Ardent Health, Inc. Q3 FY2025 Earnings Call

Greetings and welcome to the Ardent Health Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to turn the conference over to Dave Styblo, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to Ardent Health's Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today is Ardent President and Chief Executive Officer, Marty Bonick; and Chief Financial Officer, Alfred Lumsdaine. Marty and Alfred will provide prepared remarks, and then we will open the line to questions. Before I turn the call over to Marty, I want to remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today's forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. Further, this call will include a discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDAR. Reconciliation of these measures to the closest GAAP financial measure is included in our quarterly earnings press release, which was issued yesterday evening after the market closed and is available at ardenthealth.com. With that, I'll turn the call over to Marty.

Thank you, Dave, and good morning. We appreciate everyone joining the call and webcast. Ardent finished the quarter with two contrasting realities. On one hand, our performance reflects a continuation of the growth momentum we've experienced across our business, driven by robust demand, improving surgical trends and disciplined execution. Year-to-date, adjusted EBITDA is up 30%, and we've made meaningful progress on margin expansion, cash flow and our balance sheet with lease adjusted net leverage improving 1.5x since our IPO last summer. On the other hand, our earnings performance this quarter did not meet our expectations. As noted in our release, we've revised our full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to $530 million to $555 million, reflecting persistent industry-wide cost pressures, particularly those around professional fees and payer denials that have proven more durable than anticipated. We view this revision as a prudent recalibration grounded in a pragmatic assessment of current conditions and establishing a reset baseline from which we can build. These pressures are not demand-driven, and our revenue guidance remains unchanged, but our earnings pull-through has been impacted and we are taking decisive actions to address it. Through our IMPACT program, we've already launched targeted initiatives to further optimize cost and strengthen margins. These actions have been building momentum and are expected to begin contributing in the fourth quarter and will continue to ramp through 2026. With strong demand across our markets and a solid balance sheet, we remain confident in our ability to deliver sustainable growth and long-term shareholder value. To frame today's conversation, I'm going to focus my comments on three key areas. First, I'll walk you through our third quarter results and the strong demand environment. Second, I will provide color on the industry headwinds that are impacting 2025 earnings more than previously anticipated. And third, I will provide details of how we are already working to address and mitigate these challenges. Let's start with our third quarter performance. At a high level, we generated strong volumes and revenue growth driven by improving surgical trends and sustained strength in industry demand. Our markets are growing 2x to 3x faster than the national average and are further bolstered by rising care complexity, structural trends that reinforce our long-term growth thesis. Ardent's leading positions in these growing midsized urban markets give us a durable advantage, and these demand dynamics provide a strong foundation for continued strategic inpatient and outpatient growth. Our strong platform combined with initiatives to improve capacity and efficiency drove admissions growth of 5.8% in the quarter. This is a continuation of the favorable trends we've observed in the first half of 2025 with year-to-date admissions growing 6.7%, well above the 2% to 3% population growth we see across our markets. Additionally, adjusted admissions increased 2.9%, landing near the top end of our 2025 guidance range of 2% to 3%. Surgical volumes also improved with total surgeries up 1.4% in the third quarter, reversing a small decline of 0.4% in the first half of the year. Turning to financial performance. Revenue grew 8.8% in the quarter or 11.7%, excluding a one-time revenue adjustment that Alfred will detail later. Adjusted EBITDA increased 46% in the third quarter to $143 million, with margins expanding 240 basis points to 9.1% and further lowering our lease-adjusted net leverage from 2.7x to 2.5x. Of note, the third quarter adjusted EBITDA included approximately $15 million to $20 million of earnings we previously expected to realize in the