S-1/A 1 d251968ds1a.htm S-1/A S-1/A
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As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 25, 2024

Registration No. 333-276348

 

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

Amendment No. 3

to

FORM S-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

 

 

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

 

Delaware   8082   82-2956404

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(Primary Standard Industrial

Classification Code Number)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

 

 

805 N. Whittington Parkway

Louisville, Kentucky 40222

(502) 394-2100

(Address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s principal executive offices)

 

 

Steven S. Reed, Esq.

Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary

805 N. Whittington Parkway

Louisville, Kentucky 40222

(502) 630-7438

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of registrant’s agent for service)

 

 

With copies to:

 

Joseph H. Kaufman, Esq.

Sunny Cheong, Esq.

Lia Toback, Esq.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

425 Lexington Avenue

New York, New York 10017

(212) 455-2000

 

Marc D. Jaffe, Esq.

Ian D. Schuman, Esq.

Latham & Watkins LLP

1271 Avenue of the Americas

New York, New York 10020

(212) 906-1200

 

 

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after this Registration Statement is declared effective.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box: ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, please check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act:

 

Large accelerated filer      Accelerated filer  
Non-accelerated filer      Smaller reporting company  
     Emerging growth company  

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act. ☐

 

 

The Registrant hereby amends this Registration Statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the Registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this Registration Statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until this Registration Statement shall become effective on such date as the Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to said Section 8(a), may determine.

 

 

 


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EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Registration Statement contains a prospectus relating to an offering of shares of BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.’s common stock, or for purposes of this Explanatory Note, the Common Stock Prospectus, together with separate prospectus pages relating to an offering of BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.’s Tangible Equity Units, or for purposes of this Explanatory Note, the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus. The complete Common Stock Prospectus follows immediately. Following the Common Stock Prospectus are the following alternative and additional pages for the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus:

 

   

front and back cover pages, which will replace the front and back cover pages of the Common Stock Prospectus;

 

   

pages for the “Summary—The Offering” section, which will replace the “Summary—The Offering” section of the Common Stock Prospectus;

 

   

pages for the “Risk Factors—Risks Related to the Units, the Separate Purchase Contracts, the Separate Amortizing Notes and Our Common Stock” section, which will be added to the “Risk Factors” section of the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

pages for the “Description of the Units,” “Description of the Purchase Contracts” and “Description of the Amortizing Notes” sections, which will replace the “Tangible Equity Units Offering” section of the Common Stock Prospectus;

 

   

pages for the “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences” section, which will replace the “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders” section of the Common Stock Prospectus;

 

   

pages for the “Certain ERISA Considerations” and “Book-Entry Procedures and Settlement” sections, which will be added to the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus; and

 

   

pages for the “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest)” section, which will replace the “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest)” section of the Common Stock Prospectus.

The following disclosures and references contained within the Common Stock Prospectus will be replaced or removed in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus:

 

   

references to “shares of our common stock” contained in the first three paragraphs under “Table of Contents” and the first paragraph under “Risk Factors” will be replaced with references to “the Units” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

references to “our common stock” contained in the first paragraph under “Summary,” the first paragraph of “Summary—Summary of Risk Factors” and the first paragraph under “Risk Factors” will be replaced with references to “the Units” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the disclosure under “Summary—Concurrent Offering” will be replaced in its entirety with “Concurrently with this offering, we are offering, by means of a separate prospectus, 53,333,334 shares of our common stock (or up to 61,333,334 shares of our common stock if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock). We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the sale of shares of our common stock in the Concurrent Offering will be approximately $835.8 million (or approximately $961.9 million if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock), assuming an initial public offering price of $16.50 per share (which is the midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus relating to the Concurrent Offering), in each case after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The closing of this offering is conditioned upon the closing of the Concurrent Offering, but the closing of the Concurrent Offering is not conditioned upon the closing of this offering, and there can be no assurance that the Concurrent Offering will be completed on the terms described in the prospectus relating to the Concurrent Offering or at all.” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;


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references to “this offering” contained in “Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data,” “Risk Factors,” “Use of Proceeds,” “Capitalization,” “Dilution,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Management,” “Executive Compensation,” “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions,” “Principal Stockholders,” “Description of Capital Stock,” “Description of Certain Indebtedness,” “Shares Eligible for Future Sale,” and “Where You Can Find More Information” will be replaced with references to “the Concurrent Offering” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

references to “the concurrent offering of the Units” or “the Concurrent Offering” contained in “Risk Factors,” “Use of Proceeds,” “Capitalization,” “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions,” “Description of Certain Indebtedness,” and “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” will be replaced with references to “this offering” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

“Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—There has been no prior public market for our common stock and there may not develop or continue an active, liquid trading market for shares of our common stock, which may cause shares of our common stock to trade at a discount from the initial public offering price and make it difficult to sell the shares of common stock you purchase.,” “Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—Our stock price may change significantly following this offering, and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid or at all, and you could lose all or part of your investment as a result.,” “Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—Investors in this offering will suffer immediate and substantial dilution.,” and “Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—The Units may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.,” will be removed in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the second and third paragraphs under “Risk Factors—General Risk Factors—You may be diluted by the future issuance of additional common stock in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions or otherwise.” will be removed in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the third paragraph under “Use of Proceeds” will be moved as the first paragraph under the section in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the references to “, if completed,” will be removed from the third paragraph under the “Use of Proceeds” section in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the last sentence of the second paragraph under the “Capitalization” section will be removed in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the reference to “, as described in “Tangible Equity Units Offering” in footnote (3) under the “Capitalization” section will be removed in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the first sentence of the first paragraph under “Dilution” will be replaced in its entirety with “Investors in shares of our common stock in the Concurrent Offering will experience immediate dilution in their investment to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock in the Concurrent Offering and the as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after giving effect to the Concurrent Offering.” in the Tangible Units Prospectus;

 

   

references to “this prospectus” contained in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale—Lock-Up Agreements” will be replaced with references to “the prospectus relating to the Concurrent Offering” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the reference to “shares of common stock” in “Legal Matters” will be replaced with references to “the Units, stock purchase contracts, and amortizing notes” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

the references to “common stock” and “our common stock” in “Where You Can Find More Information” will be replaced with references to “the Units, stock purchase contracts, and amortizing notes” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

references to the “concurrent issuance of the Units” will be replaced with references to “issuance of Units in this offering” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus;

 

   

references to “midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus” will be replaced with “midpoint of the price range set forth on the cover page of the prospectus relating to the Concurrent Offering” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus; and


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references to “assuming the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same” will be replaced with “assuming the number of shares of common stock offered by us in the Concurrent Offering, and as set forth on the cover page of the prospectus relating to the Concurrent Offering, remains the same” in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus.

All words and phrases similar to those specified above that appear throughout the Common Stock Prospectus will be revised accordingly to make appropriate references in the Tangible Equity Units Prospectus.

Each of the complete Common Stock Prospectus and Tangible Equity Units Prospectus will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance with Rule 424 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The closing of the offering of common stock is not conditioned upon the closing of the offering of Tangible Equity Units, but the closing of the offering of Tangible Equity Units is conditioned upon the closing of the offering of common stock.


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The information in this preliminary prospectus is not complete and may be changed. These securities may not be sold until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This preliminary prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities nor a solicitation of an offer to buy these securities in any jurisdiction where the offer and sale is not permitted.

 

Subject to completion, dated January 25, 2024

Preliminary Prospectus

53,333,334 Shares

 

LOGO

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.

Common Stock

 

 

This is the initial public offering of common stock of BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. We are offering 53,333,334 shares of our common stock.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our common stock. We expect that the initial public offering price of our common stock will be between $15.00 and $18.00 per share. We have applied to list our common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, or Nasdaq, under the symbol “BTSG.” We will not consummate this offering of our common stock unless our common stock is approved for listing on Nasdaq.

Concurrently with this offering, we are also making a public offering of 8,000,000                % tangible equity units, or the Tangible Equity Units or the Units, which is being made by means of a separate prospectus and not by means of this prospectus. In that offering, we have granted the underwriters of that offering an option to purchase, within 13 days beginning on, and including, the date of the initial issuance of the Units, up to an additional 1,200,000 Units. We cannot assure you that the offering of Units will be completed or, if completed, on what terms it will be completed. The closing of this offering is not conditioned upon the closing of the offering of Units, but the closing of the offering of Units is conditioned upon the closing of this offering.

After the completion of this offering, KKR Phoenix Aggregator L.P., an investment entity owned by investment funds and other entities affiliated with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., and Walgreen Co., an affiliate of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., will collectively beneficially own approximately 67.9% of the voting power of our common stock. As a result, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of Nasdaq. See “Management—Controlled Company Exemption” and “Principal Stockholders.”

 

 

Investing in our common stock involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 35 to read about factors you should consider before buying shares of our common stock.

Neither the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, nor any state securities commission has approved or disapproved of these securities or passed upon the adequacy or accuracy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

 

     Per Share      Total  

Initial public offering price

   $                    $                

Underwriting discounts and commissions(1)

   $        $    

Proceeds, before expenses, to us

   $        $    

 

(1)

See “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest)” for additional information regarding underwriting compensation.

We have granted the underwriters a 30-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 8,000,000 additional shares of our common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions, to cover over-allotments, if any.

The underwriters expect to deliver the shares on or about                 , 2024.

 

 

 

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC   KKR   Jefferies  

Morgan Stanley

  UBS Investment Bank   BofA Securities   Guggenheim Securities   Leerink Partners

 

Wells Fargo Securities   Deutsche Bank Securities   HSBC   Mizuho   BMO Capital Markets   Loop Capital Markets   SoFi

The date of this prospectus is                 , 2024.


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LOGO


Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

     Page  

Industry and Market Data

     ii  

Trademarks, Tradenames, Service Marks and Copyrights

     iv  

Basis of Presentation

     v  

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

     viii  

Summary

     1  

Risk Factors

     35  

Forward-Looking Statements

     83  

Use of Proceeds

     86  

Dividend Policy

     87  

Capitalization

     88  

Dilution

     90  

Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

     92  

Business

     136  

Management

     176  

Executive Compensation

     182  

Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions

     205  

Principal Stockholders

     209  

Tangible Equity Units Offering

     211  

Description of Capital Stock

     213  

Description of Certain Indebtedness

     221  

Shares Eligible for Future Sale

     225  

Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders

     227  

Underwriting (Conflicts Of Interest)

     230  

Legal Matters

     238  

Experts

     238  

Where You Can Find More Information

     238  

Index to Financial Statements

     F-1  

 

 

Through and including the 25th day after the date of this prospectus, all dealers that effect transactions in these shares of our common stock, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the dealers’ obligations to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

You should rely only on the information contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus we may authorize to be delivered or made available to you. Neither we nor the underwriters have authorized anyone to provide you with different information. The information in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus, or any free writing prospectus, as the case may be, or any sale of shares of our common stock.

For investors outside the United States: we are offering to sell, and seeking offers to buy, shares of our common stock only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. Neither we nor the underwriters have done anything that would permit this offering or possession or distribution of this prospectus in any jurisdiction where action for that purpose is required, other than in the United States. Persons outside the United States who come into possession of this prospectus must inform themselves about, and observe any restrictions relating to, the offering of the shares of common stock and the distribution of this prospectus outside the United States.

 

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INDUSTRY AND MARKET DATA

Within this prospectus, we reference information and statistics regarding the industries in which we compete. We have obtained this information and statistics from various independent third-party sources, including independent trade associations, industry publications, government publications, reports by market research firms and other independent sources.

In evaluating our business, we reference various studies conducted by independent third-party sources, such as:

 

   

A study published by the Journal of American Medical Directors Association, which we refer to in this prospectus as the JAMDA study, tested 113 home health patients who were enrolled in our Continue CareRx (in-home medication management) Program for Seniors, or CCRx, from May 1, 2021 through March 31, 2023, or the CCRx group, and compared the results to 21,304 home health patients who were not enrolled in CCRx, but were matched with the CCRx group on age range and gender, during the same time period, or the CCRx control group. The study tested whether patients in the CCRx group had a lower hospitalization rate than patients in the CCRx control group. The CCRx control group had a total of 7015 hospitalizations during 2,128,738 total managed days, whereas the CCRx group had a total of 21 hospitalizations during 23,622 total managed days. The JAMDA study showed that patients in the CCRx group experienced a 73.1% lower hospitalization rate than patients in the CCRx control group;

 

   

A two-year study published by the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, which we refer to in this prospectus as the 2022 JAMDA study, tested approximately 760 Behavioral patients from April 1, 2020 to February 28, 2022. The study showed that patients who received office-based primary care, as opposed to home-based primary care, had a 2.12x higher risk of hospitalization compared to the patients who received home-based primary care, while controlling for patients’ age and hospitalization rate in the year prior to the study;

 

   

A study published by the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, which we refer to in this prospectus as the AANP study, tested rehospitalizations and emergency department visits of a cohort of approximately 80 patients from April 15, 2016 to August 25, 2016 and compared the results to the same cohort during the six month and one year pre-home care inception periods (using insurance claims–based data). The study showed that with one-year pre-home care inception period, there was a decrease of 23.7% in emergency department visits and 34.9% decrease in rehospitalizations after the implementation of the home-based primary care program, as compared with a six month pre-home care inception period, where there was a decrease of 35.6% in emergency department visits and 59.4% decrease in rehospitalizations;

 

   

The State of the States in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, an analytical study of public spending and programmatic trends in intellectual and developmental disability services across the United States, published in 2017, which we refer to in this prospectus as the long-term care study;

 

   

A study conducted by RAND Corporation, which we refer to in this prospectus as the RAND study. RAND tested whether the ExactCare program, a high-touch approach that includes among other things, home visits, comprehensive ongoing medication reviews, and medication compliance packaging, improves medication adherence and reduces health care utilization and costs. Using a national database of a large U.S. insurer, the study identified Medicare Advantage plan members in eight states from 2007 to 2018 who had both medical and prescription drug coverage. Approximately 700 ExactCare patients were propensity-matched to approximately 1,400 non-ExactCare patients. The study showed that when comparing ExactCare patients to non-ExactCare patients over the test period, ExactCare’s medication care management model was associated with improved medication adherence and an approximately $2,400 per member per year reduction in total cost of care, representing a 5% reduction in average costs. Each year of ExactCare participation was associated with an average increase in prescription drug costs and decreases in total costs and medical costs, largely attributable to decreases in hospital inpatient costs and skilled nursing facility costs; and

 

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A study published by healthcare in March 2020, which we refer to in this prospectus as the Health Days study, identified 7.8 million traditional Medicare beneficiaries in 2016 who were continuously-enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B. The Health Days study showed that beneficiaries with three or more chronic conditions had a mean of 333.7 healthy days at home.

Unless specifically cited to an outside source, the data and other information contained in this prospectus are based on management’s estimates and calculations, which are derived from our review and interpretation of internal company research, surveys, information from our customers and suppliers, trade and business organizations and other contacts in the markets in which we operate and independent sources.

Statements regarding our competitive position, such as our statements that we are a leading, diversified, independent provider of home and community-based healthcare services in the United States, that we are one of the largest or leading independent providers of home and community-based health services in the United States, that we manage one of the nation’s largest independent platforms of both pharmacy and provider services offered on a daily basis in home and community settings, and that within oncology, we are one of the leading independent specialty pharmacies in the United States, are based on market share as calculated by revenue. In determining our market position as calculated by revenue, we compared our 2022 revenue to the 2022 revenues of applicable companies in the Russell 3000 that are independent providers of healthcare services or independent specialty pharmacies, including some of our peers named on page 183. Our statements in this prospectus regarding our combined market opportunity are based on projected expenditures for 2022 from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, data. The Company determined its combined market opportunity of over $1.0 trillion by starting with the projected Medicare and Medicaid expenditures of $944 billion and $805 billion, respectively, and subtracting projected Medicare and Medicaid hospital expenditures of $623 billion and adding projected total pharmacy expenditures, excluding Medicare and Medicaid pharmacy expenditures, of $225 billion. The Company’s platform is purpose-built to address the majority of the full continuum of care and pharmacy services provided to patients in the United States today. This is exemplified by the Company’s existing penetration evidenced by its delivery of comprehensive pharmacy and provider care (including primary care) to the Senior, Specialty and Behavioral population, while the Company continues to extend the range of services it provides and increase its geographic coverage and density. For these reasons, among others, the Company believes it has a combined market opportunity of over $1.0 trillion. The CMS data after 2021 is not historical data but is based on the National Health Expenditure, or the NHE, projections of trends in major spending categories, such as aggregate medical spending, medical goods and services consumed. The models used to project trends in health care spending are estimated based on historical relationships within the health sector, and between the health sector and macroeconomic variables. Accordingly, the spending projections assume that these relationships will remain consistent with history, subject to certain adjustments, and the projections do not assume any potential legislative changes over the projection period, nor do they attempt to speculate on possible deviations from current law. These projections also make certain assumptions about macroeconomic conditions. Data regarding the industries in which we compete and our market position and market share within the industries are inherently imprecise and are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties beyond our control, but we believe they generally indicate size, position, and market share within the industries. Assumptions and estimates of our and our industries’ future performance are necessarily subject to a high degree of uncertainty and risk due to a variety of factors, including those described in “Risk Factors.” These and other factors could cause our future performance to differ materially from our assumptions and estimates. See “Forward-Looking Statements.”

 

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TRADEMARKS, TRADENAMES, SERVICE MARKS, AND COPYRIGHTS

We own or have rights to use various trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights, which are protected under applicable intellectual property laws, including, for example: BrightSpring, PharMerica, ResCare, All Ways Caring, Amerita, Onco360, Chem Rx, Abode, Adoration, Springhealth, Pharmacy Alternatives, and Rehab Without Walls. This prospectus also contains trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights of other companies, which are, to our knowledge, the property of their respective owners. Solely for convenience, certain trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights referred to in this prospectus may appear without the ©, ®, and symbols, but such references are not intended to indicate, in any way, that we will not assert, to the fullest extent under applicable law, our rights or the rights of the applicable licensors to these trademarks, tradenames, service marks, and copyrights. We do not intend our use or display of other parties’ trademarks, tradenames, service marks, or copyrights to imply, and such use or display should not be construed to imply, a relationship with, or endorsement or sponsorship of us by, these other parties.

 

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BASIS OF PRESENTATION

Certain Definitions

The following terms are used in this prospectus unless otherwise noted or indicated by the context:

 

   

“ABA” means applied behavioral analysis, a type of therapy that focuses on improving specific behaviors;

 

   

“ABI/TBI” means acquired/traumatic brain injury;

 

   

“Abode” means Abode Healthcare, which we acquired in April 2021;

 

   

“associated family satisfaction,” for circumstances when a patient is unable to respond due to cognitive issues, is calculated by the percentage of such family member of a patient who would recommend the Company to another friend or family member based on the patient’s experience in the Company’s therapy, as reported in our outpatient therapy satisfaction survey from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023;

 

   

“Behavioral” patients and populations mean individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities including mental illness;

 

   

“BHS Acquisition” means the acquisition of BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries in March 2019;

 

   

“BrightSpring,” “BrightSpring Health Services,” “Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” refer to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries;

 

   

“de novo” means new branch, agency, facility, clinic, and pharmacy locations;

 

   

“First Lien Facilities” mean, collectively, the First Lien Term Loan Facility, the Revolving Credit Facility, and the LC Facility;

 

   

“First Lien Term Loan Facility” means, collectively, the Initial Term Loans, the Tranche B-2 Term Loans, and the Tranche B-3 Term Loans, each as described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt”;

 

   

“HCI” means Hospice Care Index, which captures care processes occurring throughout the hospice stay. The HCI is a single measure comprising ten indicators calculated from Medicare claims data. Each indicator equally affects the single HCI score, reflecting the equal importance of each aspect of care delivered from admission to discharge. The HCI score does not have a traditional numerator or denominator. Instead, a hospice, assuming 20 or more discharges in the two pooled years of data, is awarded a point for meeting each criterion for each of the ten claims-based indicators. The sum of the points earned from meeting the criterion of each individual indicator results in the hospice’s HCI score. HCI scores can range from 0 to a perfect 10;

 

   

“I/DD” means an intellectual/developmental or cognitive disability;

 

   

“independent” when (i) describing independent provider of home and community-based health services means non-hospital providers that are not associated with a payor and (ii) describing independent platform of pharmacy services or independent specialty pharmacy means non-retail pharmacies that are not associated with a payor;

 

   

“KKR Stockholder” means KKR Phoenix Aggregator L.P., an investment entity owned by investment funds and other entities affiliated with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P.;

 

   

“LC Facility” means our letter of credit facility, as described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt”;

 

   

“MPR” means Medication Possession Ratio, which is the most commonly used measure of adherence. MPR is calculated as the ratio of the number of days a patient is stocked for their medication to the number of days a patient should be stocked for their medication. We often use MPR to measure pharmacy performance. A performance measure over 80% is considered compliant under our contracts with a payor;

 

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“neuro” patients and populations mean individuals who have acquired a traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, pediatric autism, or other neurological condition;

 

   

“NPS” represents Net Promoter Score, which is a metric used to gauge patient satisfaction based on how likely a patient or physician would be to recommend a company to a friend or colleague. The question is measured on a scale of 0 (not at all likely) to 10 (extremely likely). A designation of “Promoter” is assigned to respondents who provide a score of 9 or 10, a designation of “Passive” is assigned to respondents who provide a score of 7 or 8, and a designation of “Detractor” is assigned to respondents who provide a score of 0 to 6. NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from Promoters. NPS ranges from -100 to +100, and scores that are closer to +100 indicate that there are more Promoters overall, and a score of +100 indicates that there are no Detractors or Passives. We utilize a third party consulting service, MMIT, to conduct our own NPS surveys of patients served by us and referring physicians in our network. MMIT, as well as other industry standards such as Qualtrics, have indicated that a score above 50 is “excellent” and a score above 80 is “world class.” Throughout this prospectus, we reference multiple NPS, as the underlying surveys are conducted by us or by third parties, including payers, across different constituents, both patients and referring physicians, as well as across various time periods, generally conducted quarterly;

 

   

“OPPC” means OnePoint Patient Care, which we acquired in September 2020;

 

   

“overall rating of care” reflects the overall assessment of eight quality measures: communication with family, getting timely help, treating patient with respect, emotional and spiritual support, help for pain and symptoms, training family to care for patient, rating of hospice care, and willingness to recommend to others, as reported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality;

 

   

“patient satisfaction” is calculated (i) for purposes of Company’s outpatient rehab services, by the percentage of patients who are satisfied or very satisfied with the progress they have made with the therapy treatment while on our services, as reported in our outpatient therapy satisfaction survey from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023; and (ii) for purposes of infusion scores, by averaging the results of seven quality measures, supplies, staff general communication, staff courtesy, staff helpfulness, staff instruction effectiveness, overall satisfaction, and willingness to recommend, as reported in our home infusion satisfaction survey from April 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023;

 

   

“Revolving Credit Facility” means our senior secured revolving credit facility, as described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt”;

 

   

“Second Lien Facility” means our senior secured second lien term loan facility, as described under “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Debt”;

 

   

“Senior” patients and populations mean individuals who are aged 65 and older;

 

   

“Specialty” patients and populations mean individuals who have unique, specialized and most often chronic/life-long health conditions and needs;

 

   

“Walgreen Stockholder” means Walgreen Co., an affiliate of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.; and

 

   

“Workforce Solutions” means Arbor E&T, LLC, which we divested in November 2022.

Presentation of Financial and Other Information

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. conducts its operations through its subsidiaries, including its indirect subsidiaries, BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, ResCare, Inc., and PharMerica Corporation, or PharMerica.

Our fiscal year ends December 31 of each year. References to any “year,” “quarter,” “half,” or “month” mean “fiscal year,” “fiscal quarter,” “fiscal half year,” and “fiscal month,” respectively, unless the context

 

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requires otherwise. References to “2020,” “2021,” “2022,” and “2023” relate to our fiscal years ended December 31, 2020, December 31, 2021, December 31, 2022, and December 31, 2023, unless the context otherwise requires.

When calculating organically grown Adjusted EBITDA for a period, the Company’s measure of organic growth for such purposes (i) includes the legacy business of BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries prior to the BHS Acquisition in March 2019 for comparability, (ii) excludes Adjusted EBITDA contribution from Workforce Solutions, which we divested in November 2022, and (iii) excludes Adjusted EBITDA contribution from acquisitions of OPPC, OptionOne LLC, or OptionOne Pharmacy, Abode, Hospice Home Care, Inc., or Hospice Home Care, SJ Hospice Parent, LLC, or Sacred Journey Hospice, and AbilisHealth LLC, or AbilisHealth, during the first twelve months after each such respective acquisition.

We use two methods for calculating our cost savings discussed in this prospectus. When savings can easily be tracked at the expense account level, we primarily use the trailing twelve month, or TTM, baseline calculation method. Under the TTM baseline method, a baseline of expenses is determined by averaging the TTM expenses for the applicable expense account impacted by the cost savings initiative immediately prior to the implementation of a cost savings initiative. Then, each month following the implementation, we calculate the variance in, or reduction of, the go forward monthly expenses from the baseline of expenses to identify cost savings. In addition to the TTM baseline calculation, we use the price per unit, or PPU, baseline method to identify cost savings. The PPU baseline calculation is most commonly used to normalize transaction volume related expenses that can be significantly impacted by organic or inorganic service volume growth. Under the PPU baseline method, a baseline of expenses is determined by averaging the PPU expenses for the applicable good or service impacted by the cost savings initiative immediately prior to the implementation of a cost savings initiative. Then, each month following implementation of the cost savings initiative, we calculate the variance in, or reduction of, the go forward PPU expenses from the baseline PPU expenses to identify cost savings. The $41.5 million of annual savings from the implementation of our PMO-led continuous improvement program referenced throughout this prospectus was calculated using both methods depending on whether the applicable underlying costs can be significantly impacted by organic or inorganic volume growth.

In this prospectus, where we discuss the number of de novos opened since 2018, such number includes de novos opened by each business we acquired prior to our acquisition of such business if opened since 2018.

Numerical figures included in this prospectus have been subject to rounding adjustments. Accordingly, numerical figures shown as totals in various tables may not be arithmetic aggregations of the figures that precede them.

 

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NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

This prospectus contains “non-GAAP financial measures,” which are financial measures that either exclude or include amounts that are not excluded or included in the most directly comparable measures calculated and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States, or GAAP. Specifically, we make use of the non-GAAP financial measures “EBITDA” and “Adjusted EBITDA.”

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have been presented in this prospectus as supplemental measures of financial performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP, because we believe they assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management also believes that these measures are useful to investors in highlighting trends in our operating performance, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate and capital investments. Management uses EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to supplement GAAP measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to establish and award discretionary annual incentive compensation, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures.

Management supplements GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not GAAP measures of our financial performance and should not be considered as an alternative to net (loss) income as a measure of financial performance or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Additionally, these measures are not intended to be a measure of free cash flow available for management’s discretionary use as they do not consider certain cash requirements such as tax payments, debt service requirements, total capital expenditures, and certain other cash costs that may recur in the future.

The presentations of these measures have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Because not all companies use identical calculations, the presentations of these measures may not be comparable to other similarly titled measures of other companies and can differ significantly from company to company. For a discussion of the use of these measures and a reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP measures, see “Summary—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data.”

 

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SUMMARY

This summary highlights selected information contained elsewhere in this prospectus. This summary does not contain all of the information that you should consider before deciding to invest in our common stock. You should read the entire prospectus carefully, including “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus, before making an investment decision. This summary contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties.

Summary Highlights of Our Business

 

   

A leading, diversified, independent provider of home and community-based healthcare services in the United States

 

   

Scaled national platform with a presence in all 50 states, a quality and compliance focus, longer-term customer relationships, a successful M&A track record, and an experienced management team

 

   

Complementary pharmacy and provider services that more completely address the multiple needs of complex Senior and Specialty patients across their various settings and over time

 

   

Focus on clinical and operational excellence and coordinated front-line healthcare services to deliver improved outcomes in lower-cost settings with high levels of satisfaction among stakeholders

 

   

Compelling and proven value proposition for all constituents, including our clients, patients and their respective families, customers, partners, payors, employees, and investors

 

   

Over $1.0 trillion combined market opportunity with numerous positive industry trends and drivers

 

   

Growth opportunities available through organic expansion in core pharmacy and provider businesses, our ability to leverage complementary and care management services for integrated care synergies and value-based care payment models, and through strategic acquisitions

 

   

In 2022, grew revenue by $1.0 billion, or 15.3%, to $7.7 billion

 

   

In 2022, net income decreased by $105.5 million to $(54.2) million

 

   

In 2022, increased Adjusted EBITDA by $29.4 million, or 6.0%, to $522.5 million

 

   

Overall, the comprehensive services that we provide at the scale we provide them create economies of scale, stability, and attractive near-term and long-term commercial opportunities that address societal needs

Who We Are

We are a leading home and community-based healthcare services platform, focused on delivering complementary pharmacy and provider services to complex patients. We have a differentiated approach to care delivery, with an integrated and scaled model that addresses critical services that the highest-need and highest-cost patients require. With a focus on Senior and Specialty patients, which includes Behavioral populations, our platform provides pharmacy and provider services (both clinical and supportive care in nature) in lower-cost home and community settings largely to Medicare, Medicaid, and commercially-insured populations. We are an essential part of our nation’s health delivery network as a front-line provider of high-quality and cost-effective care to a large and growing number of people, who increasingly require a combination of specialized solutions to enable holistic health care management. Our presence spans all 50 states, we serve over 400,000 patients daily through our approximately 10,000 clinical providers and pharmacists, and our services make a profound impact in the lives and communities of the people we serve.

 

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Our model focuses on delivering high-touch and coordinated services to medically complex clients and patients, which is a large, growing, and underserved population in the U.S. healthcare system. These high-need and high-cost Senior and Specialty patients comprise a market of over $1.0 trillion across our business. The chronic conditions and long-term health needs of these patients not only represent an outsized share of health care spend today, according to RAND, but we believe that they are expected to also drive a disproportionate share of future expenditures. Americans with five or more chronic conditions make up over 10% of the population and account for 40% of total health care spending, on average spending 10 times more on health services than those without chronic conditions. These patients most often require both pharmacy and provider services to achieve the best outcomes, but must often navigate disjointed and separately-administered health services. This can result in uncoordinated care delivery with adverse medical consequences, as compared to receiving timely, proximal, and complete care support in the home and community that improves health and reduces cost.

We have built a significant presence and capability in delivering complementary and high-touch daily healthcare services and programs to complex patients in their homes and in communities in order to address their multiple health needs and requirements more completely. In pharmacy, we leverage our national infrastructure to provide daily medication therapy management to various customer and patient types wherever they reside in the community, including home and in-clinic infusion patients, oncology and other specialty patients in their homes, residents of independent and senior living communities, people receiving hospice care, neuro and Behavioral clients’ and patients’ homes, residents of skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, hospital patients, and the homes of Seniors who are on a significant number of medications. Within provider services, we address the clinical and supportive care needs of Senior and Specialty populations, including neuro and Behavioral patients, primarily in their homes, as well as some clinic and community settings. Our clinical services consist of home health and hospice and rehab therapy, and our supportive care services address activities of daily living and social determinants of health as well. We also provide home-based primary care for patients in senior living communities, long-term care, and individual homes to directly manage and optimize patient outcomes and to enable value-based care. By providing these complementary and necessary services for complex patients, our care model is designed to address multiple patient needs and better integrate health services delivery to improve quality and patient experiences, while reducing overall costs.

We believe that our Company addresses important needs today and is also well-positioned for the long-term, as it is underpinned by capabilities and characteristics that suggest continued differentiation and growth:

 

   

Complementary pharmacy and provider services that address multiple patient needs – We have a healthcare platform that can combine pharmacy and provider care in order to address the spectrum of interrelated and chronic needs that Senior and Specialty patients possess. Through our comprehensive care capabilities, we are able to develop longitudinal relationships and views of our patients, which enables us to more closely manage daily medication requirements and adherence, provide primary care and other skilled nursing and therapy clinical services, and address social determinants of health and daily care needs. Moreover, we believe that this integrated model and capability set will increasingly be a more effective approach for providing high-need and high-cost Senior and Specialty populations the pharmacy and care services solutions they require.

 

   

Effectively serving complex patients in the home and community setting – With over 40 years of experience caring for “must-serve” client and patient populations, we deliver care in preferred and lower-cost settings with strong quality results. Our services reduce cost by providing care for many of these individuals in non-institutional home and community settings and reducing hospitalizations. For example, across our pharmacies, we achieve 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness, “excellent” and “world class” NPS, and a reduction in hospitalizations with CCRx, while also driving savings through medication adherence and therapeutic interchanges. We achieve 99% patient satisfaction in our outpatient rehab services, an 84% overall rating of care in hospice, and, as reported

 

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by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, hospitalizations 30% lower than the national average in our home-based primary care. Our complex Behavioral clients, often with three or more comorbidities and requiring eight or more medications, are still able to spend 359 days a year at home on average. We believe that we are positioned to identify potential medical problems and avoid adverse events due to our highly proximate position to patients.

 

   

Market-leading scale with a focus on operational excellence and coordinated front-line care – We manage one of the nation’s largest independent platforms of both pharmacy and provider services offered on a daily basis in home and community settings – to address the multiple needs of medically complex Senior and Specialty patients. Our leading scale across all 50 states has important benefits. Our scale provides complementary diversification and risk mitigation in payor sources, end markets, and geographies, while also creating exposure and access to a broader set of market growth opportunities. Further, we leverage economies of scale and best practices across the company, including in purchasing and all supplier contracting, quality, technology, human resources, and advocacy and payor relations. Scale from our pharmacy and provider businesses allow us to effectively deliver and coordinate integrated solutions to and across patient types and care settings, which we believe will be more important in the ongoing development of value-based care solutions. Ultimately, our track record of building market density, expanding core services to additional customer and patient types, and replicating this model across new geographies underpins both our historical results as well as our growth strategies.

We are one of the largest independent providers of home and community-based health services in the United States, offering skilled, complementary, integrated, and impactful health care solutions. Almost all of the clients and patients that we serve have chronic conditions and the vast majority of them receive their services on a recurring basis over long periods of time. In our pharmacy business, patients have an average of nine prescriptions at a given time and are supported by our local pharmacy model that delivers daily services, often within an hour or two, from over 180 pharmacies, infusion centers, and specialty oncology locations across all 50 states. We have specifically focused on and built a fast, local, and “white-glove” delivery model that is supported by expert clinical teams in the field, which fulfilled over 34 million prescriptions in 2022 across customer and patient settings and types. Patients who receive our provider services average six chronic conditions per patient, and we delivered approximately 20 million hours of quality and compassionate care in 2022 to home health, hospice, rehab, and home care patients and clients. Combined, our daily pharmacy and provider services are delivered from and to approximately 9,500 office, clinic, and customer locations across the country, with over 400,000 patients serviced at any one time, including over 250,000 patients served in their homes at any one time.

 

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LOGO

We believe the historical results of the Company are due to both our scale and diversified yet complementary services, which have underpinned historical financial stability while also enabling us to grow and pursue opportunities in attractive markets principally in home and community settings. We target customer and patient markets that exhibit strong demand, where we can leverage our scale and infrastructure, and where our services have a clear and tangible value proposition, for example improving quality and reducing healthcare system costs. We also seek to expand our services through targeted de novo locations, accretive acquisitions, and integrated care opportunities, i.e., providing care management and multiple needed services to a patient. The Pharmacy Solutions segment revenue totaled $5,264.4 million in 2022, accounting for 68.3% of total revenue, with Segment EBITDA of $344.5 million, accounting for 52.7% of total Segment EBITDA. The Provider Services segment revenue totaled $2,181.5 million in 2022, accounting for 28.2% of total revenue, with Segment EBITDA of $288.8 million, accounting for 44.2% of total Segment EBITDA. We believe that underlying market growth combined with our scale, integrated services platform, operating capabilities, and acquisition opportunity set have allowed us to grow and increase market share.

