underlying top of the waves trend is playing out exactly -- and we've said it before, it's very -- it's a pretty steady business because it's nondiscretionary. It's emerging in large part. The -- what we are seeing is the tick up in the negotiations.

確實如此——喬希，關於這一點，也許是一個快速的收穫。這是吉姆。這種潛在的波浪頂部趨勢正在完全發揮作用——我們之前已經說過，這是一項非常穩定的業務，因為它是非自由裁量的。它在很大程度上正在出現。我們看到的是談判的進展。

And listen, CMS has been putting out the initiating parties and the non-initiating parties in terms of where it is. And it's -- it's -- we're seeing a lot of the usual suspects are the ones who are negotiating and initiating arbitrations. So it's not completely surprising to us. This makes it more complicated, and that's exactly why we exist.

聽著，CMS 已經將發起方和非發起方的位置列出來了。我們看到很多常見的嫌疑人是那些正在談判和發起仲裁的人。所以這對我們來說並不完全令人驚訝。這使得事情變得更加複雜，而這正是我們存在的原因。

Yes, yes. And then of those ones that you closed, the settled, the 74,000 this year, is that similar to that sort of the rate coming in, the total payment coming in 6% above the QPA again?

是的是的。那麼，在您關閉的那些中，今年已結算的 74,000 個，是否與進來的利率類似，總付款再次比 QPA 高出 6％？

Yes, it's pretty consistent.

是的，這非常一致。

Yes. It's pretty consistent, Josh.

是的。這非常一致，喬什。

Okay. So no change on that. And then just a second question. Just, network-based revenues were up sequentially. I know it's not the biggest component, and I know the categories can blend together with some of the customers. But and that was sequentially. Is that just the -- you had repriced 2 of the big 3. Or I'm just curious what led to the sequential increase in network-based revenues?

好的。所以沒有改變。然後是第二個問題。只是，基於網絡的收入環比增長。我知道這不是最大的組成部分，而且我知道這些類別可以與某些客戶融合在一起。但這是按順序進行的。這只是——你重新定價了 3 個大公司中的 2 個。或者我只是好奇是什麼導致了基於網絡的收入的連續增長？

Well, actually, the 2 bright spots inside the network were primary, which is not really kind of anything with our bigger customers, it's with the regional payers and the TPAs. So we had some strength there. We also had strength in our workers' comp business, which was pretty more on -- for the last several years. So that was really the 2 big components. It was kind of steadier. And as you know, there's always been a little bit of, call it, a competition between the analytics side of the business and the network side of the business. This staved off a little bit of that sequentially.

嗯，實際上，網絡內的兩個亮點是主要的，這對於我們的大客戶來說並不是什麼，而是與區域付款人和 TPA 相關。所以我們在那裡有一些實力。我們在工人補償業務方面也有實力，在過去的幾年裡，這方面的表現相當出色。這確實是兩個重要組成部分。情況有點穩定了。如您所知，業務的分析方面和業務的網絡方面之間總是存在一些競爭。這依次推遲了一點。

The next question today comes from the line of Steven Valiquette from Barclays.

今天的下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Steven Valiquette。

I got on the call here a couple of minutes late. I apologize if you provided color on this. But just on the Slide 7, talking about the revenues as a percent of identified savings, that table is pretty helpful. For the PSAV, just curious, any color on how that might trend for the rest of the year? Are we -- the downtick in '23 versus '22 kind of makes sense given some of the contract renewals, et cetera. But is 1Q the trough? Or just directionally, how about that trend for the rest of the year.

我遲到了幾分鐘才接到這裡的電話。如果您對此提供顏色，我深表歉意。但就在幻燈片 7 上，談論收入佔已確定節省的百分比時，該表非常有幫助。對於 PSAV，我只是好奇，今年剩餘時間的趨勢如何？考慮到一些合同續籤等因素，23 年相對於 22 年的下滑是有道理的。但1Q是低谷嗎？或者只是方向性的，今年剩餘時間的趨勢如何。

Yes. And so listen, I think this data has been helpful for you, the investor, and I think it allows us to bridge some things. So just to kind of give you a sense. In Q1, if you think about our PSAV business, which is the main driver, over 90% of our revenues, volume was up 4.2%. Rate -- I'm just -- I'm not talking about basis points, but our rate was down 6.4% and revenues were down 2.3%. So it's kind of holding together. So that's 6.4% is really kind of the impact of those contract renewals.

是的。聽著，我認為這些數據對您（投資者）很有幫助，而且我認為它使我們能夠彌合一些事情。只是為了給你一種感覺。第一季度，如果你考慮一下我們的 PSAV 業務，它是我們收入的主要驅動力，占我們收入的 90% 以上，銷量增長了 4.2%。利率——我只是——我不是在談論基點，但我們的利率下降了 6.4%，收入下降了 2.3%。所以這有點像團結在一起。所以 6.4% 確實是合同續籤的影響。

Steve, we did say that there is a little bit left in that. So you could see a modest tick down in Q1 as we get the full -- sorry, Q2 -- as we get the full-flow effect of the contract adjustments. But I will just emphasize, this is all playing out as we anticipated, particularly because of -- it's as simple as the volume environment is normalizing and we kind of know what the rate is as it rolls through our book. So in Q2 of '23, I think you are going to see that stabilize. And we've actually gotten a little bit of benefit over -- in the quarter for mix which was not our friend at the back half of last year. So that is one of the reasons why our rate has come down 6.4% when the contract adjustments that we highlighted were a little bit higher closer to 8% for the year.