fourth quarter. Excluding this timing benefit, underlying third quarter adjusted EBITDA was below our expectations, which we factored into our updated guidance. That's a good segue to the second topic of today's discussion: industry headwinds. While our revenue growth has been strong, earnings did not reflect the level of pull-through we anticipated. First, professional fee expense growth. This has been a persistent challenge across the industry for several years now. For Ardent, growth peaked at over 30% in 2023, moderated to 12% in 2024 and was expected to moderate further this year. Instead, professional fees increased 6% in the first quarter, 9% in the second quarter and accelerated to 11% in the third quarter. We now expect second half growth in the low double digits versus the high single digits previously assumed. This accounts for roughly half of the 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance reduction. Payer denials were the second factor impacting our adjusted EBITDA guidance outlook. After a sharp increase in denials beginning in the second quarter of 2024, trends largely stabilized through the first half of 2025 consistent with our outlook. However, these payer pressures moved higher again in the third quarter, and our updated adjusted EBITDA guidance reflects the development of this trend throughout the second half of 2025. In summary, our updated outlook prudently assumes these industry headwinds observed in the third quarter will persist at elevated levels in the fourth quarter. While these dynamics are industry-wide, we are taking decisive action to mitigate their impact and strengthen our performance, which brings us to my third and most important takeaway, what we are doing to close the earnings gap. We are taking swift and decisive action to improve our near-term earnings profile while maintaining a disciplined approach to strategic investments that support long-term growth. Immediate priorities, including contract renegotiations and targeted staffing adjustments are already underway with additional initiatives ramping in early 2026 that are expected to drive measurable impact across revenue cycle, labor and supply chain performance. Under our IMPACT program, we have launched an expanded set of margin enhancement and efficiency initiatives. As an example, we've renegotiated terms of an exchange plan to secure meaningful rate improvement with an additional step-up in 2027. We've recently completed a targeted reduction in workforce, and we revised the key agency labor contracts to lower base rates and reduce premium pay. These three actions will phase in during the fourth quarter and reach full run rate benefit in early 2026, generating an expected annual benefit of more than $40 million. Beyond these near-term actions, we are executing on initiatives to build momentum in 2026 and beyond under the leadership of our Chief Operating Officer, Dave Caspers. These include precision staffing to better align patient care resources with real-time volumes, optimizing contract labor and accelerating speed to hire. We are also driving supply chain discipline and savings through vendor consolidation, commodity standardization, and tighter inventory management. In our operating rooms, our OR excellence program is focusing on improving case mix and evaluating additional service line rationalization opportunities to ensure the right surgeries happen at the right time in the right setting. While payer headwinds remain an industry-wide challenge, we are taking proactive steps within our control to drive sustainable improvement. We've mobilized a multidisciplinary team that combines expertise in clinical operations, contracting, and revenue cycle management to respond with an integrated strategy. This team is leveraging innovative processes and advanced analytics to reduce denials and align payer contracting to maximize net yield. Early results are promising, and we anticipate broader impact as these initiatives scale in the near term. We are also taking steps to rightsize professional fees. We are renegotiating certain vendor contracts, particularly in anesthesia to introduce more flexible cost structures that better align with patient volumes, helping to eliminate excess fixed costs in our business. Additionally, given our increased scale, we are strategically replacing locums with more cost-efficient full-time hires. Collectively, these initiatives are strengthening the organization and will better position us for future earnings growth. While industry headwinds remain, we are confident in our ability to execute with discipline and deliver long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn it over to Alfred to provide more detail on our third quarter financial performance and outlook.