From 2020 to 2022, we have grown revenue from $5,580.4 million to $7,720.6 million, primarily from organic growth along with strategic acquisitions. From 2020 to 2022, net income (loss) decreased from $21.2 million to $(54.2) million and Adjusted EBITDA increased from $407.8 million to $522.5 million. Longer term, our compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, from 2018 (including the legacy business of BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries prior to the BHS Acquisition in March 2019 for comparability) to 2022 in Revenue and Adjusted EBITDA was 15% and 15%, respectively.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, total revenue was $6,451.6 million, representing a 12.2% increase from $5,749.9 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2022. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, our net (loss) income was $(148.1) million and $2.3 million, respectively. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, Adjusted EBITDA was $395.2 million, representing a 3.1% increase from $383.5 million in the nine months ended September 30, 2022. Impacting comparability, our results for the

 

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nine months ended September 30, 2022 included $247.4 million of revenue and $18.1 million of Segment EBITDA relating to our Other segment comprised of Workforce Solutions, which we divested in November 2022. See “—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data” for a definition of Adjusted EBITDA and reconciliations of Adjusted EBITDA to net (loss) income.

Our Value Proposition

We believe that our services offer a compelling value proposition for numerous constituents, including clients, patients, customers, strategic partners, referral sources (including physicians, hospital systems, and states), payors, policymakers, federal, state, and municipal legislators, clients’ and patients’ families, employees, other healthcare industry stakeholders, and future investors.

We bring value to high-need, medically complex patients: Our platform is designed to provide improved care for high-need, high-cost, and complex Senior and Specialty patients in the homes and communities in which they live. In the home and community settings where we operate, patients with chronic conditions often require daily care, closely-managed medication regimens, and specialized clinical treatment. Our mission is to make a difference in people’s lives and communities, in helping them to live more independently and achieve their specific health goals and outcomes.

The Company’s consistent quality performance in providing services for patients with challenging conditions is evidenced over time by strong and leading metrics. For example, across our pharmacies, we achieve 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness, “excellent” and “world class” NPS, and a reduction in hospitalizations with CCRx, while also driving savings through medication adherence and therapeutic interchanges. We achieve 99% patient satisfaction for outpatient rehab services. We achieve hospitalization rates for ambulatory care sensitive conditions that are approximately 30% lower than other practices in our region in home-based primary care, as reported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an 84% overall rating of care in hospice, and four stars (out of five) in the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or CAHPS, home health patient survey ratings. In addition, we estimate that home healthcare costs per day can be 98% less than costs for hospital care. Our complex Behavioral clients, often with three or more comorbidities and requiring eight or more medications, are still able to spend 359 days a year at home on average.

We bring value to payors and are well positioned for potential shifts towards value-based care arrangements: We believe that proximal, attentive, and quality home and community-based services combined with our integrated care capabilities reduces costs in the healthcare system for medically complex populations, while also delivering improved member outcomes. In addition to our demonstrated strong quality results and serving patients in home or community settings they prefer, we have also demonstrated significant cost and performance benefits for our payors. We provide home-based primary care, which has been associated with up to a 50% reduction in hospitalization rate, and a 20% reduction in emergency room visits, as demonstrated by the 2022 JAMDA study and the AANP study, with in-home clinical services and monitoring that help patients adhere to their medication regimen and avoid accidents or relapses requiring visits to emergency rooms or hospitals. We estimate that the average cost per day for home care clients is 90% less than hospital care and the use of a greater number of personal care hours can delay or prevent nursing home placement, enabling more nursing-home eligible patients to reside in lower-cost home and community-based settings. We reduce the cost of long-term care for Behavioral patients by over $100,000 per year, based on the long-term care study, which demonstrated that the average group home cost similar to our community settings is $107,000 per year, compared to the average large state institution cost of $210,000 per year. Furthermore, our value is enhanced by our ability to provide needed pharmacy solutions to customers, clients, and patients who benefit from our expertise and proprietary programs. These pharmacy services optimally manage medication regimens and drug utilization and minimize adverse medical effects, which have been shown to help capture approximately $2,400 in annual savings from increased medication adherence, according to the RAND study. We are leveraging our growing home-based primary care and complementary, and required pharmacy and provider services, to manage patients through multiple accountable care organizations, or ACOs, arrangements where we receive shared savings. This capability set also positions the Company for continued expansion in value-based care through both our own managed care plans and external partnerships and contracts with managed care organizations.

 

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We bring value to families and communities that care about our clients and patients: By being able to offer multiple, complementary services and by providing services in the home as well as community clinic settings, we reduce the caregiving burden on clients’ and patients’ family members. Our services are available in care settings where our patients live, and these services are intimately connected to the quality of life of a patient and their family in the broader community. As a result, and for example, our patient or associated family satisfaction scores are 99% for outpatient rehab services based on an internal survey, 95% for home infusion patients based on a survey conducted by Strategic Healthcare Programs, 81% per Home Health CAHPS, which is higher than the national average, calculated by Strategic Healthcare Programs, 87% for Hospice CAHPS based on a Strategic Healthcare Programs CAHPS Hospice satisfaction survey, and Seniors and Behavioral supportive care clients and families (or guardians) report an average satisfaction score of over 4 (out of 5) based on an internal survey.

Clients, patients, families, and guardians have 24/7 access to our pharmacists and providers, through 24/7 pharmacies, afterhours pharmacy hubs, and on-call services. Our expert order and prescription intake, insurance authorization and billing processes, which are also a competitive advantage amidst complicated industry billing requirements, help to ensure timely access to appropriate and required care and accurate out-of-pocket or customer payments. Additionally, our size, scale, and breadth of pharmacy and provider service coverage create greater access points for clients, patients, and families to find care.

In addition to the daily provision of quality and people-focused health care services, our employees are afforded and take advantage of many opportunities to contribute in their communities through charitable activities and organizations, dedicating their time and resources to build up and support others. Since 2020, we have participated in hundreds of community service events, contributed thousands of hours, and committed over $4.5 million to assist underserved communities through programs that benefit children, schools, nursing and hospice foundations, and organizations that provide support to many of the individuals we serve. Additionally, to help create opportunities for people in the future, the BrightSpring Brighter Futures Scholarship and the BrightSpring Nursing Scholarship provide college tuition to outstanding and deserving high school students each year who require financial support.

We bring value to employees who serve our medically complex patient population: Our national scale and healthcare service offerings create flexibility of care provision and breadth of opportunities for our providers. We offer a compelling mission and the ability to form meaningful relationships with clients and patients, while directly improving their condition and lives. Across our pharmacy and provider services, the Company’s infrastructure, technology, training, and operational processes provide support, flexibility in work schedules and pay, and reduce administrative burdens for our teammates to help them concentrate on providing quality care for patients. Along with ongoing training, we have implemented career pathways for advancement and continued to invest in pay and benefits.

We have well-known brands and strong reputations in many markets, with comprehensive training, career path, and awards and recognition programs in our Company. Over 100 of our leaders and employees have received third-party national and industry awards over the past several years, including multiple CEO, Human Resources, and Quality awards, and we were named a Diversity Jobs Top Employer for 2023. As an organization we have been committed to creating opportunities for people of all backgrounds and types of skills. We are proud that 80% of our employees are female, 48% of our employees are people of color, and, of our top approximately 600 managers in the Company, almost 60% are female. We have multiple affinity programs internally, including a Veterans program that supports the employment, training, and careers for many employees who are Veterans, and our SHARE (Support Help Assistance Relief Effort) program aids fellow employees that have been affected by an emergency or disaster, with millions of dollars contributed to the program over the past four years.

We bring value to many healthcare partners, including physicians, health systems, customers, and drug manufacturers by driving shared success: We have a strong and well-established base of physician and health system referral sources and partners that has been built on years of customer service and quality results. In many locations, we have built deeper, preferred, and contractual relationships with these partners. Our Company has

 

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360 formal strategic partnerships and contracts with health systems, including approximately 20 home health partnerships and contracts with leading hospital systems and ACOs across multiple states related to high performance networks, care transitions, indigent patient management, high-risk patient programs, and therapy and heart failure bundles.

We have preferred or exclusive relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers in specialty oncology drugs, as manufacturers select and prefer to work with our pharmacy due to leading patient service, reimbursement navigation, nursing support, speed of drug delivery, patient drug adherence, IT and data solutions, and other proprietary value-add services. We currently have 116 limited distribution oncology drugs, an increase from 93 in 2021, and 87 in 2020, with another 16 in the current pipeline still to launch, including 5 exclusive and 11 ultra-narrow and high-control drugs with limited pharmacy access.

We bring value to investors through our platform of diversified and complementary services: We offer investors a platform of differentiated scale that incorporates broad geographic, end market, and reimbursement diversification among related and complementary services. The platform is designed to offer stability as well as innovative integrated care capabilities with unique levers to drive organic and inorganic growth.

The Senior and Specialty patients we serve represent a market opportunity of over $1.0 trillion and are expected to drive a disproportionate share of future expenditures due to long-term secular drivers that include an aging population, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, and an increasing prevalence and number of behavioral indications and patients. The Company’s platform delivers services primarily in home and community settings, which benefit from industry trends and tailwinds, given patient preference and the high-quality and lower cost of services of home and community-based care. Approximately 20,000 of our patients receive multiple services from us in their homes today, and we believe that there are over 575,000 additional opportunities to deliver our services to our current census of patients across settings.

The typically multi-year “care relationship” with our patients and the recurring nature of the specific patient care that we provide have resulted in strong visibility with respect to future revenues, particularly for the next twelve-month period, as well as greater operational stability. Approximately 76% and 69% of our anticipated service volume for the next six and twelve months, respectively, is expected to be attributable to patients currently in our care based upon average lengths of stay determined from historical data, with the remainder of our anticipated service volume for those periods expected to be attributable to new patients not currently in our care.

Our national footprint, leading scale, quality track record, and focus on operational execution position us as a provider of choice with services that are broadly supported by our mix of diversified payor sources and programs, including, as of December 31, 2022, 48% Medicare (35% Medicare Part D), 23% Medicaid (of which this percentage is further distributed at the state level), 19% Commercial, 4% government programs, and 6% private/other. As reimbursement models continue to evolve, our complementary, value-add services, and diversified payor mix enable us to potentially enter into quality and value-based contracts that allow us to realize greater incentives and savings than today and take risk.

The Company’s platform and financial profile also benefits from an extensive track record in high return de novo location expansions. Over our history, we have continuously built and developed new de novo locations to address gaps and opportunities in our geographic coverage. This incremental coverage provides both standalone growth and opportunities for integrated care network benefits and cross-referrals among related services, and is informed by our knowledge of markets, competitors, referral sources, customers, people, and our payor contacts. We have expanded to 138 new locations since 2018. We believe we can continue to replicate our historical performance of opening at least 20 de novo locations per year. While we expect de novos typically take three to five years to reach full maturity, our 138 de novo openings since 2018 have reached profitability within six months on average. We have organically grown Adjusted EBITDA by approximately 9% from 2018 to 2022.

 

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Our extensive M&A track record is also a meaningful part of our platform, financial profile, and future opportunities. We have a proven ability to source, execute, and integrate accretive acquisitions in fragmented industries. Since 2018, we have completed 57 acquisitions within our pharmacy and provider services, including strategic and tuck-in acquisitions, with 12, 12, and 6 deals completed each year in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, and 3 deals completed in the nine months ended September 30, 2023. Our combined aggregate purchase consideration has totaled over $1.7 billion since January 2020, and we have demonstrated significant reduction in our purchase multiple through revenue and expense synergies and growth post the closing of acquisitions. With access to comparatively more acquisition opportunities across our large markets, and through our ability to leverage scale and operating related synergies, we are able to selectively target attractive and value-enhancing acquisitions that we expect to continue to contribute to the long-term success of the Company.

Industry Overview and Market Opportunity

Healthcare expenditures in the United States were projected to total $4.4 trillion in 2022 and are expected to reach $4.9 trillion in 2024, according to CMS. Through our platform, we provide a complementary and integrated set of health services capabilities to high-need, high-cost, medically complex patients that address their multiple needs. We provide these critical services primarily across Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial plans, which we believe creates over $1.0 trillion of opportunity for our specific and relevant services among the main healthcare funding sources and other pharmacy services payors in the United States.

 

 

LOGO

Within the over $1.0 trillion market opportunity, the Company’s platform is able to benefit from a comprehensive set of capabilities that address a number of favorable underlying markets and trends. For example, as the baby boomer population ages and life expectancy increases, Seniors, who comprise a large portion of our patients, will represent a higher percentage of the overall population. The Congressional Budget Office, or the CBO, projects that the U.S. population aged 65 and older will grow, on average, by 3% annually over the next five years. Specialty populations, who have unique, specialized, and most often chronic/life-long health conditions and needs, represent a growing proportion of the adult population in the United States. Within our provider services, home health patient expenditures are expected to increase by approximately 7% over the next five years, with hospice patient expenditures expected to increase by 8% over the same period. Additionally, services related to supportive care are expected to grow by 6% over the next five years. In Pharmacy, home and community markets are expected to grow at a weighted average growth rate of approximately 9% over the next five years.

We believe these trends will continue to drive sustainable growth in our markets and greater utilization of our services in the future, creating opportunities for scaled providers to continue to gain share through our infrastructure advantages and focus on coordinated and valuable care to medically complex Senior and Specialty patient populations with intensive healthcare needs.

We operate in a highly competitive industry as well. Within our markets, we compete with businesses spanning both pharmacy and provider services markets.

 

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In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, we compete with local, regional, and national pharmacies. While no other company singularly competes with us across all of our pharmacy customers and patients, on a nationwide basis we compete with several companies depending on the patient type and related service offering. In our infusion and specialty pharmacy services, we compete in the large and fragmented home infusion and specialty pharmacy markets including Option Care Health, Inc., Coram CVS/specialty infusion services (a division of CVS Health), Accredo Health Group, Inc. (a unit of Cigna), Optum Specialty Pharmacy (a subsidiary of OptumRx, which is a unit of the UnitedHealth Group), and various regional and local providers. In our infusion and specialty pharmacy services, owners of senior living and skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities may also provide pharmacy (and provider) services, and on a nationwide basis we compete with Omnicare, Inc., a division of CVS Health, and several others.

In our Provider Services segment, we compete with local, regional, and national providers of clinical services and supportive care to clients and patients. Within our provider services, our principal competitors are comprised of Amedisys, Inc., Encompass Health Corporation, LHC Group, Inc., and Addus HomeCare Corporation, as well as other local and regional providers. Within these services we also compete for employees with physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other medical and non-medical personnel. Additionally, we compete for physicians and other healthcare professionals that we directly employ to provide healthcare services for our patients and to provide licensed medical services.

Our Platform

We believe our high-quality and complementary health services offerings address significant and important patient and stakeholder needs. In the home and community settings where we operate, patients with chronic conditions often require daily care, closely-managed medication regimens, and specialized clinical treatment, and our service model is defined by core pharmacy and provider services augmented by integrated care capabilities that are intended to maximize outcomes and minimize potential disruptions. The Company’s quality outcomes achieved for Senior and Specialty patients and industry stakeholders are also mostly delivered in patient-preferred and lower-cost settings. We believe our breadth of service capabilities and proven outcomes position us as a provider of choice for patients, families, referral sources, customers, and payors.

Furthermore, scale is important in the industries and service areas that we participate in, for numerous reasons, including realizing economies of scale, for example in purchasing, technology, and related to fixed expenses, leveraging best practices and quality and operational oversight of the service lines, in payor contracting, being able to invest in attractive growth areas, and driving value through revenue, quality, and operational and cost synergies post acquisitions. Our service capabilities extend across all 50 states in the United States, with co-location of our pharmacy and provider services in 40 states. We deliver a higher proportion of services in select regions with favorable demographics and regulatory environments, with approximately 54% and 47% of our revenue in 10 states in the year ended December 31, 2022 and in the nine months ended September 30, 2023, respectively.

Given our service capabilities extend across all 50 states, our operations are subject to extensive federal, state, and local governmental laws and regulations, including requirements imposed by government healthcare programs. These laws and regulations require us to meet various standards relating to, among other things, arrangement and provision of covered healthcare services to our patients and customers, operation and management of provider and pharmacy solutions, dispensing of pharmaceuticals, the manner in which we provide and bill for services and collect reimbursement from governmental programs and private payors, arrangements with physicians and other licensed healthcare professionals, manufacturers and referral sources, facility licensure, personnel qualifications, and maintenance of proper records and quality assurance programs. See “Business—Regulation.”

Our services are organized and managed through two reportable segments: Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services.

 

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The Company’s scale, complementary service offerings, and geographic footprint also enable integrated and value-based care opportunities. Many of our patients today receive both pharmacy and provider services from the Company, thus simplifying their experience and supporting positive outcomes. Our integrated care and value-based care model is based on three important service enablers and three primary strategies. For enablers, we view (i) home-based primary care capabilities, (ii) a customized transitional care management program, and (iii) a clinical care coordination hub as essential to drive optimized quality and reduced cost outcomes. The Company has spent the last several years building out these three integrated and value-based care capabilities. In turn, these enablers are required to execute three key integrated and value-based care strategies, including (i) the coordination of clinically integrated care for patients receiving multiple Company services across settings and over time, (ii) providing multiple integrated (or bundled) services to senior living communities, behavioral providers, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility providers, hospitals, and payors who all require our comprehensive offerings, and (iii) the execution of value-based care contracts, whether internal through the Company’s own ACO shared savings arrangements and managed care plans or whether external through third-party government or managed care entities.

Pharmacy Solutions

We opportunistically provide pharmacy services when and where demanded and as required to customers and patients in their homes and communities, often in coordination with our provider services. The Company filled over 34 million prescriptions in 2022 from over 180 pharmacies across all 50 states, with services delivered to approximately 6,000 customer locations, more than 44,000 individual or group homes, and over 350,000 patients, all through over 4,900 unique customer and payor contracts. Our leading pharmacy support across customer and patient settings is achieved through a focus on medication availability and reliability, cost containment, customer staff and patient support programs, clinical and regulatory education and support, and leading customer service. Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy prescriptions and Community Pharmacy prescriptions have grown at more than 20% and 10%, respectively, from September 2022 to September 2023. We have a unique opportunity to increasingly provide more pharmacy services in the future to provider patients and patients transitioning across settings of care. Almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, which we have the opportunity to further address.

Pharmacy services are a universal need and ongoing connection point across medically complex populations. Our pharmacy services delivered into homes and community settings for complex patients are extremely different as compared to retail pharmacy, with more challenging customer and patient needs and service requirements. The average Senior fills approximately 52 medication prescriptions per year, while our average pharmacy patient is usually prescribed approximately nine medications at a given time, or at least two times more than the average Senior. As a result, medication appropriateness, accuracy, and adherence are critical points of emphasis for promoting the overall long-term health and well-being of patients. Non-adherence causes approximately 40% of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year in the United States. Further, non-adherence costs $100 billion annually, according to the JAMDA study. We deliver on our goals with 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness.

There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in the pharmacy industry. First, large scale, which our pharmacy platform has and is characterized by, is of critical importance. We are able to leverage our large pharmacy scale in purchasing and all supplier contracting, in operating and fixed expenses, in payor contracting, in technology and systems, in sales and marketing and with brand reputation, in being able to address customer and growth opportunities in more markets, in driving synergies post acquisitions, and in leveraging best practices, for example, in operational, quality, and compliance oversight and human resources and people management. Second, the Company has historically targeted and served home and community pharmacy customers, patients, and channels as different from a retail strategy. We believe that these service settings and channels are more challenging to serve and present the opportunity for greater customization of offerings,

 

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differentiation, and value-add to customers. Third, and related to the customer types and channels that we serve in pharmacy, we most often provide our services through a local pharmacy and delivery model. Many of our customers require same day pharmacy service or in-person administration, and this geographical requirement can only be met through local, physical pharmacies. Fourth, many of our customers and patients have different and more significant clinical, educational, and reimbursement needs as compared to the general population’s retail medication profile, which must be addressed through particular expertise and high-touch customer and patient support vehicles and resources. Fifth, and also due to the different setting profile, heightened needs, and medication therapy profile of our patient base, there is an increased importance on service levels and quality measures in our specific pharmacy service types. Companies that outperform on service and quality in our pharmacy customer and patient channels have the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market and with payors.

Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy

We provide infused, injectable, and oral medication services in the home and clinic focused on pharmaceutical therapies that require expert administration and high-touch clinical services to patients by our pharmacists, registered nursing staff, and patient support teams. Infusion therapy services are a specialty form of pharmaceuticals that involve the intravenous administration of higher-cost, specially-handled medications that treat a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions, including, for example, infections, auto-immune illnesses, oncology, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and nutritional deficiencies. Oral and injectable medication therapies for complex disease management treat oncology, neurology, dermatology, cardiology, immunology, inflammatory, rare and orphan, and other conditions. Within oncology, as one of the leading independent specialty pharmacies in the United States, our services encompass clinical coordination, patient education, protocol compliance, patient assistance with insurance access and outside funding, and timely delivery of medication. Our certified oncology pharmacists are available 24/7 to provide support for patients and caregivers while working in close coordination with their physicians.

Our customer service and quality metrics are in-line with, or better than, our peers, such as time-to-first-fill (4.2 day average turnaround time, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 9.7 day average turnaround time), overall Medication Possession Ratio, or MPR (96.9%, which is significantly higher than the generally accepted 80% threshold for compliance, which is also the threshold set forth in the Company’s Blue Cross Blue Shield guarantee), and infusion patient satisfaction scores (95.0%, which is in-line with the 95.6% national average). We offer value-add services including technology integrations and real-time analytics for both suppliers and payors. As a result of our unique capabilities in serving pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotech companies, we have exclusive or preferred relationships in specialty oncology drugs, as manufacturers select our pharmacy – exclusively or as part of a group of a few other pharmacies – to distribute and support their therapies in the market. We currently have 116 limited distribution oncology drugs in the market, an increase from 93 in 2021, and 87 in 2020, with an additional 16 in the pipeline still to launch, including 5 exclusive and 11 ultra-narrow drugs with limited pharmacy access. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, as a testament to our leading quality and service, we achieved “world-class” NPS scores of over 90, which also triggered quality incentive payments. The Company receives incentive payments in connection with a payor contract, which includes incentive targets based on the Company’s NPS scores achieved from surveys performed directly by the payor. The Company did not receive any such incentive payments during the year ended December 31, 2020. During each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022, the incentive payments were approximately $20 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the incentive payments were approximately $30 million.

Home and Community Pharmacy

Our home and community-based pharmacy solutions ensure that medications are accessible and clinically supported for patients outside of retail pharmacies. The Company’s footprint of pharmacies covers all 50 states with a localized model that features “white-glove” and customized programs and allows for faster response times and a better customer and patient experience. We service customer locations typically multiple times a day and

 

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24/7 as needed, within a radius of approximately 100 miles of a pharmacy location. Our services focus on achieving leading medication availability, cost containment, and clinical and regulatory education and support for our customers, and they are designed to provide a consistent, best in-class experience for customers accompanied by local concierge support. Centralized intake and order entry drives consistency across operations and markets. Our pharmacy services are all customized to specific settings and patients among the Senior and Specialty populations served, for example whether a patient receiving our medications is in a senior living community, a behavioral group home, or a hospice patient in their own home.

In addition to our very strong service delivery metrics, our pharmacy services and proprietary programs reduce drug costs to customers and patients, for example with a 99.9% generic efficiency rate (the percent of drugs dispensed as generic, when both brand and generic versions of a drug are available) and saving customers an average of $58 per therapeutic interchange. Our customers, supported by several thousand pharmacists, pharmacist consultants, and nurses, perform better than the national average, with our patients consistently outperforming non-patients on overall CMS quality measures. Moreover, we believe we have certain comparative strengths in this large and fragmented pharmacy market due to our large pharmacy scale – and associated drug purchasing capabilities and distribution reach – and robustness of proprietary and customized customer and patient support programs.

In 2021, we launched CCRx, which is a longitudinal medication therapy and risk management program for home health patients, attempting to solve one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in healthcare, which is the ongoing management of complex patients in their homes to reduce adverse health events and hospitalizations. CCRx includes patient and home assessments, initial and ongoing medication review and reconciliation, user-friendly adherence packaging, direct patient engagement, and education by pharmacists and clinicians. The program was built for patients discharged from skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities or hospitals, and/or patients going onto home health. Studies have shown that all-cause hospitalizations are higher in patients with poor medication adherence and that medication management associated issues are a leading cause of emergency room visits and hospitalizations. CCRx has been shown to reduce hospitalizations, and, as such, is a key enabler in managing patients in value-based care constructs. For example, the JAMDA study found that home health recipients who are enrolled in CCRx experience a 73.1% lower hospitalization rate than home health recipients who are not enrolled in CCRx.

Provider Services

We deliver a variety of impactful and valuable provider services to high-need, chronic, and complex patients in home and community settings. These services consist of clinical and supportive care to over 34,000 Senior and Specialty populations today, with both census for Home Health Care services specifically, and rehab hours served, having grown approximately 9% from September 2022 to September 2023. While the clinical services that we provide have demonstrated attractive volume growth over the past several years, supportive care services have also demonstrated stability and growth due to the valuable nature of these services that address activities of daily living and social determinants of health. Many of our provider patients also receive their pharmacy services through the Company, which helps to optimize their pharmacy and medication care and needs, simplify their experience, and improve their satisfaction. We believe there is greater opportunity to provide integrated services to all of our patients in the future, as almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, and, vice versa, many of the patients we serve in pharmacy have multiple provider service needs, including, for example, home-based primary care, home health, and rehab. To this end, the Company has endeavored to build out home-based primary care over the last several years to coordinate patient services.

There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in our provider services markets. First, we are able to leverage our investments in human resources and people management initiatives and best practices across the enterprise, including in recruiting scale and centralization, onboarding and training, and career paths. Second, quality and patient satisfaction are critical, and we are able to

 

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provide increased quality and compliance and operational oversight across all locations through additional regional and enterprise resources and functions. Third, we drive strong sales and marketing best practices across geographies to drive strong referral and volume growth rates. Fourth, we are able to drive economies of scale in supplier and payor contracting, in technology and systems, and in government affairs and advocacy. Fifth, the ability to address market opportunities and geographic coverage through de novo locations and tuck-in acquisitions that benefit from synergies adds value, which we have demonstrated. Moreover, provider services scale is perhaps the most important determinant of sustainability for a provider services business, as it enables a company to be able to execute on the aforementioned success factors. Complementary scale in the pharmacy business is additive to provider services quality and growth, as our pharmacy business’ presence and footprint across geographies provide for a base of integrated care patient opportunities.

Home Health Care

We provide patient-centric, highly skilled, and compassionate clinical care to Seniors and others in their homes. For Seniors and other patients recovering from surgery or illness or living with chronic diseases, we provide clinical home health care in the home. These services help patients avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, speed up recovery time, and allow people to stay and feel secure in their own homes, which they prefer. Over $40 billion in annual U.S. health care spending is attributed to hospital readmissions, and home health care can reduce 365-day post-discharge costs by more than $6,000 per patient, each per the American Journal of Medicine. We also provide physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort and support primarily for Senior patients with terminal illnesses and their families through our hospice services. Our services have also been shown to help manage end-of-life healthcare spending. For example, Medicare spend in 2019 for patients that had received hospice care was estimated by NORC at the University of Chicago to be $3.5 billion less nationwide than if all such patients had not received hospice care. Like patients receiving home health care, our interdisciplinary hospice teams tailor individualized plans for patients and their families based on a comprehensive understanding of their needs. Our hospice patients require important daily pharmacy support, which we deliver through our pharmacy services. We have an 9.2 Hospice Care Index, or HCI, score, calculated using data from CMS provider reports for each of our providers, and we believe that our nurse-to-patient visit frequency and staffing ratio is well above industry averages, as demonstrated by the fact that across our hospice services, our average total visits per patient is 22.7 visits per month as compared to the national average of 14.0 visits per month. Additionally, on average, nursing visits per patient per month was 10.5 as compared to the national average of 6.4 visits per patient per month, which monthly average was based on a MedPac report in 2022. Additionally, for Seniors and others who require supportive care and activities of daily living support that address social determinants of health, including dietary and nutrition management and cognitive and social engagement, among others, we offer these daily or weekly services. We estimate that the average cost per day of supportive home care services is 90% less than hospital care, and as Medicare spends an average of three times more on older adults with functional limitations, we also believe that supportive care services will continue to become a focus for payors to help improve outcomes and delay or prevent unnecessary facility placement.

We are continuing to build out specialized and different primary care capabilities through our home-based primary care medical home model and platform, which we view as central to the future of optimizing patient management, including patient experiences, outcomes, and cost. Many adverse health and/or medication events can be prevented through better understanding patients’ health and risk factors by managing and treating them in the environment where they reside with primary care. In doing so, home-based primary care is more patient-centered and incorporates patients’ specific objectives and goals. Home-based primary care pro-actively addresses gaps in care and triages health events in-place when possible, thus mitigating avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Home-based primary care coordinates care and resources for patients in pulling together previously disparate information and contact points into one place for more coordinated and informed patient care. Our primary care clinicians, including physicians we directly employ in certain states, optimize clinical and care decisions as they see and manage both Seniors and Behavioral (including I/DD) patients in senior living communities, in

 

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individual homes and in group homes, in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, as well as through transitional care visits after patients leave hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. By engaging with patients more frequently and where they live, the Company’s home-based primary care can mitigate health issues before they escalate further and conduct many applicable treatments and procedures in a home or community setting. Our home-based primary care has delivered leading quality outcomes, including a hospital readmission rate 30% less than the national average and with acute, chronic, and complex patients served still able to spend 355 days per year at home, which is 6% more days than the Medicare average, based on the Health Days study. For I/DD patients, we have seen reductions in hospitalizations and readmissions of 44% and 84%, respectively, since beginning home-based primary care services.

In addition to many of our provider patients also receiving their pharmacy services from the Company, our patients often receive multiple in-home provider services from the Company to improve outcomes, including home-based primary care and home health or hospice and transitions from home health to hospice. In 2021, the Company implemented CCRx, which provides patients with a more coordinated experience and reduces risks through primary care expertise in the home soon after patient discharge and through optimized medication therapy management in an individual’s home. Within the last two years, the Company has built a Clinical (Nursing) Hub to be the contact and coordination point for patients, families, and their pharmacy and provider services. As more of our patients utilize the multiple needed services that they require and we provide, we pro-actively monitor patients and deploy triage tools through our Clinical (Nursing) Hub to address risks and optimize quality outcomes in real-time, particularly for higher risk patients. Within the Clinical (Nursing) Hub, we centralize on-call and tele-triage, perform high-risk patient monitoring and intervention, conduct “Aftercare” patient calls, and manage care coordination opportunities across the enterprise. We see significant potential for additional integrated care opportunities by leveraging our Home-Based Primary Care, CCRx, and Clinical (Nursing) Hub capabilities to support senior living communities, payors, our hospital partners and their patient discharges, and our skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility customers who alone discharge approximately 360,000 patients a year back into the community and their homes.

Community and Rehab Care

Our Community and Rehab Care services provide both client- and patient-centric clinical care and supportive care to Senior and Specialty clients and patients living with age-related acute or chronic conditions, living with life-long indications (including I/DD and autism), or recovering from a catastrophic neuro event (ABI/TBI or stroke) requiring intensive therapy. These services support individuals of all ages who need various forms of expert clinical care and therapy in addition to assistance with daily skill building and living. The majority of these clients and patients receive daily pharmacy support, delivered through our pharmacy business (with an 83% penetration rate), along with ongoing behavioral therapy consults and primary care medical care, which is increasingly being delivered through our home-based primary care practice.

We provide specialized, highly-skilled, and custom-designed rehabilitation services, including physical, speech and occupational therapy and ABA, for clients and patients of all ages with a range of injuries and conditions, including brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, pediatric neuro conditions, and autism. Our services make a dramatic impact on the trajectory of a patient’s independence, skills, and life and significantly lower longer-term costs. Rehab patients see profound improvements in their conditions, with the Company’s outpatient rehab services receiving a 99% patient satisfaction score and over 99% of patients who would recommend our services. We also offer a variety of programs for individuals with I/DD through our community living services, including group homes, supported living and family living models (host homes), behavioral therapy, vocational therapy, and case management. Our programs are principally administered in individuals’ homes and are predominantly based on individual support and clinical care plans designed to encourage greater independence and manage medical conditions, as the majority of I/DD individuals have multiple chronic conditions and require eight or more medications.

 

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Our Team and Culture

We believe an engaged, connected, and mission-driven team of employees across the Company is an essential component of our platform and growth strategy. Our dedicated clinicians, caregivers, field, corporate and other administrative support employees, managers, and leaders are the critical elements that have enabled us to build a differentiated healthcare platform of scale with strong quality outcomes and historical financial performance. We have a combination of long-standing employees at all levels who have worked together for years and talented newer employees that help to contribute best practices and innovation – all bringing a wealth of experience in healthcare.

Our leadership team has driven a clearly defined vision and mission through the organization. It has fostered and developed a focus on quality, operational excellence, and growth across our enterprise, underpinned by strong people, efficient processes, and robust technology and data systems and applications. The Company has consistently innovated its service models to drive results and augment our positioning as a valuable partner to industry stakeholders. Our culture is at the heart of all we do, enabling execution of our strategies. Our commitment and passion for making a difference and helping people guides the way our care and services are delivered, one patient at a time.

As a leading mission-driven and quality-focused health services organization, our employees are fundamental to our ability to maximize our impact in serving clients, patients, families, customers, referrals sources and partners, and all healthcare stakeholders. Focusing on the interests and development of our employees is a top priority, and our ability to attract and retain compassionate and skilled caregivers and pharmacy professionals, as well as talented functional and managerial staff, is fundamental to our future.

 

 

LOGO

Operational Excellence

Operational excellence is a focus of our Company. It is a key aspect of our performance, and we believe it will be a driver of our continued growth. Our senior leadership’s attention to how we operate and manage our services and enterprise support functions is reflected in continuous improvement efforts in both volume and cost efficiency related areas for improved results. In field operations, processes and teams are empowered with clear strategies and goals and managed from the local level up through regions, with key enterprise functions such as finance and accounting, revenue cycle, information technology, quality, compliance, human resources, legal,

 

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payroll, accounts payable, communications, sales and marketing, and government relations working to support front-line and field employees and managers to be as knowledgeable and impactful as possible. In addition to large finance and human resources organizations, dedicated Project Management Office, or PMO, Integration Management Office, or IMO, and Procurement teams have been in place for the last seven years and serve as control functions, as they evaluate opportunities, drive continuous improvement projects, and support the execution of critical initiatives across all business and enterprise functions in the Company.

Working collaboratively, these teams have a broad mandate and are empowered from the CEO office to support further growth and realize savings through new strategies to drive volume, people and culture enhancements, process improvements and operational efficiencies, synergy capture from acquisitions, and improved purchasing that leverages our scale. The implementation of our PMO-led continuous improvement program over the past seven years at the enterprise level has resulted in approximately $41.5 million of annual savings in 2022 (in addition to annual efficiencies and savings work throughout field operations) from improved processes and working smarter, and these efficiencies have been used to reinvest in employees (both existing employees through wages and benefits and new employees to support key strategies, innovation and infrastructure needs to further scale), quality, technology, and growth initiatives.

We have continued to make investments to improve the overall efficiency and workflow of our business and position ourselves for continued future growth. For example, investments in technology and information systems to support our businesses in recent years have included new and improved EMR and ERP systems across different pharmacy and provider services for continued usability improvements, quality objectives, sales and marketing strategies, enabling mobile and electronic visit verification, implementation of daily pay and other employee support applications, and enhancements to financial, revenue cycle, recruiting and training systems. Our cloud-based data lake (storage) and business intelligence (analytics) capabilities are now a single digital platform and set up to feed real-time quality, operational, and financial metrics tracking across the Company.

