Waystar Holding Corp (WAY) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Waystar first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

您好，感謝您的支持。歡迎參加 Waystar 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。（操作員指示）請注意，今天的會議正在錄音。

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Sandy Draper, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

現在，我想將會議交給今天的發言人、投資者關係副總裁桑迪·德雷珀 (Sandy Draper)。請繼續。

Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Waystar's first-quarter 2025 earnings call. Matt Hawkins, Waystar's Chief Executive Officer; and Steve Oreskovich, Waystar's Chief Financial Officer, are joining me today. After their remarks, we will open the call to your questions.

謝謝接線員，大家下午好。我很高興歡迎您參加 Waystar 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。Waystar 執行長 Matt Hawkins；以及 Waystar 財務長 Steve Oreskovich 今天也和我一起出席。在他們發言之後，我們將開始回答大家的提問。

This afternoon, we issued a press release announcing our financial results and a presentation slide deck to accompany our prepared remarks. The materials are available on the Investor Relations section of our website at investors.waystar.com.

今天下午，我們發布了一份新聞稿，宣布了我們的財務業績，並附上了演示幻燈片以配合我們準備好的發言。您可在我們網站 investors.waystar.com 的投資者關係部分找到這些資料。

Before we get started, I will remind you that this call contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions about future events. Examples of these statements include expectations of future financial results, growth and margins. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in these statements.

在我們開始之前，我要提醒您，本次電話會議包含前瞻性陳述，即對未來事件的預測。這些聲明的例子包括對未來財務結果、成長和利潤的預期。這些聲明涉及許多風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些聲明中表達的結果有重大差異。

For a full discussion of the risks and other factors that may impact these forward-looking statements, please refer to this afternoon's press release and the reports we file with the SEC, all of which are available on the Investor Relations page of our website. Any forward-looking statements provided during this call are made only as of the date of this call.

有關可能影響這些前瞻性陳述的風險和其他因素的全面討論，請參閱今天下午的新聞稿和我們向美國證券交易委員會提交的報告，所有這些報告均可在我們網站的投資者關係頁面上找到。本次電話會議中提供的任何前瞻性陳述僅截至本次電話會議之日有效。

During today's call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. We have provided reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures included in our remarks to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, together with the explanation of these measures in the appendix of the presentation slide deck and our earnings release.

在今天的電話會議中，我們還將討論某些非公認會計準則財務指標。我們已將我們的評論中包含的非 GAAP 財務指標與最直接可比較的 GAAP 指標進行了對賬，並在演示幻燈片和收益報告的附錄中提供了這些指標的解釋。

Lastly, we are pleased to note our participation in the Bank of America Healthcare Conference in Las Vegas on May 13 and the William Blair Growth Stock Conference in Chicago on June 3. We look forward to seeing many of you there.

最後，我們很高興地宣布，我們將參加 5 月 13 日在拉斯維加斯舉行的美國銀行醫療保健會議和 6 月 3 日在芝加哥舉行的威廉布萊爾成長股會議。我們期待在那裡見到你們。

With that, I'll turn it over to Matt.

說完這些，我就把麥克風交給馬特。

Thank you, Sandy, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining our first quarter 2025 earnings call. Waystar delivered a strong start to the year with Q1 revenue growth of 14% and adjusted EBITDA increase of 16% year-over-year. This momentum positions us to raise our full year guidance, which Steve will discuss in more detail shortly.

謝謝你，桑迪，大家下午好。感謝您參加我們的 2025 年第一季財報電話會議。Waystar 今年開局強勁，第一季營收成長 14%，調整後 EBITDA 年增 16%。這一勢頭使我們有能力提高全年業績預期，史蒂夫很快就會對此進行更詳細的討論。

I want to begin by emphasizing why Waystar is uniquely equipped to create long-term shareholder value independent of broader market conditions, given the increasing macro volatility since our last conversation. While no business or sector is entirely insulated from economic cycles, we believe Waystar's broad presence and business model are recession resistant. We are confident in our ability to deliver strong performance. Our software has enabled providers to succeed despite the challenges of an unpredictable environment. We serve over 1 million US-based providers who practice across every care setting from large established integrated delivery networks to small independent physician practices.

首先，我想強調一下，鑑於我們上次談話以來宏觀波動性不斷增加，Waystar 為何具有獨特的優勢，能夠獨立於更廣泛的市場條件創造長期股東價值。雖然沒有任何企業或產業能夠完全免受經濟週期的影響，但我們相信 Waystar 的廣泛影響力和商業模式能夠抵禦經濟衰退。我們對自己實現強勁業績的能力充滿信心。我們的軟體幫助供應商在不可預測的環境中克服挑戰，並取得成功。我們為超過 100 萬名美國醫療服務提供者提供服務，他們涉及各種醫療環境，從大型成熟的綜合配送網路到小型獨立醫生診所。

Waystar's software platform is embedded in our clients' workflow and plays a mission-critical role in helping providers get paid faster and more accurately while reducing administrative costs.

Waystar 的軟體平台嵌入在我們客戶的工作流程中，在幫助供應商更快、更準確地獲得付款同時降低管理成本方面發揮關鍵作用。

In times of volatility and market stress, Waystar software can be deployed rapidly and efficiently to help providers optimize cash flow, which is essential in challenging economic conditions. While the new administration is discussing several potential policies that could impact the US healthcare industry, we do not anticipate any major impact in 2025. In fact, if new policy proposals confront health care providers, their reliance on software platforms such as Waystar will likely strengthen to maximize revenue capture and streamline operational efficiency. Our agility in delivering hundreds of new software capabilities through our cloud platform each quarter gives us confidence that we can help clients address changes as they arise.

在市場波動和壓力時期，Waystar 軟體可以快速有效地部署，幫助供應商優化現金流，這在充滿挑戰的經濟條件下至關重要。雖然新政府正在討論幾項可能影響美國醫療保健產業的潛在政策，但我們預計 2025 年不會產生任何重大影響。事實上，如果醫療保健提供者面臨新的政策提案，他們對 Waystar 等軟體平台的依賴可能會加強，以最大限度地獲取收入並簡化營運效率。我們每季透過雲端平台靈活地提供數百種新的軟體功能，這使我們有信心幫助客戶應對出現的變化。

Turning to our first quarter performance. I'll cover 4 key areas that highlight our progress and future direction. First, I'll discuss our sustainable and compounding revenue growth. Second, I'll highlight the latest innovations creating value for our clients. Third, I'll share how we are driving operational profitability and efficiency.

談談我們第一季的表現。我將介紹四個關鍵領域，突顯我們的進展和未來方向。首先，我將討論我們的可持續和複合收入成長。其次，我將重點介紹為我們的客戶創造價值的最新創新。第三，我將分享我們如何提高營運獲利能力和效率。

And fourth, I'll review recent client and team member successes. Then I'll turn the call over to our CFO, Steve, who will review our financial results for the first quarter and discuss our increased 2025 guidance. First, sustainable growth. Waystar delivered another quarter of strong top line growth, generating $256 million in revenue, a 14% year-over-year increase. Our ability to sustain consistent performance is anchored in our strategy of building enduring client relationships, which is reflected in our 114% and net revenue retention rate.

第四，我將回顧最近客戶和團隊成員的成功。然後，我將把電話轉給我們的財務長史蒂夫，他將審查我們第一季的財務業績並討論我們提高 2025 年的指引。第一，可持續成長。Waystar 本季再次實現強勁營收成長，營收達 2.56 億美元，較去年同期成長 14%。我們維持穩定績效的能力源自於我們建立持久客戶關係的策略，這體現在我們 114% 的淨收入保留率。

We continue to expand those client relationships over time, with 1,244 clients now generating more than $100,000 in trailing 12-month revenue, a 15% increase year-over-year. We continue to experience strong demand, fueled by our differentiated cloud-based software platform, exceptional client service and the measurable return on investment we deliver to our clients. to validate and quantify the key drivers behind today's market demand, we recently conducted a large independent study in partnership with Qualtrics surveying 600 revenue cycle leaders from provider organizations of all types and sizes. Providers want strong ROI, operational efficiency and data security. When selecting an RCM technology vendor, 92% of respondents identified AI, advanced automation and trust as top investment criteria.

我們不斷擴大這些客戶關係，目前已有 1,244 名客戶在過去 12 個月內創造了超過 10 萬美元的收入，年增 15%。我們繼續感受到強勁的需求，這得益於我們差異化的基於雲端的軟體平台、卓越的客戶服務以及我們為客戶提供的可衡量的投資回報。為了驗證和量化當今市場需求背後的關鍵驅動因素，我們最近與 Qualtrics 合作進行了一項大型獨立研究，調查了來自各種類型和規模的提供者組織的 600 名收入週期領導者。提供者希望獲得較高的投資報酬率、較高的營運效率和較高的資料安全性。在選擇 RCM 技術供應商時，92% 的受訪者將人工智慧、進階自動化和信任視為首要投資標準。

Waystar's AI-powered platform is purpose-built to meet those priorities, combining proven outcomes with advanced technology designed to deliver results at scale reinforcing our growing market leadership. This brings us to another key driver of sustainable revenue growth, platform innovation. At Waystar, our purpose is to simplify health care payments. We are pursuing a strategic and ambitious software product road map focused on scale, automation, efficiency and substantial ROI. Last week, we held the Waystar innovation showcase.