Thanks, Marty, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus my comments on third quarter performance, detail the two nonrecurring items we noted in our release and elaborate on our outlook for the business. Building on Marty's comments, we again delivered strong volumes during the quarter. Third quarter admissions growth was 5.8%, driven by double-digit increases in exchange and managed Medicaid, and 8% growth in non-exchange commercial. Inpatient surgery growth was 9.7% in the third quarter while outpatient surgeries declined 1.8%. Total surgeries grew 1.4% in the third quarter, which is continued improvement from a 0.7% decline in the first quarter and a 0.2% decline in the second quarter. Adjusted admissions increased 2.9% in the third quarter and are up 2.4% year-to-date, consistent with our 2025 outlook of 2% to 3% growth. Now turning to financial performance. Third quarter revenue increased 8.8% to $1.58 billion compared to the prior year, driven by adjusted admissions growth of 2.9% and net patient service revenue per adjusted admission growth of 5.8%. Excluding a nonrecurring adjustment that I'll discuss in a moment, revenue growth was 11.7%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 46% in the third quarter to $143 million compared to the prior year, and adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 240 basis points to 9.1%. Year-to-date through the third quarter, adjusted EBITDA grew 30% and margins expanded 150 basis points to 8.7% compared to the prior year. The largest driver of the third quarter margin improvement was in salaries and benefits. As a percentage of total revenue, salaries and benefits improved by 90 basis points to 42.9%, or by 200 basis points when excluding the one-time revenue adjustment. Inside of this dynamic, we're pleased with our contract labor improving to 3.5% of salaries and wages in the third quarter down from 3.8% in both the first and second quarters of this year and down from 3.9% in the same prior year period. Moving on to cash flow and liquidity. We ended the third quarter with total cash of $609 million and total debt outstanding of $1.1 billion. Our total available liquidity at the end of the third quarter was $904 million. Cash flow from operating activities during the third quarter was strong at $154 million compared to $90 million for the third quarter of 2024. Capital expenditures during the third quarter totaled $59 million, and we'd expect a modest increase in capital spending the remainder of this year. At the end of the third quarter, our total net leverage was 1.0x, and our lease adjusted net leverage was 2.5x, which is an improvement from 2.7x at the end of the second quarter. As Marty outlined, our third quarter adjusted EBITDA did not grow as fast as we previously projected due to the elevated level of professional fees and worsening payer dynamics. As a result, we're revising 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance to $530 million to $555 million, which at the midpoint implies growth of 9% and 20 basis points of margin expansion. However, we're maintaining our previous revenue guidance of $6.2 billion to $6.45 billion or 6% growth at the midpoint. Before concluding, I'd like to elaborate on the two nonrecurring items we recorded in the third quarter. First, we recorded a $43 million revenue reduction as a result of a change in accounting estimate during the quarter. This change in estimate reflected our transition to the Kodiak RCA net revenue platform. As many of you may know, Kodiak is an industry-leading revenue cycle platform with more than 2,100 hospital customers, including public, private, and not-for-profit healthcare systems. At the simplest level, this is a change in methodology to one that recognizes reserves earlier in an account's life cycle, all other things being equal. This transition reflects a strategic move from an internally developed model to an efficient and scaled system with enhanced real-time reporting capabilities, all of which are important as we grow in scale. As we indicated in our earnings release, the $43 million adjustment reduced total revenue for the third quarter, but is excluded from adjusted EBITDA. Second, we recorded an increase to our professional and general liability reserves of $54 million, fully attributable to our New Mexico market. This reserve change primarily relates to adverse claims development for a single provider who Ardent has not employed for several years as well as overall social inflationary pressures in the New Mexico market. The $54 million adjustment was recorded within third quarter other operating expenses but is excluded from adjusted EBITDA. I want to be clear, we consider both of these items isolated matters, and they were not a factor in revising our 2025 adjusted EBITDA guidance. So as we think about the business on a go-forward basis, we remain encouraged about our ability to drive durable top line growth. Our volumes have been quite strong, and we continue to execute on initiatives to optimize demand to our system. From an earnings perspective, we have a number of opportunities that we can control to drive improvement of our adjusted EBITDA base. As Marty already mentioned, many of the revenue and earnings enhancement initiatives under our IMPACT program are well underway with others expected to begin in the near term. Execution with discipline and urgency is paramount and a top priority for our entire organization. Our strong balance sheet and liquidity position give us the flexibility to invest through cycles, pursue strategic growth, and support operational transformation without compromising financial discipline. We're continuing to support future growth with our outpatient build-out. In the second half of 2025, we will have opened several urgent care and imaging centers. And in 2026, we expect to open two ambulatory surgery centers, four more urgent cares, and one freestanding emergency department. Further, our strong cash flow generation and balance sheet give us the flexibility to support strategic growth into new markets. Collectively, this positions us well to deliver long-term shareholder value, grow adjusted EBITDA and expand margins over the next several years. With that, I'll turn the call back to Marty for concluding remarks.