Quality and compliance are central to our strategies and mission. We have demonstrated leading and excellent service and customer/patient/family satisfaction scores across the organization, as referenced in prior and other sections of this prospectus. In addition to quality and compliance resources and programs in field operations, we invest over $200 million a year in people, training, auditing, signature programs, accreditations, advocacy, and technologies to support quality, compliance, and safety as part of our “Quality First” framework. We continue to invest in quality and compliance resources with 193 enterprise oversight quality and compliance team members, who conduct approximately 200 additional, deep, and next-level audits annually, in addition to ongoing audits at the field operations level. This team also completes monthly record reviews of 10% of all patient charts, leveraging electronic health records. We have over 1,000 pharmacies, branches/agencies, and service locations accredited by the leading, national, and third-party accreditation bodies, including Accreditation Commission for Health Care, or ACHC, Community Health Accreditation Program, or CHAP, Joint Commission, The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, or CARF, National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, or NABP, Utilization Review Accreditation Commission, or URAC, and Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics and Supplies, or DMEPOS.

Competitive Advantages

As compared to many other health services providers, our large size and scale, our complementary services address multiple needs of high-need and high-cost complex patients, our markets are uniquely large in the aggregate with tangible demand drivers, our services are delivered in preferred lower-cost home and community settings aligned to secular trends, our patients require long-term care and support that results in a high recurring revenue profile, our services produce excellent and proven quality metrics, and our M&A track record and platform is extensive. Moreover, the combination of our services delivered in homes and communities provides for a greater opportunity set of commercial and clinical alternatives to pursue and deepen in, and it provides for a unique model for integrated and value-based care to realize improved patient and cost outcomes for complex

 

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patients, payors, and the healthcare system. These advantages and capabilities have led to strong historical growth, augmented by significant de novo and M&A execution amidst fragmented markets, and underpinned by a capable, seasoned, and proven management team.

The U.S. healthcare industry in which we operate is highly competitive, as we compete with a broad and diverse set of services spanning both pharmacy and provider services. In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, the competition for the distribution of pharmaceuticals to patients and also to healthcare facilities is intense. In our Provider Services segment, we compete with local, regional, and national providers of home health, hospice, rehab therapy, personal, and behavioral health services in each of the geographical areas in which we operate. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business—We operate in a highly competitive industry.”

Scaled National Platform Focused on Complex Patients in Home and Community Settings: Our reach, breadth, and scaled national platform of pharmacy and provider services improve the consistency of results and is designed to solve critical pain points for payors in managing overall healthcare costs for their most complex patients. We are able to drive clinical outcomes and lower cost of care due to our presence in the home and community and highly proximate position to the patients we serve. In 2022, we delivered over 34 million prescriptions and provided approximately 120 million hours of care across all 50 states in the process of serving over 400,000 people per day on average. We estimate our total addressable market opportunity to be over $1.0 trillion, and the complex populations we serve both comprise the majority of this spend and drive the highest growth within healthcare services. Our ability to provide complementary and integrated daily pharmacy and provider services to more patients at scale enhances our growth and new contract opportunities comparatively and provides us with greater long-term potential size and impact.

Size and scale are important in the industries and service areas that we participate in, for numerous reasons. These include realizing economies of scale, for example in purchasing, technology, and related to fixed expenses, leveraging best practices in human resources and people management, sales and marketing, and customer programs, leveraging quality and operational oversight of the service lines across the enterprise, supporting payor contracting, investing in attractive growth areas, and driving value through revenue, quality, and operational and cost synergies post acquisitions. We believe our scaled national platform of integrated service offerings not only drives efficiencies and best practices, but also establishes our position as a healthcare provider of choice for patients, families, referral sources, customers, and payors.

Complementary Services That Address Integrated Health Over Long Periods of Time: We offer complementary pharmacy and provider services and unique, proprietary programs across our platform that high-need, high-cost, and complex patients require, and we have significant engagement with our patients in their homes and communities. Each of our pharmacy and provider services offers patients higher quality care and provides greater efficiency and effectiveness when integrated, as a streamlined partner available to payors to deliver improved outcomes and cost savings. The comprehensive mix of services that we provide at the scale that we provide them creates both stability – through business, end market, geographic, and payor diversification and relevance – and more revenue opportunities in providing multiple services to patients as a single provider and in capturing additional services across patient settings and transitions of care. The steadily increasing density of our network and proximity to patients allows us to increasingly drive referrals and follow patient needs longitudinally across their individual care continuum. The vast majority of patients we serve not only have multiple service needs, but also have life-long conditions with long-term, chronic care needs, which results in significant revenue visibility – 76% of our patients are on service for at least six months, and 69% of our patients are on service for at least 12 months, which provides for a high degree of recurring revenue comparatively.

Excellent Quality and Compliance with a Focus on Care Coordination: We have demonstrated leading quality metrics and cost-effective care across all service offerings of the Company, coordinating high-need, and complex individuals with caregivers and support services to improve outcomes for clients, patients, and families.

 

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Our provider care management tools and programs help to keep our patients safe, enhance their independence, improve their outcomes, and lower their health care costs. Our goal is to try to ensure that every individual receives the right care, at the right time, in the safest environment possible.

For example, across our pharmacies we achieve 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness, “excellent” and “world class” NPS, a 95% satisfaction rating from infusion patients, and a reduction in hospitalizations with CCRx, while also driving savings through medication adherence and therapeutic interchanges. We achieve 99% patient satisfaction in our outpatient rehab services, and we achieve an 84% overall rating of care in hospice, hospitalizations 30% lower than the national average in our home-based primary care, and four stars (out of five) in the CAHPS home health patient survey ratings. Our complex Behavioral clients, often with three or more comorbidities and requiring eight or more medications, are still able to spend 359 days a year at home on average. We believe that we are positioned to identify potential medical problems and avoid adverse events due to our highly proximate position to patients and attentive care protocols, as evidenced by these quality metrics.

Our pharmacies address ever-present patient medication needs across all settings and our industry-leading solutions ensure accurate and timely access to needed medications, control costs, enhance customer education, improve patient outcome measures, and support customer compliance with state and federal regulations. We have dedicated a large and growing amount of resources to support quality and compliance throughout the organization, and we continue to invest in efforts to innovate further towards value-based care capabilities. Together, our quality and compliance programs create an outcomes-based environment centered around clients and patients that enables them to live their best life.

Strong Track Record of Executing High Return De Novo Expansions: We have a successful history of executing on new de novo locations to increase coverage and market share in our geographies. Our knowledge of markets, competitors, referral sources, customers, people, and our payor contacts and contracts from across our services and geographies helps to inform our selection of new markets. We have expanded to 138 new locations since 2018. We have historical performance that indicates that our operating model can succeed across different markets. While we expect de novos typically take three to five years to reach full maturity, our 138 de novo openings since 2018 have reached profitability within six months on average. In the nine months ended September 30, 2023, our 138 de novo locations opened since 2018 generated total revenue of $218.0 million, representing 22.5% growth compared to the de novo locations revenue in the nine months ended September 30, 2022. Our de novo growth in the nine months ended September 30, 2023 contributed approximately 0.7% to our overall Company revenue growth of 12.2% compared to the nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Track Record of Strategic and Accretive M&A Across Our Platform with Proven Ability to Execute: Acquisitions are a key strategic advantage and value creation driver for BrightSpring. We have an established M&A track record and proven capabilities, positioning us to continue to be effective in acquiring businesses within our service lines and within fragmented markets. We have successfully acquired 57 businesses since 2018. Of the 57 businesses, 55 have increased their profitability since we acquired the respective businesses, which is calculated using last twelve months results at the time of the acquisition compared to results calculated for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, annualized for a twelve month period. Our scale and breadth of services creates meaningful opportunities to achieve significant revenue and cost synergies with businesses we acquire. We believe we are an attractive partner for many businesses, who need and can benefit from additional infrastructure, referral source expansion, and purchasing and negotiating power to succeed. Our M&A capabilities have been honed through years of experience, and today we are able to generate significant synergies beginning on the first day post-closing of an acquisition. We have realized combined post-close growth in our acquisitions since 2018 that has resulted in a reduction of aggregate purchase multiple by approximately 50% overall, which is calculated using last twelve months Adjusted EBITDA at the time of the acquisition compared to Adjusted EBITDA calculated for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, annualized to a twelve month period. This highlights the Company’s differentiated acquisition and integration approach and skill set and the

 

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value-enhancing nature of our historical acquisitions. We have historically financed our acquisitions primarily with borrowings under our debt facilities, as well as cash flows from operations. Since 2020, we have incurred $1.2 billion of debt to fund the purchase prices of, and otherwise consummate, the acquisitions. Our total debt as of September 30, 2023 was $3.5 billion. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Indebtedness.”

Our M&A platform in our pharmacy and provider services markets within health services is advantageous for multiple reasons: our scale enables both revenue and cost synergies; our complementary service line mix provides us with a broader and larger opportunity set of acquisition targets; our well-resourced corporate development team’s ability to pro-actively identify and execute attractive and, most often, proprietary acquisitions; and our IMO team that has extensive experience in managing all elements of the acquisition process pre and post-close and helping to ensure the successful integration of both platform and tuck-in acquisitions into our organization. All service markets that we participate in are still highly fragmented and benefit from scale, which provides for continued consolidation opportunities and value-creation opportunity through well-reasoned and well-executed acquisitions.

Experienced Management Team with a Successful Track Record of Building Companies: Our management team has an average of 26 years of healthcare experience, with combined backgrounds across different industries and disciplines and with collective experience in building healthcare platforms. Senior management has a track record of successfully building home health and hospice platforms, managing large pharmacy businesses, turning around and improving businesses, driving volume growth, entering adjacent and new markets, integrating acquisitions, completing joint ventures, executing on de novos, improving quality, implementing new systems and continuous improvement programs, generating stable cash flows, and creating organizations with strong cultures and talented people. Our management team is tenured and has driven revenue growth of over three times since 2018 while integrating enterprise infrastructure and processes across service lines.

Our Growth Strategy

Drive Organic Growth in Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services: We expect to continue to pursue and capitalize on growth opportunities in our existing core pharmacy and provider services through four principal mechanisms.

First, we plan to benefit from market penetration in both our legacy and newer markets. Through our scale, our delivery of multiple needed patient services, our quality metrics and ability to improve outcomes for patients, our human resources capabilities, and our sales and marketing initiatives, we are able to drive increased penetration of the Company’s stable, growing, and attractive end markets. While we have leading share and scale in a number of our patient services settings, which we have served for longer periods of time, our share in newer patient settings is still emerging and provides added opportunity for further growth. Also, despite the large size of our markets, many potential clients and patients unfortunately still go without care services today, either due to lack of knowledge of available services, access/payment barriers, or waitlists. Continued recognition for the clear value of home and community-based services and continuing referral source, client/patient, and family education can drive further increases in the number of clients and patients on the Company’s services.

Second, beyond increasing market penetration and increasing access to existing eligible and appropriate clients and patients, our core business is characterized by favorable demographic and social trends that include an aging population, an increasing number of individuals with chronic, life-long medical conditions, an increasing number of individuals with behavioral and mental health indications, and an increasing preference for home and community-based health solutions. In our core pharmacy and provider services, there remains significant opportunity to benefit from continued growth in our industries and in the number of available patients in need of our services. Seniors over the age of 65 are expected to grow by almost three percent a year by 2030 according to the CBO, and the population size of people over age 85 is expected to double by 2040 according to the Administration for Community Living. In Pharmacy Solutions, the senior living market is expected to grow by five percent per year, demand for home infusion is expected to grow at nine percent, and specialty drug spend is

 

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projected to grow at a 10-15% annual rate, with oncology being the biggest and highest growth market within the specialty pharmacy industry and having a large number of innovative therapies in the pipeline. There is an estimated six percent projected growth rate from 2023 to 2030 in the number of Seniors who will need supportive care services, per Mordor Intelligence forecasts, and 70% of adults over the age of 65 will need assistance at some point, each per the HHS report on older Americans. Hospice services are projected to grow at seven to eight percent per year according to a Bank of America Global Research report, and neuro rehab services are estimated to grow at eight percent per year according to a 2021 report by Allied Market Research.

Third, we believe that we have significant opportunity to serve more patients by further building out our network of locations through high return de novo expansions. Again, it is our scale and complementary service line offerings that afford us this de novo opportunity. We continuously focus on identifying areas of need and gaps in geographic and service coverage that we can fill by opening new locations. Incremental service coverage represents not only standalone service line growth, but also represents an opportunity to provide additional integrated care pharmacy and provider services. Our successful track record to date gives us conviction to continue to invest in new locations to drive long-term value creation. We believe we can continue to replicate our historical pace of opening at least 20 de novo locations per year. Given our size, complementary services, and opportunity set of new service locations to choose from, we have prioritized target markets that we believe will be appealing opportunities for strategic development.

Fourth, underpinning multiple levers to drive continued growth is a stable reimbursement environment across the various services we provide to our high-need client and patient population. Our services have significant and evident value. They deliver high quality, reduce costs in the healthcare system, and are provided in client-, patient-, and family-preferred settings. In order to continue to provide care access and funding solutions to an aging U.S. population, which is increasingly defined by chronic and behavioral health conditions, increased funding for home and community-based services like those of the Company is imperative. Historically, our markets have a demonstrated track record of governmental and payor support and reimbursement stability. Reimbursement rates for hospice services increased by 2.0% on average from 2014 to 2021, per CMS and HHS data, while home health spending in the U.S. is projected to increase by 7.0% per year through at least 2028, according to a 2020 report in Health Affairs. Reimbursement rates, largely Medicaid, in supportive care and behavioral health (including I/DD) have increased for the past ten years, with a CAGR of 4.1% and 3.6%, respectively, since 2014. In Pharmacy Solutions, our long-term care pharmacy revenue has increased at 3.3%, since 2014. Funding for home and community-based services for the highest-need and highest-cost populations will continue to result in better healthcare system outcomes, in terms of patient access, patient and family preference, and overall cost.

Leverage Complementary Services and Market Presence to Increase Integrated and Value-Based Care: As a pharmacy and provider services platform that includes complementary service capabilities and client and patient health solutions, we have additional integrated care opportunities in the future that should improve patient and family outcomes and satisfaction while reducing healthcare system costs. Most all of the complex patients that we serve require pharmacy and provider services, and while the Company’s capability to provide these multiple required services to Senior and Specialty populations increases our overall total addressable market size, revenue potential, M&A opportunity set, and de novo possibilities, it also enables us to provide higher-quality and more efficient integrated care for healthcare stakeholders.

Our Company’s integrated care management and value-based care model today is predicated on and defined by three important service enablers and three primary strategies. For enablers, we view (i) home-based primary care capabilities, (ii) a customized transitional care management program, and (iii) a clinical care coordination hub as essential to drive optimized quality and reduced cost outcomes. The Company has spent the last several years building out these three integrated and value-based care capabilities. In turn, these enablers are required to execute three key integrated and value-based care strategies, including (i) the coordination of clinically integrated care for patients receiving multiple Company services across settings and over time, (ii) providing multiple

 

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integrated (or bundled) services to senior living communities, behavioral providers, skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility providers, hospitals, and payors who all require our comprehensive offerings, and (iii) the execution of value-based care contracts, whether internal through the Company’s own ACO shared savings arrangements and managed care plans or whether external through third-party government or managed care entities. The ongoing build-out of these enablers and strategies will be fundamental to provide augmented care management capabilities to drive more integrated care solutions in the future.

There are opportunities for government and private/commercial payors to improve outcomes and costs for their members by proactively managing at-risk and highest-risk patients with chronic conditions and/or polypharmacy utilizing high-touch, comprehensive, and coordinated care management solutions. Healthcare spending is highly concentrated, and frail Seniors and dual-eligible individuals with behavioral needs are among the highest spenders. Medicare beneficiaries with four to five chronic conditions have 500% greater healthcare spending, and beneficiaries with six or more chronic conditions have 1,500% greater healthcare spending. The top five percent of health spenders account for approximately 50% of the spending and cost approximately $61,000 a year on average, and the top one percent of health spenders account for 21% of healthcare expenditures and cost approximately $130,000 a year. Individuals within seven to nine, four to six, and one to three months of end of life have a medical loss ratio, or MLR, that is 135%, 175%, and 375% higher, respectively, and individuals with polypharmacy (as defined by five or more medications) have a 20% to 30% higher risk of hospitalization and mortality.

Well-coordinated home and community-based settings have demonstrated value, as in-home pharmacy, home health, hospice, home-based primary care, and supportive care services to patients are lower cost alternative care settings that achieve high-quality outcomes for complex patients. As such, we believe there is a continuum of options for appropriately enabled and positioned organizations to increasingly participate in value-based care, whether through owned value-based care arrangements and payor models or in mutually beneficial partnerships and contracts with government entities and payors. As newer payment models continue to evolve and emerge, we believe that we are well-positioned to grow with this shift due to (i) our high quality, cost-effective integrated care capabilities and enablers that sit at the intersection of pharmacy and provider (clinical and supportive care (including addressing activities of daily living and social determinants of health) services; (ii) our ability to pursue value-based care and payment models through our own internally owned arrangements; (iii) payor recognition of our quality and our ability to execute on improved outcomes and cost-savings without sacrificing quality of care; and (iv) our national reach and scale that allow us to partner with payors across larger geographies.

Our daily, interactive patient care relationships lend themselves towards measurable success across improved outcomes, which is an important foundation for risk-based contracts. Preferred provider relationships that are based on quality performance, data sharing, and/or care coordination/ management programs, which may have payment incentives for performance thresholds, are/were the first step in this healthcare system evolution, and we have numerous relationships and contracts in this area today. We believe that these relationships will continue to proliferate among our payor base. For example, CMS expanded the HHVBP Model to all Medicare-certified home health agencies in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories beginning January 1, 2022, and it ended the original HHVBP Model one year early. The six years of the original HHVBP Model resulted in cumulative Medicare savings of $1.38 billion, as well as improvements in quality.

Alternative payor models and full value-based care, whether internally generated or externally partnered, is the next ongoing and future step in the evolution of the healthcare system, which can feature shared savings and risk sharing models and ultimately lead to direct contracting with Medicare and Medicaid and full risk payor contracts. We continue to work through these various opportunities through internal initiatives and progress and payor discussions in a thoughtful way, and we believe that value-based payment structures in the future – supported by our three integrated and care management enablers, our complementary pharmacy and provider

 

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services, and data-driven efforts – represent meaningful opportunities over the next decade, as we continue to support and focus on innovation that benefits clients, patients, and families, and all stakeholders in healthcare.

Execute Strategic and Accretive M&A Through Add-on and Tuck-in Acquisitions: We believe we can continue to utilize our size, national presence, existing operations in complementary services and integrated platform, deal sourcing capabilities, and transaction execution skills as an experienced and proven strategic consolidator in fragmented services markets made up of mostly smaller and mid-sized local and state-based operators. We also believe the robust landscape of potential acquisitions across our markets can supplement organic growth, and that in continuing to pursue our M&A strategy we will be able to supplement census expansion, improve operational efficiencies, and augment delivery of our care. Industry dynamics continue to support and necessitate scale in our markets, due to the importance of volume, investing in people, technology systems, and data and analytics, driving quality best practices, leveraging operating and overhead costs, and working productively with payors.

Our service and patient markets allow us to benefit from increased deal opportunity flow, and it also allows us access to acquire certain “tuck-in” companies at lower and highly accretive multiples. We will continue to execute on both strategic, higher-growth and higher-margin acquisitions in highly-valued markets when it makes sense to do so and “tuck-in” acquisitions that have significant synergies and help manage to a target and attractive blended acquisitions multiple. Our IMO will continue to be a key asset in executing on transactions and ensuring solid integration of acquired operations into our Company, including the attainment of synergies and post-close growth plans. This is evident through the 57 acquisitions we completed since 2018, where post-close growth has resulted in a reduction of aggregate purchase multiple by approximately 50% overall, which highlights the Company’s differentiated acquisition and integration approach and skill set and the value-enhancing nature of our historical acquisitions. Due to our scale, quality reputation, approach to integrating new companies, and management team, we believe we are an acquirer of choice and a natural consolidator.

Recent Developments

Preliminary, Unaudited Estimated Financial and Other Data as of and for the Year Ended December 31, 2023

We have presented below preliminary, unaudited estimated ranges of certain financial and other information as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023, as well as comparable information for the year ended December 31, 2022, which was derived from our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2022, as we believe they are useful to investors in understanding our recent comparative operating performance.

We have provided ranges, rather than specific amounts, for certain data below, primarily because our financial closing and analysis procedures for the year ended December 31, 2023 are not yet completed. The unaudited estimated consolidated financial and other data set forth below are preliminary, based upon our estimates and currently available information and are subject to revision based upon, among other things, our financial closing procedures and the completion of our consolidated financial statements and other operational procedures. The preliminary results as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023 presented below should not be viewed as a substitute for consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. See “Forward-Looking Statements” and “Risk Factors.”

All of the data presented below has been prepared by and is the responsibility of management. Our independent registered public accounting firm, KPMG LLP, has not audited, reviewed, compiled or performed any procedures on such data as of and for the year ended December 31, 2023, and does not express an opinion or any other form of assurance with respect to any of such data.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we estimate that, in our Pharmacy Solutions segment, total prescriptions dispensed will be approximately 37,390,650, compared to total prescriptions dispensed of

 

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34,147,632 for the year ended December 31, 2022. For our Provider Services segment, we estimate a Home Health Care average daily census of approximately 40,065 and Community and Rehab Care persons served of approximately 16,655 for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to 37,093 and 16,463, respectively, for the year ended December 31, 2022.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, we estimate that our consolidated total revenues will range from $8,700.0 million to $8,800.0 million, compared to consolidated total revenues of $7,720.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. We estimate that our consolidated net loss will range from $163.0 million to $157.5 million and Adjusted EBITDA will range from $530.0 million to $537.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2023, compared to consolidated net loss of $54.2 million and Adjusted EBITDA of $522.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2022.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net loss to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2023 (at the low end and high end of the estimated net loss range set forth above) and the year ended December 31, 2022. In addition, please see “—Summary Historical Consolidated Financial and Other Data” for how we define EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA, the reasons why we include these measures and certain limitations to their use.

 

     Year Ended December 31,  
     2023      2023      2022  
(In thousands)    Low      High      Actual  

Net loss

   $ 163,000      $ 157,500      $ 54,219  

Income tax (benefit) expense

     (22,000      (20,500      8,465  

Interest expense, net

     324,550        324,650        233,584  

Depreciation and amortization

     202,300        202,350        203,970  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

EBITDA

   $ 341,850      $ 349,000      $ 391,800  

Non-cash share-based compensation

     3,900        3,975        3,547  

Acquisition, integration, and transaction-related costs(a)

     20,725        21,000        38,023  

Restructuring and divestiture-related and other costs(b)

     21,825        21,900        29,320  

Goodwill impairment(c)

     —         —         40,856  

Legal costs and settlements(d)

     127,675        127,700        9,157  

Significant projects(e)

     8,375        8,435        3,570  

Management fees(f)

     5,575        5,700        4,922  

Unreimbursed COVID-19 related costs(g)

     75        90        1,348  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Total Adjustments

   $ 188,150      $ 188,800      $ 130,743  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

   $ 530,000      $ 537,800      $ 522,543  
  

 

 

    

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

(a)

Represents transaction costs incurred in connection with planned, completed, or terminated acquisitions, which include investment banking fees, legal diligence and related documentation costs, finance and accounting diligence and documentation, and integration costs incurred including any facility consolidation, integration travel, or severance associated with the integration of an acquisition. These costs were $15.6 million and $22.6 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. These costs also included $5.3 million of charges previously capitalized associated with the Company’s anticipated initial public offering for the year ended December 31, 2022, $2.7 million and $5.5 million of costs associated with a terminated transaction for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively, and $2.4 million and $4.6 million of system implementation costs associated with the integration of acquisitions for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

 

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(b)

Represents costs associated with restructuring-related activities, including closure, and related license impairment, and severance expenses associated with certain enterprise-wide or significant business line cost-savings measures. These costs included $10.6 million and $10.8 million of intangible asset and other investment impairment for the year ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively and a $5.5 million loss on the divestiture of Workforce Solutions for the year ended December 31, 2022.

(c)

Represents a goodwill impairment non-cash charge associated with our Hospice Pharmacy and Workforce Solutions reporting units. See Note 1 “Significant Accounting Policies” and Note 4 “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further discussion.

(d)

Represents defense costs associated with certain PharMerica litigation matters associated with three historical cases and settlement costs associated with the recently settled action brought by Relator Marc Silver, or the Silver matter, as discussed under “Business—Legal Proceedings.”

(e)

Represents costs associated with certain transformational projects and for the periods presented primarily includes the implementation of, and transition to, new general ledger and business intelligence systems, pharmacy billing system implementation, and response costs associated with the ransomware attack in the first half of 2023 described elsewhere in this prospectus. General ledger system migration and related business intelligence system implementation costs, which were capitalized as development costs and are subsequently amortized in accordance with ASC 350-40, Internal Use Software, were $2.0 million and $2.5 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Pharmacy billing system implementation costs were $2.2 million and $0.8 million for the years ended December 31, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Ransomware attack response costs were $3.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2023.

(f)

Represents annual management fees payable to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., or the Managers, under a monitoring agreement with the Managers, or the Monitoring Agreement. This Monitoring Agreement will be terminated upon completion of an initial public offering, including this offering. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Monitoring Agreement.”

(g)

Represents unreimbursed COVID-19 related costs incurred by the Company such as incremental personal protection equipment, or PPE, in care of our patients as well as certain hazard pay to our caregivers.

As of December 31, 2023, we estimate that we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $13.0 million and total debt of approximately $3,414.4 million, and our leverage, as calculated under our First Lien Credit Agreement and the Second Lien Credit Agreement, was approximately 5.9x.

Summary of Risk Factors

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks described in “Risk Factors” before making a decision to invest in our common stock. If any of these risks actually occurs, our business, consolidated results of operations and consolidated financial condition, including cash flows, may be materially adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our common stock may decline and you may lose part or all of your investment. Below is a summary of some of the principal risks we face:

 

   

we operate in a highly competitive industry;

 

   

if we are unable to maintain relationships with existing patient referral sources or establish new referral sources, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected;

 

   

changes to Medicare and Medicaid rates or methods governing Medicare and Medicaid payments for our services could materially adversely affect our business;

 

   

cost containment initiatives of third-party payors, including post-payment audits, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

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the implementation of alternative payment models and the transition of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries to managed care organizations may limit our market share and could adversely affect our revenues;

 

   

changes in the case mix of patients, as well as payor mix and payment methodologies, and decisions and operations of third-party organizations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

our business is reliant on federal and state spending, budget decisions, and continuous governmental operations which may fluctuate under different political conditions;

 

   

changes in drug utilization and/or pricing, PBM contracts, and Medicare Part D/Medicaid reimbursement may negatively impact our profitability;

 

   

changes in our relationships with pharmaceutical suppliers, including changes in drug availability or pricing, could adversely affect our business and financial results;

 

   

our business relies on the continual recruitment and retention of nurses, pharmacists, therapists, caregivers, direct support professionals, and other qualified personnel, including senior management;

 

   

we are subject to federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern our employment practices, including minimum wage, living wage, and paid time-off requirements; failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or changes to these laws and regulations that increase our employment-related expenses, could adversely impact our operations;

 

   

our results of operations fluctuate on a quarterly basis;

 

   

our business may be harmed by labor relation matters;

 

   

because we are limited in our ability to control reimbursement rates received for our services, our business could be materially adversely affected if we are not able to maintain or reduce our costs to provide such services;

 

   

delays in collection or non-collection of our accounts receivable, particularly during the business integration process, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

if we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service and satisfaction, or adequately address competitive challenges;

 

   

our growth strategy is partially dependent upon our ability to identify and successfully complete acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives; any failure by us to manage or integrate acquisitions, divestitures, and other significant transactions successfully may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

if we are unable to provide consistently high quality of care, our business will be adversely impacted;

 

   

if we are unable to maintain our corporate reputation, or there is adverse publicity, including negative information on social media, or changes in public perception of our services, our business may suffer;

 

   

if our existing customers do not continue with or renew their contracts with us, renew at lower fee levels, decline to purchase additional services from us or reduce the services received from us pursuant to those contracts, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

our business depends on our ability to effectively invest in, implement improvements to, and properly maintain the uninterrupted operation and data integrity of our information technology and other business systems;

 

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security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions could compromise sensitive business or patient information, cause a loss of confidential patient data, employee data, personal information, or prevent access to critical information and expose us to liability, litigation, and federal and state governmental inquiries and damage our reputation and brand;

 

   

we are subject to risks related to credit card payments and other payment methods;

 

   

we may be subject to substantial malpractice or other similar claims;

 

   

we are exposed to various risks related to governmental inquiries, regulatory actions, and whistleblower and other lawsuits that could adversely affect our operating results. Our insurance may not cover all claims against us;

 

   

our current insurance program may expose us to unexpected costs and negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations, particularly if we incur losses not covered by our insurance or if claims or losses differ from our estimates;

 

   

factors outside of our control, including those listed, have required, and could in the future require us to record an asset impairment of goodwill;

 

   

a pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, including the ongoing effects of COVID-19, have had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our business;

 

   

inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, riots, civil insurrection or social unrest, looting, protests, strikes, or street demonstrations may impact our ability to provide services;

 

   

we may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could harm our business;

 

   

risks relating to our compliance with our regulatory framework;

 

   

KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder control us and their interests may conflict with yours in the future;

 

   

our substantial indebtedness of approximately $3.5 billion as of September 30, 2023; and

 

   

we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the rules of Nasdaq and the rules of the SEC and, as a result, qualify for, and intend to rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements.

KKR

KKR & Co. Inc., which, together with its subsidiaries, we refer to as KKR & Co., is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR & Co. aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR & Co. sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit, and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR & Co. Inc.’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life, and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic.

Walgreens

Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. is an integrated healthcare, pharmacy, and retail leader with a 170-year heritage of caring for customers and patients. Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. had sales of $139.1 billion in its fiscal year ended August 31, 2023.

 

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Our Corporate Information

Through our predecessors, we commenced operations in 1974 and have grown organically and through acquisitions. We were incorporated in Delaware on July 19, 2017, as Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc., in connection with KKR Stockholder’s and Walgreen Stockholder’s acquisition of PharMerica Corporation, which was completed in December 2017. In March 2019, we acquired BrightSpring Health Holdings Corp. and its subsidiaries. We changed our name to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. in May 2021. Our principal offices are located at 805 N. Whittington Parkway, Louisville, Kentucky 40222. Our telephone number is (502) 394-2100. We maintain a website at www.brightspringhealth.com. The reference to our website is intended to be an inactive textual reference only. The information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not part of this prospectus.

Concurrent Offering

Concurrently with this offering, we are offering, by means of a separate prospectus, 8,000,000    % Tangible Equity Units (and, to the extent that the underwriters sell more than 8,000,000 Units, up to an additional 1,200,000 Units that the underwriters in such concurrent offering have the option to purchase from us at the initial public offering price thereof less the underwriting discount, exercisable within 13 days beginning on, and including, the date of initial issuance of the Units), each with a stated amount of $50.00, or the Concurrent Offering. We estimate that the net proceeds from the sale of Units in the Concurrent Offering, if completed, will be approximately $388.9 million (or approximately $447.3 million if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units), in each case after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. The closing of this offering is not conditioned upon the closing of the Concurrent Offering, but the closing of the Concurrent Offering is conditioned upon the closing of this offering, and there can be no assurance that the Concurrent Offering will be completed on the terms described herein or at all. For additional information, see “Tangible Equity Units Offering.”

 

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The Offering

 

Common stock offered by us

53,333,334 shares.

 

Option to purchase additional shares of common stock

We have granted the underwriters a 30-day option from the date of this prospectus to purchase up to 8,000,000 additional shares of our common stock at the initial public offering price, less underwriting discounts and commissions, to cover over-allotments, if any.

 

Common stock to be outstanding immediately after this offering

171,190,389 shares (or 179,190,389 shares if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option).

 

Use of proceeds

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $835.8 million (or approximately $961.9 million, if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option), assuming an initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

 

  We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the Concurrent Offering, if completed, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, will be approximately $388.9 million (or $447.3 million if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units).

 

  We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering and the Concurrent Offering, if completed, to repay all indebtedness outstanding under the Second Lien Facility, all indebtedness outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility, and $652.0 million outstanding aggregate amount under the First Lien Facility, and to pay termination fees of $22.7 million to the Managers in connection with the termination of the Monitoring Agreement, with any remainder to be used for general corporate purposes. For a sensitivity analysis as to the offering price and other information, see “Use of Proceeds.”

 

Conflicts of interest

Affiliates of KKR & Co. beneficially own in excess of 10% of our issued and outstanding common stock. Because KKR Capital Markets LLC, an affiliate of KKR & Co., is an underwriter in this offering and its affiliates own in excess of 10% of our issued and outstanding common stock, KKR Capital Markets LLC is deemed to have a “conflict of interest” under Rule 5121, or Rule 5121, of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., or FINRA. Accordingly, this offering is being made in compliance with the requirements of Rule 5121, which requires, among other things, that a “qualified independent underwriter” participate in the preparation of, and

 

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exercise the usual standards of “due diligence” with respect to, the registration statement and this prospectus. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC has agreed to act as a qualified independent underwriter for this offering and to undertake the legal responsibilities and liabilities of an underwriter under the Securities Act, specifically including those inherent in Section 11 thereof. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC will not receive any additional fees for serving as a qualified independent underwriter in connection with this offering. We have agreed to indemnify Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC against liabilities incurred in connection with acting as a qualified independent underwriter, including liabilities under the Securities Act. See “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest).”

 

Controlled company

After the completion of this offering, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder will collectively beneficially own approximately 67.9% (or approximately 64.8%, if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option) of the voting power of our common stock. We currently intend to avail ourselves of the controlled company exemption under the corporate governance standards of Nasdaq.

 

Dividend policy

We have no current plans to pay dividends on our common stock. Any decision to declare and pay dividends in the future will be made at the sole discretion of our board of directors and will depend on, among other things, our results of operations, cash requirements, financial condition, legal, tax, regulatory and contractual restrictions, including restrictions in the agreements governing our indebtedness, and other factors that our board of directors may deem relevant. See “Dividend Policy.”

 

Risk factors

Investing in shares of our common stock involves a high degree of risk. See “Risk Factors” for a discussion of factors you should carefully consider before investing in shares of our common stock.

Material U.S. federal income tax consequences to non-U.S. holders

For a discussion of material U.S. federal income tax consequences that may be relevant to non-U.S. stockholders, see “Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences to Non-U.S. Holders.”

 

Nasdaq trading symbol

“BTSG.”

 

Concurrent Tangible Equity Units Offering

Concurrently with this offering of common stock, we are making a public offering, by means of a separate prospectus, of 8,000,000 Units, and we have granted the underwriters of that offering a 13-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,200,000 Units.

 

  We cannot assure you that the offering of Units will be completed or, if completed, on what terms it will be completed. The closing of this offering is not conditioned upon the closing of the Concurrent Offering, but the closing of the Concurrent Offering is conditioned upon the closing of this offering. See the section of this prospectus entitled “Tangible Equity Units Offering” for a summary of the terms of the Units and a further description of the Concurrent Offering.

 

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Unless we indicate otherwise or the context otherwise requires, this prospectus reflects and assumes:

 

   

no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional shares of our common stock;

 

   

an initial public offering price of $16.50 per share of common stock, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus;

 

   

the 15.7027-for-one stock split of our common stock effected on January 25, 2024;

 

   

the filing and effectiveness of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and the adoption of our amended and restated bylaws immediately prior to the consummation of this offering; and

 

   

the completion of the concurrent offering of 8,000,000 Units, with no exercise by the underwriters of the Concurrent Offering of their option to purchase additional Units.