Waystar 的人工智慧平台專為滿足這些優先事項而構建，它將經過驗證的成果與先進的技術相結合，旨在大規模地提供成果，從而鞏固我們不斷增長的市場領導地位。這為我們帶來了永續收入成長的另一個關鍵驅動力——平台創新。在 Waystar，我們的目標是簡化醫療保健支付。我們正在推行一項策略性、雄心勃勃的軟體產品路線圖，重點關注規模、自動化、效率和可觀的投資報酬率。上週，我們舉辦了 Waystar 創新展示會。

At this event, we demonstrated new capabilities powered by generative AI and advanced automation to prevent and address denied claims, accelerate reimbursement and provide an integrated, intuitive digital first patient payment experience. The innovation showcase builds on the momentum of our January 2025 launch of AltitudeAI, Waystar's comprehensive suite of AI capabilities designed to help providers streamline workflows and improve financial performance. We were pleased with the tremendous client and prospect engagement during the Waystar innovation showcase, where thousands of clients and prospects joined to experience our latest innovations firsthand.

在本次活動中，我們展示了由生成式人工智慧和先進自動化技術提供支援的新功能，以防止和解決索賠被拒絕、加快報銷速度並提供整合的、直觀的數位化首位患者支付體驗。此創新展示以我們於 2025 年 1 月推出的 AltitudeAI 為基礎，AltitudeAI 是 Waystar 的綜合 AI 功能套件，旨在幫助供應商簡化工作流程並提高財務績效。我們很高興看到 Waystar 創新展示會上有大量客戶和潛在客戶的參與，成千上萬的客戶和潛在客戶齊聚一堂，親身體驗我們的最新創新。

We observe that budgets for Gen AI-enabled solutions are increasingly being centrally pooled and funded at the largest provider organizations. These resources often sit outside traditional health care IT budgets. Incremental pools of capital are being allocated to fund key initiatives that deliver real ROI. Providers are looking for trusted at scale vendors to help them reimagine and organize traditional processes end to end. They expect Gen AI solutions to improve productivity increased automation in high-volume, low-complexity tasks, boost accuracy and accelerate time to payment.

我們觀察到，Gen AI 解決方案的預算越來越多地由最大的提供者組織集中匯集和資助。這些資源通常超出了傳統醫療保健 IT 預算。增量資金池正在被分配用於資助能夠帶來實際投資回報的關鍵舉措。供應商正在尋找值得信賴的大規模供應商來幫助他們端到端地重新構想和組織傳統流程。他們希望 Gen AI 解決方案能提高生產力，增強大量、低複雜度任務的自動化程度，提高準確性並加快付款時間。

Waystar software advocates for providers and patients by dramatically reducing the likelihood of claim denials and by helping clients respond rapidly and efficiently when denials do occur. We help prevent denied claims through strong patient access solutions, including eligibility and prior authorization automation and AI-powered insurance coverage detection. Securing payer prior authorization manually can take up to 24 minutes per request. With tens of millions of authorizations processed annually, the burden on providers is significant, and the patient experience is often frustrating.

Waystar 軟體透過大幅降低索賠被拒的可能性並幫助客戶在發生拒賠時快速有效地做出反應來維護提供者和患者的利益。我們透過強大的患者存取解決方案來幫助防止索賠被拒絕，包括資格和事先授權自動化以及人工智慧驅動的保險覆蓋檢測。每次請求手動取得付款人事先授權最多可能需要 24 分鐘。每年要處理數千萬份授權，這給醫療服務提供者帶來了巨大的負擔，而病患的體驗也常常令人沮喪。

In Q1, we enhanced Waste or authorization manager to include our new Auth Accelerate solution and additional use cases for Auth status. Auth Accelerate unlocks auto approvals and significantly reduces manual staff workload. Early adopter clients are already seeing measurable results, an 85% auto approval rate and a 70% reduction in time spent on authorizations. With this launch, we are scaling our prior authorization capabilities for key payers across the ambulatory market, including radiology, cardiac imaging and surgery centers with more specialties and payer expansions underway.

在第一季度，我們增強了廢棄物或授權管理器，以包含我們的新 Auth Accelerate 解決方案和 Auth 狀態的其他用例。Auth Accelerate 解鎖自動批准並顯著減少手動人員的工作量。早期採用者客戶已經看到了可衡量的成果，自動批准率達到 85%，授權時間減少了 70%。透過此次發布，我們正在擴大對整個門診市場主要付款人的事先授權能力，包括放射科、心臟成像和外科中心，並且正在進行更多專業和付款人擴展。

Our clients use Waystar's AI-powered software, AltitudeCreate to appeal denied claims. The platform autonomously gathers claim information and generates appeal packages 3x faster than traditional services. Waystar helps providers receive rightful reimbursement as quickly as possible. In the first 90 days post launch, clients reported a more than 40% increase in overturn rates. These results demonstrate a clear impact on both operational efficiency and reimbursement outcomes.

我們的客戶使用 Waystar 的人工智慧軟體 AltitudeCreate 對被拒絕的索賠提出上訴。該平台自主收集索賠信息，並以比傳統服務快 3 倍的速度生成申訴文件。Waystar 幫助供應商盡快獲得合法的報銷。在推出後的前 90 天，客戶報告稱推翻率增加了 40% 以上。這些結果顯示對營運效率和報銷結果都有明顯的影響。

Trust and security are fundamental to Waystar's software platform. We continually invest in cybersecurity best practices for deterrents, detection, defense and rapid recovery. We maintain high cybersecurity standards and regularly audit our platform against industry-leading frameworks.

信任和安全是 Waystar 軟體平台的基礎。我們持續投資於網路安全最佳實踐，以實現威懾、偵測、防禦和快速恢復。我們保持較高的網路安全標準，並定期根據業界領先的框架審核我們的平台。

Next, profitability and efficiency. We sustained our trend of strong adjusted EBITDA performance with Q1 adjusted EBITDA of $108 million, representing a 16% year-over-year increase. This result underscores the high-margin nature of our software platform and our consistent ability to meet our long-range target of approximately 40% adjusted EBITDA margins. while strategically investing in innovation, growth and cybersecurity. Together, our profitability and cash flow profile provides ample flexibility to invest in the business, reduce debt and thoughtfully pursue M&A.

其次，盈利能力和效率。我們維持了強勁的調整後 EBITDA 表現趨勢，第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 1.08 億美元，年成長 16%。這一結果凸顯了我們軟體平台的高利潤特性，以及我們持續實現約 40% 調整後 EBITDA 利潤率的長期目標的能力。同時對創新、成長和網路安全進行策略性投資。總而言之，我們的獲利能力和現金流狀況為投資業務、減少債務和深思熟慮地進行併購提供了充足的靈活性。

We are focused on deploying this capital in ways that drive durable growth and maximize value for our investors.

我們專注於以能夠推動持久成長和最大化投資者價值的方式部署這些資本。

We are pleased to report that our net leverage ratio at the end of Q1 is 2.5x. At the same time, we are continuously identifying ways to further improve profitability by operating even more efficiently. That includes scaling automation and Agentic AI within our market-leading approach to client experience, all designed to continue leadership and client satisfaction. Today, 100% of clients receive US-based support and over 40% of revenue is tied to clients supported by a dedicated client success manager. Our team resolved 70% of service requests on the same day and answers 90% of inbound calls within 30 seconds, an industry-leading performance that reflects our commitment to responsive, high-impact client experience at scale.

我們很高興地報告，我們第一季末的淨槓桿率為 2.5 倍。同時，我們正在不斷尋找透過更有效率的營運來進一步提高獲利能力的方法。這包括在我們市場領先的客戶體驗方法中擴展自動化和 Agentic AI，所有這些都是為了繼續保持領先地位和客戶滿意度。如今，100% 的客戶都獲得了美國境內的支持，超過 40% 的收入與由專門的客戶成功經理支援的客戶相關。我們的團隊在當天解決了 70% 的服務請求，並在 30 秒內接聽了 90% 的來電，這一行業領先的表現反映了我們致力於大規模響應式、高影響力的客戶體驗的承諾。

Finally, client and team successes. Our unique approach to focusing on our clients continues to garner recognition in the industry. We've achieved multiple #1 rankings in the latest best-in-class report were named by Black Book as the industry's leading AI platform and maintained a Net Promoter Score that consistently exceeds industry benchmarks. Together, these accolades highlight the strength of our client experience and our ability to deliver innovation, speed and scale that builds long-term trust and measurable results. As part of our market research, we captured strategic insight into Waystar's brand perception and performance.

最後，客戶和團隊取得成功。我們以客戶為中心的獨特方法繼續獲得業界的認可。我們在最新的同類最佳報告中多次排名第一，被 Black Book 評為業界領先的人工智慧平台，並保持著持續超過行業基準的淨推薦值。這些榮譽共同彰顯了我們強大的客戶體驗以及我們提供創新、速度和規模的能力，從而建立了長期的信任和可衡量的成果。作為市場研究的一部分，我們對 Waystar 的品牌認知和表現獲得了策略洞察。

The results highlighted several key takeaways. Waystar earned the top position in both unaided and aided brand awareness, making us the most recognized brand name in health care payments. The market also ranked Waystar number one in both brand trust and best days ahead, a reflection of the confidence they have in our vision, pace of innovation and long-term leadership. Additionally, we were recognized as the top choice for future RCM software investment, underscoring market confidence and our continued momentum and industry role. To ensure we gather and incorporate provider insights, we recently expanded the Waystar Advisory Board by more than 30%.