Thank you, Alfred. I want to leave you by reinforcing three key takeaways. First, we operate in a strong and durable demand environment. Our markets continue to grow 2x to 3x faster than the national average, supported by demographic tailwinds and rising care complexity, structural trends that reinforce our long-term growth thesis. Second, we've prudently adjusted 2025 guidance to reflect industry pressures. And importantly, we've already begun implementing decisive actions to mitigate these challenges. Under our IMPACT program, we are harvesting operating efficiencies through initiatives in labor, supply chain, and revenue cycle that will strengthen margins and position us for sustainable growth. Third, we remain financially strong and strategically positioned to create long-term shareholder value. Our balance sheet and cash generation give us flexibility to invest through cycles and deploy capital to support long-term growth. Looking ahead, these fundamentals position us to expand margins and grow adjusted EBITDA over the next several years. Before I turn the call over for questions, I want to take a moment to thank our 24,000 team members and 1,800 affiliated providers across Ardent. As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, we are deeply grateful for their continued commitment to our purpose, caring for people, our patients, our communities, and one another. Their resilience and focus enable us to adapt and improve how we work while continuing to deliver exceptional care to our patients. With that, I will turn the call over to the operator for our question-and-answer session.

And our first question comes from Jason Cassorla with Guggenheim.

Great. It sounds like the payer denial and professional fee pressures are going to spill over into next year. There doesn't seem to be much incremental DPP development in your markets at this juncture, but there's the rural transformation fund to consider. You've discussed $40 million of annual run rate benefits from the IMPACT program next year, and demand in your market seems durable at this point. I mean your volume growth speaks to that. So maybe just stepping back, I know it's early, but for 2026, could you just help frame the headwinds and tailwinds that we should be considering a bit more? And then ultimately, if you would expect to grow EBITDA next year?

Jason, this is Marty. I appreciate that. Yes, as we've covered a lot in that question. As we think about where we're at, we're going to wait until our fourth-quarter call in February to provide that '26 guidance, so we'll have a more complete view of pro fees and payer dynamics and progress on our IMPACT program and the economy. And so there's a lot of things in there. But yes, you framed it right. We see strong durable demand as we go into next year. Our markets are growing. We're well positioned in those markets, and we're still executing on our outpatient development program. So a lot of positive tailwinds as we look at the growth side. Our IMPACT program, we do expect it to ramp, and we expect that to continue to provide benefit, but it's a little bit too early to give definitive guidance in terms of what that growth is, where we do expect to see our long-term growth thesis continue and both EBITDA growth and margin over the next several years.

Okay. Got it. And maybe just as a follow-up. Even with the EBITDA headwinds this year, you're still producing solid free cash flow. You talked about the M&A environment, the pipeline you have, the puts and takes on how that's materializing in this volatile backdrop. Your leverage is in a solid spot. You've got $900 million of available liquidity. You've got growth opportunities ahead of you. There might be some IPO or other ownership nuances to consider. But are there discussions around the consideration of implementing a share repurchase program at this juncture? Or any thoughts around that?

Jason, it's Alfred. It would be premature. We wouldn't want to speak to the Board. But I think management and the Board are committed to optimizing shareholder value. And so over time, I'm confident the Board will look at every option to optimize shareholder value.

Next question comes from the line of Whit Mayo with Leerink Partners.

I just wanted to go back to the malpractice development and why you think that this won't lift your recurring accruals given that the frequency is higher and the size of the claims is higher, and why we shouldn't also expect that your revenue yield is impacted on a go-forward basis with this payer denial issue? Or I'm sorry, not payer denial, but the revenue cycle change.