Unless we indicate otherwise or the context otherwise requires, the number of shares of common stock to be outstanding after this offering excludes:

 

   

14,156,864 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of outstanding options as of September 30, 2023, (i) 4,520,924 of which are vested, with a weighted-average exercise price of $6.94 per share, and (ii) (A) 2,539,136 of which are time-based options that are not vested, with a weighted-average exercise price of $10.25 per share, and (B) 7,096,804 of which are performance-based options that are not vested, with a weighted-average exercise price of $8.11 per share, in each case, issued under the Amended and Restated Phoenix Parent Holdings Inc. 2017 Stock Incentive Plan, or the 2017 Stock Plan. See “Executive Compensation—Equity Incentive Plans—2017 Stock Plan”;

 

   

4,362,867 shares of common stock (based on the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus) issuable upon vesting of restricted stock units and exercise of options expected to be granted to our management, including our named executive officers, in connection with this offering under the new BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. 2024 Equity Incentive Plan, or the 2024 Incentive Plan, which we intend to adopt in connection with this offering. See “Executive Compensation—Equity Incentive Plans—2024 Incentive Plan—New Equity Awards”;

 

   

12,756,172 shares of common stock reserved for future issuance under the 2024 Incentive Plan excluding shares related to the grants to management described above, but including shares issuable upon vesting of restricted stock units that are expected to be granted to a broad group of other eligible employees, starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, with an approximate grant date fair value of $100 million, which we refer to, together with the shares related to the grants to management described above, as the New Equity Awards. See “Executive Compensation—Equity Incentive Plans—2024 Incentive Plan”; and

 

   

up to 24,242,400 shares of common stock (or up to 27,878,760 shares if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units) issuable upon settlement of the purchase contracts that are a component of the Units being offered in the Concurrent Offering, in each case, at the rate of 3.0303 shares of common stock per purchase contract, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and assuming the maximum number of shares issuable upon automatic settlement of such purchase contracts, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments.

 

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SUMMARY HISTORICAL CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL AND OTHER DATA

Set forth below are our summary historical consolidated financial and other data as of the dates and for the periods indicated. The summary historical financial data as of December 31, 2022 and 2021 and for the years ended 2022, 2021, and 2020 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary historical financial data as of December 31, 2020 has been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. The summary historical financial data as of September 30, 2023 and for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022 have been derived from our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. The summary historical financial data as of September 30, 2022 has been derived from our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements not included in this prospectus. The results of operations for any period are not necessarily indicative of our future financial condition or results of operations. Share and per share data in the table below have been retroactively adjusted to give effect to the 15.7027-for-one stock split effected on January 25, 2024.

You should read the following summary financial and other data below together with the information under “Capitalization” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes and our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, each included elsewhere in this prospectus.

 

    Year Ended December 31,     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
(In thousands, except per share data)   2022     2021     2020     2023     2022  

Statement of Operations Data:

         

Revenues:

         

Products

  $ 5,264,423     $ 4,389,404     $ 3,635,898     $ 4,736,993     $ 3,885,331  

Services

    2,456,137       2,308,678       1,944,474       1,714,638       1,864,593  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total revenues

    7,720,560       6,698,082       5,580,372       6,451,631       5,749,924  

Cost of goods

    4,635,404       3,781,897       3,099,365       4,226,075       3,416,707  

Cost of services

    1,730,912       1,667,974       1,432,269       1,160,477       1,316,618  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

    1,354,244       1,248,211       1,048,738       1,065,079       1,016,599  

Selling, general, and administrative expenses

    1,125,558       1,014,027       883,547       986,161       836,935  

Goodwill impairment loss

    40,856       —        —        —        15,400  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating income

    187,830       234,184       165,191       78,918       164,264  

Interest expense, net

    233,584       165,322       138,953       241,539       157,865  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

(Loss) income before income taxes

    (45,754     68,862       26,238       (162,621     6,399  

Income tax expense (benefit)

    8,465       17,600       5,087       (12,987     3,935  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net (loss) income

  $ (54,219   $ 51,262     $ 21,151     $ (149,634   $ 2,464  

Net (loss) income attributable to redeemable noncontrolling interests

    (312     1,463       341       (1,568     213  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net (loss) income attributable to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. and subsidiaries

  $ (53,907   $ 49,799     $ 20,810     $ (148,066   $ 2,251  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Per Share Information:

         

Weighted average shares used in computing net (loss) income per share:

         

Basic

    117,840       117,590       117,014       117,871       117,834  

Diluted

    117,840       121,790       117,641       117,871       122,997  

Net (loss) income per share:

         

(Loss) earnings per common share, basic

  $ (0.46   $ 0.42     $ 0.18     $ (1.26   $ 0.02  

(Loss) earnings per common share, diluted

  $ (0.46   $ 0.41     $ 0.18     $ (1.26   $ 0.02  

 

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    Year Ended December 31,     Nine Months Ended
September 30,
 
(In thousands)   2022     2021     2020     2023     2022  

Balance Sheet Data (end of period):

         

Cash and cash equivalents

  $ 13,628     $ 46,735     $ 262,005     $ 11,641     $ 15,926  

Working capital(1)

    411,748       288,453       547,591       347,107       459,993  

Total assets

    5,441,138       5,513,140       4,541,073       5,489,571       5,566,207  

Total debt, net of deferred financing costs

    3,394,709       3,433,773       2,693,840       3,489,048       3,435,830  

Total shareholders’ equity

    754,776       774,817       704,984       631,511       794,123  

Cash Flow Data:

         

Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities

  $ (4,653   $ 270,165     $ 222,641     $ 48,383     $ 92,214  

Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities

    45,356       (1,190,652     (452,867     (117,411     (98,634

Net cash (used in) provided by financing activities

    (73,810     705,217       473,936       67,041       (24,389

Capital expenditures

    (70,113     (59,270     (51,908     (56,693     (52,296

Other Financial Data (unaudited):

         

EBITDA(2)

  $ 391,800     $ 433,339     $ 346,693     $ 230,242     $ 314,923  

Adjusted EBITDA(2)

  $ 522,543     $ 493,114     $ 407,759     $ 395,209     $ 383,449  

 

(1)

We define working capital as current assets less current liabilities.

(2)

We define EBITDA as net (loss) income before income tax expense (benefit), interest expense, and depreciation and amortization. We defined Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA, further adjusted to exclude non-cash share-based compensation, acquisition, integration and transaction-related costs, restructuring and divestiture-related and other costs, goodwill impairment, legal costs associated with certain historical matters for PharMerica and settlement costs associated with the Silver matter, significant projects, management fees, and unreimbursed COVID-19 related costs. We describe these adjustments reconciling net (loss) income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in the table below.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA have been presented in this prospectus as supplemental measures of financial performance that are not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. We believe EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA assist investors and analysts in comparing our operating performance across reporting periods on a consistent basis by excluding items that we do not believe are indicative of our core operating performance. Management believes these measures are useful to investors in highlighting trends in our operating performance, while other measures can differ significantly depending on long-term strategic decisions regarding capital structure, the tax jurisdictions in which we operate and capital investments. Management uses EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to supplement GAAP measures of performance in the evaluation of the effectiveness of our business strategies, to make budgeting decisions, to establish and award discretionary annual incentive compensation, and to compare our performance against that of other peer companies using similar measures.

Management supplements GAAP results with non-GAAP financial measures to provide a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business than GAAP results alone. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not recognized terms under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income (loss) as a measure of financial performance or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP. Additionally, these measures are not intended to be a measure of free cash flow available for management’s discretionary use as they do not consider certain cash requirements such as tax payments and debt service requirements, total capital expenditures, and certain other cash costs that may recur in the future. In evaluating Adjusted EBITDA, you should be aware that in the future we may incur expenses that are the same as or similar to some of the adjustments in this presentation. Our presentation of Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed to imply that our future results will be unaffected by any such adjustments. Management relies on our GAAP results in

 

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addition to using EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA in a supplemental manner. For further information related to our computation of Adjusted EBITDA, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Non-GAAP Financial Measures—EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.”

Our EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA measures have limitations as analytical tools, and you should not consider them in isolation, or as a substitute for analysis of our results as reported under GAAP. Some of these limitations are:

 

   

they do not reflect costs or cash outlays for capital expenditures or contractual commitments;

 

   

they do not reflect changes in, or cash requirements for, our working capital needs;

 

   

they do not reflect the interest expense, or the cash requirements necessary to service interest or principal payments, on our debt;

 

   

they do not reflect period to period changes in taxes, income tax expense or the cash necessary to pay income taxes;

 

   

they do not reflect the impact of earnings or charges resulting from matters we consider not to be indicative of our ongoing operations;

 

   

although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the assets being depreciated and amortized will often have to be replaced in the future, and these measures do not reflect cash requirements for such replacements; and

 

   

other companies in our industries may calculate these measures differently than we do, limiting their usefulness as comparative measures.

Because of these limitations, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA should not be considered as measures of discretionary cash available to invest in business growth or to reduce indebtedness.

The following table provides a reconciliation of net (loss) income to EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the periods presented:

 

    Year Ended
December 31,
    Nine Months Ended 
September 30,
 
(In thousands)   2022     2021     2020     2023     2022  

Net (loss) income

  $ (54,219   $ 51,262     $ 21,151     $ (149,634   $ 2,464  

Income tax expense (benefit)

    8,465       17,600       5,087       (12,987     3,935  

Interest expense, net

    233,584       165,322       138,953       241,539       157,865  

Depreciation and amortization

    203,970       199,155       181,502       151,324       150,659  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

EBITDA

  $ 391,800     $ 433,339     $ 346,693     $ 230,242     $ 314,923  

Non-cash share-based compensation

    3,547       4,517       6,267       2,100       2,250  

Acquisition, integration, and transaction-related costs(a)

    38,023       27,538       12,107       13,754       16,774  

Restructuring and divestiture-related and other costs(b)

    29,320       6,532       16,618       16,172       22,486  

Goodwill impairment(c)

    40,856       —        —        —        15,400  

Legal costs and settlements(d)

    9,157       11,387       12,278       121,706       5,637  

Significant projects(e)

    3,570       4,082       3,480       6,899       2,093  

Management fees(f)

    4,922       4,112       4,220       4,248       3,489  

Unreimbursed COVID-19 related costs(g)

    1,348       1,607       6,096       88       397  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total Adjustments

  $ 130,743     $ 59,775     $ 61,066     $ 164,967     $ 68,526  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Adjusted EBITDA

  $ 522,543     $ 493,114     $ 407,759     $ 395,209     $ 383,449  
 

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

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(a)

Represents transaction costs incurred in connection with planned, completed, or terminated acquisitions, which include investment banking fees, legal diligence and related documentation costs, finance and accounting diligence and documentation, and integration costs incurred including any facility consolidation, integration travel, or severance associated with the integration of an acquisition. These costs were $22.6 million, $27.5 million, and $12.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively; and $9.2 million and $13.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The year ended December 31, 2022 included $5.3 million of charges previously capitalized associated with the Company’s anticipated initial public offering. The year ended December 31, 2022 included $5.5 million of costs associated with a terminated transaction; and $2.5 million and $0.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. The year ended December 31, 2022 included $4.6 million of system implementation costs associated with the integration of acquisitions; and $2.1 million and $2.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively.

(b)

Represents costs associated with restructuring-related activities, including closure, and related license impairment, and severance expenses associated with certain enterprise-wide or significant business line cost-savings measures. The year ended December 31, 2022 included $10.8 million of intangible asset and other investment impairment. The year ended December 31, 2022 and the nine months ended September 30, 2022 included a $5.5 million loss on the divestiture of Workforce Solutions.

(c)

Represents a goodwill impairment non-cash charge associated with our Hospice Pharmacy and Workforce Solutions reporting units. See Note 1 “Significant Accounting Policies” and Note 4 “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus for further discussion.

(d)

Represents defense costs associated with certain PharMerica litigation matters associated with three historical cases. The nine months ended September 30, 2023 also included a $115.0 million legal settlement accrual. See Note 9 “Commitments and Contingencies” within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, included elsewhere in this prospectus.

(e)

Represents costs associated with certain transformational projects and for the periods presented primarily included the implementation of, and transition to, new general ledger and business intelligence systems, pharmacy billing system implementation, and response costs associated with the ransomware attack in the first half of 2023 described elsewhere in this prospectus. General ledger system migration and related business intelligence system implementation costs, which were capitalized as development costs and are subsequently amortized in accordance with ASC 350-40, Internal Use Software, were $2.5 million, $3.8 million, and $3.2 million for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020, respectively; and $1.5 million and $2.0 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022, respectively. Pharmacy billing system implementation costs were $0.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2022; and $1.8 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023. Ransomware attack response costs were $3.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023.

(f)

Represents annual management fees payable to the Managers under the Monitoring Agreement. This Monitoring Agreement will be terminated upon completion of an initial public offering, including this offering. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Monitoring Agreement.”

(g)

Represents unreimbursed COVID-19 related costs incurred by the Company such as incremental PPE in care of our patients as well as certain hazard pay to our caregivers.

 

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RISK FACTORS

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below and the other information set forth in this prospectus before deciding to invest in our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially adversely affected. In such case, the trading price of our common stock could decline and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

We operate in a highly competitive industry.

The U.S. healthcare industry in which we operate is highly competitive. We compete with a broad and diverse set of services spanning both pharmacy and provider services. In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, the competition for the distribution of pharmaceuticals to patients and also to healthcare facilities is intense. In our Provider Services segment, we compete with local, regional, and national providers of home health, hospice, rehab therapy, personal, and behavioral health services in each of the geographical areas in which we operate. In each geographic market, there are national, regional, and local facility-based pharmacies that provide services comparable to those offered by our pharmacies. In addition, owners of skilled nursing facilities are also entering the facility-based pharmacy market, particularly in areas of their geographic concentration. We also compete in the large and highly fragmented hospice, infusion, and specialty pharmacy markets. Failure to compete effectively could have a material adverse effect on our market share, business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We compete based on the availability of personnel, the quality of services, expertise of clinicians, caregivers, pharmacists, and pharmacy professionals, and in certain instances, on the price of our services. Some of our competitors may have greater financial, technical, and marketing resources, name recognition, or a larger number of patients and payors than we do. Often our contracts with payors are not exclusive, and local competitors may develop strategic relationships with referral sources and payors, limiting our ability to retain referrals and payors in local markets. Some of our competitors may negotiate exclusivity provisions with managed care plans or otherwise interfere with the ability of managed care companies to contract with us. We may experience increased competition for managed care contracts due to state regulation and limitations. These competitive advantages could result in pricing pressures, loss of, or failure to gain market share, or loss of patients or payors, any of which could harm our business. In addition, our competitors may offer more services than we do in the markets in which we operate, introduce new or enhanced services that we do not provide, or be viewed by consumers as a more desirable local alternative. This, in combination with industry consolidation and the development of strategic relationships by our competitors (including mergers of competitors with each other and with insurers), could cause a decline in revenue, loss of market acceptance of our services or a negative impact on our results of operations. In addition, some of our competitors have vertically integrated business models with commercial payors, or are under common control with, or owned by, pharmaceutical wholesalers and distributors, Managed Care Organizations, or MCOs, PBMs, or retail pharmacy chains and may be better positioned with respect to the cost-effective distribution of pharmaceuticals. In addition, some of our competitors may have secured long-term supply or distribution arrangements for prescription pharmaceuticals necessary to treat certain chronic disease states on price terms substantially more favorable than the terms currently available to us. Consequently, we may be less price competitive than some of these competitors with respect to certain pharmaceutical products.

In our Provider Services segment, there are few barriers to entry in states that do not require a certificate of need, or CON, or permit of approval, or POA. Although state CON and POA laws may limit the ability of competitors to enter into certain markets, these laws are not uniform throughout the United States and are frequently the subject of efforts to limit or repeal such laws. If states remove existing CON or POA requirements, we could face increased competition in these states. There can be no assurances that other states will not seek to eliminate or limit their existing CON or POA programs, which could lead to increased competition in these states.

 

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In our Pharmacy Solutions segment, we must maintain good working relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. Any loss of a supplier relationship or other changes to these relationships could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Additionally, access to limited distribution pharmaceuticals provides us with significant competitive advantages in developing relationships with payors and healthcare providers, and our failure to continue obtaining access to new limited distribution pharmaceuticals or the loss of our current access could have a material and adverse impact on our business. We also provide a significant amount of services to pharmaceutical manufacturers in exchange for a service fee related to patient access to specialty pharmaceuticals, and our failure to provide services at optimal levels could result in losing access to existing and future products. If pharmaceutical manufacturers require significant additional services and products to obtain access to their products without a corresponding increase in service fees, our profitability could be adversely impacted.

If we are unable to maintain relationships with existing patient referral sources or establish new referral sources, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Our success is heavily dependent on referrals from physicians, hospitals, long-term care facilities, other institutional healthcare providers, and other sources in the communities we serve, such as case managers and placement agencies, and on our ability to maintain good relationships with these referral sources. Our referral sources are not, and cannot be, obligated to refer patients to us and may refer their patients to other providers. Our growth and profitability depend, in part, on our ability to establish and maintain close working relationships with these patient referral sources, comply with applicable laws with respect to such relationships, and to increase awareness and acceptance of the benefits of our home and community health provider services and pharmaceutical solutions by our referral sources and their patients. Many of our referral sources are becoming increasingly focused on finding quality services. If we should fail to attain our goals regarding acute care hospitalization readmission rates and other quality metrics, we expect our ability to generate referrals would be adversely impacted. Our ability to attract and retain referral sources could also be adversely affected if we fail to provide or maintain a reputation for providing cost-effective care as compared to other providers in the same geographic area or if our reputation is affected by negative publicity, including adverse media related to staffing shortages, the quality of care, the failure to provide care, inadequate training, incidents at our facilities, employee misconduct, and inadequate conditions at our facilities. If we lose, or fail to maintain, existing relationships or fail to develop new referral relationships or if we are perceived by our referral sources for any reason as not providing high quality or cost-effective patient care and solutions, our patient volumes and the quality of our patient mix could suffer, and our revenue and profitability could decline.

Changes to Medicare and Medicaid rates or methods governing Medicare and Medicaid payments for our services could materially adversely affect our business.

We derive substantial revenue from government healthcare programs, primarily Medicare and Medicaid. Payments received from Medicare are subject to changes made through federal legislation and regulation. Payments received from Medicaid may vary from state to state. These payments are subject to statutory and regulatory changes, administrative rulings, interpretations, and determinations concerning patient eligibility requirements, funding levels, and the method of calculating payments or reimbursements. Changes in government healthcare programs may decrease the reimbursement we receive or limit access to, or utilization of, our services, and in turn, could cause our revenues and profitability to decline. When such changes are implemented, we must also modify our internal billing processes and procedures accordingly, which can require significant time and expense. As federal healthcare expenditures continue to increase and state governments may face budgetary shortfalls, federal and state governments have made, and may continue to make, significant changes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs and reimbursement received for services rendered to beneficiaries of such programs. The U.S. federal budget is subject to change, including reductions in federal spending, and the Medicare program is frequently mentioned as a target for spending cuts. Within the Medicare program, the hospice benefit is often specifically targeted for cuts. The full impact on our business of any future cuts in Medicare or other programs is uncertain. Changes that may occur at the federal or state level include:

 

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administrative or legislative changes to the base rates under the applicable prospective payment systems;

 

   

the reduction or elimination of annual rate increases;

 

   

redefining eligibility or enrollment standards or coverage criteria for government healthcare programs or the receipt of services under those programs or changes in documentation requirements;

 

   

the imposition of prior authorization and concurrent utilization review programs that may further limit the services for which government healthcare programs will pay and shift patients to lower levels of care and reimbursement;

 

   

the imposition or increase of mechanisms shifting more responsibility for a portion of payment to beneficiaries, such as co-payments;

 

   

adjustments to the relative components of the wage index used in determining reimbursement rates;

 

   

decreasing benefits, such as limiting the number of hours of personal care services that will be covered;

 

   

changing reimbursement methodology;

 

   

slowing payments to providers;

 

   

increasing utilization of self-directed care alternatives or “all inclusive” programs;

 

   

changes to cap limits and per diem rates;

 

   

changes to case mix or therapy thresholds;

 

   

the reclassification of home health resource groups; and

 

   

the reclassification of long-term care diagnosis-related groups.

Additionally, regulators are increasing scrutiny of claims, which may require additional resources to respond to audits, and which may cause additional delays or denials in receiving payments. Medicare currently provides for an annual adjustment of the various payment rates based upon the increase or decrease of the medical care expenditure, which may be less than actual inflation, and if we do not manage the cost of providing services, such an annual adjustment may adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. This adjustment could be eliminated or reduced in any given year. Congress also passed legislation that resulted in aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect on April 1, 2013. Due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, the 2% aggregated reductions will remain in effect through 2032. Further, Medicare routinely reclassifies home health resource groups and long-term care diagnosis-related groups, and as a result, we could receive lower reimbursement rates depending on the case mix of the patients we service. If our cost of providing services increases by more than the annual Medicare price adjustment, or if these reclassifications result in lower reimbursement rates, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely impacted. Certain of these measures have been implemented by, or are proposed in, states in which we operate.

Additionally, CMS changed the Home Health Prospective Payment System case-mix adjustment methodology through the use of a new Patient-Driven Groupings Model, or PDGM, for home health payments. This change was implemented on January 1, 2020, and also includes a change in the unit of payment from a 60-day payment period to a 30-day payment period and eliminates the use of therapy visits in the determination of payments. While the changes were intended to be implemented in a budget-neutral manner to the industry, the ultimate impact varied by provider based on factors including patient mix and admission source. Additionally, in arriving at the rate that is budget-neutral, CMS made assumptions about behavioral changes that resulted in a 4.36% reduction to reimbursement. Additionally, in the Calendar Year 2023 Home Health Final Rule, CMS finalized a 3.5% permanent reduction in reimbursement based on the difference between assumed and actual behavioral changes resulting from the implementation of PDGM.

 

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care Education and Reconciliation Act, or collectively, the ACA, added a new Medicare requirement for face-to-face encounters to support claims for home health services, which continues to be one of the most complex issues and can be the source of claims denials if not fulfilled, and extended the same requirements for face-to-face encounters to the case of physicians making certifications for home health services under Medicaid. For hospice patients receiving nursing center care under certain state Medicaid programs who elect hospice care under Medicare or Medicaid, the state must pay, in addition to the applicable Medicare or Medicaid hospice per diem rate, an amount equal to at least 95% of the Medicaid per diem nursing center rate for “room and board” furnished to the patient by the nursing center. The reduction or elimination of Medicare payments for hospice patients residing in nursing centers would significantly reduce our home and community health services revenues and profitability. In addition, changes in the way nursing centers are reimbursed for “room and board” services provided to hospice patients residing in nursing centers could adversely affect our ability to obtain referrals from nursing centers.

If changes in Medicare, Medicaid, or other state and local programs result in a reduction in available funds for the services we offer, a reduction in the number of beneficiaries eligible for our services or a reduction in the number of hours or amount of services that beneficiaries eligible for our services may receive, then our revenues and profitability could be negatively impacted. We cannot assure you that reimbursement payments under governmental payor programs, including supplemental insurance policies, will remain at levels comparable to present levels or will be sufficient to cover the costs allocable to patients eligible for reimbursement pursuant to these programs. In some cases, commercial insurance companies and other private payors rely on government payment systems to determine payment rates. As a result, changes to government healthcare programs that reduce Medicare, Medicaid, or other payments may negatively impact payments from private payors, as well. Any reduction in reimbursements from governmental or private payors, as well as the imposition of co-payments that dissuade the use of our services, could also materially adversely affect our profitability.

Cost containment initiatives of third-party payors, including post-payment audits, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

During the past several years, third-party healthcare payors, such as federal and state governments, insurance companies and employers, have undertaken cost containment initiatives. As part of the efforts, such payors are increasingly demanding discounted fee structures or the assumption by healthcare providers of all or a portion of the financial risk relating to paying for care provided, often in exchange for exclusive or preferred participation in their benefit plans. We expect efforts to impose greater discounts and more stringent cost controls by government and other third-party payors to continue, potentially reducing the payments we receive for our services. For example, the Medicaid Integrity Program is increasing its scrutiny of Medicaid providers and reimbursements received through the program, which could result in recoupments of alleged overpayments. Similarly, private third-party payors also engage in post-payment audits which can result in recoupments. Additionally, private third-party payors may be successful in negotiating reduced reimbursement schedules for our services. Fixed fee schedules, capitation payment arrangements, exclusion from participation in or inability to reach agreements with private insurance organizations or government funded programs, reduction, or elimination of payments or an increase in the payments at a rate that is less than the increase in our costs, or other factors affecting payments for healthcare services over which we have no control, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Further, we cannot assure you that our services will be considered cost-effective by third-party payors, that third-party payor reimbursement will continue to be available or that changes to third-party payor reimbursement policies will not have a material adverse effect on our ability to provide our services on a profitable basis, if at all.

In addition, certain third parties, known as conveners, offer patient placement and care transition services to managed care companies, Medicare Advantage plans, bundled payment participants, ACOs, and other healthcare providers as part of an effort to manage costs. Given their focus on perceived financial savings, conveners customarily suggest that patients avoid higher cost settings altogether or move as soon as practicable to lower-cost settings. However, conveners are not healthcare providers and may suggest a setting or duration of care that

 

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may not be appropriate from a clinical perspective. Efforts by conveners to avoid our care settings or suggest shorter lengths of stay in our care settings could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The implementation of alternative payment models and the transition of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries to managed care organizations may limit our market share and could adversely affect our revenues.

Many government and commercial payors are transitioning providers to alternative payment models that are designed to promote cost-efficiency, quality, and coordination of care. For example, ACOs, incentivize hospitals, physician groups, and other providers to organize and coordinate patient care while reducing unnecessary costs. Conceptually, ACOs receive a portion of any savings generated above a certain threshold from care coordination as long as benchmarks for the quality of care are maintained. Providers are then paid based on the overall value and quality (as determined by outcomes) of the services they provide to a patient rather than the number of services they provide. Pursuant to the ACA, CMS has established several separate ACO programs, the largest of which is the Medicare Shared Savings Program, or MSSP, for care provided to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries. The ACO rules adopted by CMS are extremely complex and remain subject to further refinement by CMS. Several states have implemented, or plan to implement, accountable care models for their Medicaid populations. Eligible providers, hospitals, and suppliers may participate by creating, participating in or contracting with an ACO. If we are not included in these programs, or if ACOs establish programs that overlap with our services, we are at risk for losing market share, including a loss of our current business.

The trend in the healthcare industry toward value-based purchasing of healthcare services is growing among both government and commercial payors. Value-based purchasing programs emphasize quality of outcome and efficiency of care provided, rather than quantity of care provided. For example, Medicare requires home and community health services companies to report certain quality data in order to receive full reimbursement. Failure to report quality data or poor performance may negatively impact the amount of reimbursement received. We may incur additional expenses in an effort to comply with additional and changing quality reporting requirements. The first performance year of the value-based purchasing program affecting home health providers began on January 1, 2023, and the model has been expanded to all 50 states. Under the expanded program, home health agencies receive payment bonuses or penalties based on their achievement of specified performance measures, relative to their peers’ performance. Performance on these quality measures in a specified year (performance year) impacts payment adjustments in a later year. Additionally, commercial payors have expressed intent to shift toward value-based reimbursement arrangements. Government and commercial payors’ implementation of value-based purchasing requirements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The ACA resulted in the establishment of various demonstration projects and Medicaid programs under which states may apply to test new or existing approaches to payment and delivery of Medicaid benefits. For example, CMS launched a home health agency pre-claim review demonstration project called the Review Choice Demonstration, or RCD, for Home Health Services. RCD is intended to assist in developing improved procedures to identify and prevent fraud and is limited to home health agencies in five states: Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas. Home health agencies in these states have three options for initial review: pre-claim review of all claims, post-payment review of all claims, or minimal post-payment review with a 25% payment reduction for all home health services. Home health agencies that maintain pre-claim review affirmation rate or postpayment review approval rate of 90% or greater will be eligible for additional, less burdensome options for subsequent review. Compliance with this process has resulted in increased administrative costs and delays in reimbursement for home health services in the states subject to the demonstration. These delays could materially adversely affect our working capital and negatively affect our operations in these states.

Other alternative payment models, such as bundled payment arrangements, may be presented by the government and commercial payors to control costs that subject our Company to financial risk. We cannot predict at this time what effect alternative payment models may have on our Company. If we perform at a level

 

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below the outcomes demonstrated by our competitors, fail to satisfy quality data reporting requirements, are unable to meet or exceed quality performance standards under any applicable value-based purchasing program, or otherwise fail to effectively provide or coordinate the efficient delivery of quality healthcare services, our reputation in the industry may be negatively impacted, we may receive reduced reimbursement amounts and we may owe repayments to payors, which could materially adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Additionally, our reputation may be affected by negative press, including adverse media related to staffing shortages, the quality of care, the failure to provide care, inadequate training, incidents at our facilities, and inadequate conditions at our facilities, which could materially adversely impact our business.

We may be similarly impacted by increased enrollment of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in managed care plans, shifting away from traditional fee-for-service models. Under a managed Medicare plan, also known as Medicare Advantage, the federal government contracts with private health insurers to provide Medicare benefits and the insurers may choose to offer supplemental benefits. More than half of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan as of January 2023, a figure that continues to grow. CMS allows Medicare Advantage plans to offer certain personal care services as a supplemental benefit. Enrollment in managed Medicaid plans is also growing, as states are increasingly relying on MCOs to deliver Medicaid program services as a strategy to control costs and manage resources. Managed care contracts typically permit the payor to terminate the contract without cause, on very short notice, typically 60 days, which can provide payors leverage to reduce volume or obtain favorable pricing. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in our efforts to be included in managed plan networks, that we will be able to secure or maintain favorable contracts with all or some of the MCOs, that our reimbursement under these programs will remain at current levels, that the authorizations for services will remain at current levels or that our profitability will remain at levels consistent with past performance. In addition, operational processes may not be well-defined as a state transitions Medicaid recipients to managed care. For example, membership, new referrals, and the related authorization for services to be provided may be delayed, which may result in delays in service delivery to consumers or in payment for services rendered. Difficulties with operational processes associated with new managed care contracts may negatively affect our revenue, cash flow, and profitability for services provided.

Changes in the case mix of patients, as well as payor mix and payment methodologies, and decisions and operations of third-party organizations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The sources and amounts of our revenue are determined by a number of factors, including the mix of patients and third-party payors, the rates of reimbursement or payments among payors, and decisions and operations of third-party organizations. Changes in the case mix of the patients, payment methodologies, or payor mix among third-party payor, Medicare, and Medicaid may significantly affect our results of operations and cash flows. In particular, any significant decrease in our population of high-acuity patients could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our ability to provide services may also be impacted by actions of third-party organizations, such as assisted living facilities choosing to bring pharmacy services in-house or hospitals following CMS’s guidelines for providing care outside of a traditional hospital setting. Increasing consolidation in the payor and supplier structure, including vertical integration efforts among insurers, providers, and suppliers, may limit our ability to negotiate favorable terms and conditions in our contracts and otherwise intensify competitive pressure. For example, MCOs and other third-party payors continue to consolidate, which enhances their ability to influence the delivery and cost structure of healthcare services. Consequently, the healthcare needs of patients in the United States are increasingly served by a smaller number of MCOs. These organizations generally enter into service agreements with a limited number of providers. Our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected if these organizations terminate us as a provider, engage our competitors as a preferred or exclusive provider, and/or limit the patients eligible for our services.

 

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Our business is reliant on federal and state spending, budget decisions, and continuous governmental operations which may fluctuate under different political conditions.

Adverse developments in the United States could lead to a reduction in federal government expenditures, including governmentally funded programs in which we participate. In addition, if at any time the federal government is not able to meet its debt payments unless the federal debt ceiling is raised, and legislation increasing the debt ceiling is not enacted, the federal government may stop or delay making payments on its obligations, including funding for government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. Further, any failure by the Congress to complete the federal budget process and fund government operations may result in a shutdown, potentially causing us to incur substantial costs without reimbursement under the Medicare program. For example, the failure of the 2011 Joint Select Committee to meet its Deficit Reduction goal resulted in an automatic reduction in Medicare home health and hospice payments of 2% beginning April 1, 2013. Due to subsequent legislative amendments to the statute, the 2% aggregated reductions will remain in effect through 2030. Congress continues to discuss deficit reduction measures, leading to a high degree of uncertainty regarding potential reforms to governmental healthcare programs. The Medicare program is frequently mentioned as a target for spending cuts and within the Medicare program, the home health and hospice benefits are often specifically targeted for cuts and a lowering of the Medicare caps. Historically, state budget pressures have resulted in reductions in state spending, and given that Medicaid outlays are a significant component of state budgets, we can expect continuing cost containment pressures on Medicaid outlays for our services. Weak economic conditions also could adversely affect the budgets of individual states and of the federal government. This could result in attempts to reduce or eliminate payments for federal and state healthcare programs, and could result in an increase in taxes and assessments on our activities.

Given competing national priorities, we are unable to predict the outcome and impact on our business of any changes in healthcare policy relating to the future funding of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Further, Medicare, Medicaid, and/or private payor rates for home and community provider solutions and pharmacy services may not continue to be based on current methodologies or remain comparable to present levels. Any future healthcare legislation or regulation impacting these rates may materially adversely affect our business.

Changes in drug utilization and/or pricing, PBM contracts, and Medicare Part D/Medicaid reimbursement may negatively impact our profitability.

The profitability of our Pharmacy Solutions segment is dependent upon the utilization of prescription and non-prescription pharmaceuticals. Our revenues, operating results, and cash flows may decline if the utilization of drug and/or infusion therapies is reduced or physicians cease writing prescriptions for such therapies, including due to:

 

   

increased safety risk profiles or regulatory restrictions;

 

   

manufacturing or other supply issues;

 

   

a reduction in drug manufacturers’ participation in federal programs;

 

   

certain products being withdrawn by their manufacturers or transitioned to over-the-counter products;

 

   

FDA actions restricting the supply or increasing the cost of products;

 

   

the introduction of new and successful prescription drugs or lower-priced generic alternatives to existing brand name products; or

 

   

inflation in the price of drugs.

In addition, increased utilization of generic drugs has resulted in pressure to decrease reimbursement payments to facility-based, hospice, retail, and specialty pharmacies for generic drugs, causing a reduction in our margins on sales of generic drugs. Contracts and fee schedules in the prescription drug industry, including our

 

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contracts with various payors and fee schedules under state Medicaid programs, generally use certain published benchmarks, including Average Wholesale Price, or AWP, or Wholesale Acquisition Cost, or WAC, to establish pricing for prescription drugs. Future changes to the use of AWP, WAC or to other published pricing benchmarks used to establish drug pricing, including changes in the basis for calculating reimbursement by federal and state healthcare programs and/or other payors, could impact the reimbursement we receive from Medicare and Medicaid programs, the reimbursement we receive from our PBM, clients, and other payors, and/or our ability to negotiate rebates and/or discounts with drug manufacturers and wholesalers. A failure or inability to fully offset any increased prices or costs or to modify our operations to mitigate the impact of such increases could have a material adverse effect on our operating results. Additionally, any future changes in drug prices could be significantly different than our projections. We cannot predict the effect of these possible changes on our businesses.

Our reimbursement under Medicare Part D, as well as our reimbursement from certain private third-party payors, is determined pursuant to agreements that we negotiate with those payors or their PBM representatives or group purchasing organizations, or GPOs. Similarly, our reimbursement from skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities for drugs is determined pursuant to our agreements with them. Certain of these agreements are terminable upon prior notice by the other party. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to replace terminated or expired agreements on terms as favorable as our existing agreements or at all. The termination or modification of these agreements could adversely affect our reimbursement from these sources, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations. Additionally, the proportion of our Medicare Part D business serviced under specific agreements may change over time based upon beneficiary choice, reassignment of beneficiaries to different Medicare Part D Plans, Medicare Part D Plan consolidation or other factors, which could also adversely affect our revenue. Many payors seek to limit the number of providers that supply pharmaceuticals to their enrollees in order to build volume that justifies their discounted pricing. From time to time, payors with whom we have relationships require that we bid against our competitors to keep their business. As a result of this bidding process, we may not be retained, and even if we are retained, the prices at which we are able to retain the business may be reduced. If we are not an approved provider selected by a GPO, affiliated hospitals and other members may be less likely to purchase our products. Should a GPO negotiate a sole source or bundling contract covering a future or current competitor, we may be precluded from making sales to members of that GPO for the duration of the contractual arrangement.