研究結果突出了幾個關鍵要點。Waystar 在非輔助和輔助品牌知名度方面均名列前茅，使我們成為醫療保健支付領域最受認可的品牌。市場也將 Waystar 在品牌信任和未來前景方面評為第一名，這反映了他們對我們的願景、創新步伐和長期領導力的信心。此外，我們被公認為未來 RCM 軟體投資的首選，這突顯了市場信心以及我們持續的發展勢頭和行業地位。為了確保我們收集並吸收供應商的見解，我們最近將 Waystar 顧問委員會擴大了 30% 以上。

This larger group includes distinguished leaders from top health systems ambulatory providers and strategic partners. Our ongoing strategic engagements with this group including at our most recent meeting in March, are instrumental in raising timely insights that help shape our vision and accelerate our software road map.

這個較大的團體包括來自頂級醫療系統門診服務提供者和策略合作夥伴的傑出領導者。我們與該小組正在進行的策略合作，包括我們最近在三月舉行的會議，對於及時提出見解，幫助我們塑造願景並加速我們的軟體路線圖發揮了重要作用。

In conclusion, Waystar started 2025 with momentum, purpose and a clear vision for the future and our Q1 results reinforce that trajectory. We are building on our proven strategy to deliver stable, enduring and compounding growth with another quarter of strong performance, we are confident in our ability to drive innovation, deliver ROI and help providers navigate a rapidly changing landscape. As industry dynamics evolve, Waystar is working thoughtfully to help guide the future of the industry with agility focus and trust.

總之，Waystar 以強勁的勢頭、明確的目標和清晰的未來願景開啟了 2025 年，而我們的第一季業績也強化了這一軌跡。我們正在以行之有效的策略為基礎，實現穩定、持久和複合的成長，並再創季度強勁業績，我們有信心推動創新、實現投資回報，並幫助供應商應對快速變化的環境。隨著行業動態的發展，Waystar 正在深思熟慮地以敏捷重點和信任來幫助引導行業的未來。

With that, I'll turn it over to Steve to walk through the financial details.

說完這些，我會把話題交給史蒂夫來介紹財務細節。

Thanks, Matt. Revenue increased 14% year-over-year in the first quarter to $256 million. The basis of Q1 growth continues to be our durable, predictable model that produces low double-digit revenue growth annually on a normalized basis. This includes expanding the client base producing more than $100,000 of revenue in the last 12 months to 1,244 at quarter end, an increase of 41 clients in the quarter and an increase of 15% year-over-year. It also includes a high net revenue retention rate, which was 114% for the last 12 months.

謝謝，馬特。第一季營收年增 14% 至 2.56 億美元。第一季成長的基礎仍然是我們持久、可預測的模型，該模型在正常基礎上每年產生低兩位數的收入成長。這包括擴大過去 12 個月內創造超過 10 萬美元收入的客戶群，到季度末達到 1,244 個，本季增加了 41 個客戶，年成長 15%。它還包括較高的淨收入保留率，過去 12 個月的淨收入保留率為 114%。

Given the significant number of new clients that went live during February through May of last year, Q1 2025 NRR is above the typical range of 108% to 110% we've experienced over the past 3 years. As the 114% net revenue retention rate is a 12-month view the most applicable comparison is to the 18% total revenue growth over the same 12 months.

鑑於去年 2 月至 5 月期間上線的新客戶數量眾多，2025 年第一季的 NRR 高於過去 3 年我們經歷的 108% 至 110% 的典型範圍。由於 114% 的淨收入保留率是 12 個月的觀點，因此最適用的比較是同一 12 個月內 18% 的總收入成長率。

We continue to recognize revenue faster than normal in the first quarter from the clients we've rapidly implemented in early 2024, who are impacted by the competitor clearinghouse cyber attack, generating $10 million more from the faster time to revenue this quarter versus the first quarter of 2024. Please note that Q1 2025 represents the last quarter with a notable impact to the year-over-year comparison. Subscription revenue increased 18% year-over-year and 3% sequentially. While this growth rate is generally consistent with the prior 4 quarters, it benefits from the noted rapid implementations. For the remainder of fiscal year 2025, we would expect modest sequential quarterly growth in subscription revenue.

我們在第一季繼續以比正常速度從我們在 2024 年初快速實施的客戶那裡確認收入，這些客戶受到競爭對手清算所網路攻擊的影響，與 2024 年第一季度相比，本季度的收入實現時間更快，從而產生了 1000 萬美元的收入。請注意，2025 年第一季是對同比有顯著影響的最後一個季度。訂閱收入較去年同期成長 18%，較上季成長 3%。雖然這一增長率與前四個季度基本一致，但得益於顯著的快速實施。對於 2025 財年的剩餘時間，我們預期訂閱營收將實現季度小幅成長。

Volume-based revenue grew 11% year-over-year adjusting for a previously disclosed $4 million benefit in the first quarter of 2024 from a contract termination, volume-based revenue growth was approximately 15% year-over-year.

基於數量的收入年增 11%，扣除先前揭露的 2024 年第一季度因合約終止而獲得的 400 萬美元收益後，基於數量的收入同比增長約 15%。

Accounting for the Q1 '25 benefit of faster revenue than normal from rapid implementations, offset by the Q1 '24 pull-forward of revenue produces an adjusted year-over-year growth rate of 12%. Adjusted EBITDA of $108 million for the first quarter increased 16% year-over-year. The adjusted EBITDA margin of 42% reflects continued investment in the business and timing of operating cost we had expected in the first quarter and now anticipate incurring later in 2025. The adjusted EBITDA margin continues to align with our long-term target of approximately 40%.

考慮到 2025 年第一季因快速實施而帶來的營收成長速度高於正常水平，加上 2024 年第一季營收提前，調整後的年成長率為 12%。第一季調整後 EBITDA 為 1.08 億美元，年增 16%。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率為 42%，反映了對業務的持續投資以及我們在第一季預期的營運成本時間，現在預計將在 2025 年稍後發生。調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率繼續與我們約 40% 的長期目標保持一致。

Unlevered free cash flow was $79 million in the first quarter of 2025 with an unlevered free cash flow to adjusted EBITDA conversion ratio of 73%. The strong start puts us in a good position to achieve our 70% long-term target for the year. Additionally, we moved $24 million of cash in the quarter to slightly higher earnings short-term investments. As a result, our cash balance is $224 million at March 31. The trend of high cash flow conversion, coupled with expansion of our trailing 12-month adjusted EBITDA, generates a net debt to adjusted EBITDA leverage ratio of 2.5x at March 31, and a decrease of approximately 0.25 a turn in the quarter.

2025 年第一季無槓桿自由現金流為 7,900 萬美元，無槓桿自由現金流與調整後 EBITDA 的轉換率為 73%。良好的開端使我們有充分的條件來實現今年 70% 的長期目標。此外，我們在本季將 2,400 萬美元現金轉移到收益略高的短期投資中。因此，截至 3 月 31 日，我們的現金餘額為 2.24 億美元。高現金流轉換趨勢，加上過去 12 個月調整後 EBITDA 的擴大，導致 3 月 31 日淨負債與調整後 EBITDA 槓桿率為 2.5 倍，本季每轉減少約 0.25 倍。

We continue to maintain flexibility with our overall capital structure and our allocation priorities remain unchanged. Invested in the business to drive top line growth, delever the balance sheet and evaluate disciplined acquisition opportunities.

我們的整體資本結構持續保持靈活性，配置優先順序保持不變。投資業務以推動營業額成長、降低資產負債表槓桿率並評估合理的收購機會。

As Matt indicated earlier, while our business isn't recession-proof, it is recession resistant. We also recognize the current environment of economic volatility and have modeled and considered several potential outcomes to the year. Based on the first quarter performance, the modeled potential outcomes and our current visibility for the rest of the year, we are confident in raising our revenue guidance to a range of $1.006 billion to $1.022 billion, representing a $6 million increase at the midpoint of $1.014 billion. On our February earnings call, we provided a couple of data points regarding quarterly growth rate expectations throughout the year, along with how we expected those to differ in the first half versus the last half of the year. I am pleased to state the first quarter results aligned with those expectations.

正如馬特之前指出的，雖然我們的業務不能抵禦經濟衰退，但它可以抵抗經濟衰退。我們也認識到當前的經濟環境波動，並已經模擬和考慮了今年的幾個可能結果。根據第一季的業績、預測的潛在結果以及我們對今年剩餘時間的當前預期，我們有信心將收入預期上調至 10.06 億美元至 10.22 億美元之間，在 10.14 億美元的中點基礎上增加 600 萬美元。在二月的收益電話會議上，我們提供了一些有關全年季度成長率預期的數據點，以及我們預計上半年與下半年的差異。我很高興地宣布第一季的業績符合這些預期。

Further, our increased guidance midpoint of $1.014 billion includes an expectation that the first half revenue is slightly higher than 50% of full year revenue. primarily based on shaping a volume-based revenue, including seasonality and the 30% of total revenue generated by patient payment solutions.