Sure. Thanks, Whit. This is Alfred. There are two questions here. First, regarding the New Mexico medical malpractice charge, I want to clarify that 100% of this charge is linked to the New Mexico market, where we have experienced considerable social inflation in medical malpractice cases over the past several years. This trend is not new; we have seen a year-over-year increase in both premiums and costs in this market. The charge we recorded reflects our best estimate of Ardent's liability in this context, specifically for one individual provider who was employed by Ardent from 2019 to 2022 and is no longer with us, for whom the statute of limitations has expired. In short, we believe this environment is a headwind for the business and has been for years. Our adjustment is tied to the unique circumstances of a single provider in a single market. As for the AR charge, at its core, this represents a change in our accounting estimate. The current net revenue model we have transitioned to under the Kodiak platform reserves for accounts earlier in their life cycle, unlike our previous model, which employed a 180-day cliff before an account was fully reserved. The difference lies in the timing of reserves between these two models, leading to a reduction in net revenue at the time of implementation. This reduction is primarily due to Ardent's growth, which necessitates adding reserves as part of that growth layer, and it's a one-time adjustment. Moving forward, both models should yield similar results, so we do not anticipate any future differences between the new model under the Kodiak platform and our former internally developed model.

Okay. I think I heard someone mention a potential $15 million benefit in the third quarter that was better than expected. If you could provide a bit more detail on that?

Yes, this is Alfred again. Marty mentioned that in the third quarter, we had approximately $15 million to $20 million of benefit that we had initially anticipated for the fourth quarter. So when considering the decrease in guidance, it's fairly evenly distributed between the third and fourth quarters, possibly with a slight bias toward the fourth quarter. This is because we are still waiting for clear signs of improvement in professional fees and payer behavior, and we anticipate a bit of an acceleration in those trends.

But what exactly was the $15 million? Was it DPP or something?

There was a DPP component in that.

Next question comes from the line of Scott Fidel with Goldman Sachs.

To summarize Whit's last question, regarding the $15 million to $20 million, can we confirm that this figure is entirely based on revenue per adjusted admission and pricing, or should we also consider other expense line items that may be impacted?

No, I think that's fair. This is Alfred. I think it's fair to say it's all in the revenue per adjusted admission.

Okay. My main question is about payer denials and how you view the current exit rate for that issue. I understand you provided details on how it impacts your guidance. Considering your efforts to address this, how widespread are the increases in denial activities among your key payers? Is it limited to a couple of them, or is it more widespread? Looking ahead to 2026, I realize you're not ready to give guidance yet, but how will you factor in the pressure from payer denials? Should we consider the fourth quarter data annualized and explore improvements from that point, or do you anticipate being able to introduce initiatives that could help reduce these denials in 2026 compared to the fourth quarter run rate?

Scott, this is Marty. I'll begin and then pass it over to Alfred for the latter part of your question. Regarding payer denials, we observed that the initial increase in the second half of last year stabilized but then began to rise again, particularly accelerating in the third quarter. This trend is primarily seen among managed payers, and we have solid data supporting this, which is guiding our approach to responding. We are clearly providing necessary and warranted care, yet the payers are either downgrading claims, denying them, or causing delays, which has impacted us. The main issues stem from managed care products, including Medicare, Medicaid, and health exchanges, and this problem is quite consistent across all these categories. We have enhanced our contracting efforts and have aligned our internal teams, collaborating closely with our revenue cycle partner and legal team. We are also increasing our litigation efforts and sending more demand letters, as we believe these services were justified and delivered. We are taking more assertive steps in our response to their actions.

Yes, building on Marty's point, we are not ready to discuss 2026 financial details. However, we have significantly increased the number of appeals we are filing, with a 60% rise compared to the previous year. Additionally, the turnaround time for appeals has decreased by 25%. Following recent organizational changes, we have filed 60 demand letters with payers for overdue adjudication in the last 90 days, which we expect to yield around $15 million in benefits. These are some of the actions we are taking. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that payer behavior may not change in the near future, and we are concentrating on improving our processes to ensure we are compensated fairly for the work we are doing.

Next question comes from the line of Kevin Fischbeck with Bank of America.

I understand that you're not looking to discuss next year at the moment, and it seems that most hospital companies are in the same boat. However, you've mentioned several times that the second half is establishing a foundation for growth. Can you provide some clarity on how you view this change in guidance? If we were to project the 2025 base, how should we approach that? Should we consider the current guidance, annualized at 50 to 55, and potentially add back 40? Would that be a reasonable starting point for 2025 on a normalized basis? Alternatively, is there something else we should consider about the timing of the $15 million to $20 million and how that impacts our understanding of what the core base looks like for 2025?