Furthermore, Medicare Part D has resulted in increased utilization of prescription medications and puts pressure on our gross margin rates in our Pharmacy Solutions segment due to regulatory and competitive pressures. As a result of the ACA and changes to the retiree drug subsidy rules, clients of our PBM business could decide to discontinue providing prescription drug benefits to their Medicare-eligible members. To the extent this occurs, the adverse effects of increasing customer migration into Medicare Part D may outweigh the benefits we realize from growth of our Medicare Part D products. For example, in October 2020, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, or the HHS, released a final rule requiring health insurers to disclose drug pricing and cost-sharing information. The public disclosure of insurer- or PBM-negotiated price concessions may result in drug manufacturers lowering discounts or rebates, impacting the ability to negotiate drug prices. In November 2020, the HHS released the Rebate Rule, which eliminates the regulatory safe harbor from prosecution under the Anti-Kickback Statute for rebates from pharmaceutical companies to PBMs in Medicare Part D and in Medicaid MCOs, replacing it with two far narrower safe harbors designed to directly benefit patients with high out-of-pocket costs and to change the way PBMs are compensated. The new safe harbors are (i) for rebates which are passed on to the patient at the point of sale and (ii) for flat service fee payments made to PBMs which cannot be tied to the list prices of drugs. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association which represents PBMs, has filed a suit in an effort to block the Rebate Rule, claiming that the Rebate Rule would lead to higher premiums in Medicare Part D and was adopted in an unlawful manner. The Biden Administration has delayed the effective date of portions of the Rebate Rule to January 1, 2027, which would delay implementation until 2032. It is unclear whether the Rebate Rule will be modified by the current Administration, whether pharmaceutical companies will respond by reducing list prices, whether list prices in the private market may also be reduced, and what the resulting impact will be to PBMs or us.

 

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There has also been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to drug pricing practices. Specifically, there has been heightened governmental scrutiny over the manner in which manufacturers set prices for their marketed products, which has resulted in several congressional inquiries and proposed and enacted federal and state legislation designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, and review the relationship between pricing and manufacturers’ patient assistance programs. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, or IRA, includes several provisions that may impact our business to varying degrees, including provisions that reduce the out-of-pocket spending cap for Medicare Part D beneficiaries from $7,050 to $2,000 starting in 2025, thereby effectively eliminating the coverage gap; impose new manufacturer financial liability on certain drugs under Medicare Part D, allow the U.S. government to negotiate Medicare Part B and Part D price caps for certain high-cost drugs and biologics without generic or biosimilar competition; require companies to pay rebates to Medicare for certain drug prices that increase faster than inflation; and delay until January 1, 2032, the implementation of the HHS Rebate Rule that would have limited the fees that pharmacy benefit managers can charge. The implementation of the IRA is currently subject to ongoing litigation challenging the constitutionality of the IRA’s Medicare drug price negotiation program. The effects of the IRA on our business and the healthcare industry in general are not yet known. See “—Risks Related to Our Regulatory Framework—If we are unable to effectively adapt to changes in the healthcare industry, including changes to laws and regulations regarding or affecting U.S. healthcare reform, our business may be harmed.”

Changes in our relationships with pharmaceutical suppliers, including changes in drug availability or pricing, could adversely affect our business and financial results.

We have contractual relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors to purchase the pharmaceuticals that we dispense. In order to have access to these pharmaceuticals, and to be able to participate in the launch of new pharmaceuticals, we must maintain a good working relationship with these suppliers. Most of the manufacturers we contract directly with have the right to cancel their supply contracts with us without cause and after giving only minimal notice. In addition, these agreements may allow the manufacturers to distribute through channels other than us. Certain of these agreements also allow pricing and other terms to be adjusted periodically for changing market conditions or required service levels. We may be unable to renew contracts with our suppliers on favorable terms or at all. Any changes to these relationships, including, but not limited to, the loss of a supplier relationship or changes in pricing, could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results. Many products dispensed by our pharmacies are manufactured with ingredients that are susceptible to supply shortages. Our suppliers are independent entities subject to their own operational and financial risks that are outside our control. If our current suppliers were to stop selling drugs to us or delay delivery, including as a result of supply shortages, production disruptions, quality issues, closing, or bankruptcies of our suppliers, or for other reasons, we may be unable to procure alternatives from other suppliers in a timely and efficient manner and on acceptable terms, or at all. Should a supply disruption result in the inability to obtain pharmaceutical solutions necessary for patient care, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be negatively impacted.

Some pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesalers, and/or distributors attempt to limit the number of preferred pharmacies that may market certain of their products. We cannot provide assurance that we will be selected and retained as a preferred pharmacy or can remain a preferred pharmacy to market these products. We cannot provide assurance that we will be able to compete effectively with other providers to dispense each of our core products. Consolidation within the drug manufacturing industry and other external factors may enhance the ability of suppliers to sustain or increase pricing of drugs and diminish our ability to negotiate reduced drug acquisition costs. Any inability to offset increased brand name or generic drug acquisition costs or to modify our activities to lessen the financial impact of such increased costs could have a significant adverse effect on our operating results. We receive certain discounts, rebates, and other price concessions from suppliers. For example, we have agreements with certain affiliates of Walgreen Stockholder pursuant to which we purchase both generic and non-generic pharmaceutical products and services at favorable prices and other payment terms. If one or both of such agreements were to terminate or if we were to otherwise lose our right to participate in such agreements,

 

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we may not be able to replace such arrangements to purchase pharmaceutical products and services at similarly favorable prices or at all. There can be no assurance that any changes in legislation or regulations, or the interpretation or application of current law, that would eliminate or significantly reduce the discounts, rebates, and other price concessions that we receive from suppliers or that would otherwise impact payment available for drugs under federal or state healthcare programs will not have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The pipeline of new drugs includes many products that over the long term may replace older, more expensive therapies. As a result of such older drugs losing patent protection and being replaced by generic substitutes, new and less expensive delivery methods (such as when an infusion or injectable drug is replaced with an oral drug) or additional products may be added to a therapeutic class, thereby increasing price competition in that therapeutic category. Much of the branded and generic drug product that we dispense is manufactured in whole or in substantial part outside of the United States and imported by our suppliers. As a result, significant changes in tax or trade policies, tariffs, or trade relations between the United States and other countries, such as the imposition of unilateral tariffs on imported products, could result in significant increases in our costs, restrict our access to suppliers, depress economic activity, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, other countries may change their business and trade policies and such changes, as well as any negative sentiments towards the United States in response to increased import tariffs and other changes in U.S. trade regulations, could adversely affect our businesses.

Our business relies on the continual recruitment and retention of nurses, pharmacists, therapists, caregivers, direct support professionals, and other qualified personnel, including senior management.

We compete with other healthcare providers for our employees, including but not limited to, clinicians, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, caregivers, direct care staff, counselors, therapists, pathologists, psychologists, pharmacists, other pharmacy professionals, and providers for our mobile network, as well as senior management. Competition for skilled personnel is intense, and the process of locating and recruiting qualified personnel with the combination of the skills, experience, and licenses necessary to meet the requirements of their job responsibilities can be difficult and lengthy. Various states in which we operate have established minimum staffing requirements or may establish minimum staffing requirements in the future. While we seek to comply with all applicable staffing and other requirements, such as state requirements related to compensation and benefits for direct care workers, the regulations in this area are complex and we may experience compliance issues from time to time.

Federal and state regulators have considered implementing requirements related to staffing ratios, pass-through payments to direct care workers, minimum compensation standards, and compensation and benefits for direct care workers, and we believe that regulators will continue to focus their attention and regulatory and legislative efforts on these matters. For example, in an effort to promote transparency, CMS has proposed requiring state Medicaid agencies to report on compensation for direct care workers and support staff as a percentage of Medicaid payments for services in intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Failure to comply with any new requirements may result in one or more facilities failing to meet the conditions of participation under relevant federal and state healthcare programs and the imposition of fines or other sanctions. The proposed rule would also require compensation reporting requirements to include individuals employed by or contracted or subcontracted with a Medicaid provider or state or local government agency, which would require compliance with new standards. In addition, private litigation involving these matters also has become more common. Moreover, a portion of the staffing costs we incur is funded by states through Medicaid program appropriations or otherwise. If states do not appropriate sufficient additional funds to pay for any additional operating costs resulting from new workforce, transparency, and reporting requirements, our profitability may be materially adversely affected.

Our ability to satisfy new workforce regulations will, among other things, depend upon our ability to attract and retain qualified healthcare professionals. If we are unable to attract and retain qualified personnel, we may be unable to provide our services, the quality of our services may decline, and we could lose patients and referral sources, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. The loss of one or more of the members of the executive management team or the inability of a new

 

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management team to successfully execute our strategies may adversely affect our business. Our ability to attract and retain qualified personnel depends on several factors, including our ability to provide these personnel with attractive assignments and competitive salaries and benefits. We cannot be assured we will succeed in any of these areas. From time to time and particularly in recent years, the lack of availability of medical personnel, including qualified nurses, has been a significant operating issue for us and other healthcare providers in certain local and regional markets. Further, because we generally recruit our personnel from the local area where the relevant facility is located, the availability in certain areas of suitably qualified personnel can be limited.

We are subject to federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern our employment practices, including minimum wage, living wage, and paid time-off requirements. Failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or changes to these laws and regulations that increase our employment-related expenses, could adversely impact our operations.

We are subject to applicable rules and regulations relating to our relationship with our employees, including occupational safety and health requirements, wage and hour and other compensation requirements, break requirements, health benefits, unemployment, providing leave, sick pay and overtime, proper classification of workers as employees or independent contractors, immigration status, and equal employment opportunity laws. These laws and regulations can vary significantly among jurisdictions and can be highly technical. Notably, we are subject to the California Labor Code pursuant to which plaintiffs have filed representative actions under the California Private Attorney General Act seeking statutory penalties for alleged violations related to calculation of overtime pay, errors in wage statements, and meal and rest break violations, among other things. Costs and expenses related to these requirements are a significant operating expense and may increase as a result of, among other things, changes in federal, state, or local laws or regulations, or the interpretation thereof, requiring employers to provide specified benefits or rights to employees, increases in the minimum wage and local living wage ordinances, increases in the level of existing benefits, or the lengthening of periods for which unemployment benefits are available. We may not be able to offset any increased costs and expenses. We have a substantial number of hourly employees who are paid wage rates based on or approximating the applicable federal, state, or local minimum wage, and the high proportion of hourly employees makes our business sensitive to minimum wage laws at both the state and federal levels. Furthermore, any failure to comply with these laws requirements, including even a seemingly minor infraction, can result in significant penalties which could harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, federal, state, and local proposals to introduce a system of mandated health insurance and flexible work time, provide for higher minimum wages, paid time off and other similar initiatives could, if implemented, adversely affect our operations.

In addition, certain individuals and entities, known as excluded persons, are prohibited from receiving payment for their services rendered to Medicaid, Medicare, and other federal and state healthcare program beneficiaries. If we inadvertently hire or contract with an excluded person, or if any of our current employees or contractors becomes an excluded person in the future without our knowledge, we may be subject to substantial civil penalties, including up to $20,000 for each item or service furnished by the excluded person to a federal or state healthcare program beneficiary, an assessment of up to three times the amount claimed and exclusion from federal healthcare programs.

Our results of operations fluctuate on a quarterly basis.

Our financial condition and results of operations and other key metrics have fluctuated on a quarterly basis in the past and may continue to fluctuate in the future due to a variety of factors, including census, script volume, reimbursement rates, drug purchasing costs, labor availability and pricing, volume fluctuations in broader healthcare and provider markets that are upstream of our care settings and the potential timing of delayed or leading payor reimbursement rate changes based on budget seasons, as well as purchasing cost fluctuations depending on when core contracts renew or escalate. In addition, we have experienced and expect to continue to experience fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations due to the seasonal nature of our business. As a result, historical period-to-period comparisons of our results of operations are not necessarily indicative of future period-to-period results, impacting comparability of our quarterly results year-over-year.

 

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Our business may be harmed by labor relation matters.

We are subject to a risk of work stoppages and other labor relations matters because our hourly workforce in some states is highly unionized. We have numerous agreements with various different unions, which are renegotiated from time to time. We may also negotiate Memoranda of Understanding to amend these collective bargaining agreements when we receive increases in our rates from various state agencies. Upon expiration of these collective bargaining agreements, we may not be able to negotiate labor agreements on satisfactory terms with these labor unions. A strike, work stoppage or other slowdown could result in a disruption of our operations and/or higher ongoing labor costs, which could adversely affect our business.

Because we are limited in our ability to control reimbursement rates received for our services, our business could be materially adversely affected if we are not able to maintain or reduce our costs to provide such services.

We receive fixed payments at predetermined reimbursement rates established through federal and state legislation from Medicare and Medicaid, our most significant payors, for our services. Consequently, our profitability largely depends upon our ability to manage the costs of providing these services. We cannot be assured that reimbursement payments under Medicare and Medicaid will be sufficient to cover the costs allocable to patients eligible for reimbursement pursuant to these programs. Commercial payors such as managed care organizations and private health insurance programs generally reimburse us for the services rendered to insured patients based upon contractually determined rates. Additionally, private payor rates are difficult for us to negotiate as such payors are under pressure to reduce their own costs. In addition, our profitability may be adversely affected by any efforts of our suppliers to shift healthcare costs by increasing the net prices on the products we obtain from them. Increases in operating costs, such as labor and supply costs, without a compensating increase in reimbursement rates, could have a material adverse effect on our business. In addition, cost pressures resulting from the use of more expensive forms of palliative care, including drugs and drug delivery systems, could negatively impact our profitability. As a result, we have sought to manage our costs in order to achieve a desired level of profitability including, but not limited to, centralization of various processes, the use of technology, and management of the number of employees utilized. If we are not able to continue to streamline our processes and reduce our costs, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

Delays in collection or non-collection of our accounts receivable, particularly during the business integration process, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Prompt billing and collection of receivables from patients and third-party payors are important factors in our liquidity, and our business is characterized by delays from the time we provide services to the time we receive reimbursement or payment for these services. Having a diversified payor mix requires expertise and compliance across multiple complex coding, billing, and revenue recognition functions. We bill numerous and varied payors, and they typically have different billing requirements that must be satisfied prior to receiving payment for services rendered. Reimbursement is typically conditioned on our documenting the level and the necessity of service provided and correctly applying administrative and billing codes. Coding of services can be complex. Incorrect or incomplete documentation and billing information could result in non-payment for services rendered and could lead to allegations of billing fraud. This could subsequently lead to civil and criminal penalties, including but not limited to exclusion from government healthcare programs. Reimbursement and procedural issues often require us to resubmit claims multiple times and respond to multiple administrative requests before payment is remitted, increasing the age of accounts receivable. Billing and collection of our accounts receivable are further subject to the complex regulations that govern Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and rules imposed by third-party payors, which are continuously evolving. Our inability to bill and collect on a timely basis pursuant to these regulations and rules could subject us to payment delays that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, timing delays in billings and collections may cause working capital shortages. It is possible that Medicare, Medicaid, documentation support, system problems or other provider issues or industry trends, particularly with respect to newly acquired

 

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entities for which we have limited operational experience, may extend our collection period, which may materially adversely affect our working capital, and our working capital management procedures may not successfully mitigate this risk.

The timing of payments made under the Medicare and Medicaid programs is subject to governmental budgetary constraints, which may result in an increased period of time between submission of claims and subsequent payment under specific programs, most notably under the Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs, which in many cases pay claims significantly slower than traditional Medicare or state Medicaid programs. This delay is a result of more complicated authorization, billing, and collecting processes under Medicare and Medicaid managed care programs. In addition, we may experience delays in reimbursement as a result of the failure to receive prompt approvals related to change of ownership applications for acquired or other facilities. Further, our billing systems require significant technology investment and, as a result of marketplace demands, we need to continually invest in our billing systems. We may experience delays in reimbursement caused by our or other third parties’ information system failures. Changes in laws and regulations could further complicate our billing and increase our billing expense.

A change in our estimates of collectability or a delay in collection of accounts receivable could adversely affect our results of operations and liquidity. The estimates are based on a variety of factors, including the length of time receivables are past due, significant one-time events, contractual rights, client funding and/or political pressures, discussions with clients, and historical experience. A delay in collecting our accounts receivable, or the non-collection of accounts receivable, including, without limitation, in connection with our transition and integration of acquired companies, could have a material negative impact on our results of operations and liquidity and could be required to record credit losses in our consolidated financial statements.

If we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service and satisfaction, or adequately address competitive challenges.

We have experienced, and may continue to experience, rapid growth, and organizational change, which has placed, and may continue to place, significant demands on our management and our operational and financial resources. Additionally, our organizational structure may become more complex as we expand our operational, financial, and management controls, as well as our reporting systems and procedures as a public company. We may require significant capital expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources to grow and evolve in these areas. We must effectively increase our headcount, ensure our personnel have the necessary licenses and competencies, and continue to effectively train and manage our employees. We will be unable to manage our business effectively if we are unable to alleviate the strain on resources caused by growth in a timely and successful manner. If we fail to effectively manage our anticipated growth and change or fail to ensure that the level of care and services provided by our employees complies with regulatory and contractual requirements, the quality of our services may suffer, which could negatively affect our brand and reputation, harm our ability to attract and retain patients, customers, referral sources, and employees, and lead to the need for corrective actions.

In addition, as we expand our business, it is important that we continue to maintain high levels of patient service and satisfaction. If we are unable to continue to provide high quality healthcare that meets the regulatory requirements and generates high levels of patient satisfaction, our reputation, as well as our business, results of operations and financial condition would be adversely affected.

Our growth strategy is partially dependent upon our ability to identify and successfully complete acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives. Any failure by us to manage or integrate acquisitions, divestitures, and other significant transactions successfully may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Acquisitions are a key strategic advantage and value creation driver for us. We regularly evaluate opportunities to acquire other companies and have undertaken, and may in the future undertake, strategic, and accretive acquisitions. We face competition for acquisition and joint venture candidates, which may limit the

 

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number of acquisition and joint venture opportunities available to us or lead to the payment of higher prices for our acquisitions and joint ventures. In addition, changes in federal laws or regulations may materially adversely impact our ability to acquire businesses. For example, CMS has adopted a regulation known as the “36 Month Rule” that is applicable to home health agency acquisitions, which subject to certain exceptions, prohibits buyers of home health agencies that either enrolled in Medicare or underwent a change in ownership fewer than 36 months prior to the acquisition date, from assuming the Medicare billing privileges of the acquired home health agency. Instead, the acquired home health agencies must enroll as new providers with Medicare which may cause significant Medicare billing delays. As a result, the 36 Month Rule may further increase competition for acquisition targets that are not subject to the rule. We cannot assure you that we will successfully identify suitable acquisition candidates, obtain financing for such acquisitions, if necessary, consummate such potential acquisitions or efficiently integrate any acquired entities or successfully expand into new markets as a result of our acquisitions. If we are unable to successfully execute on such a strategy in the future, our future growth could be limited.

We believe that there are risks related to acquiring companies. Such risks include overpaying for acquisitions, losing key employees, strategic partnerships, or patients of acquired companies, failing to effectively integrate acquired companies, the assumption of liabilities and exposure to unforeseen liabilities of acquired operations, and failing to achieve potential synergies or remove transition, integration, or non-recurring costs. In addition, our due diligence review of acquired businesses may not successfully identify all potential issues. Further, following completion of an acquisition, we may not be able to maintain the growth rate, levels of revenue, earnings or operating efficiency that we and the acquired business have achieved or might achieve separately. Historically, we have funded acquisitions primarily through our credit facilities and/or cash on hand, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to obtain financing for any future acquisition on favorable terms, if at all. Furthermore, in certain circumstances, we could be required to pay or be involved in disputes relating to termination fees or liquidated damages if an acquisition is not consummated, the payment of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations.

Upon consummation of an acquisition, the integration process could divert the attention of management, and any difficulties or problems encountered in the transition process could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, or results of operations. In particular, the integration process may temporarily redirect resources previously focused on reducing cost of services, resulting in lower gross profits in relation to revenues. The process of combining companies could cause the interruption of, or a loss of momentum in, the activities of the respective businesses, which could have an adverse effect on their combined operations. Additionally, in some acquisitions, we may have to renegotiate, or risk losing, one or more third-party payor contracts. We may also be unable to immediately collect the accounts receivable of an acquired entity while we align the payors’ payment systems and accounts with our own systems, and may have difficulties in recouping partial episode payments and other types of misdirected payments for services from previous owners. Certain transactions can require licensure changes which, in turn, result in disruptions in payment for services.

We may also make strategic divestitures from time to time. With respect to any divestiture, we may encounter difficulty finding potential acquirers or other divestiture options on favorable terms. Any divestiture could affect our profitability as a result of the gains or losses on such sale of a business or service, the loss of the operating income resulting from such sale or the costs or liabilities that are not assumed by the acquirer that may negatively impact profitability subsequent to any divestiture. We may also recognize impairment charges as a result of a divesture.

If we are unable to provide consistently high quality of care, our business will be adversely impacted.

Providing quality patient care is fundamental to our business. Clinical quality is becoming increasingly important within our industries. Medicare imposes a financial penalty upon hospitals that have excessive rates of patient readmissions within 30 days from hospital discharge. We believe this regulation provides a competitive advantage to home health providers who can differentiate themselves based upon quality, particularly by achieving low patient acute care hospitalization readmission rates and by implementing disease management

 

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programs designed to be responsive to the needs of patients served by referring hospitals. We are focused intently upon improving our patient outcomes, particularly our patient acute care hospitalization readmission rates. Additionally, Medicare has established consumer-facing websites, Home Health Compare and Hospice Compare, that present data regarding our performance on certain quality measures compared to state and national averages. If we should fail to achieve or exceed these averages, it may negatively affect our rates of reimbursement, our reputation, and our ability to generate referrals, which could have a material adverse effect upon our business, consolidated financial condition, and results of operations.

Many of our service users have complex medical conditions or special needs, are vulnerable, and often require a substantial level of care and supervision. There is a risk that one or more service users could be harmed by one or more of our employees, workforce members, or other service users, either intentionally, by accident, or through negligence, neglect, error, poor performance, mistreatment, failure to provide proper care or medication or carry out physician’s orders, failure to properly document or monitor or report information, failure to address risks to service users’ health or safety, failure to maintain appropriate staffing, failure to implement appropriate interventions or other actions or inaction. Employees and workforce members have engaged in conduct (including failing to take action) that has impacted, and may in the future engage in conduct that impacts, our service users or their health, safety, welfare, or clinical treatment. Further, individuals cared for by us have in the past engaged, and may in the future engage, in behavior that results in harm to themselves, our employees or workforce members or to one or more other individuals, including members of the public and other service users. In addition, we have experienced staff shortages and if we experience staff shortages, or are unable to meet any applicable regulatory staffing requirements, it could impact our quality of care. In the past, regulators have taken measures against certain of our facilities and locations as a result of non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. For example, in July 2020, the West Virginia Department for Health and Human Resources issued a statewide admissions ban for all ResCare facilities that applied to new admissions and readmissions, and the state later issued separate admissions ban orders for other state operations. In addition, our facilities and locations have been subject to other regulatory inquiries and matters, such as recoupments as a result of alleged insufficient documentation, overpayments, audits, removals of clients as a result of staffing and incidents identified during a monitoring visit, contract terminations, suspensions or revocations of licenses, home closures, vendor holds, which may occur as a result of our failure to submit an acceptable report under state law, and administrative penalties issued as a result of staffing issues and incidents found during monitoring visits.

If one or more of our facilities experiences an adverse patient incident or is found to have failed to provide appropriate patient care (including as a result of a staffing shortages or the actions or inactions of our employees or workforce members), governmental or regulatory authorities may take action against us or our employees or workforce members, including an admissions ban, admissions hold, reduction in census, loss of accreditation, license revocation, application denial period, administrative or other order, other adverse regulatory action, a settlement or other agreement requiring corrective actions or requiring us or a specific facility to demonstrate substantial compliance with licensure or other requirements, and the imposition of certain requirements, including requirements to transfer our service users, to provide reports or other documentation or to undergo revisit surveys or inspections. If such an action or a closure of a facility were to occur and result in the improper termination of patient care, we or our employees or workforce members may be exposed to governmental or regulatory inquiries, investigations, liability, and litigation, including claims of patient abandonment. Certain of our individual locations have been, and may continue to be, subject to findings of quality of care deficiencies or practices, incidents of patient abuse or neglect, and claims regarding services rendered that do not meet the standard of care, which have resulted, and in the future may result, in civil or criminal penalties; fines; the suspension, modification, termination, or revocation of a license of Medicare or Medicaid participation; the suspension of the operations of a facility; the suspension or denial of admissions of service users; a reduction in census; the removal of service users from properties; the denial of payments in full or in part; administrative orders; the implementation of state oversight, temporary management or receivership; and other actions. If an admissions hold, loss of accreditation, license revocation, or other action such as a closure of a facility occurs, states may interpret such an interruption to be “patient abandonment,” which may lead to additional action by regulatory authorities or patients. In many states, patient abandonment includes abandoning or neglecting a

 

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patient needing professional care without making reasonable arrangements for the continuation of care. In addition to actions by state boards, patients may also pursue a private right of action claiming abandonment.

Any such patient incident, adverse regulatory action, self-disclosure, self-report, claim or other event, action or inaction has in the past, and could in the future, result in governmental investigations, judgments, or fines and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We have received inquiries and requests from various governmental and regulatory authorities and we have in the past and may in the future receive notices of potential sanctions based on violations of law or standards of care or alleged or actual failures to cure identified deficiencies or deficient practices. Further, claims of patient abuse, neglect, or medical malpractice have resulted in the past, and in the future may result, in law enforcement agencies investigating or arresting our employees and workforce members in order to investigate even unsubstantiated criminal or misdemeanor claims. While such enforcement actions are typically taken against individuals, we cannot predict how law enforcement or governmental or regulatory authorities will enforce the laws or whether governmental or regulatory authorities will assert that we or any of our employees or workforce members are responsible for such actions, or should have known about such actions. In addition, we have been and could become the subject of negative publicity or unfavorable media attention or governmental or regulatory scrutiny, regardless of whether the allegations are substantiated, that could have a significant, adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock or adversely impact our reputation, our relationships with referral sources and payors, whether service users and their family members choose us, and whether our referral sources choose other healthcare entities to provide healthcare.

If we fail to provide or maintain a reputation for providing high quality or cost-effective care or adequate staffing, training, monitoring, and facilities, or are perceived to provide lower quality or less cost-effective care or inferior staffing, training, monitoring, and facilities than our competitors within the same geographic area, or if patients of our home and community health services and/or pharmacy services perceive that they could receive higher quality or more cost-effective services from other providers, our ability to attract and retain patients, customers, and employees could be adversely affected, which could have a material adverse effect upon our business, consolidated financial condition and results of operations. We believe that the perception of our quality of care by potential patients or their families seeking our services is influenced by a variety of factors, including physician and other healthcare professional referrals, community information and referral services, electronic media, newspapers and other print, and results of patient surveys, recommendations from family and friends, and published quality care statistics compiled by CMS or other industry data.

If we are unable to maintain our corporate reputation, or there is adverse publicity, including negative information on social media, or changes in public perception of our services, our business may suffer.

Our success depends on our ability to maintain our corporate reputation, including our reputation for providing quality patient care and for compliance with applicable Medicare, Medicaid, or HIPAA requirements or other laws to which we are subject, among governmental authorities, physicians, hospitals, discharge planning departments, case managers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, advocacy groups, patients and their families, other referral sources, and the public. For example, while we believe that the services we provide are of high quality, if our “quality measures,” which are published annually online by CMS, are deemed to be not of the highest value, our reputation could be negatively affected. Adverse publicity surrounding any aspect of our business, including our failure to provide proper care, staffing, or training, incidents at our facilities, employee misconduct, conditions at our facilities, litigation, licensure actions, changes in public perception of our services or government investigations of our operations could negatively affect our overall reputation, the willingness of other providers and organizations to refer patients to us, of patients to use our services, and our ability to retain agreements or obtain new agreements. Increased government scrutiny may also contribute to an increase in compliance costs. Any of these events could have a negative effect on our business, financial condition, and operating results.

There has been a marked increase in the use of social media platforms and similar channels that provide individuals with access to a broad audience of consumers and other interested persons. The availability of information on social media platforms is virtually immediate, as is its effect. Many social media platforms

 

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immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on accuracy of the content posted. The opportunity for dissemination of information, including inaccurate information, is potentially limitless. Information about our business and/or services may be posted on such platforms at any time. Negative views regarding our services may continue to be posted in the future, and are out of our control. Regardless of their accuracy or authenticity, such information and views may be adverse to our interests and may harm our reputation and brand. The harm may be immediate without affording an opportunity for redress or correction. Such negative publicity also could adversely affect the size, engagement, activity, and loyalty of our customer base or the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing, and result in decreased revenue, or require us to expend additional funds for marketing efforts. Ultimately, the risks associated with any such negative publicity cannot be eliminated or completely mitigated and may materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If our existing customers do not continue with or renew their contracts with us, renew at lower fee levels, decline to purchase additional services from us or reduce the services received from us pursuant to those contracts, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Our agreements with our customers are generally in effect for specific time periods. However, certain of our Pharmacy Solutions segment contracts are terminable without cause upon advance written notice, giving those customers leverage to demand more favorable pricing, or seek services from another provider. In all of our lines of business, our ability to renew or retain our agreements depends on our quality of service and reputation, but may also be affected by other factors over which we have little or no control, such as government appropriations and changes in provider eligibility requirements. Additionally, failure to satisfy any of the numerous technical renewal requirements in connections with our proposals for agreements could result in a proposal being rejected even if it contains favorable pricing terms. Failure to obtain, renew, or retain agreements with customers may negatively impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We can give no assurance that our existing agreements will be renewed on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Our business depends on our ability to effectively invest in, implement improvements to, and properly maintain the uninterrupted operation and data integrity of our information technology and other business systems.

Our business is highly dependent on maintaining effective and secure information systems, including those maintained by us and those maintained and provided by third-party service providers (for example, “software-as-a-service” and cloud solutions), as well as the integrity and timeliness of the data we use to serve our patients, support employees and operate our business. Our business also supports the use of electronic visit verification, or EVV, to collect visit submission information such as service type, visit start time and end time, and care plan tasks for our home and community based care services. We use mobile devices to capture time in and time out, mileage and travel time, as well as the completed care plan tasks with client verification. Our ability to effectively manage our business and coordinate the provision and billing of our services and prompt, accurate documentation of the care and services we provide depends significantly on the reliability and capacity of these systems. We rely on these providers to provide continual operation, as well as maintenance, enhancements, and security of any protected and/or confidential data (including personal information). To the extent that our EVV and other vendors fail to support these processes, our internal operations could be negatively affected. Our systems, and those of our third-party service providers, are vulnerable to damages, failures, malfunctions, outages or other interruptions which could be caused by a number of factors such as power outages or damages, telecommunications problems, data corruption, software errors, human error, computer viruses, defects and other errors, physical or electronic break-ins, theft, design defects, network failures, security breaches, cyberattacks, acts of war or terrorist attacks, fire, flood, and natural disasters. A system failure, outage or other interruption may also cause the corruption or loss of important, confidential, and/or protected data (including personal information). See “—Risks Related to Our Regulatory Framework—If we are found to have violated HIPAA, or any other applicable privacy and security laws and regulations, as well as contractual

 

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obligations, we could be subject to sanctions, fines, damages, and other additional civil or criminal penalties, which could increase our liabilities, harm our reputation, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.” Furthermore, our third-party providers’ existing safety systems, data backup, access protection, user management, information technology emergency planning, and other security measures may not be sufficient to prevent data loss or long-term network outages.

In addition, we may have to upgrade our existing information technology systems from time to time in order for such systems to withstand the increasing needs of our expanding business. We rely on certain hardware, telecommunications, and software vendors to maintain and periodically upgrade many of these systems so that we can continue to support our business. Costs and potential problems and interruptions associated with the implementation of new or upgraded systems and technology or with maintenance or adequate support of existing systems could disrupt or reduce the efficiency of our operations. Further, upgrading and expanding our information technology infrastructure could require significant investment of additional resources and capital, which may not always be available or available on favorable terms. We also depend on our information technology staff. If we cannot meet our staffing needs in this area, we may not be able to fulfill our technology initiatives while continuing to provide maintenance on existing systems. Any material disruption, outage or slowdown of our systems or those of our third-party providers, including those caused by our or their failure to successfully upgrade our or their systems, and our or their inability to convert to alternate systems in an efficient and timely manner could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Additionally, operations that we acquire must be integrated into our various information systems in an efficient and effective manner. For certain aspects, we rely upon third-party service providers to assist us with those activities. If we are unable to integrate and transition any acquired business into our information systems, due to our failures or any failure of our third-party service providers, we could incur unanticipated expenses, suffer disruptions in service, experience regulatory issues, and lose revenue from the operation of such business.

Security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions could compromise sensitive business or patient information, cause a loss of confidential patient data, employee data, personal information, or prevent access to critical information, and expose us to liability, litigation, and federal and state governmental inquiries and damage our reputation and brand.

In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, process, use, transmit, share, disclose, create, receive, maintain, transmit, and store, or collectively, Process, personal information (which may also be referred to as personal data, personally identifiable information, and/or non-public personal information), including protected health information, or PHI, relating to our patients, employees, referral sources, payors, and others. We also Process, and contract with third-party service providers to Process, other sensitive, confidential, and/or proprietary information. We use third-party service providers for important aspects of the Processing of personal information and other confidential and sensitive data and information, and therefore rely on third parties to manage functions that have material cybersecurity risks. Because of the sensitivity of the such personal information and other sensitive data and information that we and our service providers Process, the security of our technology platform and other aspects of our services, including those provided or facilitated by our third-party service providers, are critical to our operations and business strategy. Our patients, employees, payors, and referral sources have a high expectation that we will adequately protect their information, including personal information, from cyberattacks or other security breaches, and may have claims against us if we are unable to do so. We may also have exposure to regulatory investigations and other compliance risks in the event of a cyberattack or other security breach. We have been, and are currently, subject to HHS investigations with respect to data privacy and security incidents involving PHI. There can be no assurance that we will not be subject to such HHS investigations or investigations by other governmental or regulatory authorities in the future, including those that may have a material impact on our business. Any delay in identifying such breaches or incidents or in providing timely reports or notification of such incidents may lead to increased harm and increased penalties or other actions, such as measures required as part of any resolution or settlement agreement. Our patients, employees, payors, and referral sources may have contractual rights of indemnification against us in the event

 

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that their personal or proprietary business information is accessed, acquired, disclosed, lost, used or compromised as a result of a breach of our information systems. In such an event, these parties may also seek to terminate our contracts with them.