此外，我們上調的指導中位數為 10.14 億美元，其中預計上半年收入將略高於全年收入的 50%。主要基於塑造基於數量的收入，包括季節性和患者支付解決方案產生的總收入的 30%。

We are also raising adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $406 million to $414 million, with the midpoint of $410 million, increasing by $7 million above prior guidance midpoint. We continue to expect an adjusted EBITDA margin of approximately 40% for 2025, which includes cost of revenue as a percentage of revenue to remain unchanged from our original guidance.

我們也將調整後的 EBITDA 預期上調至 4.06 億美元至 4.14 億美元之間，中位數為 4.1 億美元，比先前預期的中位數高出 700 萬美元。我們繼續預期 2025 年調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率約為 40%，其中包括收入成本佔收入的百分比，與我們最初的指引保持不變。

Operator, please open the call for questions.

接線員，請打開電話詢問。

(Operator Instructions) Adam Hotchkiss, Goldman Sachs.

（操作員指示）高盛的亞當‧霍奇基斯 (Adam Hotchkiss)。

Great. I guess just to start, I would love to get a breakdown on the outperformance in the quarter. I know, historically, we've talked about outperformance from change. We've talked about patient payments being elevated relative to historical norms. And I know you've guided to that normalizing this year. I'm just curious what happened in Q1 and sort of what's embedded in the guidance from a component perspective as we think about growth.

偉大的。我想首先，我想了解本季的出色表現。我知道，從歷史上看，我們一直在談論改變帶來的卓越表現。我們已經討論過患者支付的費用相對於歷史標準有所提高。我知道您今年已經引導這一進程走向正常化。我只是好奇第一季發生了什麼，以及當我們考慮成長時，從組件角度來看指導中包含了什麼內容。

Yes. Thanks for the question, Adam. This is Steve. So I can answer both those. So I think the key for the first quarter and the performance versus our expectation and built into guidance is primarily driven by the continuance we saw starting in 2024 of strong patient payment utilization, of the services that are provided by our clients.

是的。謝謝你的提問，亞當。這是史蒂夫。所以我可以回答這兩個問題。因此，我認為第一季的表現以及與我們的預期和指導相比的關鍵主要是由於我們從 2024 年開始看到的強勁患者支付利用率以及客戶提供的服務的持續性。

If you think then to how that relates to the guidance raise and the range specific to revenue for the full year, I guess a couple of things, just as a reminder. The first is recall that 98% of our revenue in any given year generally comes from contracted solutions that we have in-house at the beginning of the year. And then secondly, as you think in terms of the macro environment, please recall that our clients are 100% US-based. They have a big diversity in terms of size, specialty and geography within the US, which means that we are fairly isolated or insulated, sorry, from anything that may happen to a specific specialty or type of reimbursement rate.

如果你思考這與指導性成長以及全年收入的具體範圍有何關係，我想有幾件事，只是提醒一下。首先回想一下，我們每年 98% 的收入通常來自於年初我們內部簽訂的合約解決方案。其次，當您從宏觀環境的角度思考時，請記住我們的客戶 100% 都位於美國。它們在美國境內的規模、專業和地理位置方面存在很大差異，這意味著我們相當孤立或絕緣，抱歉，不受任何可能發生在特定專業或報銷率類型的事件的影響。

We also have very limited direct exposure to tariffs. So when we think about the guidance range and what might lead from a upside or to the top side of guidance, it would be that continuation of strong patient utilization above and beyond our expectations for the year.

我們直接受到的關稅影響也非常有限。因此，當我們考慮指導範圍以及可能導致指導上行或達到指導上限的因素時，那就是患者利用率的持續強勁增長將超出我們對今年的預期。

That being said, if we look at the lower end of guidance, a notable difference in utilization throughout the rest of the year versus our expectation and the strong start to Q1 would be the primary factor on the low end of guidance. I'd also say the other piece to that could be the impact of ability of patients to pay for the services that are provided in terms of just general economic environment. That said, we haven't seen any degradation in the patient's ability to pay in the first quarter.

話雖如此，如果我們看一下指導的下限，那麼今年剩餘時間的利用率與我們的預期有顯著差異，而第一季的強勁開局將是指導下限的主要因素。我還想說，另一個因素可能是病患支付所提供服務的能力受到一般經濟環境的影響。也就是說，我們在第一季沒有看到患者支付能力有任何下降。

Saket Kalia, Barclays.

巴克萊銀行的 Saket Kalia。

Okay. Great. And nice start to the year. Matt, maybe for you. The number that jumped out to me the most in the press release was the net revenue retention at about 114%. Could you just maybe dig into what products are maybe driving that cross-sell success? And what do you think is driving that?

好的。偉大的。今年的開始很好。馬特，也許對你來說是這樣。新聞稿中最讓我印象深刻的數字是淨收入保留率約為 114%。您能否深入了解哪些產品可能推動交叉銷售的成功？您認為是什麼原因導致這現象的發生？

Thank you, Saket. Yes, I'd have to say, we're so pleased to deliver 4 consecutive quarters of double-digit revenue growth and EBITDA margins above 40% as a public company. And we look at the strong retention rates of the business you'll recall that the retention rates are a look back, so last 12-month look back.

謝謝你，Saket。是的，我必須說，作為一家上市公司，我們很高興連續 4 個季度實現兩位數的營收成長，EBITDA 利潤率超過 40%。當我們看一下該業務的強勁留存率時，您會記得，留存率是回顧過去的，即過去 12 個月的回顧。

That being said, some of the things that are influencing that net revenue retention rate of 114% include the fact that we've had robust bookings from revenue cycle solutions, I think claims management, patient access solutions that are coming from in some cases, clients that have been impacted by a cyberattack and really just the overall fact that our solutions are driving return on investment for clients. And as we build more advocacy as we build more case referenceability and demonstrable return on investment, it's just the case that clients are talking to each other.

話雖如此，影響 114% 淨收入保留率的一些因素包括，我們從收入週期解決方案中獲得了強勁的預訂量，我認為索賠管理、患者訪問解決方案在某些情況下來自受到網路攻擊影響的客戶，而實際上我們的解決方案正在為客戶帶來投資回報。隨著我們建立更多的倡導，隨著我們建立更多的案例參考性和可證明的投資回報，客戶之間就會互相交談。

And so that portion of our platform is performing nicely, and we're seeing nice growth there. And that shows up in a lot of cases in the subscription portion of our revenue performance. Steve, why don't you take the second part of that?

因此，我們平台的這一部分錶現良好，我們看到了良好的成長。在很多情況下，這體現在我們的收入表現的訂閱部分。史蒂夫，你為什麼不接第二部分呢？

Yes, Saket, I'd add, if you think about our typical bridge to NRR starting with gross revenue retention of approximately 97%, the factors that we typically talk about leading to the 108% to 110% are very similar to what we saw last quarter. meaning we would have expected that calculation or seen the calculation on a normalized basis to be at about 110%, maybe slightly a little ahead of that, driven by the strong continuation sorry, of the volume side or patient utilization.

是的，Saket，我想補充一點，如果你考慮我們典型的 NRR 橋樑，從大約 97% 的總收入保留率開始，我們通常談論的導致 108% 到 110% 的因素與我們上個季度看到的非常相似。這意味著我們預計計算結果或看到的標準化計算結果將達到 110% 左右，可能略高於該數字，這是由數量方面或患者利用率的強勁持續性推動的。

As you get to the factor from slightly above 110% to 114%, that's also seeing the benefit of those clients we rapidly onboarded early in 2024 in the associated revenue from that, just purely by the way, that the NRR calculation is performed. And I won't go into the specifics that you can read about it in our filings, but we get a bump in the above normal range from that as well.

當您將係數從略高於 110% 提高到 114% 時，我們也看到了我們在 2024 年初迅速加入的那些客戶所帶來的相關收入，順便說一下，NRR 計算已經完成。我不會詳細討論您可以在我們的文件中讀到的細節，但我們也因此獲得了高於正常範圍的增長。

Elizabeth Anderson, Evercore ISI.

伊麗莎白·安德森，Evercore ISI。

This is Joanna for Elizabeth. We have one question. So given some of the utilization trends the payers have been saying, can you remind us about your updated thoughts on the trend in '25? And how do we think about the '25 seasonality in both the PayPay and provider businesses?

我是伊莉莎白的喬安娜。我們有一個問題。那麼，考慮到付款人所說的一些利用趨勢，您能否提醒我們您對 25 年趨勢的最新想法？我們如何看待 PayPay 和提供者業務的 25 年季節性？

So if I heard all of that, the question was really about utilization trends and what providers are reporting what we're experiencing and how does that impact our business model? Is it fair to frame it that way? I'm not sure I completely heard the question. Okay. Good.

所以如果我聽到所有這些，問題實際上是關於利用率趨勢以及哪些提供者報告了我們所經歷的事情以及這對我們的商業模式有何影響？這樣表述公平嗎？我不確定我是否完全聽清了這個問題。好的。好的。

Well, I just would start with the fact that we feel like we have a very predictable and proven business model part of that business model is a subscription-based revenue model subscription based, as you know. Part of it is volume based. And both benefit but primarily the volume side benefits from utilization. And we build that into the way that we grow. And so we typically model what is it 1% to 2% utilization increases each year.