This is Alfred, Kevin. Thanks for the question. Yes, obviously, like you said, given the policy uncertainty and exchange uncertainty, it would be imprudent to speak to 2026 at all. But as we think about the exit run rate for 2025, again, we think it is prudent to think about the current headwinds. We think an appropriately prudent reset, which is what we've done to incorporate that is the right thing to do. And again, it would be too optimistic to think that pro fees are going to take a turn in the other direction and payer behavior. At the same time, we've already articulated some of the things that we're doing. Marty talked about the impact initiatives and the $40 million, which is actually simply incremental efforts that we've made recently that should fully manifest in the run rate next year. And there's a lot of other things we're doing from an IMPACT perspective. It's focused, I would say, in seven buckets around revenue integrity, productivity, payer disputes, supply chain, management, purchase services, revenue cycle management, and professional fees. And so we have strategies across all of those buckets. The things we can do that are in our control to combat these headwinds. Again, we think as we forecast out, it's appropriate not to believe that things are going to change fundamentally, but then what are the actions that we can take to tangibly offset that. So we would expect that $40 million to grow next year in terms of the potential offsets in IMPACT program. Again, would be preliminary to actually quantify all those dynamics for 2026.

Yes. Okay. That makes sense. And I guess just my second question would be, yes, you guys are growing very well. I guess though we've seen another company kind of grow by shrinking, if you will, and focusing on high-margin businesses. I just wonder, is there any scenario where some of the margin pressure that you're seeing is because of some of the volume growth that you're pursuing? Or do you believe that the cost issues are really kind of separate from that? Just trying to think through if there was another option or opportunity to improve margins in a different way.

Thanks, Kevin. This is Marty. Yes, as we think about our IMPACT program, this is part of that. That IMPACT stands for improving margins, performance, agility, and care transformation. And so we've talked a lot about our service line rationalization efforts, and we're seeing the pull-through of growth, 9%, 9.2% growth in surgeries, strong adjusted admissions growth. We're growing that outpatient platform. And through our transfer centers, we've seen robust inpatient growth better than most of our peers. And so yes, as we look forward, we are looking at those conversations to make sure that we're maximizing the opportunities to bring the right acuity cases in there into the hospital, into our platform and making sure we can service those patients well. So yes, that's definitely part of our thinking as we continue to rationalize our services, rationalize the programs and focus on that high acuity growth. So that is part of the IMPACT program that we'll be expecting to see continued progress on as we go into next year.

And this is Alfred. I would just add to what Marty said. We are committed to expanding our margins. We're not speaking to 2026 at this moment, but we continue to believe that we have a platform capable of delivering mid-teens EBITDA margins. We are focused on creating shareholder value not just through growth but also by increasing margins.

Next question comes from the line of Matthew Gillmor with KeyBanc.

This is Matt. I wanted to ask about the professional fees, which seem to have increased quite rapidly. Can you explain what caused this? Was it related to a specific contract? Any additional information about what occurred during the quarter would be appreciated.

Thanks, Matt. This is Marty. As we look at the last several years, we sort of detailed out how these fees have grown, and they are moderating, just not quite to the extent that we anticipated. But what gives us a little bit more confidence is this has gone in cycles, and we've seen the rise in ER, anesthesia. This year, we've seen a little bit more pressure on radiology. And so as we lap through these contract renewals, we've got better visibility with the terms in which we're negotiating. We've got preferred partners in most of these specialties now that are giving us the ability to pool our resources across markets and make sure that we can demonstrate strength and visibility in terms of these trends. And as we've lapped through now, most of these specialties that gives us better visibility that we will continue to see moderation as we go forward, hopefully at a slower pace than what we've experienced thus far. But yes, this year, the radiology step-up accounts for a lot of the increases that we've seen.

Helpful. And then just as a follow-up, I wanted to touch on the partnership with Ensemble. I guess are they seeing similar payer denials across their network? Or is this more isolated to your partnership?