Our systems and those of our third-party service providers and business partners may be vulnerable to, and have experienced, data or security breaches, cyberattacks (including ransomware), acts of vandalism, computer viruses, misplaced or lost data, human errors, or other similar events. While we have safeguards in place designed to defend our systems against intrusions and attacks and to protect our data, we cannot be certain that these measures are sufficient to counter all current and emerging technology threats. If unauthorized parties gain access to our networks or data, or those of our employees, third-party service providers or business partners, they may be able to access, steal, publish, delete, use in an unauthorized manner or modify confidential and sensitive information, including personal information, PHI, trade secrets or other confidential information, intellectual property, and proprietary business information. In addition, employees may intentionally or inadvertently cause data or security breaches that result in destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to such information. Further, the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service, or sabotage systems change frequently and are often difficult to detect. Threats to our systems and associated third-party systems can originate from human error, fraud, or malice on the part of employees or third parties or simply from accidental technological failure. Computer viruses and other malware can be distributed and could infiltrate our systems or those of associated third parties. Because the techniques used to circumvent security systems can be highly sophisticated, change frequently, are often not detected until launched against a target and may originate from less regulated and remote areas around the world, we, and our third-party service providers, may be unable to effectively detect or proactively address all possible techniques, implement adequate preventive measures for all situations or respond to any breach or security incident. The administrative, physical, and technological safeguards we or our third-party service providers implement to address these risks may not address applicable laws and regulations or address situations that could lead to increased privacy or security risks. The businesses we have acquired, or may acquire in the future, may not have in place all of the required safeguards and may have experienced breaches or security incidents. It may take significant time and expense to integrate such businesses to our policies and procedures. To the extent we terminate contracts with our third-party service providers, we may not be able to ensure that the relevant personal information of our patients and employees is maintained in compliance with the required safeguards. In the normal course of business, we are and have been the target of malicious cyberattack attempts and have experienced ransomware attacks and other security incidents that have disrupted our operations. For example, in March 2023, we experienced a ransomware attack that resulted in a breach of more than 6 million individuals’ personal information (including PHI). While we do not currently expect this incident to have a material impact on our business, we notified the impacted individuals and applicable regulators and are currently subject to a HHS Office for Civil Rights investigation, various state regulatory investigations, and various lawsuits in connection with this incident. There can be no assurance that any present or future cyberattacks will not be material or significant.

Any such cyberattack or threat, including those that result in data or security breaches, could result in costly investigations, litigation, government enforcement actions, civil or criminal penalties, fines, operational changes or other response measures, loss of patient and customer confidence in our security measures, loss of business partners, and negative publicity that could adversely affect our brand, reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations. In particular, any such interruption in access, compromise, use, improper access, acquisition, disclosure or other loss of information, including personal information or PHI, could result in legal claims or proceedings and/or liability or penalties under laws and regulations that protect the privacy, confidentiality, or security of personal information, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 and other laws, and implementing regulations, or collectively, HIPAA, the FTCA, the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, or CPRA, and its implementing regulations, and other state data privacy, security, consumer health data, or consumer protection laws, including state breach notification laws. These laws often provide for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that may increase data breach litigation. Any delay in identifying such breaches or incidents or in providing timely notification of such incidents may lead to increased harm and increased penalties. For further information, see “—Risks Related to Our Regulatory Framework—If we are found to have violated HIPAA, or any other applicable privacy and security laws

 

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and regulations, as well as contractual obligations, we could be subject to sanctions, fines, damages, and other additional civil or criminal penalties, which could increase our liabilities, harm our reputation, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operation.”

In addition, denial of service or other cyberattacks could be launched against us for a variety of purposes, including to interfere with our services or create a diversion for other malicious activities. Our defensive measures may not prevent unplanned downtime, or the unauthorized access, acquisition, disclosure, or use of confidential, sensitive data, and/or personal information. We may be required to expend significant capital and other resources to protect against security breaches, to safeguard the privacy, security, and confidentiality of personal information and other sensitive data and information, to investigate, contain, remediate, and mitigate actual or potential security breaches and security incidents, and/or to report security breaches and security incidents to patients, customers, employees, regulators, media, credit bureaus, and other third parties in accordance with applicable law and to offer complimentary credit monitoring, identity theft protection, and similar services where required by law or otherwise appropriate. While we maintain cyber errors and omissions insurance coverage that covers certain aspects of cyber risks, these losses may not be adequately covered by insurance or other contractual rights available to us. We may also be subject to potential increases in insurance premiums, resulting in increased costs or loss of revenue, and such insurance coverage may not continue to be available to us in adequate amounts or on satisfactory terms, if at all.

We are subject to risks related to credit card payments and other payment methods.

We currently accept credit cards and debit cards. As a result, we pay interchange and other related acceptance and transaction processing fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower profitability.

We are also subject to evolving Payment Card Industry, or PCI, and network operating rules, including data security rules, certification requirements, and rules governing electronic funds transfers. For example, we are subject to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, issued by the PCI Security Standards Council, that contains compliance guidelines and standards with regard to our security surrounding the physical and electronic storage, processing, and transmission of individual cardholder data, including regular audit to maintain compliance. As our business evolves and expands, and if we offer new payment options to consumers, we may be subject to additional regulations, compliance requirements, fraud, and other risks, in addition to new assessments that involve costs above what we currently pay for compliance. By accepting debit cards for payment, we are also subject to compliance with American National Standards Institute data encryption standards and payment network security operating guidelines. Additionally, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act requires systems that print payment card receipts to employ personal account number truncation so that the customer’s full account number is not viewable on the slip. Failure to be PCI compliant or to meet other payment card standards may result in the imposition of financial penalties or the allocation by the card brands of the costs of fraudulent charges to us. In addition, if we (or a third-party processing payment card transactions on our behalf) suffer a security breach affecting payment card information, we may have to pay onerous and significant fines, penalties, and assessments arising out of the major card brands’ rules and regulations, contractual indemnifications, or liability contained in merchant agreements and similar contracts, and we may lose our ability to accept payment cards for payment for our services, which could materially impact our operations and financial performance.

In addition, we rely on third-party payment processors to process the payments made by our customers. If our third-party payment processors terminate their relationships with us or refuse to renew their agreements with us on commercially reasonable terms, we would need to find an alternate payment processor and may not be able to secure similar terms or replace such payment processors in an acceptable time frame. Further, the software and services provided by our third-party payment processors may contain errors or vulnerabilities, be compromised, experience outages, or not meet our expectations. If any of these events were to occur, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

 

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We occasionally receive payments made with fraudulent data which result in customer-initiated disputes (charge-backs). Under current credit and debit card practices, we may be liable for fraudulent transactions and be required by card issuers to pay charge-back fees. Charge-backs result not only in our loss of fees earned with respect to the payment, but also leave us liable for the underlying money transfer amount. If our charge-back rate becomes excessive, card brands and associations also may require us to pay fines or refuse to process our transactions. In addition, we may be subject to additional fraud risk if third-party service providers or our employees fraudulently use our customer information for their own gain or facilitate the fraudulent use of such information. As a result, we may suffer losses as a result of orders placed with fraudulent data even if the associated financial institution approved payment of the orders. If we are unable to detect or control credit and debit card fraud, our liability for these transactions could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may be subject to substantial malpractice or other similar claims.

The nature of our business subjects us to inherent risk of wrongful death, personal injury, product liability, professional malpractice and other potential claims, liabilities, and substantial damage awards. In addition, the pharmaceutical products we dispense could become subject to contamination, product tampering, mislabeling, recall or other damage. In addition, errors in the compounding, dispensing, and packaging of drugs and consuming drugs in a manner that is not prescribed could lead to serious injury or death. Healthcare providers have become subject to an increasing number of legal actions alleging malpractice or related legal theories in recent years, many of which involve large monetary claims and significant defense costs. In general, we coordinate care for high-need, medically complex individuals through employed clinicians, caregivers, and pharmacists, including registered nurses, limited practice nurses, licensed therapists, certified nursing assistants, home health aides, therapy assistants, direct care staff, and other similar professionals. From time to time, we are subject to claims alleging that we did not properly treat or care for a patient, that we failed to follow internal or external procedures that resulted in death or harm to a patient or that our employees mistreated our consumers, resulting in death or harm. We are also subject to claims arising out of accidents involving vehicle collisions brought by patients whom we are transporting, from employees driving to or from home visits or other affected individuals. We cannot be certain that a provider will not incur tort liability in treating one of our patients. The clinicians, caregivers, and other healthcare professionals we employ could be considered our agents and, as a result, we could be held liable for their acts, omissions, malpractice, and/or negligence and may be subject to mass tort actions and/or class actions. We cannot predict the effect that any claims of this nature, regardless of their ultimate outcome, could have on our business or reputation or on our ability to attract and retain patients and employees. We are self-insured for a substantial portion of our general and professional liability, automobile liability, workers’ compensation risks, and (subject to certain stop loss coverage at a high level of losses) health benefits. Any claims against us in excess of insurance limits, or multiple claims requiring us to pay deductibles or self-insured retention amounts, as well as the potential impact on our brand or reputation as a result of being involved in any legal proceedings, could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We are exposed to various risks related to governmental inquiries, regulatory actions, and whistleblower and other lawsuits that could adversely affect our operating results. Our insurance may not cover all claims against us.

Regulatory agencies may initiate administrative proceedings alleging violations of statutes and regulations arising from our services, or reimbursement of those services, and seek to impose monetary penalties on us. We could be required to pay substantial amounts to respond to and defend against regulatory investigations, and if we do not prevail, damages or penalties arising from these administrative proceedings. We are subject to lawsuits, civil investigative demands, and subpoenas under the False Claims Act, the Controlled Substances Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute, and other federal and state statutes designed to combat fraud and abuse in our industries, as well as civil investigative demands, subpoenas and other inquiries related to our operations, including several ongoing qui tam actions and the Silver matter, as discussed under “Business—Legal Proceedings.” Additionally, there can be no assurance that we will not be subject to claims or litigation related to the authorization or denial

 

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of claims for payment of benefits, or to allegations that we have engaged in fee splitting, which may be prohibited under state laws, or to allegations that we engage in the corporate practice of medicine or the delivery of medical services, where prohibited. Moreover, we could also be subject to potential litigation associated with compliance with various laws and governmental regulations at the federal or state levels, such as those relating to the protection of older adults and persons with disabilities or those related to employment, health, safety, security, and other regulations under which we operate. We are currently subject to class actions, employee-related claims, and other lawsuits and proceedings in connection with our operations, including, but not limited to, those related to alleged violations of federal and state wage and hour laws, wrongful discharge, retaliation, and illegal discrimination. We are also named as a defendant, along with a number of drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies, in civil litigation instituted by certain Maryland municipalities, which allege claims generally concerning the impacts of widespread opioid abuse in their municipalities. We cannot predict with certainty the outcome of this litigation or how our role, including as a closed door long-term care pharmacy, may be viewed as compared to the role of a manufacturer, distributor or retail pharmacy. The litigation may remain unresolved for several years, and we could incur significant expense in order to resolve the matter, including through settlement agreements. These claims, lawsuits, and proceedings are in various stages of adjudication or investigation and involve a wide variety of claims and potential outcomes.

Responding to lawsuits brought against us and governmental inquiries can often be expensive, time-consuming, and disruptive to normal business operations. Moreover, complex legal proceedings and governmental inquiries may remain unresolved for several years, and the results are difficult to predict. Unfavorable outcomes from these claims, lawsuits, and governmental inquiries could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations and we could incur substantial monetary liability and/or be required to change our business practices. Any claims made against us, regardless of their merit or eventual outcome, could damage our reputation and business and our ability to attract and retain patients, customers, strategic partnerships, and employees.

We maintain general liability insurance to provide coverage to us and our subsidiaries against these litigation claims and potential litigation risks. However, we cannot assure you claims will not be made in the future in excess of the limits of our insurance, nor can we assure you that any such claims, if successful and in excess of such limits, will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. We cannot assure you that the insurance we maintain will satisfy claims made against us or that insurance coverage will continue to be available to us at commercially reasonable rates, in adequate amounts or on satisfactory terms, if at all.

Our current insurance program may expose us to unexpected costs and negatively affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations, particularly if we incur losses not covered by our insurance or if claims or losses differ from our estimates.

Although our insurance coverage reflects deductibles, self-insured retentions, limits of liability, and similar provisions that we believe are reasonable based on our operations, the coverage under our insurance programs may not be adequate to protect us in all circumstances. Given the policy limits and high deductibles and/or self-insured retentions on many of the Company’s insurance programs, the vast majority of claims may not be paid by third-party insurance. Our insurance policies contain exclusions and conditions that could have a materially adverse impact on our ability to receive indemnification thereunder, as well as customary sub-limits for particular types of losses. Additionally, insurance companies that currently insure companies in our industries may cease to do so, may change the coverage provided, or may substantially increase premiums in the future. Changes in our annual insurance costs and self-insured retention limits depend in large part on the insurance market, and insurance coverage may not continue to be available to us at commercially reasonable rates, in adequate amounts or on satisfactory terms, if at all. We self-insure for a substantial portion of our general and professional liability, automobile liability, workers’ compensation risks, and (subject to certain stop loss coverage at a high level of losses) health benefits. We self-insure for various risks, including employment class actions, False Claims Act actions, adverse regulatory actions, commercial contractual or commercial tort actions, and intellectual property actions. The incurrences of losses and liabilities that exceed our available coverage, therefore, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

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We utilize historical data to estimate our reserves for our insurance programs. Unanticipated changes in any applicable actuarial assumptions and management estimates underlying our liabilities for these losses could result in materially different expenses than expected under these programs, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we experience a greater number of these losses than we anticipate, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Factors outside of our control, including those listed, have required, and could in the future require us to record an asset impairment of goodwill.

Because we have grown in part through acquisitions, goodwill and intangible assets, net represent a significant portion of our assets. We monitor the recoverability of our indefinite-lived intangible assets, which include our licenses, and evaluate goodwill and indefinite-lived intangible assets annually, or more frequently if indicators of impairment exist in interim periods, to determine if impairment has occurred. We also review the carrying value of our goodwill and intangible assets, both indefinite- and definite-lived, for impairment whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying value of such assets may not be fully recoverable. Such indicators are based on market conditions and the operational performance of our business. If the testing performed indicates that impairment has occurred, we are required to record a non-cash impairment charge for the difference between the carrying value of the intangible assets or goodwill and the fair value of the intangible assets or the goodwill, respectively, in the period the determination is made. The testing of goodwill and intangible assets for impairment requires us to make estimates that are subject to significant assumptions about our future revenues, profitability, cash flow, fair value of assets and liabilities, and weighted average cost of capital, as well as other assumptions. Changes in these estimates, or changes in actual performance compared with these estimates, may affect the fair value of intangible assets or goodwill, which may result in an impairment charge. For the year ended December 31, 2022, we recognized a goodwill impairment charge of $40.9 million. See Note 1 “Significant Accounting Policies” and Note 4 “Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets” to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this prospectus. If as part of our review of goodwill and intangibles for impairment, we were required to write down all or a significant part of our goodwill and/or intangible assets, our financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

A pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, including the ongoing effects of COVID-19, have had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our business.

The actual or perceived effects of a disease outbreak, epidemic, pandemic, or similar widespread public health concern, such as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, could negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, we may experience increased costs of care, reduced reimbursements, difficulties obtaining supplies due to shortages or supply chain disruptions, and changes in referral patterns. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we experienced a script reduction compared to pre-pandemic levels that was due largely to industry declines in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility occupancy rates. The COVID-19 pandemic also adversely impacted economic activity and conditions worldwide, including workforces, liquidity, capital markets, consumer behavior, supply chains, and macroeconomic conditions.

We may be more vulnerable to the effects of a public health emergency than other businesses due to our complex patient populations and the physical proximity required by our operations. The majority of our patients are medically complex individuals, many of whom may be more vulnerable than the general public during a pandemic or in a public health emergency, due to chronic illnesses, disabilities, behavioral health issues, or other socioeconomic factors. Demand for home and community health provider services could be significantly diminished due to heightened anxiety among our patients regarding the risk of exposure to a disease or other public health concern during home or community visits, as well as fluctuations in the population of long term facilities that we serve.

Our clinicians, caregivers, and employees are also at greater risk of contracting contagious diseases due to their increased exposure to vulnerable patients and the essential nature of their work. If there is a reduction in our

 

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available healthcare providers due to concerns around a disease outbreak or related risks or if substantial numbers of our healthcare providers were to contract a disease or otherwise be required to quarantine due to exposure to a contagious disease, our ability to provide services to our patients may be significantly interrupted or suspended.

If we are to experience any other pandemic or outbreak, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be adversely impacted, including in ways similar to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, riots, civil insurrection or social unrest, looting, protests, strikes, or street demonstrations may impact our ability to provide services.

Inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, riots, civil insurrection, social unrest or other acts of violence, looting, protests, strikes, or street demonstrations may prevent our employees from providing authorized services. We are not paid for authorized services that are not delivered due to these events. Furthermore, prolonged disruptions as a result of such events in the markets in which we operate, could disrupt our relationships with patients, caregivers and employees, and referral sources located in affected areas and, in the case of our corporate office, our ability to provide administrative support services, including billing and collection services. Future inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, riots, civil insurrection, social unrest or other acts of violence, looting, protests, strikes or street demonstrations may adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could harm our business.

We rely on a combination of intellectual property laws, internal procedures, and nondisclosure agreements to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights. We believe our trademarks are valuable assets. However, our intellectual property rights may not be sufficient to distinguish our services from those of our competitors and to provide us with a competitive advantage. For example, from time to time, third parties may use names, logos, and slogans similar to ours, may apply to register trademarks or domain names similar to ours, and may infringe or otherwise violate our intellectual property rights. Our intellectual property rights may not be successfully asserted against such third parties or may be invalidated, circumvented, or challenged. Asserting or defending our intellectual property rights could be time consuming and costly and could distract management’s attention and resources. If we are unable to prevent our competitors from using names, logos, slogans, and domain names similar to ours, consumer confusion could result, the perception of our brands and services could be negatively affected, and our revenue and profitability could suffer as a result. Failure to protect our intellectual property and proprietary rights could have an adverse effect on our business.

KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder control us and their interests may conflict with yours in the future.

Immediately following this offering, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder will collectively beneficially own approximately 67.9% of the voting power of our common stock (or approximately 64.8% if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option). As a result, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder will be able to control the election and removal of our directors and thereby determine our corporate and management policies, including potential mergers or acquisitions, payment of dividends, asset sales, amendment of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws and other significant corporate transactions for so long as KKR Stockholder and its affiliates and/or Walgreen Stockholder and its affiliates retain significant ownership of us. KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder and their respective affiliates may also direct us to make significant changes to our business operations and strategy, including with respect to, among other things, new service offerings, employee headcount levels, and initiatives to reduce costs and expenses. This concentration of our ownership may delay or deter possible changes in control of the Company, which may reduce the value of an investment in our common stock. So long as KKR Stockholder and its affiliates and/or Walgreen Stockholder and its affiliates continue to own, directly or indirectly, a significant amount of our voting power, even if such amount is less than 50%, they will continue to be able to strongly influence or effectively control our decisions,

 

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and each of KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder has the right to nominate individuals to our board of directors under the existing stockholders agreement. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Stockholders Agreement.”

In the ordinary course of their business activities, KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder, and their respective affiliates may engage in activities where their interests conflict with our interests or those of our stockholders. Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that any of KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder, any of their respective affiliates or any director who is not employed by us or his or her affiliates will not have any duty to refrain from engaging, directly or indirectly, in the same business activities or similar business activities or lines of business in which we operate. KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder, and their respective affiliates also may pursue acquisition opportunities that may be complementary to our business and, as a result, those acquisition opportunities may not be available to us. In addition, KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder, and their respective affiliates may have an interest in pursuing acquisitions, divestitures, and other transactions that, in their judgment, could enhance their investment, even though such transactions might involve risks to you.

In addition, KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder, and their respective affiliates will be able to determine the outcome of all matters requiring stockholder approval and will be able to cause or prevent a change of control of the Company or a change in the composition of our board of directors and could preclude any acquisition of the Company. This concentration of voting control could deprive you of an opportunity to receive a premium for your shares of common stock as part of a sale of the Company and ultimately might affect the market price of our common stock.

Risks Related to Our Regulatory Framework

We conduct business in a heavily regulated industry, and changes in regulations, the enforcement of these regulations, or violations of regulations may result in increased costs or sanctions that reduce our revenues and profitability.

The federal government and the states in which we operate regulate our industries extensively. The laws and regulations governing our operations, along with the conditions of participation and conditions of payment, in various government programs, impose certain requirements on the way in which we do business, the services we offer, and our interactions with providers and consumers. The extensive federal and state regulations affecting the healthcare industry include, but are not limited to, regulations relating to licensure, certification and enrollment, billing and coding, eligibility for, necessity of, and provision of services, conduct of operations, allowable costs, prices for services, adequacy and quality of services, facility staffing requirements, facility accreditation, qualifications and licensure of staff, environmental and occupational health and safety, and the confidentiality and security of health-related information. In particular, various fraud and abuse laws, including the Anti-Kickback Statute, the Stark Law, and the False Claims Act, prohibit certain business practices and relationships that might affect the provision and cost of healthcare services reimbursable under Medicare and Medicaid, including the payment or receipt of remuneration for the referral of patients whose care will be paid for by Medicare or other governmental programs. Additionally, in some states, our contractual relationships with physicians and professional corporations, which we do not own, may implicate certain state laws that generally prohibit non-professional entities, such as us, from practicing medicine, employing physicians to practice medicine, providing licensed medical services and exercising control over medical decisions by licensed physicians or other healthcare professionals (such activities are generally referred to as the corporate practice of medicine). Other states in which we may operate in the future may also prohibit the corporate practice of medicine. Our contractual relationships with physicians and professional corporations may be challenged by governmental and regulatory authorities, state boards of medicine, state attorneys general and other parties that assert or determine that our relationships with professional corporations violate state corporate practice of medicine, fee-splitting, and kickback prohibitions. We are also subject to laws requiring the registration and regulation of pharmacies; laws governing the dispensing of pharmaceuticals and controlled substances; laws

 

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regulating the protection of the environment and health and safety matters, including those governing exposure to, and the management and disposal of, hazardous substances; laws regarding food and drug safety, including those of the Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA. We are required to hold valid DEA and state-level licenses, meet various security and operating standards, and comply with the federal and various state controlled substance acts and related regulations governing the sale, dispensing, disposal, holding and distribution of controlled substances. Compliance with these regulations is expensive, and these costs may increase in the future.

Federal and state governments continue to pursue intensive enforcement policies resulting in a significant number of investigations, inspections, audits, citations of regulatory deficiencies, and other regulatory sanctions, including demands for refund of alleged overpayments, terminations from the Medicare and Medicaid programs, bans on Medicare and Medicaid payments for new admissions, admission moratoriums, and civil monetary penalties or criminal penalties. We expect audits under the CMS Recovery Audit Contractor, or RAC, program, the CMS Targeted Probe and Educate, or TPE, program, the Unified Program Integrity Contractors, or UPIC, program and other federal and state audits evaluating the medical necessity of services to further intensify the regulatory environment surrounding the healthcare industry, as third-party firms engaged by CMS and others conduct extensive pre and post-payment audits of claims data as well as medical and other records in order to identify improper payments to healthcare providers under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The DEA, FDA, and state regulatory authorities have broad enforcement powers, including the ability to seize or recall products. If we fail to comply with the extensive laws, regulations, and prohibitions applicable to our businesses, we could become ineligible or disqualified to provide services or receive government program reimbursement, suffer suspension or revocation of our licenses, cancellation of our agreements, civil or criminal penalties, and/or damage to our reputation, lose billing privileges, be barred from re-enrollment in governmental payor programs, or be required to repay amounts received or to make significant changes to our operations. We may also become subject to corporate integrity agreement(s) or monitoring by regulatory agencies. In addition, we could be forced to expend considerable resources responding to investigations, audits, or other enforcement actions related to these laws, regulations, or prohibitions. Failure of our staff to satisfy applicable licensure requirements, or of our home and community health services and pharmacy services operations or our service providers to satisfy applicable licensure and certification requirements, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In March 2020, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, or ONC, and CMS promulgated final rules aimed at supporting seamless and secure access, exchange, and use of electronic health information, or EHI, by increasing innovation and competition by giving patients and their healthcare providers secure access to health information and new tools, allowing for more choice in care and treatment. The final rules were intended to clarify and operationalize provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act, or Cures Act, regarding interoperability and “information blocking.” Information blocking is defined as any activity that is likely to interfere with, prevent, or materially discourage access, exchange, or use of EHI, where a health information technology developer, health information network or health information exchange knows or should know that such practice is likely to interfere with access to, exchange or use of EHI. The final rules created significant requirements for healthcare industry participants, and required certain electronic health record technology to incorporate standardized application programming interfaces, or APIs, to allow individuals to securely and easily access structured EHI using smartphone applications. The ONC also implemented provisions of the Cures Act requiring that patients can electronically access all of their EHI (structured and/or unstructured) at no cost. Finally, to further support access and exchange of EHI, the final ONC rule implemented the information blocking provisions of the Cures Act and identified eight “reasonable and necessary activities” as exceptions to information blocking activities, as long as specific conditions are met. On April 18, 2023, the ONC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would modify certain components of the final ONC rule, including modifying and expanding certain exceptions to the information blocking regulations, which are intended to support information sharing. The impact of these changes on our business is unclear at this time, due to, among other things, uncertainty regarding the interpretation of safe harbors and exceptions to the final ONC rule by industry participants and regulators. Additionally, on July 3, 2023, the HHS Office of Inspector General, or OIG, issued a final rule that amended the HHS OIG’s civil money penalty regulations to add information blocking civil money penalty authority to the existing regulatory framework

 

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for the imposition and appeal of civil money penalties, assessments, and exclusions. The final rule also explained that OIG would focus its enforcement efforts on information blocking allegations that pose greater risk to patients, providers, and healthcare programs.

We are unable to predict the future course of federal and state regulation or legislation, including Medicare and Medicaid statutes and regulations, or the intensity of federal and state enforcement actions. Changes in the regulatory framework, including those associated with healthcare reform, and sanctions from various enforcement actions could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In the U.S., we conduct business in a heavily regulated industry and if we fail to comply with these laws and government regulations, we could incur fines and penalties or be required to make significant changes to our operations or experience adverse publicity, any or all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

The U.S. healthcare industry is heavily regulated and closely scrutinized by federal, state, and local governments. Comprehensive statutes and regulations govern our relationships with physicians and other healthcare providers, the manner in we provide and bill for services and collect reimbursement from governmental programs and private payors, our relationships with drug manufacturers, our marketing activities, and other aspects of our operations. Of particular importance are:

 

   

the Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits the knowing and willful offer, payment, solicitation, or receipt of any bribe, kickback, rebate, or other remuneration for referring an individual, in return for ordering, leasing, purchasing or recommending or arranging for or to induce the referral of an individual, or the ordering, purchasing, or leasing of items or services covered, in whole or in part, by any federal healthcare program, such as Medicare and Medicaid. A person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it to have committed a violation;

 

   

the federal physician self-referral law, commonly referred to as the Stark Law, which, subject to limited exceptions, prohibits physicians from referring Medicare or Medicaid patients to an entity for the provision of certain “designated health services” if the physician or a member of such physician’s immediate family has a direct or indirect financial relationship (including an ownership interest or a compensation arrangement) with the entity, and prohibit the entity from billing Medicare or Medicaid for such designated health services;

 

   

the False Claims Act, which imposes civil and criminal liability on individuals or entities that knowingly submit false or fraudulent claims for payment to the government or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement in order to have a false claim paid, including qui tam or whistleblower suits. There are many potential bases for liability under the False Claims Act. The government has used the False Claims Act to prosecute Medicare and other government healthcare program fraud such as coding errors, billing for services not provided, and providing care that is not medically necessary or that is substandard in quality. In addition, the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute or the Stark Law constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the False Claims Act;

 

   

the criminal healthcare fraud provisions of HIPAA, and related rules that prohibit knowingly and willfully executing a scheme or artifice to defraud any healthcare benefit program or falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any material false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for healthcare benefits, items or services. Similar to the Anti-Kickback Statute, a person or entity does not need to have actual knowledge of the statute or specific intent to violate it to have committed a violation;

 

   

reassignment of payment rules that prohibit certain types of billing and collection practices in connection with claims payable by the Medicare or Medicaid programs;

 

   

similar state law provisions pertaining to anti-kickback, self-referral, and false claims issues, some of which may apply to items or services reimbursed by any payor, including patients and commercial

 

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insurers. These statutes and regulations generally prohibit the payment or receipt of remuneration to induce or in exchange for a referral, and prohibit physicians from referring patients to an entity with which the physicians have a financial relationship, thus limiting the types of payments that can be made between healthcare providers and other parties who may influence referrals to those providers. Many of these statutes and regulations have not been interpreted to the extent of their federal analogues, and therefore are not clear in their scope and application;

 

   

state corporate practice of medicine and fee-splitting laws that prohibit general business corporations, such as us, from practicing medicine, controlling physicians’ medical decisions or engaging in some practices such as splitting fees with physicians;

 

   

laws that regulate debt collection practices;

 

   

a provision of the Social Security Act that imposes criminal penalties on healthcare providers who fail to disclose, or refund known overpayments;

 

   

federal and state laws that prohibit providers from billing and receiving payment from Medicare and Medicaid for services unless the services are medically necessary, adequately and accurately documented, and billed using codes that accurately reflect the type and level of services rendered;

 

   

federal and state laws that require licenses to dispense pharmaceuticals, including state laws that restrict operations by non-resident pharmacies, which may affect our ability to operate in some states; and

 

   

federal and state laws and policies that require healthcare providers to maintain licensure, certification or accreditation to enroll and participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and to report certain changes in their operations to the agencies that administer these programs.

Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the statutory exceptions and safe harbors available, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of these laws. Achieving and sustaining compliance with these laws may prove costly. Although a well-designed and effective compliance program that detects and prevents wrongdoing may help identify and remediate misconduct and reduce the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated, especially if our staff does not report compliance concerns or if our auditing and monitoring programs do not adequately identify and resolve compliance concerns. Failure to comply with these laws and other laws can result in civil and criminal penalties such as fines, damages, overpayment, recoupment, imprisonment, loss of enrollment status, and exclusion from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Our failure to accurately anticipate the application of these laws and regulations to our business or any other failure to comply with regulatory requirements could create liability for us and negatively affect our business. Any action against us for violation of these laws or regulations, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses, divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business, and result in adverse publicity.

Many states have CON laws or other regulatory provisions that may adversely impact our ability to expand into new markets and thereby limit our ability to grow and increase revenue.

Many states, including Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Maryland, have enacted CON laws that require prior state approval to offer new or expanded healthcare services or open new healthcare facilities or expand services at existing facilities. In such states, expansion by existing providers or entry into the market by new providers is permitted only where a given amount of unmet need exists, resulting from population increases, a reduction in competing providers, or a lack of providers. These states ration the entry of new providers or services and the expansion of existing providers or services in their markets through a CON process, which is periodically evaluated and updated as required by applicable state law. The process is intended to promote comprehensive healthcare planning, assist in providing high-quality healthcare at the lowest possible cost and avoid unnecessary duplication by ensuring that only those healthcare facilities, services, and operations that are needed will be built and opened or expanded.

Our costs of obtaining a CON in any new CON state in which we seek to operate could be significant, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain the CON or other required approvals in the future. We have

 

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applied for, and been approved for, CONs in states in which we currently operate. We have also applied for CON for which future hearings have been scheduled for Fall 2023. In the past, we have also been involved in other processes related to the application of a North Carolina county CON. Our failure or inability to obtain a required CON, license, or any necessary approvals could adversely affect our ability to expand into new markets and to expand our services and facilities in existing markets. Furthermore, if a CON or other prior approval upon which we relied to invest in a facility were to be revoked or lost through an appeal process, we may not be able to recover the value of our investment. Failure to obtain a CON may result in a facility’s ineligibility to receive reimbursement under the Medicare or Medicaid programs, the revocation of a facility’s license or imposition of civil or criminal penalties, any of which could harm our business. Although we believe that CON laws have not had a material impact on our business to date, the repeal of CON laws in CON markets may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

CMS and state Medicaid agencies may, for a period of time, impose a moratorium against additional Medicaid enrollment for a particular type of service, upon a determination that a moratorium is necessary to prevent fraud, waste, or abuse, or to limit an over-abundance of a type of Medicaid provider within a state. In addition, states may impose moratoriums relating to state Medicaid program, licensure, and other matters, such as number of beds. A moratorium in any state in which we seek to, or currently, operate may prevent us from introducing, acquiring or disposing of, operations in that state, respectively, which may impair our future expansion, acquisition, or divestiture opportunities in some states. For example, Mississippi has imposed a moratorium on new home health and hospital licenses, and other states perform assessments to determine if there is a need for additional facilities or beds. As another example, West Virginia has imposed a moratorium on new intermediate care facilities, with limited exceptions, and has also imposed a moratorium on healthcare facilities’ additions of intermediate care or skilled nursing beds to current licensed beds and the addition of beds in intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities. The imposition of additional CON laws may delay or otherwise affect our ability to accomplish our business objectives.

If we are unable to effectively adapt to changes in the healthcare industry, including changes to laws and regulations regarding or affecting U.S. healthcare reform, our business may be harmed.

In recent years, the Congress and certain state legislatures have considered and passed a large number of laws intended to result in significant changes to the healthcare industry, which could result in major changes in the healthcare delivery and reimbursement system on a national and state level, including changes directly impacting the reimbursement systems for our services. In March 2010, the ACA was signed into law and changed how healthcare services are delivered and reimbursed through the expansion of public and private health insurance coverage, reduction of growth in Medicare and Medicaid program spending, and the establishment and expansion of programs that tie reimbursement to quality and integration. Efforts to substantially modify provisions of the ACA have resulted in federal court reviews of such efforts, and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the latest constitutional challenge to the ACA’s requirement to obtain minimum essential health insurance coverage, or the individual mandate, on June 17, 2021. The ultimate outcomes of efforts to expand the ACA, substantially amend its provisions, or change funding for the ACA is unknown. Though we cannot predict what, if any, reform proposals will be adopted, healthcare reform and legislation may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Moreover, healthcare reform initiatives have also resulted in changes to, or the adoption of, federal and state laws and regulations relating to the regulation of PBMs, drug pricing or purchasing, and purchase discount and rebate arrangements with drug manufacturers, which could reduce discounts or rebates and affect our relationships with drug manufacturers. In addition to the rules promulgated by HHS, there have also been judicial decisions impacting the pharmacies and PBMs. For example, in December 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an Arkansas law that, among other things, mandates a particular pricing methodology, establishes an appeals process for a pharmacy when the reimbursement is below the pharmacy’s acquisition cost, permits a pharmacy to reverse and rebill if they cannot procure the drug from its wholesaler at a price equal to or less than the reimbursement rate, prohibits a PBM from reimbursing a pharmacy less than the amount it reimburses an affiliate on a per unit basis, and permits a pharmacy to decline to dispense if the reimbursement is lower than the pharmacy’s acquisition cost. More recently, in June 2022, the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC, announced an

 

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inquiry regarding the role of PBMs and stated its intent to closely scrutinize the impact of PBM rebates and fees on patients and payers. Several states have proposed separate PBM bills, and at least 18 states have adopted PBM oversight laws. A number of these proposed laws would require PBMs to submit annual transparency reports or otherwise disclose contractual arrangements with health benefit plans or health insurance issuers and would enable regulators to conduct audits of PBM operations. Congress has also considered legislation to reform PBMs and address PBM consolidation and power with respect to drug pricing. For example, in July 2023, the Senate Finance Committee voted to advance the Modernizing and Ensuring PBM Accountability Act. It is unclear how these laws, inquiries, rules, and decisions will impact pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, and PBMs. In addition, CMS has indicated that it intends to increase flexibility in state Medicaid programs, including by expanding the scope of waivers under which states may implement Medicaid expansion provisions, impose different eligibility or enrollment restrictions, or otherwise implement programs that vary from federal standards. CMS administrators have also signaled interest in changing Medicaid payment models. Other industry participants, such as private payors, may also introduce financial or delivery system reforms. We are unable to predict the nature and success of such initiatives. We cannot predict with certainty what impact any federal and state healthcare reforms will have on us, but such changes could impose new and/or more stringent regulatory requirements on our activities, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

If we are found to have violated HIPAA, or any other applicable privacy and security laws and regulations, as well as contractual obligations, we could be subject to sanctions, fines, damages and other additional civil or criminal penalties, which could increase our liabilities, harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

Numerous federal, state, and foreign laws, rules, and regulations, as well as contractual obligations, govern the Processing of confidential, sensitive, and personal information, including certain patient health information, such as patient records. Existing laws and regulations are constantly evolving, and new laws and regulations that apply to our business are being introduced at every level of government in the United States. In many cases, these laws and regulations apply not only to third-party transactions, but also to transfers of information between or among us, our affiliates, and other parties with whom we conduct business. These laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied differently over time and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and it is possible that they will be interpreted and applied in ways that may have a material adverse effect on our business. The regulatory framework for data privacy and security worldwide is continuously evolving and developing and, as a result, interpretation and implementation standards and enforcement practices are likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future.