好吧，我首先要說的是，我們覺得我們有一個非常可預測且經過驗證的商業模式，該商業模式的一部分是基於訂閱的收入模式，如你所知。其中一部分是基於數量的。兩者都受益，但主要是產量方面受益於利用率。我們將其融入我們的成長方式中。因此，我們通常會模擬每年利用率增加 1% 到 2% 的情況。

That's largely consistent with a much longer-term historical average. What we've seen in this recent start to the year is that utilization has trended above that. And so that tends to benefit our business model. And it's consistent with what providers are reporting. They are reporting that we're they're certainly seeing more patients experiencing more patient visits, but they're doing that with the same resources or less. And we think that's where waste our software platform. It's our ability to help them address utilization increase.

這與長期歷史平均值基本一致。我們在今年年初看到的情況是，利用率趨勢已經高於這個水準。這往往有利於我們的商業模式。這與供應商的報告一致。他們報告說，我們確實看到更多的患者經歷了更多的就診，但他們用相同或更少的資源來實現這一目標。我們認為這就是我們的軟體平台被浪費的地方。我們有能力幫助他們解決利用率上升的問題。

But from a payment perspective, we're helping them do that very efficiently. We're helping them take out costs, as you've heard us describe and we're helping them find more dollars. And that ability to collect dollars and drive cash flow is making Waystar software relevant and important right now.

但從支付角度來看，我們正在幫助他們非常有效率地做到這一點。正如您聽到我們所描述的，我們正在幫助他們降低成本，並且我們正在幫助他們找到更多的資金。而這種收集資金和推動現金流的能力使得 Waystar 軟體現在變得具有相關性和重要性。

Yes. Specific to the question around seasonality, the Provider Solutions, the 70% of revenue tends to have very little seasonality whereas the 30% of revenue coming from patient payments as deductibles reset at the beginning of the year that tends to have more from a dollars perspective happening in the first half of the year and then tapering off in the back half of the year as patients hit the deductibles under their high deductible plans. We haven't seen anything so far in the first quarter nor have changed our expectation for the full year as it pertains to seasonality in that 30% of the business.

是的。具體到季節性問題，提供者解決方案 70% 的收入往往受季節性影響很小，而 30% 的收入來自患者支付，因為免賠額在年初重置，從美元角度來看，上半年的發生率更高，而隨著患者達到高免賠額計劃下的免賠額，下半年的收入逐漸減少。到目前為止，我們在第一季還沒有看到任何變化，也沒有改變對全年的預期，因為這 30% 的業務與季節性有關。

Brian Peterson, Raymond James.

布萊恩彼得森、雷蒙詹姆斯。

Congrats for a really strong quarter. So I know you mentioned the $10 million in revenue impact from change this quarter. But I'm curious, how big of a factor is the security and really the time to implementation that you guys are referencing in terms of moving deals through sales cycles. And I'd love to understand maybe the nature of these customer conversations and how those have changed over the last 30 days.

恭喜本季業績表現強勁。我知道您提到了本季變化對 1000 萬美元收入的影響。但我很好奇，在銷售週期中推動交易方面，你們提到的安全性和實施時間到底有多大？我很想了解這些客戶對話的性質以及它們在過去 30 天內發生了怎樣的變化。

Sure. Let me start there. Thanks, Brian, for the nice words. What I'd say is what we've described over the last year is a phased approach where speaking specifically to those providers that were disrupted by this cyber-attack. As you recall, there was this rush to move to another system.

當然。讓我從這裡開始。謝謝 Brian 的讚美。我想說的是，我們在過去一年中所描述的是一種分階段的方法，具體針對那些受到此次網路攻擊影響的提供者。正如你所記得的，當時人們急於轉向另一個系統。

And Waystar was in a position to help providers do that. We call that Phase 1. And then you've also heard us talk about a second phase, a Phase II, where it's more of a return to normal but intentional business decision-making. And factors that come into play include cybersecurity and ability to trust the vendor partner ability to address utilization and scale referenceability of clients that are also using the Waystar software platform and the ability perhaps as important as the cybersecurity piece, the ability to get tangible ROI and to be able to deploy the software rapidly and get that type of ROI. And so as we engage with clients in the market, you highlighted last 30 days, and what we've seen is we've seen continued strong demand.

Waystar 可以幫助供應商做到這一點。我們稱之為第一階段。然後您也聽到我們談論第二階段，即第二階段，這一階段更多是恢復正常但有目的的商業決策。發揮作用的因素包括網路安全和信任供應商合作夥伴的能力、解決使用 Waystar 軟體平台的客戶的利用率和規模參考性的能力，以及可能與網路安全部分一樣重要的能力、獲得有形投資回報率的能力以及能夠快速部署軟體並獲得這種類型的投資回報率的能力。因此，當我們與市場上的客戶接觸時，您強調了過去 30 天的情況，我們看到的是需求持續強勁。

We've seen RFPs that are robust Waystar is getting invited to participate in RFPs and working our way through those RFPs. We did notice an uptick as we described last -- second half of last year, and we see that being robust. And really an emphasis on providers prioritizing what's most important for them during this economic environment. And really, that's where the virtue of true mission-critical solutions comes to play. And we feel like we are positively able to address all of those things.

我們已經看到了強大的 RFP，Waystar 正在被邀請參與 RFP，並正在努力完成這些 RFP。我們確實注意到了去年下半年所描述的上升趨勢，而且我們認為這種上升趨勢十分強勁。真正強調的是，供應商要優先考慮在這種經濟環境下對他們來說最重要的事情。事實上，這正是真正關鍵任務解決方案的優勢所在。我們覺得我們有能力積極解決所有這些問題。

Cash flow is mission critical. So as providers address more utilization, they want to be able to convert those patient visits to cash rapidly and efficiently. And so we see that demand environment. We're grateful to be in a position to help providers, and we have a robust pipeline with strong win rates.

現金流是至關重要的。因此，當提供者解決更多利用率問題時，他們希望能夠快速有效地將這些患者就診轉化為現金。因此我們看到了這種需求環境。我們很高興能夠為供應商提供幫助，並且我們擁有強大的管道和很高的勝率。

Allen Lutz, Bank of America.

美國銀行的艾倫·盧茨。

Just one for Matt, really a follow-up on the last question. around RFP activity. I guess, Matt, you mentioned you talked about really strong RFP activity in the second half of last year with prospects like hospitals and health systems. I guess, has anything changed more recently due to tariffs? Can you talk about your recent conversations that you're having as part of these prospect meetings?

只想問馬特一個問題，這實際上是對上一個問題的後續。圍繞 RFP 活動。我想，馬特，你提到過去年下半年在醫院和醫療系統等方面的 RFP 活動非常強勁。我想，最近由於關稅有什麼變化嗎？您能談談最近在這些潛在客戶會議上的對話嗎？

Has anything changed at all? And then you mentioned conversations around new AI buckets or new areas of spend there that are outside of the traditional health IT buckets, how big in terms of dollars relative to the traditional health IT buckets, is that spend? And then -- has that unlocked at all? Or is that something that's sort of on the come?

有什麼改變嗎？然後您提到了有關新 AI 領域或傳統健康 IT 領域之外的新支出領域的討論，相對於傳統健康 IT 領域而言，這些支出的金額有多大？那麼——它已經解鎖了嗎？還是這是即將發生的事情？

Allen, this is Sandy. I apologize. We had a bit of a technical difficulty on our side. I'm going to have to ask you to repeat the question. I apologize about that.

艾倫，這是桑迪。我很抱歉。我們這邊遇到了一點技術困難。我不得不請你重複這個問題。我對此表示歉意。

No problem at all. So a two-part question. So really a follow-up to the last question. Can you talk about the recent RFP activity with prospective hospitals and health systems. And have those conversations changed at all as it relates to the prospect of tariffs?

完全沒問題。所以這個問題分成兩個部分。這其實是對上一個問題的後續回答。您能談談最近與潛在醫院和衛生系統的 RFP 活動嗎？就關稅前景而言，這些對話是否發生了變化？

Have those conversations been pushed out? Or is it really the same conversation that you're having with those prospective customers? And then second, Matt, you mentioned new AI buckets of potential spend there is outside of the traditional health IT allocation. My question is how big is the allocation to that? And has any of that spend been deployed? Or is that all prospective and forward-looking?

這些對話被推遲了嗎？或者這實際上與您與那些潛在客戶進行的對話相同？其次，馬特，您提到了在傳統醫療 IT 分配之外，新 AI 領域的潛在支出。我的問題是，分配給它的金額有多大？這些支出有被使用過嗎？還是這一切都是前瞻性的？

Yes. Thank you, Allen. We read the same headlines and are having the same conversations about potential tariff impact to any company or any provider organization in this case. Let me just make a few comments and then speak to the second question about AI and economic pools associated with AI investing. What I'd say just to reaffirm what Steve said earlier, our clients are US-based, and Waystar itself has no direct exposure to tariffs.