史蒂夫，我們確實說過還剩下一點。因此，您可以看到第一季度略有下降，因為我們得到了完整的——抱歉，第二季度——因為我們得到了合同調整的全流效應。但我要強調的是，這一切都按照我們的預期進行，特別是因為——這很簡單，因為成交量環境正在正常化，而且我們在本書中知道利率是多少。因此，在 23 年第二季度，我認為您會看到這種情況穩定下來。事實上，我們在本季度的混合業務中獲得了一些好處，這在去年下半年並不是我們的朋友。因此，這就是為什麼我們的利率下降 6.4% 的原因之一，而我們強調的合同調整幅度略高，接近今年的 8%。

Look, I think it's important -- yes, I think it's important, right? Our key -- our business has normalized. You can see that in the volumes. You can see that with the renewals of our 3 larger customer contracts. You can see that the adjustments are coming through as we expected. We feel really good about the first half and we expect to see growth in the second half. And that's why we're confirming guidance for 2023. We are super-excited about our growth plan. And we've identified a number of unmet customer needs that our products, the 4 products that we plan to launch on our platform can serve. And that's why we're so excited about the new products and the product pipeline that we're working on this year to launch next year. So we believe, we're in a great position to resume growth in the second half of the year and -- as we indicated, and we'll have a full year of growth in 2024.

聽著，我認為這很重要——是的，我認為這很重要，對吧？我們的關鍵——我們的業務已經正常化。你可以在卷中看到這一點。您可以從我們 3 個較大客戶合同的續簽中看到這一點。您可以看到調整正在按照我們的預期進行。我們對上半年感覺非常好，預計下半年會有所增長。這就是我們確認 2023 年指導的原因。我們對我們的增長計劃感到非常興奮。我們已經確定了我們的產品（我們計劃在我們的平台上推出的 4 種產品）可以滿足的許多未滿足的客戶需求。這就是為什麼我們對今年致力於明年推出的新產品和產品線感到非常興奮。因此，我們相信，我們處於有利地位，可以在今年下半年恢復增長，並且正如我們所指出的，我們將在 2024 年實現全年增長。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

Our next question today comes from the line of Luismario Higuera from Citigroup.

今天我們的下一個問題來自花旗集團的 Luismario Higuera。

Can you hear me? Sorry this is Luis, for Daniel Grosslight.

你能聽到我嗎？抱歉，我是路易斯，代表丹尼爾·格羅斯萊特。

I can hear you.

我可以聽見你。

Providers have been reporting normalized utilization across the board. I just wanted to ask, would you be able to walk us through when MultiPlan should benefit from these trends?

供應商一直在報告全面的標準化利用率。我只是想問，您能否向我們介紹 MultiPlan 何時應從這些趨勢中受益？

Yes, I guess a couple of things. we're definitely seeing -- because there's 2 aspects. There's the leading indicators, hospitals, ASCs, et cetera, have shown some real strength in Q1. And then there's our own kind of out-of-network skew that is our own circumstances. I think it is fair to say that the volume environment has gotten better. We saw a little bit of ourselves, 3% up. in our -- or excuse me, 4% in our PSAV volumes. So it's moving in the right direction. I think what you're hearing from us is we're just not going to get over our skis on calling a turn, okay? So we're not cautious because we're worried. We are just trying to make sure that, that translates into our book because we've got a lag of 8 to 12 weeks. And so -- our second quarter viewpoint is that we're going to have kind of a stable, solid volume environment like we had in Q1. You may argue that there's upside as it rolls through our book, but we're not ready to call that yet.

是的，我想有幾件事。我們肯定會看到——因為有兩個方面。領先指標、醫院、ASC 等在第一季度都顯示出了一些真正的實力。然後還有我們自己的網絡外偏差，這是我們自己的情況。我認為可以公平地說，成交量環境已經變得更好。我們看到了自己的一點點，上漲了 3%。在我們的——或者對不起，在我們的 PSAV 量中佔 4%。所以它正在朝著正確的方向發展。我想你從我們這裡聽到的是我們不會在要求轉彎時克服我們的滑雪板，好嗎？所以我們並不是因為擔心而謹慎。我們只是想確保這一點能夠體現在我們的書中，因為我們有 8 到 12 週的滯後期。因此，我們第二季度的觀點是，我們將擁有像第一季度一樣穩定、穩定的銷量環境。你可能會說，我們書中的內容有其好處，但我們還沒有準備好這麼說。

And so we're just -- we're not going to get ahead of ourselves on the rebound. And as you know, for 2023, we did not predict a massive upswing in volume for our '23 guidance.

所以我們只是——我們不會在反彈方面超前。如您所知，對於 2023 年，我們的 23 指導意見預計銷量不會大幅上升。

(Operator Instructions)

（操作員說明）

There are no questions waiting at this time. So that will conclude today's conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

目前沒有問題等待。今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的參與。您現在可以斷開線路。