For example, HIPAA establishes a set of national privacy and security standards in the United States for the protection of PHI by health plans, healthcare clearinghouses, and certain healthcare providers, referred to as covered entities, and the business associates with whom such covered entities contract for services that involve the use or disclosure of PHI, including certain subcontractors of such business associates. HIPAA requires healthcare providers like us to develop and maintain policies and procedures with respect to PHI that is used or disclosed, including the adoption of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect such information. In particular, HIPAA requires us to develop and maintain policies and procedures governing PHI that is used or disclosed, and to implement administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect PHI, including PHI maintained, used, and disclosed in electronic form. These safeguards include employee training, identifying business associates with whom covered entities need to enter into HIPAA-compliant contractual arrangements, called business associate agreements, and various other measures. Ongoing implementation and oversight of these measures involves significant time, effort, and expense and we may have to dedicate additional time and resources to ensure compliance with HIPAA requirements.

HIPAA further requires covered entities to notify affected individuals “without unreasonable delay and in no case later than 60 calendar days after discovery of the breach” if their unsecured PHI is subject to an unauthorized access, use or disclosure, though many states require shorter breach notification timeframes. If a

 

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breach affects 500 patients or more, covered entities must report it to HHS and local media without unreasonable delay (and in no case later than 60 days after discovery of the breach), and HHS will post the name of the entity on its public website. If a breach affects fewer than 500 individuals, the covered entity must log it and notify HHS at least annually. HIPAA also implemented the use of standard transaction code sets and standard identifiers that covered entities must use when submitting or receiving certain electronic healthcare transactions, including activities associated with the billing and collection of healthcare claims.

Penalties for failure to comply with a requirement of HIPAA vary significantly depending on the failure and could include requiring corrective actions, resolution agreements, and/or imposing civil monetary or criminal penalties. HIPAA also authorizes HHS to conduct audits of HIPAA compliance and state attorneys general to file suit under HIPAA on behalf of state residents. Courts can award damages, costs, and attorneys’ fees related to violations of HIPAA in such cases. While HIPAA does not create a private right of action allowing individuals to sue us in civil court for HIPAA violations, its standards have been used as the basis for a duty of care claim in state civil suits such as those for negligence or recklessness in the misuse or breach of PHI. Litigation with those affected could increase our liabilities, harm our reputation, and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Numerous other federal and state laws protect the confidentiality, privacy, availability, integrity, and security of PHI. For example, failing to take appropriate steps to keep consumers’ personal information secure constitutes unfair acts or practices in or affecting commerce in violation of Section 5(a) of the Federal Trade Commission Act, or the FTCA. The FTC expects a company’s data security measures to be reasonable and appropriate in light of the sensitivity and volume of consumer information it holds, the size and complexity of its business, and the cost of available tools to improve security and reduce vulnerabilities. Individually identifiable health information is considered sensitive data that merits stronger safeguards. The FTC’s current guidance for appropriately securing consumers’ personal information is similar to what is required by the HIPAA security regulations, but this guidance may change in the future, resulting in increased complexity and the need to expend additional resources to ensure we are complying with the FTCA. For information that is not subject to HIPAA and deemed to be “personal health records,” the FTC may also impose penalties for violations of the Health Breach Notification Rule, or HBNR, to the extent we are considered a “personal health record-related entity” or “third party service provider.” The FTC has taken several enforcement actions under HBNR this year and indicated that the FTC will continue to protect consumer privacy through greater use of the agency’s enforcement authorities. As a result, our operations may be subject to greater scrutiny by federal and state regulators, partners, and consumers with respect to our collection, use, and disclosure of health information. Additionally, federal and state consumer protection laws are increasingly being applied by FTC and states’ attorneys general to regulate the collection, use, storage, and disclosure of personal or personally identifiable information, through websites or otherwise, and to regulate the presentation of website content.

Further, various states, such as California and Massachusetts, have implemented privacy laws and regulations, such as the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, that impose restrictive requirements regulating the use and disclosure of personally identifiable information, including PHI. In many cases, these laws are more restrictive than, and may not be preempted by, HIPAA and may be subject to varying interpretations by courts and government agencies, creating complex compliance issues and potentially exposing us to additional expense, adverse publicity, and liability. We also expect that there will continue to be new laws, regulations, and industry standards concerning privacy, data protection, and information security proposed and enacted in various jurisdictions. For example, Washington State enacted a broadly applicable law to protect the privacy of personal health information known as the “My Health My Data Act,” which generally requires affirmative consent for the collection, use, or sharing of any “consumer health data.” Consumer health data is defined to include personal information that is linked or reasonably linkable to a consumer and that identifies a consumer’s past, present, or future physical or mental health status; consumer health data also includes information that is derived or extrapolated from non-health information, such as algorithms and machine learning. Other states, including Connecticut and Nevada, have also passed consumer health data laws, and given the increased focus on the use of health data by entities that are not subject to HIPAA, additional states are

 

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expected to pass consumer health privacy laws. The CCPA originally went into effect on January 1, 2020, and established a new privacy framework for covered businesses such as ours. In November 2020, California voters passed the CPRA, which went into effect on January 1, 2023, and which further expanded the CCPA with additional data privacy compliance requirements that may impact our business, and established a regulatory agency dedicated to enforcing the CCPA. It remains unclear how various provisions of the CCPA (as amended by CPRA and its implementing regulations) will be interpreted and enforced. In addition, on March 2, 2021, Virginia enacted the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, or VCDPA, a comprehensive privacy statute that shares similarities with the CCPA and legislation proposed or enacted in other states. Additional states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah have since passed or are considering passing comprehensive state privacy laws. In addition, laws such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, which regulates the Processing of biometric information, provide for a private right of action and substantial penalties and statutory damages for violations that have generated significant class-action litigation and settlements. Such laws and regulations require us to continuously review our data Processing practices and policies, may cause us to incur substantial costs with respect to compliance, and could require us to adapt our products and solutions, which may reduce their utility to our customers.

Similar laws have been proposed in other states and at the federal level and if passed, such laws may have potentially conflicting requirements that would make compliance challenging. Such changes may also require us to modify our products and features, and may limit our ability to make use of the data that we collect, may require additional investment of resources in compliance programs, impact strategies, and the availability of previously useful data and could result in increased compliance costs and/or changes in business practices and policies. New legislation proposed or enacted in various other states will continue to shape the data privacy environment nationally.

Additionally, all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have enacted breach notification laws that may require us to notify patients, employees, or regulators in the event of unauthorized access to or disclosure of personal or confidential information experienced by us or our service providers. These laws are not consistent, and compliance in the event of a widespread data breach is difficult and may be costly. Moreover, states have been frequently amending existing laws, requiring attention to changing regulatory requirements. We also may be contractually required to notify patients or other counterparties of a security breach. Although we may have contractual protections with our service providers, any actual or perceived security breach could harm our reputation and brand, expose us to potential liability, or require us to expend significant resources on data security and in responding to any such actual or perceived breach. Any contractual protections we may have from our service providers may not be sufficient to adequately protect us from any such liabilities and losses, and we may be unable to enforce any such contractual protections. In addition to government regulation, privacy advocates and industry groups have and may in the future propose self-regulatory standards from time to time. These and other industry standards may legally or contractually apply to us, or we may elect to comply with such standards.

Further, in Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA, and similar provincial laws may impose obligations with respect to processing personal information. PIPEDA requires companies to obtain an individual’s consent when collecting, using, or disclosing that individual’s personal information. Individuals have the right to access and challenge the accuracy of their personal information held by an organization, and personal information may only be used for the purposes for which it was collected. If an organization intends to use personal information for another purpose, it must again obtain that individual’s consent.

Additionally, we make public statements about our use and disclosure of personal information through our privacy policies, information provided on our website and press statements. Although we endeavor to comply with our public statements and documentation, we may at times fail to do so or be alleged to have failed to do so. The publication of our privacy policies and other statements that provide promises and assurances about data privacy and security can subject us to potential government or legal action if they are found to be deceptive,

 

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unfair, or misrepresentative of our actual practices. Moreover, from time to time, concerns may be expressed about whether our services compromise the privacy of patients and others. Any concerns about our data privacy and security practices, even if unfounded, could damage the reputation of our businesses, discourage potential patients from our services and have a material adverse effect on our business.

Complying with these various laws, rules, regulations, and standards, and with any new laws or regulations changes to existing laws, could cause us to incur substantial costs that are likely to increase over time, require us to change our business practices in a manner adverse to our business, divert resources from other initiatives and projects, and restrict the way products and services involving data are offered, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, we have incurred and expect to continue to incur additional costs to comply with the CCPA and other similar U.S. state laws and regulations. However, in the future we may be unable to make such changes and modifications to our business practices in a commercially reasonable manner, or at all. Given the rapid development of data privacy laws and regulations, we expect to encounter inconsistent interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations, as well as frequent changes to these laws and regulations which may expose us to significant penalties or liability for non-compliance, the possibility of fines, lawsuits (including class action privacy litigation), regulatory investigations, criminal or civil sanctions, audits, adverse media coverage, public censure, other claims, significant costs for remediation and damage to our reputation, or otherwise have a material adverse effect on our business and operations. Any inability to adequately address data privacy or security-related concerns, even if unfounded, or to comply with applicable laws, regulations, standards, and other obligations relating to data privacy and security, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our relationships with patients, harm our reputation, and have a material adverse effect on our business.

We face and are currently subject to reviews, audits, and investigations under our licenses and/or contracts with federal and state government agencies and other payors, and these reviews, audits, and investigations could have adverse findings that may negatively impact our business.

As a result of our participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, we face and are currently subject to various governmental reviews, audits, and investigations to verify our compliance with these programs and applicable laws and regulations. An increasing level of governmental and private resources are being devoted to the investigation of allegations of fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and federal and state regulatory authorities are taking an increasingly strict view of the requirements imposed on healthcare providers by the Social Security Act, the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and other applicable laws. We are routinely subject to audits under various government programs, including the RAC program, the TPE program, and the UPIC program, in which CMS engages third-party firms to conduct extensive pre and post-payment reviews of claims data and medical and other records to identify potential improper payments to healthcare providers under the Medicare program.

In addition, each of our facilities and agencies must comply with required conditions of participation in the Medicare program. If we fail to meet the conditions of participation at a facility, we may receive a notice of deficiency from the applicable state surveyor. If that facility then fails to institute an acceptable plan of correction to remediate the deficiency within the correction period provided by the state surveyor, that care center could be terminated from the Medicare program or subjected to alternative sanctions. CMS may impose temporary management, direct a plan of correction, direct training, or impose payment suspensions and civil monetary penalties, in each case, upon providers who fail to comply with the conditions of participation. Termination of one or more of our facilities from the Medicare program for failure to satisfy the program’s conditions of participation, or the imposition of alternative sanctions, could disrupt operations, require significant attention by management, or have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition, and results of operations.

In addition, we, like other healthcare providers, are subject to ongoing investigations by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the United States Department of Justice,

 

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or DOJ, and State Attorneys General into the billing of services provided to Medicare and Medicaid patients, including whether such services were properly documented and billed, whether services provided were medically necessary, and general compliance with conditions of participation and conditions of payment in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. For example, a business we operate as Embrace Hospice is subject to an ongoing investigation, including by the DOJ and the DEA, of potential violations of the False Claims Act, Controlled Substances Act, and other laws, including allegations relating to hospice services that were not reasonable and medically necessary. While we believe our practices are compliant, the investigation continues to evolve and could become extensive and result in the government pursuing civil or criminal legal claims against us that may result in substantial liabilities. Private payors such as third-party insurance and managed care entities also often reserve the right to conduct audits. If billing errors are identified in the sample of reviewed claims, the billing error can be extrapolated to all claims filed which could result in a larger overpayment than originally identified in the sample of reviewed claims. Our costs to respond to and defend any such reviews, audits, and investigations are significant and are likely to increase in the current enforcement environment. These audits and investigations may require us to refund or retroactively adjust amounts that have been paid under the relevant government program or from other payors, and, depending on the findings, the resolution of these audits and investigations could require payment of significant recoupments and other monetary penalties. For example, we have been, and may continue to be, subject to audits and recoupments related to the adequacy of clinical documentation supporting claims submitted to the Medicare and Medicaid programs or other third-party payors. Although we provide education and training to the members of our workforce regarding improvements to clinical documentation and we are working with our vendors regarding system improvements, such measures may not be effective or implemented within the desired timeframes or at all, and we may be subject to additional audits in the future. Further, an adverse review, audit, or investigation could result in other adverse consequences, particularly if the underlying conduct is found to be pervasive or systemic. These consequences include: (1) state or federal agencies imposing significant fines, penalties, and other sanctions on us; (2) loss of our right to participate in the Medicare or Medicaid programs or one or more third-party payor networks; (3) indemnity claims asserted by patients and others for which we provide services; and (4) damage to our reputation in various markets, which could adversely affect our ability to attract patients and employees. If they were to occur, these consequences could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Quality reporting requirements may negatively impact Medicare reimbursement.

We are subject to certain reporting requirements, and if we fail to comply with those requirements, our future Medicare reimbursement could be impacted. In particular, the ACA directed the Secretary of HHS to establish quality reporting requirements for hospice programs. Failure to submit required quality data will result in a 2% reduction to the market basket percentage increase for that year. This quality reporting program is currently “pay-for-reporting,” meaning it is the act of submitting data that determines compliance with program requirements. Similarly, in the Calendar Year 2015 Home Health Final Rule, CMS proposed to establish a new “Pay-for-Reporting Performance Requirement” with which provider compliance with quality reporting program requirements can be measured. Home health agencies that do not submit quality measure data to CMS are subject to a 2% reduction in their annual home health payment update percentage. Currently, home health agencies are required to report prescribed quality assessment data for a minimum of 90% of all patients. The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014, or the IMPACT Act, requires the submission of standardized data by home health agencies and other providers. Specifically, the IMPACT Act requires, among other significant activities, the reporting of standardized patient assessment data with regard to quality measures, resource use, and other measures. Failure to report data as required will subject providers to a 2% reduction in market basket prices then in effect.

There can be no assurance that we will continue to meet quality reporting requirements in the future which may result in us seeing a reduction in its Medicare reimbursements. We could also incur meaningful additional expenses in an effort to comply with additional and changing quality reporting requirements.

 

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Risks Related to Our Indebtedness

Our high level of indebtedness requires that we dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows to debt service payments and reduces the funds that would otherwise be available for other general corporate purposes and other business opportunities, which could adversely affect our operating performance, growth, profitability and financial condition, which in turn could make it more difficult for us to generate cash flow sufficient to satisfy all of our obligations under our indebtedness.

As of September 30, 2023, we had approximately $2,916.9 million outstanding under the First Lien Term Loan Facility and approximately $450.0 million outstanding under the Second Lien Facility. As of September 30, 2023, we had $173.1 million outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility, with an available borrowing capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility of approximately $296.4 million (after giving effect to $5.5 million of letters of credit in excess of the letters of credit outstanding under the LC Facility), and $54.3 million of letters of credit outstanding under the LC Facility.

Our overall level of indebtedness requires that we dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flows to debt service payments. The First Lien Term Loan Facility requires quarterly principal and periodic cash interest payments through March 5, 2026 and the Second Lien Facility requires periodic cash interest payments through March 5, 2027. The Revolving Credit Facility requires periodic cash interest payments on outstanding amounts through the earliest of (i) June 30, 2028, (ii) if greater than $500.0 million in aggregate principal amount of term loans under the First Lien Term Loan Facility are outstanding on December 4, 2025, December 4, 2025 and (iii) if any term loans under the Second Lien Facility are outstanding on December 4, 2026, December 4, 2026.

Our substantial indebtedness reduces the funds that would otherwise be available for operations, future business opportunities, and payments of our debt obligations and limits our ability to:

 

   

obtain additional financing, if necessary, for working capital and operations, or such financing may not be available on favorable terms;

 

   

make needed capital expenditures;

 

   

make strategic acquisitions or investments or enter into joint ventures;

 

   

react to changes or withstand a future downturn in our business, our industries or the economy in general;

 

   

meet budget targets and forecasts of future results;

 

   

engage in business activities, including future opportunities that may be in our interest; and

 

   

react to competitive pressures or compete with competitors with less debt.

These limitations could adversely affect our operating performance, growth, profitability, and financial condition, which would make it more difficult for us to generate cash flow sufficient to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on our debt obligations also depends on our financial condition, results of operations, and capital resources, which are subject to, among other things: the business, financial, economic, industry, competitive, regulatory, and other factors discussed in these risk factors, and on other factors, some of which are beyond our control, including: the level of capital expenditures we make, including those for acquisitions, if any; our debt service requirements; fluctuations in our working capital needs; our ability to borrow funds and access capital markets; and restrictions on debt service payments and our ability to make working capital borrowings for debt service payments contained in our debt instruments.

If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flow to permit us to make scheduled service payments on our debt, then we will be in default and holders of that debt and potentially certain of our other debt could declare all

 

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outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable. If our existing indebtedness were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that we would have, or be able to obtain, sufficient funds to repay such indebtedness in full. In addition, upon the occurrence and continuance of an event of a default, the lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility could terminate their further commitments to loan money and our secured lenders under the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility could foreclose against the assets securing their borrowings, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

Despite our high level of indebtedness, we may still be able to incur substantially more debt, which could further increase the risks to our financial condition described above.

Despite our high level of indebtedness, we may be able to incur significant additional indebtedness in the future, including off-balance sheet financings, trade credit, contractual obligations, and general and commercial liabilities. Although the credit agreements governing the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility contain restrictions on the incurrence of additional indebtedness, these restrictions are subject to a number of qualifications and exceptions, and the additional indebtedness incurred in compliance with these restrictions could be substantial. These restrictions also will not prevent us from incurring obligations that do not constitute indebtedness, and additionally we have further borrowing capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility. As of September 30, 2023, we had $173.1 million outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility, with an available borrowing capacity under the Revolving Credit Facility of approximately $296.4 million (after giving effect to $5.5 million of letters of credit in excess of the letters of credit outstanding under the LC Facility), and $54.3 million of letters of credit outstanding under the LC Facility.

We may be able to increase the commitments under the Revolving Credit Facility by up to $370.0 million, plus an additional amount, subject to certain conditions, which borrowings would be secured indebtedness. We may also be able to increase the capacity under the First Lien Term Loan Facility and the Second Lien Facility by up to $370.0 million, collectively, plus an additional amount, subject to certain conditions, which borrowings would be secured indebtedness. The addition of new debt to our current debt levels could further exacerbate the related risks to our financial condition that we now face.

If we are unable to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, we may be forced to take other actions to fund the satisfaction of our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.

If our cash flow is insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we could face substantial liquidity problems and could be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to dispose of material assets or operations, raise additional debt or equity capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. However, we may not be able to implement any such alternative measures on commercially reasonable terms or at all and, even if successful, those alternative actions may not allow us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. Even if new financing were available, it may be on terms that are less attractive to us than our then existing indebtedness or it may not be on terms that are acceptable to us. In addition, the credit agreements governing the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility restrict our ability to dispose of assets and use the proceeds from those dispositions and may also restrict our ability to raise debt or equity capital to be used to repay other indebtedness when it becomes due. Thus, we may not be able to consummate those dispositions or to obtain proceeds in an amount sufficient to meet any debt service obligations then due.

If we cannot generate sufficient cash flow to permit us to make scheduled payments on our debt, then we will be in default and holders of that debt could declare all outstanding principal and interest to be due and payable. If our existing indebtedness were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that we would have, or be able to obtain, sufficient funds to repay such indebtedness in full. In addition, in the event of a default, the lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility could terminate their further commitments to loan money and our secured lenders under the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility could foreclose against the assets securing their borrowings and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

 

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The terms of our outstanding indebtedness may restrict our current and future operations, particularly our ability to respond to changes or to take certain actions.

The credit agreements governing the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility contain restrictive covenants that impose significant operating and financial restrictions on us and may limit our ability to engage in acts that may be in our best interest, including restrictions on our ability to:

 

   

incur additional indebtedness and guarantee indebtedness;

 

   

pay dividends or make other distributions in respect of, or repurchase or redeem, capital stock;

 

   

prepay, redeem, or repurchase certain debt;

 

   

make loans, investments, and other restricted payments;

 

   

sell or otherwise dispose of assets;

 

   

incur liens;

 

   

enter into transactions with affiliates;

 

   

alter the businesses we conduct;

 

   

enter into agreements restricting our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends; and

 

   

consolidate, merge, or sell all or substantially all of our assets.

Additionally, at certain times, the Revolving Credit Facility requires maintenance of a certain minimum fixed charge coverage ratio. See “Description of Certain Indebtedness—Covenants.” Our ability to comply with the covenants and restrictions contained in our credit agreements may be affected by events beyond our control. If market or other economic conditions deteriorate, our ability to comply with these covenants and restrictions may be impaired.

A breach of the covenants under one of these agreements could result in an event of default under the applicable indebtedness, which, if not cured or waived, could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Such a default, if not cured or waived, may allow the creditors to accelerate the related debt principal and/or related interest payments and may result in the acceleration of any other debt to which a cross-acceleration or cross-default provision applies. If our existing indebtedness were to be accelerated, there can be no assurance that we would have, or be able to obtain, sufficient funds to repay such indebtedness in full. In addition, an event of default under the credit agreements governing the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility would permit the lenders under our Revolving Credit Facility to terminate all commitments to extend further credit under that facility. Furthermore, if we were unable to repay the amounts due and payable under the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility, those lenders could proceed against the collateral granted to them to secure that indebtedness, and we could be forced into bankruptcy or liquidation.

Our variable rate indebtedness subjects us to interest rate risk, which could cause our debt service obligations to increase significantly. In addition, the phase-out of LIBOR and transition to SOFR as a benchmark interest rate will have uncertain and possibly adverse effects.

Borrowings under the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility are at variable rates of interest and expose us to interest rate risk. As of September 30, 2023, while $2.0 billion notional amount of our outstanding debt was fixed through interest swap agreements, the other $1.5 billion of our outstanding debt remained subject to variable rates of interest and the related risk. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness will increase even though the amount borrowed will remain the same, and our net income and operating cash flows, including cash available for servicing our indebtedness, will correspondingly decrease.

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board has significantly increased the federal funds rate in 2022 and 2023 and may continue to make further rate increases in the short-term to combat inflation in the United States, which has

 

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increased the borrowing costs on our variable rate debt and may increase the cost of any new debt we incur. Any further additional federal fund rate increases could in turn make our financing activities, including those related to our acquisition activity, more costly and limit our ability to refinance existing debt when it matures or pay higher interest rates upon refinancing and increase interest expense on refinanced indebtedness.

On June 30, 2023, we entered into amendments to our First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility, and as part of those amendments we transitioned from the use of London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, to Secured Overnight Financing Rate, or SOFR. There is no guarantee that the transition from LIBOR to SOFR will not result in financial market disruptions, significant increases in benchmark rates, or borrowing costs to borrowers, any of which could affect our interest expense and may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Whether or not SOFR attains market acceptance as a LIBOR replacement tool remains in question. The future performance of SOFR cannot be predicted based on historical performance and the future level of SOFR may have little or no relation to historical levels of SOFR. Moreover, SOFR is calculated differently from LIBOR and has inherent differences, including SOFR’s limited historical data, and that LIBOR is an unsecured lending rate while SOFR is a secured lending rate could give rise to uncertainties and volatility in the benchmark rates. In addition, the overall financial market may be disrupted as a result of the replacement of LIBOR, which in turn could adversely impact our liquidity and results of operations.

If the financial institutions that are lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility fail to extend credit under the facility or reduce the borrowing base, our liquidity and results of operations may be adversely affected.

One of our sources of liquidity is the Revolving Credit Facility. Each financial institution that is a lender under the Revolving Credit Facility is responsible on a several but not joint basis for providing a portion of the loans to be made under the facility. If any participant or group of participants with a significant portion of the commitments under the Revolving Credit Facility fails to satisfy its or their respective obligations to extend credit under the facility and we are unable to find a replacement for such participant or participants on a timely basis (if at all), our liquidity may be adversely affected.

In addition, the lenders under the Revolving Credit Facility may reduce the borrowing base under the facility in certain circumstances, which could adversely impact our liquidity and results of operations.

Our high level of indebtedness may hinder our ability to negotiate favorable terms with our suppliers, which could negatively impact our operating performance and, thus, could make it more difficult for us to generate cash flow sufficient to satisfy all of our obligations under our indebtedness.

Our high level of indebtedness may adversely affect our credit profile or rating, which may adversely affect our ability to negotiate favorable trade terms from our current or future suppliers, including pricing, payment, delivery, inventory, transportation, defective and marketing allowances, and other terms, and may increase our need to support merchandise purchases with letters of credit. We may also be unable to negotiate favorable trade terms for our current or future service and non-merchandise vendors, including vendors that assist us in critical aspects of the business such as transportation and logistics, supplies, professional services, insurance and risk management, procurement, marketing and advertising, online operations, and information technology. This could negatively impact the profitability of our business and our ability to effectively compete against competitors. Thus, our high level of indebtedness could adversely affect the profitability of our business, which could make it more difficult for us to generate cash flow sufficient to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness.

 

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General Risk Factors

We will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the rules of Nasdaq and the rules of the SEC and, as a result, qualify for, and intend to rely on, exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements. You will not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of other companies that are subject to such requirements.

After completion of this offering and the application of net proceeds therefrom, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder will collectively beneficially own approximately 67.9% of the voting power of common stock (or approximately 64.8% if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option). As a result, we will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the corporate governance standards of Nasdaq. Under these rules, a company of which more than 50% of the voting power is held by an individual, group or another company is a “controlled company” and may elect not to comply with certain corporate governance requirements, including the requirement that:

 

   

a majority of our board of directors consist of “independent directors” as defined under the rules of Nasdaq;

 

   

our director nominees be selected, or recommended for our board of directors’ selection, by a nominating/governance committee comprised solely of independent directors; and

 

   

the compensation of our executive officers be determined, or recommended to our board of directors for determination, by a compensation committee comprised solely of independent directors.

Following this offering, we intend to utilize these exemptions. As a result, (i) we may not have a majority of independent directors, (ii) our compensation committee may not consist entirely of independent directors, and (iii) director nominations may not be made, or recommended to the full board of directors, by our independent directors or by a nominating and governance committee that is comprised entirely of independent directors. Accordingly, you may not have the same protections afforded to stockholders of companies that are subject to all of the corporate governance requirements of Nasdaq. These exemptions do not modify the independence requirements for our audit committee, and we expect to satisfy the member independence requirement for the audit committee prior to the end of the transition period provided under Nasdaq’s listing standards and SEC rules and regulations for companies completing their initial public offering. See the section titled “Management—Board Leadership Structure and Our Board of Director’s Role in Risk Oversight—Audit Committee.”

We will incur increased costs and become subject to additional regulations and requirements as a result of becoming a public company, and our management will be required to devote substantial time to new compliance matters, which could lower our profits or make it more difficult to run our business.

As a public company, we will incur significant legal, regulatory, finance, accounting, investor relations, insurance, and other expenses that we have not incurred as a private company, including costs associated with public company reporting requirements and costs of recruiting and retaining non-executive directors. We also have incurred and will incur costs associated with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, or the Dodd-Frank Act, and related rules implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq. The expenses incurred by public companies generally for reporting and corporate governance purposes have been increasing. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some activities more time-consuming and costly, although we are currently unable to estimate these costs with any degree of certainty. Our management will need to devote a substantial amount of time to ensure that we comply with all of these requirements, diverting the attention of management away from revenue-producing activities. These laws and regulations also could make it more difficult or costly for us to obtain certain types of insurance, including director and officer liability insurance, and we may be forced to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. These laws and regulations could also make it more difficult for us to attract and retain qualified persons to serve on our board of directors, our board committees or as our executive officers. Furthermore, if we are unable to satisfy our obligations as a public company, we could be subject to delisting of our common stock and the Units, fines, sanctions and other regulatory action, and potentially civil litigation.

 

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Failure to comply with requirements to design, implement, and maintain effective internal controls could have a material adverse effect on our business and stock price.

As a privately-held company, we were not required to evaluate our internal control over financial reporting in a manner that meets the standards of publicly traded companies required by Section 404(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404.

As a public company, we will have significant requirements for enhanced financial reporting and internal controls. The process of designing and implementing effective internal controls is a continuous effort that requires us to anticipate and react to changes in our business and the economic and regulatory environment, and to expend significant resources to maintain a system of internal controls that is adequate to satisfy our reporting obligations as a public company. If we are unable to establish or maintain appropriate internal financial reporting controls and procedures, it could cause us to fail to meet our reporting obligations on a timely basis, result in material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements, and harm our results of operations. In addition, we will be required, pursuant to Section 404, to furnish a report by management on, among other things, the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in the second annual report following the completion of this offering. This assessment will need to include disclosure of any material weaknesses identified by our management in our internal control over financial reporting. The rules governing the standards that must be met for our management to assess our internal control over financial reporting are complex and require significant documentation, testing, and possible remediation. Testing and maintaining internal controls may divert our management’s attention from other matters that are important to our business.

In connection with the implementation of the necessary procedures and practices related to internal control over financial reporting, we may identify deficiencies that we may not be able to remediate in time to meet the deadline imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act for compliance with the requirements of Section 404. In addition, we may encounter problems or delays in completing the remediation of any deficiencies identified by us or our independent registered public accounting firm in connection with the issuance of their attestation report.

In connection with the preparation and audits of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, a material weakness was identified in our internal control over financial reporting. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Specifically, there were material adjustments identified in our calculations of right of use assets and lease liabilities in connection with our adoption of ASU 2016-02, Leases, and the related 2020 and 2019 lease activity. These adjustments were appropriately reflected in our 2020 and 2019 consolidated financial statements. The material weakness resulted from the lack of properly designed controls with sufficient precision to review and identify lease input errors associated with calculating our right of use assets and lease liabilities.

We took subsequent measures to remediate this material weakness. These measures included design changes to our controls related to leases as well as adopting additional oversight controls and procedures. During 2022, these controls were implemented and in 2023, management successfully tested the design and operating effectiveness of such controls. As a result of the testing efforts, management concluded that its internal controls related to leases were effective as of June 30, 2023 and September 30, 2023, and the material weakness has been remediated.

Our testing, or the subsequent testing (if required) by our independent registered public accounting firm, may reveal deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting that are deemed to be material weaknesses in addition to the material weakness described above. Any material weaknesses could result in a material misstatement of our annual or quarterly consolidated financial statements or disclosures that may not be prevented or detected. If we are unable to successfully remediate our existing or any future material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting, or if we identify any additional material weaknesses, the accuracy and timing of our financial reporting may be adversely affected, we may be unable to maintain compliance with securities law requirements regarding timely filing of periodic reports in addition to Nasdaq listing requirements.

 

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We may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404 or our independent registered public accounting firm may not issue an unqualified opinion. If either we are unable to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting or our independent registered public accounting firm is unable to provide us with an unqualified report, investors could lose confidence in our reported financial information, which could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our common stock.

There has been no prior public market for our common stock and there may not develop or continue an active, liquid trading market for shares of our common stock, which may cause shares of our common stock to trade at a discount from the initial public offering price and make it difficult to sell the shares of common stock you purchase.

Prior to this offering, there has not been a public trading market for shares of our common stock. We cannot predict the extent to which investor interest in us will lead to the development of a trading market or how active and liquid that market may become. If an active and liquid trading market does not develop or continue, you may have difficulty selling your shares of our common stock at an attractive price or at all. If you purchase shares of our common stock in this offering, you will pay a price that was not established in a competitive market. Instead, the initial public offering price per share of common stock will be determined by agreement between us and the representative of the underwriters, and may not be indicative of the price at which shares of our common stock will trade in the public market after this offering. The market price of our common stock may decline below the initial public offering price and you may not be able to sell your shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid in this offering, or at all. The lack of an active market may impair your ability to sell your shares at the time you wish to sell them or at a price you consider reasonable. The lack of an active market may also reduce the fair market value of your shares. Furthermore, an inactive market may also impair our ability to raise capital by selling shares of our common stock.

Our stock price may change significantly following this offering, and you may not be able to resell shares of our common stock at or above the price you paid or at all, and you could lose all or part of your investment as a result.

Even if a trading market develops, the market price of our common stock may be highly volatile and could be subject to wide fluctuations. You may not be able to resell your shares at or above the initial public offering price due to a number of factors such as those listed in “—Risks Related to Our Business” and the following:

 

   

results of operations that vary from the expectations of securities analysts and investors;

 

   

results of operations that vary from those of our competitors;

 

   

changes in expectations as to our future financial performance, including financial estimates and investment recommendations by securities analysts and investors;

 

   

changes in economic conditions for companies in our industries;

 

   

changes in market valuations of, or earnings and other announcements by, companies in our industries;

 

   

declines in the market prices of stocks generally, particularly those of companies in our industries;

 

   

additions or departures of key management personnel;

 

   

strategic actions by us or our competitors;

 

   

announcements by us or our competitors of significant contracts, price reductions, new services, acquisitions, dispositions, joint marketing relationships, joint ventures, other strategic relationships or capital commitments;

 

   

changes in our market share;

 

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changes in general economic or market conditions or trends in our industries or the economy as a whole;

 

   

changes in business or regulatory conditions;

 

   

future sales of our common stock or other securities;

 

   

investor perceptions of or the investment opportunity associated with our common stock relative to other investment alternatives;

 

   

changes in the way we are perceived in the marketplace, including due to negative publicity or campaigns on social media to boycott certain of our services, our business or our industries;

 

   

the public’s response to press releases or other public announcements by us or third parties, including our filings with the SEC;

 

   

changes or proposed changes in laws or regulations or differing interpretations or enforcement thereof affecting our business;

 

   

announcements relating to litigation or governmental investigations;

 

   

guidance, if any, that we provide to the public, any changes in this guidance or our failure to meet this guidance;

 

   

the development and sustainability of an active trading market for our common stock;

 

   

changes in accounting principles; and

 

   

other events or factors, including those resulting from informational technology system failures and disruptions, epidemics, pandemics, natural disasters, war, acts of terrorism, civil unrest, or responses to these events.

Furthermore, the stock market may experience extreme volatility that, in some cases, may be unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, price volatility may be greater if the public float and trading volume of our common stock is low.

In the past, following periods of market volatility, stockholders have instituted securities class action litigation against various issuers. If we were to become involved in securities litigation, it could have a substantial cost and divert resources and the attention of executive management from our business regardless of the outcome of such litigation, which may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

Investors in this offering will suffer immediate and substantial dilution.

The initial public offering price per share of common stock will be substantially higher than our as adjusted net tangible book value per share immediately after this offering. As a result, you will pay a price per share of common stock that substantially exceeds the per share book value of our tangible assets after subtracting our liabilities. Upon the issuance and sale of 53,333,334 shares of our common stock by us at an assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, you will incur immediate and substantial dilution in an amount of $27.74 per share of common stock. If the underwriters exercise their over-allotment option, you will experience additional dilution. See “Dilution.”

You may be diluted by the future issuance of additional common stock in connection with our incentive plans, acquisitions or otherwise.

After this offering we will have approximately 1,328,809,611 shares of common stock authorized but unissued (or 1,320,809,611 shares if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option). Our second amended and restated

 

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certificate of incorporation to become effective immediately prior to the consummation of this offering will authorize us to issue these shares of common stock, options, and other equity awards relating to common stock for the consideration and on the terms and conditions established by our board of directors in its sole discretion, whether in connection with acquisitions or otherwise. Issuances of common stock or voting preferred stock would reduce your influence over matters on which our stockholders vote, and, in the case of issuances of preferred stock, would likely result in your interest in us being subject to the prior rights of holders of that preferred stock, if any.