是的。謝謝你，艾倫。我們讀到相同的標題，並就此案中任何公司或任何提供者組織的潛在關稅影響進行相同的討論。我先發表幾點評論，然後談談有關人工智慧以及與人工智慧投資相關的經濟池的第二個問題。我只是想重申史蒂夫之前所說的話，我們的客戶位於美國，而 Waystar 本身並不直接受到關稅影響。

And so we're very empathetic as we read these headlines about potential headwinds or supply chain impact that could result from some of these tariffs. And we're mindful of that. What we see taking place is that in these types of difficult times, clients are looking for -- and prospects are looking for ways to help them operate efficiently and to get paid. And so again, I just would reaffirm that without commenting specifically on RFP volume or our pipeline. Occasionally, we will comment on our pipeline.

因此，當我們讀到有關某些關稅可能帶來的潛在阻力或供應鏈影響的頭條新聞時，我們深表同情。我們注意到了這一點。我們看到的情況是，在這種困難時期，客戶正在尋找——潛在客戶正在尋找幫助他們高效運作和獲得報酬的方法。因此，我再次重申這一點，而不會具體評論 RFP 數量或我們的管道。有時，我們會對我們的管道發表評論。

We'll do that probably once a year type of a thing, not every quarter. But what we are seeing is strong demand. And that demand is based on our ability to deploy cloud software that leverages AI that help -- is helping providers get tangible return on investment. We believe that Waystar can be a net winner -- share gain winner during this cycle. And what we know is that, that 90% of health care decision makers that we're talking to they're prioritizing AI and advanced automation to help them address this economic cycle.

我們大概每年都會做一次這樣的事，而不是每季都會做。但我們看到的是強勁的需求。這種需求是基於我們部署利用人工智慧的雲端軟體的能力，這種人工智慧可以幫助供應商獲得實際的投資回報。我們相信 Waystar 可以成為這一周期中的淨贏家——即市場份額贏家。我們知道，我們交談過的 90% 的醫療保健決策者都優先考慮人工智慧和先進的自動化來幫助他們應對這個經濟週期。

But the vast majority of them were still very early in the actual adoption and use of AI in this time frame. So the vast majority have either been using it for less than a couple of months, AI in any form or not at all. And so we view this as opportunity.

但其中絕大多數國家在這一時間範圍內實際採用和使用人工智慧仍處於非常早期的階段。因此，絕大多數人使用人工智慧的時間都還不到幾個月，或者根本沒有使用過。因此，我們將此視為機會。

Commenting on our observation, we do see dollars set aside from traditional HCIT OpEx spend. where there are dollars set aside for Gen AI-focused spend, where there's real ROI associated with that spend. And the good news for us with Waystar is what you've seen us talk about recently, and some of you may have participated in the waster innovation showcase that we launched just last week to show these AI tools. We are actually moving from AI hype to ROI reality. And we're delivering real return on investment with the areas that we've launched -- you'll recall that we launched AltitudeAI in January of 2025.

根據我們的觀察，我們確實看到了從傳統 HCIT OpEx 支出中撥出的資金。其中有專門用於人工智慧相關支出的資金，以及與這些支出相關的實際投資報酬率。對於 Waystar 來說，好消息是您最近看到我們談論的內容，你們中的一些人可能參加了我們上週剛推出的廢棄物創新展示，展示了這些 AI 工具。我們實際上正在從人工智慧炒作轉向投資回報率現實。我們正在透過已推出的領域實現真正的投資回報——您會記得，我們​​在 2025 年 1 月推出了 AltitudeAI。

This comprehensive suite of generative AI capabilities that is pervasive across the waste our software platform. and we're seeing early adopters achieve remarkable results. And so we're able to go and have real conversations with these set aside pools that are AI focused to talk about the ROI that we can help clients achieve. And I won't qualify or quantify the size of those pools. But I will say that there's tremendous interest on behalf of health care decision makers to prioritize AI and automation capabilities in their organizations.

這套全面的生成式人工智慧功能遍佈我們的軟體平台。我們看到早期採用者取得了顯著的成果。因此，我們能夠與這些專注於人工智慧的預留池進行真正的對話，討論我們可以幫助客戶實現的投資報酬率。我不會限製或量化這些池子的規模。但我要說的是，醫療保健決策者對在其組織中優先考慮人工智慧和自動化能力有著濃厚的興趣。

Jailendra Singh, Truist Securities.

Jailendra Singh，Truist Securities。

Congrats on a strong quarter. I was wondering if you could provide any update on 30% of your change related customers pursuing cross-sell opportunities you flagged on the last call. Is there any change to that figure? And do you see any of that benefit flowing through this year? And related to that, we have been hearing is that several providers who temporarily switched to other vendors last year went back to chain because of the existing contracts with change.

恭喜本季業績強勁。我想知道您是否可以提供關於上次通話中提到的 30% 的與變更相關的客戶尋求交叉銷售機會的最新資訊。這個數字有變化嗎？您認為今年會有什麼好處嗎？與此相關，我們聽說，去年暫時轉向其他供應商的幾家供應商由於現有合約發生變化而重新回到了連鎖店。

And now as these contracts are coming up a renewal, these providers have been more actively evaluating other alternatives. Have you seen any of that playing out yet? And would you consider something like that as incremental to your low double-digit long-term growth rate?

現在，隨著這些合約即將續簽，這些供應商一直在更加積極地評估其他替代方案。您有看過這樣的情況嗎？您是否認為這樣的事情會對您的低兩位數長期成長率產生增量作用？

Yes. Thank you, Jailendra. It's nice to hear your voice as well. What I'd say is that we're in a competitive active environment. And as you'll recall, I'll speak to our growth model just for a moment.

是的。謝謝你，Jailendra。我也很高興聽到你的聲音。我想說的是，我們處在一個競爭激烈的環境中。你們可能還記得，我先簡單談談我們的成長模式。

We have this proven growth model, and it starts with us creating enduring relationships with our clients, which we do. Our retention rates are exceptional. And then once they begin using our software, as many thousands of impacted clients started to do last year. Then we are having conversations with them where they're naturally expanding the use of our software which is well architected and beautiful by the way. We're able to deploy it rapidly and clients can add an existing client can add additional software and deploy that very rapidly as well.

我們擁有經過驗證的成長模式，它始於我們與客戶建立持久的關係，而我們確實這麼做了。我們的保留率非常高。一旦他們開始使用我們的軟體，就像去年成千上萬受影響的客戶開始做的那樣。然後我們與他們交談，他們自然而然地擴大了我們軟體的使用範圍，順便說一下，我們的軟體架構良好，而且非常美觀。我們能夠快速部署它，客戶可以添加現有客戶端，可以添加其他軟體，並且也能非常快速地部署它。

We're -- that's normal business for us. And so we made the comment about approximately 30% of the providers that joined us in that cohort that was impacted a quarter ago or actively in dialogue with us. What I'd say is we've seen strong demand in clients as they now are our clients and talking to them about additional solutions. And when you look at and I won't speak in detail about this, but our results in Q1 from a bookings perspective, we saw nice adoption of additional software modules amongst that cohort of existing clients. I think I'll leave it at that.

我們——這對我們來說是正常業務。因此，我們評論說，大約有 30% 的供應商在一個季度前受到了影響，或者正在與我們積極對話。我想說的是，我們看到客戶的強烈需求，因為他們現在是我們的客戶，我們正在與他們討論其他解決方案。當您查看時，我不會詳細談論這一點，但從預訂角度來看，我們第一季的業績顯示，現有客戶群對附加軟體模組的採用率很高。我想我就不說了。

I just would characterize our work is very active. And we are encouraged and excited about the opportunity just to have conversations with clients to use more software and prospects who are evaluating what to do next. And you can imagine, we have a go-to-market team that's very focused and thoughtful in our approach, going through discovery processes and helping these prospects as they evaluate opportunities talk to or get references from our existing clients. And certainly, we have ROI calculators that help them make thoughtful decisions. And so be very active and from time to time, comment specifically on what we're doing, but I'll leave it at that for right now.

我只是想說我們的工作非常活躍。我們非常高興並很高興有機會與客戶進行對話，使用更多的軟體，並評估下一步該做什麼。你可以想像，我們有一個非常專注和周到的行銷團隊，他們經歷發現過程並幫助這些潛在客戶評估機會，與現有客戶交談或獲得推薦。當然，我們有投資報酬率計算器來幫助他們做出深思熟慮的決定。因此要非常積極，並時不時地具體評論我們正在做的事情，但現在我就不多說了。

George Hill, Deutsche Bank.

德意志銀行的喬治·希爾。

Yes. I've got a quick 2-parter here. I get that everything is going right and well with the business, but you guys have kind of called out recession risk a couple of times in prepared commentary. I wanted to ask, are you seeing anything that kind of makes you bring up the risk -- like are you seeing any type of lengthening sales cycles? And kind of has anything in the macro changed what clients are demanding have you guys from a product or functionality perspective?

是的。我這裡有一個簡短的兩部分內容。我知道業務一切進展順利，但你們在準備好的評論中幾次提到了經濟衰退的風險。我想問一下，您是否看到任何讓您提出風險的事情——例如您是否看到任何類型的銷售週期延長？從產品或功能的角度來看，宏觀上有什麼改變了客戶的需求嗎？

I know that you guys brought up AI. But is there -- like has the macro like made clients pivot from like maybe stronger solutions around patient self-pay or ability to pay tools? Like I'd just be interesting if the macro has changed like which widgets clients are looking at and kind of what you guys are seeing on sales cycles.