Yes. As we examine the national statistics, we are still performing better than the national benchmarks with Ensemble. They have been a reliable partner, and we've noticed an increase, which is a trend observed across the industry. Although we are experiencing a rise in denials, we are still performing above average for the industry, although it is more than we anticipated. They are investing significantly in their capabilities to ensure we have clean claims being processed and minimizing the chances of denials. However, payers have become more aggressive in either reducing claim amounts or outright denying them, which is a consistent pressure felt throughout the industry. Ensemble is doing well, exceeding the average, but the overall environment has become more challenging.

Next question comes from the line of Raj Kumar with Stephens.

Maybe just kind of touching on the EBITDA margin expansion still targeting mid-teens. Kind of given the rebasing of 2025, that would kind of imply instead of $100 million to $200 million of core margin expansion, that's like 200, 300 now. Does that change the timeline of achieving that mid-teens EBITDA target? Or do you think that over '26, '27 and '28, that timeline still stays intact?

Thanks, Raj. This is Alfred. Good question. It is early to provide specific details, but it is reasonable to say that the unexpected headwinds are putting pressure on our plans, which could extend the timeline. As we mentioned, we are focused on accelerating the volume of our impact programs to counter these headwinds. By the time we provide guidance for 2026, we will be better positioned to clarify those timelines and offer more details regarding the impact programs. The key takeaway is that we are working diligently to increase our offsets in response to these challenges and are intensifying those efforts to stay on track with our timeline as much as possible.

Got it. As a follow-up, looking at the exchange markets, it seems that New Mexico, one of your key states, is planning to fully fund the enhanced subsidies up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level next year, which might provide some cushion against potential headwinds related to the enhanced subsidies. You also mentioned your contracting dynamics in Texas. Could you provide any updated insights on that? I understand you may not have a specific number due to concerns about 2026 estimates, but any additional context or information would be helpful.

No, that's a good question. It's important to note that individual states will not remain idle, and much will depend on the final outcomes of the exchanges, which are still uncertain. Your example of New Mexico is relevant, and it underlines why making forecasts can be unwise. Our exposure to exchange lives is currently lower than many others in the industry, even though it has been the largest contributor to our growth among payers this year, which is significant for us. However, as we have mentioned, it is not an exceptionally profitable segment of our business. We are monitoring all those dynamics within the states closely, and I appreciate your mention of the situation in New Mexico.

Next question comes from the line of Craig Hettenbach with Morgan Stanley.

Just going back to the IMPACT program. Is this really kind of an acceleration of pull forward in terms of timeline? Or do you think over time, you could expand that program further? How do you think about that?

Craig, this is Marty. It's both. These efforts don't just produce immediate value. There's a number of things in line, and we sort of bucket them into the revenue cycle, supply chain, and SWB. And so all of those things have various initiatives underway, that's what give us confidence that we'll see these things continue to provide benefit, and it starts to provide more benefit in Q4 and then continue to ramp as we go through the year. And we're adding to that. This is really a focused effort across the organization, led by our COO, Dave Caspers, and his focus in getting all of our teams marching in the same direction around these IMPACT initiatives. And so we've got good conviction that as these things continue to ramp that it's spurring more opportunities and presenting more levers for us to continue to pull, but it does take some time for this to get going, and we can start to see that momentum building, and we'll continue to build. So that's the way in which we're looking at that going forward.

Got it. And then just a follow-up, Marty, just given some of the challenges near term on profitability. How does that, if at all, kind of influence some of the growth initiatives that you have? Like can you kind of handle some of this and still kind of march forward? Or do you pause a little bit? How are you kind of planning around that?

Yes, it doesn't affect our focus on growth. We went public last summer with a strategy centered on growth in our core markets, and we have continued to execute that plan. As Alfred mentioned, we've opened more urgent care facilities, and next year we will at least launch two ambulatory surgery centers, which are already well in progress, along with ongoing development of our outpatient platform. Our Chief Development Officer has been actively engaging in our partnership model to support growth in our existing markets while also seeking new opportunities. Our balance sheet can support this growth, and we are not discouraged by any short-term challenges. Despite these, we still forecast a 9% EBITDA growth, which, while not as strong as we had hoped, is still solid and enables us to reduce our debt and take advantage of industry trends. So, we remain undeterred.