我知道你們提到了人工智慧。但是，宏觀因素是否已讓客戶轉向圍繞患者自付或支付能力工具的更強大的解決方案？就像我只是想知道宏觀是否發生了變化，例如客戶正在查看哪些小部件以及你們在銷售週期中看到了什麼。

Sure. Yes. Thanks, George. What I'd say is we're a young public company working to deliver on our commitments. We feel very good about the fact that we've now delivered 4 consecutive quarters of good results, but we're working to be prudent.

當然。是的。謝謝，喬治。我想說的是，我們是一家年輕的上市公司，正在努力履行我們的承諾。我們對連續四個季度取得良好業績感到非常高興，但我們正在努力保持謹慎。

So we know that it's on people's minds, the potential for tariff impact on the economy and specifically on health care providers. and we're very empathetic to those that may be impacted. Again, I would just reaffirm that we've set a number of things that were -- that kind of measure or give you a sense of our enthusiasm and desire to be helpful during this economic cycle. We have a mission-critical software platform. We are working to help clients see the software, get access to it, it obviously highlights and showcases our AI capabilities to dramatically change manual work into automated tasks and to autonomously generate work that creates tremendous efficiency.

因此，我們知道人們關心的是關稅對經濟，特別是醫療保健提供者的潛在影響。我們非常同情那些可能受到影響的人。我再次重申，我們已經制定了一些措施，讓您感受到我們的熱情以及希望在這一經濟週期中提供幫助的願望。我們有一個關鍵任務軟體平台。我們正在努力幫助客戶看到並存取該軟體，它顯然突出並展示了我們的人工智慧能力，可以徹底將手動工作轉變為自動化任務，並自主生成可創造巨大效率的工作。

And we're going to navigate with clients through this cycle. We're not we're noting that things haven't necessarily changed in their decision-making time frame. They're working to be very thoughtful. We're also seeing them prioritize to the most important and essential solutions that will help them succeed and navigate this critical time. And we're in a position to be that type of software platform that can help them do that. So again, we believe we'll be a net winner during this cycle as we help clients and as we stay very focused on serving them.

我們將與客戶一起度過這個週期。我們並沒有註意到，事情在他們的決策時間框架內不一定會改變。他們正在努力做到非常周到。我們也看到他們優先考慮最重要和最必要的解決方案，這些解決方案將幫助他們取得成功並度過這段關鍵時期。我們有能力成為可以幫助他們實現這一目標的軟體平台。因此，我們再次相信，透過幫助客戶並專注於為他們提供服務，我們將成為此週期的淨贏家。

Ryan Daniels, William Blair.

瑞安丹尼爾斯、威廉布萊爾。

I wanted to ask another follow-up on artificial intelligence. Matt, you mentioned Black Book earlier and also saw a recent survey they had out talking about providers moving a lot more of the outsourced RCM back in-house. And it seems like I is the driver for that because some of the BPO operations where maybe you needed big OUS staff of billers and coders are really becoming obsolete with artificial intelligence. So I'm curious if you think either in the near-term pipeline over the long term, that's a trend that could benefit you by kind of bringing some of that business back to the client base and then you selling a software solution to address that.

我想問另一個有關人工智慧的後續問題。馬特，你之前提到了《黑皮書》，並且看到了他們最近進行的一項調查，調查中談到供應商將更多的外包 RCM 轉移回內部。而我似乎是這方面的推動者，因為一些 BPO 業務可能需要大量的 OUS 出納員和編碼員，但隨著人工智慧的出現，這些業務已經變得過時了。所以我很好奇，您是否認為無論是在短期內還是長期內，這都是一種可以使您受益的趨勢，透過將部分業務帶回客戶群，然後您銷售軟體解決方案來解決這個問題。

Thanks, Ryan. We do think it's a trend that will benefit our business model, and we're beginning to see that now. You think about something I often say, we've never had more technological capability to do hard things than we do right now. And we're seeing that with generative AI. A couple of thoughts for you.

謝謝，瑞安。我們確實認為這是一個有利於我們商業模式的趨勢，現在我們已經開始看到這一點。想想我常說的一句話，我們從來沒有像現在這樣擁有強大的技術能力來完成困難的事情。我們在生成人工智慧中看到了這一點。給你幾點想法。

We know there's interest and curiosity and we know that there's willingness to begin to deflect expenses that you might otherwise have to spend if you were paying someone to do a job or a task in kind of -- in air quotes, the Clayton Christensen jobs to be done category. What we're seeing is that we have the opportunity to automate high-volume, low-complexity tasks using generative AI. And we're showcasing that with the launch of AltitudeAI. When you think about our ability to prevent denials from occurring and taking tasks that used to take 3 days and compressing those through generative AI to take 3 minutes. Now you don't have to have the outsourced conversation.

我們知道人們有興趣和好奇心，我們也知道人們願意開始轉移這些費用，否則如果你付錢給別人做某項工作或任務，你可能需要花費這些費用——用空中引號來說，就是克萊頓·克里斯滕森要完成的工作類別。我們看到的是，我們有機會利用生成式人工智慧自動執行大量、低複雜度的任務。我們將透過 AltitudeAI 的推出來展示這一點。當您考慮到我們能夠防止拒絕發生並將過去需要 3 天才能完成的任務透過生成式人工智慧壓縮到 3 分鐘。現在您不必進行外包對話。

You can in-source it and reimagine what's possible through the use of generative AI. You can do the same thing with denial and appeal management. Waystar offers an autonomous and automatic letter writing capability that's compressing the time it takes staff time, 70% and actually creating a more accurate appeal letter that then we're seeing just really positive overturn rates from. That's something that somebody may have had to outsource a year or three or five years ago. Well, they don't have to today.

您可以將其納入其中並透過使用生成式人工智慧重新想像一切可能。您可以對拒絕和上訴管理做同樣的事情。Waystar 提供自主和自動寫信功能，可將員工所需時間壓縮 70%，並實際上創建更準確的申訴信，因此我們看到了非常積極的推翻率。這可能是一年、三、五年前某些人必須外包的事情。嗯，他們今天不必這麼做。

So we do think that that will lead us to be able to expand the addressable market opportunity before us and serve that market with software with software and with AI. And we are pleased with the competitive position that Waystar is in, our ability to deliver automation and efficiency to clients.

因此，我們確實認為，這將使我們能夠擴大我們面前的可尋址市場機會，並透過軟體和人工智慧為該市場提供服務。我們對 Waystar 的競爭地位以及我們為客戶提供自動化和效率的能力感到滿意。

The last comment, Ryan, you really got me going on this now. But look, what we're also doing and we're mindful of is we're serving over 1 million providers across all the different care settings. A couple of thoughts there. One, we're creating a tremendous amount of data and working to very carefully and thoughtfully custody that data and use it to then fuel the generative AI capabilities that we launch. That's unique.

最後一則評論，瑞安，你真的讓我開始關注這件事了。但是，你看，我們也在做什麼，我們注意到，我們為所有不同護理環境中的 100 多萬提供者提供服務。這裡有幾點想法。首先，我們正在創建大量數據，並努力非常謹慎和周到地保管這些數據，然後利用這些數據為我們推出的生成性人工智慧功能提供動力。這很獨特。

We think long term, it's the data access and the data ability that you feed to the large language model, so to speak, that really becomes the powerful enabler of automation and capability gain here. And then two, we're also -- given that we are serving 1 million providers across all the care settings, we're taking a very disciplined, careful, prudent approach to launching these capabilities amongst early adopters, making sure that we can attest to cybersecurity, making sure that we can help them adopt this in ways that will enable them to accomplish their goal and that's often associated with their ROI. So thank you for highlighting that question. It is something that we're excited about as we shift the market and bring more decision-making opportunity back in-house where previously it just had to be outsourced in expensive ways.

我們認為，從長遠來看，您提供給大型語言模型的資料存取和資料能力才真正成為實現自動化和能力提升的強大推動因素。其次，鑑於我們為所有護理環境中的 100 萬名提供者提供服務，我們採取非常嚴謹、謹慎、審慎的方式在早期採用者中推出這些功能，確保我們能夠證明網路安全，確保我們能夠幫助他們以能夠實現其目標的方式採用這些功能，而這通常與他們的投資回報率相關。感謝您強調這個問題。這是讓我們感到興奮的事情，因為我們正在轉變市場，並將更多的決策機會帶回公司內部，而以前這些決策只能以昂貴的方式外包。

Richard Close, Canaccord Genuity.

Canaccord Genuity 的 Richard Close。

Congratulations on the strong start to the year. Just on -- staying on the AI. I'm curious how you're thinking about it. Is this really a maybe a market share gain, new client win opportunity or a same-store growth, more same-store growth opportunity. And I'm curious as people use these products, are you -- are you just letting the clients use them get a feel of the capabilities and the improvement in ROI as you're talking about and then you come back behind and reprice -- reprice their contracts? Or are these add-ons to existing contracts? Just trying to get a better feel of it.

恭喜您今年取得了良好的開端。繼續—繼續使用 AI。我很好奇你是怎麼想的。這真的是一個贏得市場份額、新客戶的機會，還是一個同店成長、更多同店成長的機會？我很好奇，當人們使用這些產品時，您是否只是讓客戶使用它們來感受您所說的功能和投資回報率的提高，然後您再回來重新定價——重新為他們的合約定價？還是這些是現有合約的附加條款？只是想更好地感受它。

Sure. Thank you, Richard. Last week, we showed several generative AI capabilities in our innovation showcase. And we presented the problem that the AI capabilities working to address, and we showed our software addressing that problem. And then we showed clients who are benefiting from the use of that software.

當然。謝謝你，理查。上週，我們在創新展示中展示了幾種生成式人工智慧功能。我們提出了人工智慧能力所要解決的問題，並展示了解決該問題的軟體。然後我們向客戶展示了使用該軟體後受益的情況。

And we highlighted several metrics that they're benefiting from the use of our software to inflect their business positively. And so as we think about Gen AI's impact on our business, I really like that analogy that you used. The same-store growth analogy, we're certainly not a retailer. But we do think in terms of retention of our clients, and we're -- part of how we'll have business impact is to infuse generative AI capability into our existing software that will make it even better and elongate that relationship with the client to drive fantastic retention.

我們強調了幾個指標，表明他們透過使用我們的軟體為他們的業務帶來了積極的影響。因此，當我們思考人工智慧對我們業務的影響時，我真的很喜歡您使用的那個比喻。同店成長類比，我們當然不是零售商。但我們確實考慮過留住客戶，而我們對業務產生影響的部分方式是將生成人工智慧功能注入我們現有的軟體中，使其變得更好，並延長與客戶的關係，以實現出色的留住率。

The second way is you mentioned pricing, we don't disclose specific terms on pricing, but our thoughts are we price to value, and we know that there's value being generated. And so as we've highlighted, we do have a very modest annual price increase program across our business. As we study this without disclosing more on this call, we believe that there's an opportunity to price to value appropriately for those that are using generative AI in our existing software.

第二種方式是您提到的定價，我們不會透露定價的具體條款，但我們的想法是按價值定價，我們知道會產生價值。正如我們所強調的，我們的整個業務確實有一個非常適度的年度價格上漲計劃。由於我們正在研究這個問題，但不會在此電話會議上透露更多信息，我們相信，對於那些在我們現有軟體中使用生成式人工智慧的人來說，有機會進行適當的定價。

And then the third way, as we're thinking about it is depending on the generative AI module, it may be a new SKU, a new software module that we sell to both prospects into existing clients. And we're preparing our teams and operational team members and go-to-market team members and our whole business to be able to take new solutions and successfully launch those into existing clients and new prospects as well.

然後，第三種方式，正如我們所考慮的，取決於生成 AI 模組，它可能是一個新的 SKU，一個新的軟體模組，我們將其出售給潛在客戶和現有客戶。我們正在為我們的團隊、營運團隊成員、市場團隊成員和整個企業做好準備，以便能夠採用新的解決方案，並成功地將其推廣到現有客戶和新客戶。

The last way I think Gen AI impacts our business is the internal consumption of Gen AI, which we're using today to drive efficiency to drive impact without compromising our ability to create the highest in the industry, market-leading client experiences as we work to serve our clients. We're also -- have a real effort underway to train our -- all of our teams, but especially our software engineering teams on how to use AI.

我認為 Gen AI 對我們業務影響的最後一種方式是 Gen AI 的內部消費，我們今天正在使用它來提高效率，產生影響，同時又不損害我們在為客戶提供服務的過程中創造業內最高、市場領先的客戶體驗的能力。我們也正在努力培訓我們所有的團隊，特別是我們的軟體工程團隊如何使用人工智慧。

So not just dedicated amongst a cohort of gene-specific application engineers, but our whole engineering team. We want the ability to use Gen AI to become pervasive and we see that taking place and even to be able to help produce software code. So there's multiple ways that Gen AI will impact our business, and we look forward to articulating that more specifically as we roll forward. But there are some things that are already taking place now that we're encouraged by.

因此，不僅是一群基因特定應用工程師致力於此，而且我們的整個工程團隊也致力於此。我們希望 Gen AI 的使用能力能夠普及，我們也看到這種情況正在發生，甚至能夠幫助產生軟體程式碼。因此，Gen AI 將以多種方式影響我們的業務，我們期待在未來更具體地闡明這一點。但現在已經發生的一些事情令我們感到鼓舞。

(Operator Instructions) Anne Samuel, JPMorgan.

（操作員指示）摩根大通的 Anne Samuel。

Congrats on the great results. You guys see your leverage target a lot sooner than we were anticipating. And now that you're there, I was wondering if maybe you could just talk about how you're thinking about adding to your existing portfolio through M&A.

恭喜您取得如此優異的成績。你們比我們預期的要早得多看到了自己的槓桿目標。既然您已經談到這裡，我想知道您是否可以談談您如何考慮透過併購來擴大現有的投資組合。

Well, thank you, Anne, for highlighting that. We're pleased to make and keep our commitments. I've commented to Steve earlier today that we're proud of the -- to have kept the commitments we made when we went public, and that was to delever the business successfully. And we think it's a testament to our business model, our business model that Steve highlighted earlier has a strong adjusted EBITDA margins and a really nice conversion ratio to unlevered free cash flow. So we're pleased with the profile of our business and the strength of our balance sheet.

好吧，安妮，謝謝你強調這一點。我們很高興做出並履行我們的承諾。我今天早些時候曾對史蒂夫說過，我們很自豪能夠履行我們上市時所做的承諾，那就是成功降低業務槓桿率。我們認為這證明了我們的商業模式，史蒂夫之前強調的我們的商業模式具有強勁的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率和非常好的無槓桿自由現金流轉換率。因此，我們對我們的業務狀況和資產負債表的實力感到滿意。

What I'd say is with regards to M&A, we do have a history of successful M&A. And our approach may be a bit unique in the sense that we look for companies that have technology, people and clients that really fit what we're working to accomplish and do. And then every time we've been able to acquire a business, as you know, Anne, we work to integrate and unite that company, that technology, the people and the clients on to the Waystar platform so that all of our clients could benefit from it. And we've seen really positive things occur doing that. And so we believe that Waystar can be a great home for the right types of companies.

我想說的是，關於併購，我們確實有成功的併購歷史。我們的方法可能有點獨特，因為我們尋找的是擁有真正適合我們工作目標的技術、人員和客戶的公司。然後，正如你所知，安妮，每當我們能夠收購一家企業時，我們都會努力將該公司、該技術、人員和客戶整合到 Waystar 平台上，以便我們所有的客戶都能從中受益。我們已經看到這樣做確實產生了積極的影響。因此，我們相信 Waystar 可以成為合適類型公司的理想家園。

And we have a very disciplined approach, a dedicated corporate development team with a robust pipeline of opportunities. We're actively in the market. We have really good conversations with -- with people that we admire with businesses that they lead, and we're grateful for that. And I think our commitment is to just continue that approach to be disciplined. And at the right time, we'll look forward to highlighting things that we expect to do, but we're active right now.

我們擁有非常嚴謹的方法、專業的企業發展團隊、以及豐富的發展機會。我們積極參與市場活動。我們與我們欽佩的人以及他們所領導的企業進行了非常好的交談，我們對此心存感激。我認為我們的承諾就是繼續採取這種嚴謹的態度。在適當的時候，我們期待強調我們期望做的事情，但我們現在很活躍。

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Matt Hawkins for closing remarks.

我目前沒有其他問題。現在我想請馬特霍金斯作最後發言。

Well, thank you, Daniel, for operating the call today. As we conclude today's call, I just want to take a moment to thank our incredible dedicated Waystar team members who have feel so grateful to work alongside. And I also just want to say how much we are privileged and thrilled to to serve our remarkable clients who really are health care heroes here we're grateful to deliver them software that benefits them as they work to care for patients. We're passionate about what we're building. I hope you sense that, and we're pleased with our performance to start 2025.

好吧，丹尼爾，謝謝你今天接聽電話。在我們結束今天的電話會議時，我只想花點時間感謝我們令人難以置信的、敬業的 Waystar 團隊成員，他們非常感激能夠與我們一起工作。我還想說，我們非常榮幸和興奮能夠為我們傑出的客戶提供服務，他們確實是醫療保健英雄，我們很高興為他們提供軟體，讓他們能夠在照顧病人的過程中受益。我們對我們正在建立的事業充滿熱情。我希望你們能感受到這一點，我們對 2025 年初的表現感到滿意。

Looking ahead, I just would reaffirm our focus and our excitement about the opportunities that are right in front of us. We're focused on executing our proven plan while recognizing the macroeconomic uncertainties facing providers and expressing empathy there but believe that we can really be helpful. So thank you all for joining. We wish you a great evening, and we're excited about getting to work. Thanks.

展望未來，我只想重申我們的重點以及對眼前機會的興奮。我們專注於執行我們已證實的計劃，同時認識到供應商面臨的宏觀經濟不確定性並對此表示同情，但相信我們確實可以提供幫助。感謝大家的加入。我們祝您度過一個愉快的夜晚，我們很高興開始工作。謝謝。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連線。