Next question comes from the line of Ben Hendrix with RBC.

Great. I believe you mentioned in your prepared remarks the one exchange contract renegotiation, and I know you've called out elevated denial activity in exchanges on the second quarter call and potential to renegotiate or even maybe exit some contracts. I'm wondering just how much of this denial activity headwind you believe you could address in the near term from kind of shrinking your already small footprint in exchanges and exiting certain contracts or renegotiating.

Yes, that's a great point, Ben. The contract mentioned in our prepared remarks is just one example of the concrete actions we're taking, categorized under our revenue integrity initiatives. This shows that our goal isn't just to grow revenue without considering profitability. We need to ensure that our growth leads to profit. The organizational changes we've made to align our revenue cycle with payer operations should create more opportunities in this area. It takes time to implement measures like an early termination, which hopefully will lead to a renegotiation of favorable terms. The example we provided demonstrates that we faced significant margin loss due to payer denials in this contract. We addressed it, and the payer came back to discuss terms, leading to a better rate and conditions that reduce the denial issue we experienced. This is just one tangible example of our efforts, and it's indicative of the strategies we will incorporate into our outlook for 2026.

And we'll take our last question from Benjamin Rossi with JPMorgan.

Just following up on the negotiations and just where your commercial negotiations stand for 2026, 2027, and maybe now even 2028. I believe last quarter, you said you were about 55% for 2026. How are those conversations coming along? How much of those contracts have been negotiated at this point? And how do those contracts compare to the last couple of negotiation cycles?

Sure. This is Alfred. Good question. Compared to when we last spoke, we're close to three quarters contracted for 2026. I would say the headline rates have declined from historical levels. It is a tougher environment, as you've heard from all the payers. We're getting closer to what I would call traditional types of increases. Our focus is not only on the top line rate but also on creating factors that improve yields under our contracts to reduce some of the denial activity. Therefore, it’s crucial to look beyond just the top line number and instead consider the ultimate yield under our contracts. This has become a much greater focus than in previous renewal cycles.

Got it. Appreciate the color. I guess just as a follow-up maybe on why you're seeing higher denials here. I guess just on your rates, were your rates here higher than the industry average in your markets? You've noted that your pricing is the highest in the state? Or is there any particular states where your denial activity was higher or maybe where you're over indexed?

Ben, this is Marty. No, I wouldn't characterize it exactly that way. For the most part, we are the value-based provider in our markets. While we have leading shares #1 or #2 in the majority of our markets, from a payer perspective, we're still a little bit behind a lot of those trends. And so our managed care team has been working to bridge that gap, but I wouldn't say that our rates are particularly higher in our markets; the activity across the payers, and I think that the pain that they're seeing is trickling down into the provider segment. So we know that we've still got opportunity to continue to bridge that gap and to strengthen our performance. But again, it's not just headline right, as Alfred was talking about. It's getting to the terms because more and more increasingly, we're seeing the sort of technical denials or payment slowdowns because of policy changes that are outside of the contract. And so we're trying to button down the hatches to make sure that, again, whatever that top line increase that we are able to negotiate with payers is translating into bottom line yield.

That will close the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the call back over to Marty Bonick for closing remarks.

Thank you. As we wrap up, I want to express my gratitude to the investor community for their interest in Ardent and to our teams across the company for their ongoing dedication and resilience in achieving our goals. As we've discussed, we are operating in a strong and sustainable demand environment. Although recent industry pressures have affected our short-term earnings, we have implemented decisive actions to address these challenges and enhance our performance. Our IMPACT programs are gaining momentum and delivering significant efficiencies, and our financial strength provides us with the flexibility to continue investing in our growth strategies. Looking ahead, we are confident that these fundamentals will allow us to increase margins and grow adjusted EBITDA over the coming years. Thank you all for your continued support, and this concludes our call.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining in. You may now disconnect.