We have reserved, or will reserve in the future, shares for issuance under our 2017 Stock Plan and our 2024 Incentive Plan. See “Executive Compensation—Equity Incentive Plans.” Any common stock that we issue, including under our 2017 Stock Plan, our 2024 Incentive Plan, including the issuance of the New Equity Awards, or other equity incentive plans that we may adopt in the future, would dilute the percentage ownership held by the investors who purchase common stock in this offering. In the future, we may also issue our securities in connection with investments or acquisitions. The number of shares of our common stock issued in connection with an investment or acquisition could constitute a material portion of our then-outstanding shares of our common stock. Any issuance of additional securities in connection with investments or acquisitions may result in additional dilution to you.

In addition, concurrently with this offering, we are offering 8,000,000 Units, plus an additional 1,200,000 Units if the underwriters in that offering exercise their over-allotment option to purchase additional Units in full. Unless settled earlier as described below, each purchase contract that is a component of a Unit being will settle automatically on the mandatory settlement date into between     and     shares of our common stock, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments. Based on the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and assuming the maximum number of shares issuable upon automatic settlement of such purchase contracts, up to 24,242,400 shares of common stock (or up to 27,878,760 shares if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units) are issuable upon settlement of the purchase contracts, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments. See “Tangible Equity Units Offering.” For a discussion of dilutive impact to the investors in this offering after giving effect to the concurrent offering of the Units, see “Dilution.”

Any of these issuances may dilute your ownership interest in us and any of these events or the perception that these settlements and/or issuances could occur may have an adverse impact on the price of our common stock. See “Dilution.”

The Units may adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

The market price of our common stock is likely to be influenced by the Units. For example, the market price of our common stock could become more volatile and could be depressed by:

 

   

investors’ anticipation of the potential resale in the market of a substantial number of additional shares of our common stock received upon settlement of the purchase contracts that are a component of the Units;

 

   

possible sales of our common stock by investors who view the Units as a more attractive means of equity participation in us than owning shares of our common stock; and

 

   

hedging or arbitrage trading activity that may develop involving the Units and our common stock.

Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited.

Our business and operations may consume resources faster than we anticipate. In the future, we may need to raise additional funds through the issuance of new equity securities, debt, or a combination of both. Additional financing may not be available on favorable terms or at all. If adequate funds are not available on acceptable

 

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terms, we may be unable to fund our capital requirements. If we issue new debt securities, the debt holders would have rights senior to holders of our common stock to make claims on our assets and the terms of any debt could restrict our operations, including our ability to pay dividends on our common stock. If we issue additional equity securities or securities convertible into equity securities, existing stockholders will experience dilution and the new equity securities could have rights senior to those of our common stock. Because our decision to issue securities in any future offering will depend on market conditions and other factors beyond our control, we cannot predict or estimate the amount, timing, or nature of our future offerings. Thus, you bear the risk of our future securities offerings reducing the market price of our common stock and diluting their interest.

Because we have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock, you may not receive any return on investment unless you sell your common stock for a price greater than that which you paid for it.

We have no current plans to pay cash dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors, and will depend on, among other things, general and economic conditions, our results of operations and financial condition, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax, and regulatory restrictions, and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, including restrictions under our credit agreements and other indebtedness we may incur, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. See “Dividend Policy.” As a result, you may not receive any return on an investment in our common stock unless you sell our common stock for a price greater than your purchase price.

BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. depends on its subsidiaries for cash to fund its operations and expenses, including future dividend payments, if any, and to meet its debt obligations.

Our operations are conducted through our subsidiaries and our ability to generate cash to meet our debt service obligations (including the amortizing notes that are components of the Units) or to make future dividend payments, if any, is highly dependent on the earnings of, and the receipt of funds from, our subsidiaries via dividends or intercompany loans. We do not currently expect to declare or pay dividends on our common stock for the foreseeable future; however, to the extent that we determine in the future to pay dividends on our common stock, the agreements governing our indebtedness may restrict the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends or otherwise transfer assets to us. In addition, Delaware law may impose requirements that may restrict our ability to pay dividends to holders of our common stock.

Future sales or issuances, or the perception of future sales or issuances, by us or our existing stockholders in the public market following this offering, or the settlement of the purchase contracts, could cause the market price for our common stock to decline.

The sale or issuance of substantial amounts of shares of our common stock or other securities convertible or exchangeable into shares of our common stock in the public market, or the settlement of the purchase contracts that are a component of the Units, or the perception that such sales or issuances could occur, including sales by our existing stockholders, could harm the prevailing market price of shares of our common stock. These sales or issuances, or the possibility that these sales or issuances may occur, also might make it more difficult for us to sell equity securities in the future at a time and at a price that we deem appropriate.

Upon completion of this offering, we will have a total of 171,190,389 shares of our common stock outstanding, or 179,190,389 shares if the underwriters exercise in full their option to purchase additional shares of our common stock. We will also have 8,000,000 Units outstanding, or 9,200,000 Units if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units, which will settle into up to 24,242,400 shares of our common stock, or 27,878,760 shares if the underwriters in the Concurrent Offering exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and assuming the maximum

 

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number of shares issuable upon automatic settlement of such purchase contracts, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments. All of the shares of our common stock sold in this offering, the Units and the shares of common stock issuable upon settlement of the Units will be freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, except that any shares held by our affiliates, as that term is defined under Rule 144 of the Securities Act, or Rule 144, including our directors, executive officers, and other affiliates (including our existing stockholders), may be sold only in compliance with the limitations described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

The remaining outstanding 117,857,055 shares of common stock held by our existing stockholders after this offering, representing approximately 68.8% of the total outstanding shares of our common stock following this offering (or approximately 65.8% if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option), will be “restricted securities” within the meaning of Rule 144 and subject to certain restrictions on resale. Restricted securities may be sold in the public market only if they are registered under the Securities Act or are sold pursuant to an exemption from registration such as Rule 144, as described in “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

We, our directors and executive officers, and substantially all of our stockholders will sign lock-up agreements with the underwriters that will, subject to certain customary exceptions, restrict the sale of the shares of our common stock and certain other securities held by them for 180 days following the date of this prospectus. The representative of the underwriters may, in their sole discretion and at any time without notice, release all or any portion of the shares or securities subject to any such lock-up agreements. See “Underwriting (Conflicts of Interest)” for a description of these lock-up agreements.

Upon the expiration of the lock-up agreements described above, all of such shares will be eligible for resale in a public market pursuant to Rule 144, subject to our compliance with the public information requirement and, in the case of shares held by our affiliates, to volume, manner of sale, and other limitations under Rule 144. We expect that certain of our existing stockholders will be considered an affiliate upon the expiration of the lock-up period based on their expected share ownership, as well as their board nomination rights (if applicable). Certain other of our stockholders may also be considered affiliates at that time.

In addition, pursuant to the existing registration rights agreement, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder each has the right, subject to certain conditions, to require us to register the sale of their shares of our common stock under the Securities Act. See “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Registration Rights Agreement.” By exercising their registration rights and selling a large number of shares, KKR Stockholder and Walgreen Stockholder could cause the prevailing market price of our common stock to decline. Certain of our existing stockholders have “piggyback” registration rights with respect to future registered offerings of our common stock. Following completion of this offering, the shares covered by registration rights would represent approximately 68.0% of our total common stock outstanding (or approximately 65.0% if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option). Registration of any of these outstanding shares of common stock would result in such shares becoming freely tradable without compliance with Rule 144 upon effectiveness of the registration statement. See “Shares Eligible for Future Sale.”

We intend to file one or more registration statements on Form S-8 under the Securities Act to register shares of our common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock issued pursuant to our existing 2017 Stock Plan and our 2024 Incentive Plan, including the issuance of the New Equity Awards, to be adopted in connection with this offering. Any such Form S-8 registration statements will automatically become effective upon filing. Accordingly, shares registered under such registration statements will be available for sale in the open market. We expect that the initial registration statement on Form S-8 will cover 31,275,903 shares of our common stock.

As restrictions on resale end, or if the existing stockholders exercise their registration rights, the market price of our shares of common stock could drop significantly if the holders of these restricted shares sell them or are perceived by the market as intending to sell them. These factors could also make it more difficult for us to raise additional funds through future offerings of our shares of common stock or other securities.

 

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If securities analysts do not publish research or reports about our business or if they downgrade our stock or our sector, our stock price and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for our common stock will rely in part on the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us or our business. We do not control these analysts. Furthermore, if one or more of the analysts who do cover us downgrade our stock or our industries, or the stock of any of our competitors, or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, or if our operating results do not meet their expectations, the price of our stock could decline. If one or more of these analysts ceases coverage of the Company or fails to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

Our management may spend the proceeds of this offering and the Concurrent Offering in ways with which you may disagree or that may not be profitable.

Although we anticipate using the net proceeds from this offering and the Concurrent Offering as described under “Use of Proceeds,” we will have broad discretion as to the application of the net proceeds received by us and could use them for purposes other than those contemplated by this offering and the Concurrent Offering. You may not agree with the manner in which our management chooses to allocate and spend the net proceeds. Our management may use the proceeds for corporate purposes that may not increase our profitability or otherwise result in the creation of stockholder value. In addition, pending our use of the proceeds, we may invest the proceeds primarily in instruments that do not produce significant income or that may lose value.

Anti-takeover provisions in our organizational documents could delay or prevent a change of control.

Certain provisions of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation and amended and restated bylaws may have an anti-takeover effect and may delay, defer or prevent a merger, acquisition, tender offer, takeover attempt, or other change of control transaction that a stockholder might consider in its best interest, including those attempts that might result in a premium over the market price for the shares held by our stockholders.

These provisions will provide for, among other things:

 

   

a classified board of directors, as a result of which our board of directors will be divided into three classes, with each class serving for staggered three-year terms;

 

   

the ability of our board of directors to issue one or more series of preferred stock;

 

   

advance notice requirements for nominations of directors by stockholders and for stockholders to include matters to be considered at our annual meetings;

 

   

certain limitations on convening special stockholder meetings;

 

   

the removal of directors only for cause and only upon the affirmative vote of the holders of at least 662/3% of the shares of common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors if KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder and their respective affiliates cease to beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least 40% of shares of common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors; and

 

   

that certain provisions may be amended only by the affirmative vote of at least 662/3% of shares of common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors if KKR Stockholder, Walgreen Stockholder and their respective affiliates cease to beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least 40% of shares of common stock entitled to vote generally in the election of directors.

These anti-takeover provisions could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire us, even if the third party’s offer may be considered beneficial by many of our stockholders. These provisions also may have the

 

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effect of preventing changes in our board of directors and may make it more difficult to accomplish transactions that stockholders may otherwise deem to be in their best interests. As a result, our stockholders may be limited in their ability to obtain a premium for their shares. See “Description of Capital Stock.”

Our board of directors will be authorized to issue and designate shares of our preferred stock in additional series without stockholder approval.

Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will authorize our board of directors, without the approval of our stockholders, to issue 250,000,000 shares of our preferred stock, subject to limitations prescribed by applicable law, rules and regulations, and the provisions of our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation, as shares of preferred stock in one or more series, to establish from time to time the number of shares to be included in each such series and to fix the designation, powers, preferences, and rights of the shares of each such series and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions thereof. The powers, preferences, and rights of these additional series of preferred stock may be senior to or on parity with our common stock, which may reduce its value.

Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or if such court does not have jurisdiction, another state or the federal courts (as appropriate) located within the State of Delaware) will be the exclusive forum for substantially all disputes between us and our stockholders and the federal district courts will be the exclusive forum for Securities Act and Exchange Act claims, which could limit our stockholders’ ability to bring a suit in a different judicial forum than they may otherwise choose for disputes with us or our directors, officers, team members or stockholders.

Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation will provide that unless we consent to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (or if such court does not have jurisdiction, another state or the federal courts (as appropriate) located within the State of Delaware) will, to the fullest extent permitted by law, be the sole and exclusive forum for any (i) derivative action or proceeding brought on behalf of our Company, (ii) action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any current or former director, officer, or other employee or stockholder of our Company to the Company or our stockholders, creditors, or other constituents, (iii) action asserting a claim against the Company or any current or former director or officer of the Company arising pursuant to any provision of the Delaware General Corporation Law, or the DGCL, or our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation or our amended and restated bylaws or as to which the DGCL confers jurisdiction on the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, or (iv) action asserting a claim governed by the internal affairs doctrine. Our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation also provides that, unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, to the fullest extent permitted by law, the U.S. federal district courts will be the exclusive forum for the resolution of any complaint asserting a cause of action arising under the federal securities laws of the United States, including any claims under the Securities Act and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act. However, Section 22 of the Securities Act creates concurrent jurisdiction for federal and state courts over all suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act or the rules and regulations thereunder and accordingly, we cannot be certain that a court would enforce such provision. See “Description of Capital Stock—Exclusive Forum.”

Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring or holding any interest in shares of our capital stock will be deemed to have notice of and consented to the forum provisions in our second amended and restated certificate of incorporation, except our stockholders will not be deemed to have waived (and cannot waive) compliance with the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations thereunder. This choice of forum provision may limit a stockholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or any of our current or former directors, officers, other team members, or stockholders. There is also a risk that the exclusive forum provisions may result in increased costs for a stockholder to bring a claim. Alternatively, if a court were to find the choice of forum provision contained in our second amended restated certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving such action in other jurisdictions, which could harm our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

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If tax laws change or we experience adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our tax returns or disagreements with taxing authorities, it could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We are subject to federal, state, and local tax laws and regulations in the United States. The application and interpretation of these laws in different jurisdictions affect our operations in complex ways and are subject to change, and some changes may be retroactively applied. Our future effective tax rates and the value of our deferred tax assets could be adversely affected by changes in tax laws, including impacts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of Public Law No. 115-97, or the TCJA, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act. In addition, in August 2022, the IRA was signed into law. The IRA, among other things, includes a new 15% corporate minimum tax as well as a 1% excise tax on corporate stock repurchases, subject to certain exceptions. The United States is also actively considering changes to existing U.S. tax laws that, if enacted, could increase our tax obligations or require us to change the manner in which we operate our business.

In addition, we are subject to the examination of our income and other tax returns by the Internal Revenue Service and other tax authorities. We regularly assess the likelihood of adverse outcomes resulting from such examinations to determine the adequacy of our provision for income taxes. Although we believe we have made appropriate provisions for taxes in the jurisdictions in which we operate, changes in the tax laws, or challenges from tax authorities under existing tax laws could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

 

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This prospectus includes forward-looking statements that reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, our operations, and financial performance. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts. These forward-looking statements are included throughout this prospectus, including in the sections entitled “Summary,” “Risk Factors,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Business” and relate to matters such as our industries, business strategy, goals and expectations concerning our market position, future operations, margins, profitability, capital expenditures, liquidity and capital resources and other financial and operating information. We have used the words “anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “future,” “will,” “seek,” “foreseeable,” the negative version of these words, or similar terms and phrases to identify forward-looking statements in this prospectus.

The forward-looking statements contained in this prospectus are based on management’s current expectations and are not guarantees of future performance. The forward-looking statements are subject to various risks, uncertainties, assumptions, or changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict or quantify. Our expectations, beliefs, and projections are expressed in good faith and we believe there is a reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that management’s expectations, beliefs, and projections will result or be achieved. Actual results may differ materially from these expectations due to changes in global, regional, or local economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory, and other factors, many of which are beyond our control. We believe that these factors include but are not limited to those described under “Risk Factors” and the following:

 

   

we operate in a highly competitive industry;

 

   

if we are unable to maintain relationships with existing patient referral sources or establish new referral sources, our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be materially adversely affected;

 

   

changes to Medicare and Medicaid rates or methods governing Medicare and Medicaid payments for our services could materially adversely affect our business;

 

   

cost containment initiatives of third-party payors, including post-payment audits, could adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

the implementation of alternative payment models and the transition of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries to managed care organizations may limit our market share and could adversely affect our revenues;

 

   

changes in the case mix of patients, as well as payor mix and payment methodologies, and decisions and operations of third-party organizations may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

our business is reliant on federal and state spending, budget decisions, and continuous governmental operations which may fluctuate under different political conditions;

 

   

changes in drug utilization and/or pricing, PBM contracts, and Medicare Part D/Medicaid reimbursement may negatively impact our profitability;

 

   

changes in our relationships with pharmaceutical suppliers, including changes in drug availability or pricing, could adversely affect our business and financial results;

 

   

our business relies on the continual recruitment and retention of nurses, pharmacists, therapists, caregivers, direct support professionals, and other qualified personnel, including senior management;

 

   

we are subject to federal, state, and local laws and regulations that govern our employment practices, including minimum wage, living wage, and paid time-off requirements; failure to comply with these laws and regulations, or changes to these laws and regulations that increase our employment-related expenses, could adversely impact our operations;

 

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our results of operations fluctuate on a quarterly basis;

 

   

our business may be harmed by labor relation matters;

 

   

because we are limited in our ability to control reimbursement rates received for our services, our business could be materially adversely affected if we are not able to maintain or reduce our costs to provide such services;

 

   

delays in collection or non-collection of our accounts receivable, particularly during the business integration process, could adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

if we fail to manage our growth effectively, we may be unable to execute our business plan, maintain high levels of service and satisfaction or adequately address competitive challenges;

 

   

our growth strategy is partially dependent upon our ability to identify and successfully complete acquisitions, joint ventures, and other strategic initiatives; any failure by us to manage or integrate acquisitions, divestitures, and other significant transactions successfully may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations;

 

   

if we are unable to provide consistently high quality of care, our business will be adversely impacted;

 

   

if we are unable to maintain our corporate reputation, or there is adverse publicity, including negative information on social media, or changes in public perception of our services, our business may suffer;

 

   

if our existing customers do not continue with or renew their contracts with us, renew at lower fee levels, decline to purchase additional services from us or reduce the services received from us pursuant to those contracts, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations;

 

   

our business depends on our ability to effectively invest in, implement improvements to and properly maintain the uninterrupted operation and data integrity of our information technology and other business systems;

 

   

security breaches, loss of data, and other disruptions could compromise sensitive business or patient information, cause a loss of confidential patient data, employee data, personal information, or prevent access to critical information and expose us to liability, litigation, and federal and state governmental inquiries and damage our reputation and brand;

 

   

we are subject to risks related to credit card payments and other payment methods;

 

   

we may be subject to substantial malpractice or other similar claims;

 

   

we are exposed to various risks related to governmental inquiries, regulatory actions, and whistleblower and other lawsuits that could adversely affect our operating results. Our insurance may not cover all claims against us;

 

   

our current insurance program may expose us to unexpected costs and negatively affect our business, financial condition. and results of operations, particularly if we incur losses not covered by our insurance or if claims or losses differ from our estimates;

 

   

factors outside of our control, including those listed, have required and could in the future require us to record an asset impairment of goodwill;

 

   

a pandemic, epidemic, or outbreak of an infectious disease, including the ongoing effects of COVID-19, have had, and may continue to have, an adverse effect on our business;

 

   

inclement weather, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, riots, civil insurrection or social unrest, looting, protests, strikes, or street demonstrations may impact our ability to provide services; and

 

   

we may be unable to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could harm our business.

 

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These factors should not be construed as exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary statements that are included in this prospectus. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements.

Any forward-looking statement made by us in this prospectus speaks only as of the date of this prospectus and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in this prospectus. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We may not actually achieve the plans, intentions, or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Our forward- looking statements do not reflect the potential impact of any future acquisitions, mergers, dispositions, joint ventures, investments, or other strategic transactions we may make. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by any applicable securities laws.

 

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USE OF PROCEEDS

We estimate that we will receive net proceeds of approximately $835.8 million (or approximately $961.9 million, if the underwriters exercise in full their over-allotment option) from the sale of shares of our common stock in this offering, assuming an initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares from the expected number of shares of common stock to be sold by us in this offering, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price per share, would increase (decrease) our net proceeds from this offering by $15.8 million. A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price would increase (decrease) the net proceeds to us from this offering by $50.9 million, assuming the number of shares of common stock offered by us, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from the concurrent offering of the Units, if completed, after deducting estimated underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, will be approximately $388.9 million (or $447.3 million if the underwriters in the concurrent offering of the Units exercise in full their option to purchase additional Units).

We intend to use proceeds from this offering and the concurrent offering of the Units to repay all indebtedness outstanding under the Second Lien Facility, all indebtedness outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility, and $652.0 million outstanding aggregate amount under the First Lien Facility, and to pay termination fees of $22.7 million to the Managers in connection with the termination of the Monitoring Agreement, with any remainder to be used for general corporate purposes.

As of September 30, 2023, we had $450.0 million aggregate principal amount outstanding under the Second Lien Facility, maturing on March 5, 2027. As of September 30, 2023, our second lien term loans had an effective interest rate of 13.93%. As of September 30, 2023, we had $173.1 million aggregate principal amount outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility, maturing on the earliest of (i) June 30, 2028, (ii) if greater than $500.0 million in aggregate principal amount of term loans under the First Lien Term Loan Facility are outstanding on December 4, 2025, December 4, 2025 and (iii) if any term loans under the Second Lien Facility are outstanding on December 4, 2026, December 4, 2026. As of September 30, 2023, our Revolving Credit Loans had an effective interest rate of 9.58% and our Swingline Loans had an effective interest rate of 12.75%. As of September 30, 2023, we had approximately $2,916.9 million outstanding under the First Lien Term Loan Facility, maturing on March 5, 2026. As of September 30, 2023, $1,723.8 million of our first lien term loan had an effective interest rate of 8.68% and our first lien tranches B-2 and B-3 had an effective interest rate of 8.93%. For a further description of our Second Lien Facility and the First Lien Facilities, see “Description of Certain Indebtedness.” For a description of the Monitoring Agreement, see “Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions—Monitoring Agreement.”

 

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DIVIDEND POLICY

We currently expect to retain all future earnings for use in the operation and expansion of our business and have no current plans to pay dividends on our common stock. The declaration, amount and payment of any future dividends will be at the sole discretion of our board of directors, and will depend on, among other things, general and economic conditions, our results of operations and financial condition, our available cash and current and anticipated cash needs, capital requirements, contractual, legal, tax, and regulatory restrictions, and implications on the payment of dividends by us to our stockholders or by our subsidiaries to us, including restrictions under our credit agreements and other indebtedness we may incur, and such other factors as our board of directors may deem relevant. If we elect to pay such dividends in the future, we may reduce or discontinue entirely the payment of such dividends at any time. BrightSpring Health Services, Inc.’s operations are conducted through its subsidiaries. In the event that we do pay a dividend, we intend to cause our operating subsidiaries to make distributions to us in an amount sufficient to cover such dividend. Our subsidiaries are currently subject to certain restrictions and covenants under the credit agreements governing the First Lien Facilities and the Second Lien Facility, including limits on amounts of leverage, interest charges, distributions, dividends, and capital expenditures. These restrictions and covenants may restrict the ability of those entities to make distributions to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. See “Description of Certain Indebtedness.” Any additional financing arrangement we enter into in the future may include restrictive covenants that limit our subsidiaries’ ability to pay dividends to us. In addition, Delaware law may impose requirements that may restrict our ability to pay dividends to holders of our common stock.

 

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CAPITALIZATION

The following table sets forth our cash and cash equivalents and capitalization as of September 30, 2023:

 

   

on an actual basis;

 

   

on an as adjusted basis after giving effect to the sale of 53,333,334 shares of our common stock offered by us in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and the application of the net proceeds to us therefrom as described under “Use of Proceeds”; and

 

   

on an as further adjusted basis after giving effect to the sale of shares of our common stock in this offering as described above and the concurrent issuance of 8,000,000 Units, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and the application of the net proceeds to us therefrom as described under “Use of Proceeds.”

You should read this table in conjunction with the information contained in “Use of Proceeds,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and “Description of Certain Indebtedness” as well as our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes and our unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, each included elsewhere in this prospectus. Because the closing of this offering is not contingent upon the completion of the concurrent offering of the Units, you should not assume that the concurrent offering of the Units, including its component parts of the purchase contracts and the amortizing notes, as reflected in the applicable column below, will take place.

 

     As of September 30, 2023  
     Actual     As
Adjusted(1)
    As Further
Adjusted(1)
 
     (unaudited)     (unaudited)     (unaudited)  

(In thousands, except par value)

      

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 11,641     $ 32,254     $ 60,935  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Debt:

      

First Lien Facilities(2):

      

First Lien Term Loan Facility

     2,916,872       2,625,091       2,264,872  

Revolving Credit Facility

     173,050       —        —   

Second Lien Facility

     450,000       —        —   

Amortizing notes that are components of the Units(3)(4)

     —        —        68,320  

Note payable and other

     4,404       4,404       4,404  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total debt

   $ 3,544,326     $ 2,629,495     $ 2,337,596  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Shareholders’ equity:

      

Common stock, $0.01 par value per share, 1,500,000,000 shares authorized, actual, as adjusted, and as further adjusted; 117,857,055 shares issued and outstanding, actual; 171,190,389 shares issued and outstanding, as adjusted and as further adjusted(1)(5)

     1,179       1,712       1,712  

Additional paid-in capital(1)(3)(5)(6)

     779,519       1,737,130       2,057,710  

Accumulated deficit(7)

     (193,782     (216,482     (216,482

Accumulated other comprehensive income

     44,595       44,595       44,595  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total shareholders’ equity

     631,511       1,566,955       1,887,535  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total capitalization

   $ 4,175,837     $ 4,196,450     $ 4,225,131  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

(1)

To the extent we change the number of shares of common stock sold by us in this offering from the shares we expect to sell or we change the initial public offering price from the assumed initial public offering price

 

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  of $16.50 per share, the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, or any combination of these events occurs, the net proceeds to us from this offering and each of additional paid-in capital, total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization may increase or decrease. A $1.00 increase (decrease) in the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) the net proceeds that we receive in this offering and each of additional paid-in capital, total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization by approximately $50,933,334, assuming the number of shares offered by us remains the same as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus and after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us. An increase (decrease) of 1,000,000 shares in the expected number of shares to be sold by us in this offering, assuming no change in the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, would increase (decrease) our net proceeds from this offering and each of additional paid-in capital, total shareholders’ equity and total capitalization by approximately $15,757,500 after deducting the underwriting discount and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us.
(2)

As of September 30, 2023, there were $59.8 million letters of credit outstanding under the LC Facility and the Revolving Credit Facility. As of December 31, 2023, there was $50.7 million outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility. The balance on the Revolving Credit Facility fluctuates due to the Company’s ongoing business needs, and the balance is typically highest during the first half of each calendar month. We intend to use the net proceeds to us from this offering and the Concurrent Offering to repay $702.7 million aggregate indebtedness outstanding under the Revolving Credit Facility and the First Lien Term Loan Facility. See “Use of Proceeds.”

(3)

Each Unit will include an amortizing note and a purchase contract, each as described under “Tangible Equity Units Offering.” We will allocate the proceeds from the issuance of the Units to the purchase contracts and amortizing notes based on the relative fair values of the respective components, determined as of the date of issuance of the Units. We have estimated that the allocation of the purchase price of each Unit as between the amortizing note and the purchase contract or initial value will be $8.54 for the amortizing note and $41.46 for the purchase contract, as described further below.

(4)

We expect to record the amortizing notes portion of the Units as long-term debt and to record the issuance costs of the amortizing notes as an adjustment to the carrying amount of the amortizing notes. The exact amount of the principal amount of these amortizing notes will not be determined until the pricing of the concurrent offering of the Units. The fair value of the amortizing notes will be determined based on the present value of the installment payments due under the amortizing notes. The interest expense attributable to the amortizing notes will be calculated by us using the effective interest method over the life of the amortizing notes. The resulting impact of such interest expense on our results of operations will not be determined until the pricing of the concurrent offering of the Units based upon the terms agreed upon with investors. The $68.3 million initial value of the amortizing notes are calculated with the assumption that the total principal and interest components of the installment payment will equal 6.75% of the $50.00 stated amount of the Units per annum. A 25-basis point increase in the assumed yield of 6.75% per annum would be expected to result in a $2.6 million increase to the amortizing note component and a corresponding decrease to the purchase contract component.

(5)

Share numbers and amounts do not reflect the shares of our common stock issuable upon settlement of the purchase contracts.

(6)

We expect to account for the purchase contracts that are components of the Units as equity and estimate that we will record the $320.6 million initial value of these purchase contracts, net of the related underwriting discounts, commissions and offering expenses allocated to the purchase contracts, as additional paid-in capital. The fair value of the purchase contracts will be determined utilizing a Black-Scholes model. The exact amount of the initial fair value of these purchase contracts will not be determined until the pricing of the concurrent offering of the Units and our determination of the final offering expenses related thereto.

(7)

Does not reflect approximately $6.5 million of non-cash share-based compensation expense that we expect to incur during the quarter in which this offering is completed related to the New Equity Awards.

 

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DILUTION

If you invest in our common stock in this offering, your ownership interest in us will be diluted to the extent of the difference between the initial public offering price per share of our common stock and the as adjusted net tangible book value per share of our common stock after giving effect to this offering. Dilution results from the fact that the per share offering price of the common stock is substantially in excess of the net tangible book value per share attributable to our existing stockholders.

Our net tangible book deficit as of September 30, 2023 was approximately $2,859.4 million, or $(24.26) per share of our common stock. We calculate net tangible book deficit per share by taking the amount of our total tangible assets (including our operating lease right-of-use assets), reduced by the amount of our total liabilities, and then dividing that amount by the total number of shares of common stock outstanding.

After giving effect to (i) the sale by us of 53,333,334 shares of common stock in this offering at an assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and (ii) the use of proceeds therefrom, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, our as adjusted net tangible book value as of September 30, 2023 would have been $(1,924.0) million, or $(11.24) per share of our common stock. This amount represents an immediate decrease in net tangible book deficit of $13.02 per share of common stock to our existing stockholders and an immediate and substantial dilution in net tangible book value of $27.74 per share of common stock to new investors purchasing shares in this offering.

The following table illustrates this dilution on a per share of common stock basis assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional shares of common stock in this offering:

 

Assumed initial public offering price per share of common stock

   $ 16.50  

Net tangible book deficit per share of common stock as of September 30, 2023

     (24.26

Increase in net tangible book value per share of common stock attributable to investors in this offering

     13.02  
  

 

 

 

As adjusted net tangible book value per share of common stock after giving effect to this offering

     (11.24
  

 

 

 

Dilution per share of common stock to investors in this offering

   $ 27.74  
  

 

 

 

Dilution is determined by subtracting as adjusted net tangible book value per share of common stock after this offering from the initial public offering price per share of common stock.

The closing of this offering of common stock is not conditioned upon the closing of the offering of the Units, but the closing of the offering of the Units is conditioned upon the closing of this offering. The shares of common stock issuable upon settlement of the purchase contracts that are a component of the Units offered in the concurrent offering of the Units will not be outstanding at the time the concurrent offering of the Units is consummated. However, for illustrative purposes only, after giving effect to (i) the sale of shares of common stock in this offering as described above, (ii) the concurrent issuance of the Units and (iii) the use of proceeds from both offerings, after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by us, and assuming (iv) the issuance of the 24,242,400 shares of common stock issuable under the purchase contracts that are a component of such Units, at a rate of 3.0303 shares of common stock per purchase contract, based on the assumed initial public offering price of $16.50 per share, which is the midpoint of the estimated price range set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, and assuming the maximum number of shares issuable upon automatic settlement of such purchase contracts, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments, our as further adjusted net tangible book value as of September 30, 2023 would have been $(1,603.4) million, or $(8.20) per share of our common stock, resulting in substantial dilution in net tangible book value of $24.70 per share of common stock to new investors purchasing shares in this offering.

Each $1.00 increase or decrease in the assumed initial public offering price per share of common stock would increase or decrease, as applicable, the as adjusted net tangible book value by $0.30 per share and the dilution to new investors in the offering by $0.70 per share (or the as further adjusted net tangible book value by $0.26 per share and the related dilution by $0.74 per share), assuming that the number of shares offered by us in

 

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this offering, as set forth on the cover page of this prospectus, remains the same. The as adjusted information discussed above is for illustrative purposes only. Our net tangible book value following the completion of the offering is subject to adjustment based on the actual offering price of our common stock and other terms of this offering and the concurrent offering of the Units determined at pricing.

The following table summarizes, on the same as adjusted basis as of September 30, 2023, the total number of shares of common stock purchased from us, the total cash consideration paid to us, and the average price per share of common stock paid by our existing stockholders and by new investors purchasing shares of common stock in this offering.

 

     Shares Purchased     Total Consideration     Average
Price Per
Share
 
     Number      Percent     Amount      Percent  
     (in thousands)  

Existing stockholders

     117,857,055        68.8   $ 758,805        46.3   $ 6.44  

New investors in this offering

     53,333,334        31.2   $ 880,000        53.7   $ 16.50  

Total

     171,190,389        100.0   $ 1,638,805        100.0   $ 9.57  

If the underwriters were to exercise in full their option to purchase 8,000,000 additional shares of common stock in this offering, the percentage of shares of our common stock held by existing stockholders as of September 30, 2023 would be 65.8% and the percentage of shares of our common stock held by new investors in this offering would be 34.2%.

 

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MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The following discussion analyzes our financial condition and results of operations and should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this prospectus. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. See “Forward-Looking Statements.” When reviewing the discussion below, you should keep in mind the substantial risks and uncertainties that characterize our business. Known material factors that could affect our financial performance and actual results, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements included in this discussion or otherwise made by our management, are described in “Risk Factors.” Factors that could cause or contribute to such difference are not limited to those identified in “Risk Factors.”

Overview

We are a leading home and community-based healthcare services platform, focused on delivering complementary pharmacy and provider services to complex patients. We have a differentiated approach to care delivery, with an integrated and scaled model that addresses critical services that the highest-need and highest-cost patients require. With a focus on Senior and Specialty patients, which includes Behavioral populations, our platform provides pharmacy and provider services (both clinical and supportive care in nature) in lower-cost home and community settings largely to Medicare, Medicaid, and commercially-insured populations. We are an essential part of our nation’s health delivery network as a front-line provider of high-quality and cost-effective care to a large and growing number of people, who increasingly require a combination of specialized solutions to enable holistic health care management. Our presence spans all 50 states, we serve over 400,000 patients daily through our approximately 10,000 clinical providers and pharmacists, and our services make a profound impact in the lives and communities of the people we serve.

Our model focuses on delivering high-touch and coordinated services to medically complex clients and patients, which is a large, growing, and underserved population in the U.S. healthcare system. These high-need and high-cost Senior and Specialty patients comprise a market of over $1.0 trillion across our business. The chronic conditions and long-term health needs of these patients not only represent an outsized share of health care spend today, according to RAND, but we believe that they are expected to also drive a disproportionate share of future expenditures. Americans with five or more chronic conditions make up over 10% of the population and account for 40% of total health care spending, on average spending 10 times more on health services than those without chronic conditions. These patients most often require both pharmacy and provider services to achieve the best outcomes, but must often navigate disjointed and separately-administered health services. This can result in uncoordinated care delivery with adverse medical consequences, as compared to receiving timely, proximal, and complete care support in the home and community that improves health and reduces cost.

We have built a significant presence and capability in delivering complementary and high-touch daily healthcare services and programs to complex patients in their homes and in communities in order to address their multiple health needs and requirements more completely. In pharmacy, we leverage our national infrastructure to provide daily medication therapy management to various customer and patient types wherever they reside in the community, including home and in-clinic infusion patients, oncology and other specialty patients in their homes, residents of independent and senior living communities, people receiving hospice care, neuro and Behavioral clients’ and patients’ homes, residents of skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, hospital patients, and the homes of Seniors who are on a significant number of medications. Within provider services, we address the clinical and supportive care needs of Senior and Specialty populations, including neuro and Behavioral patients, primarily in their homes, as well as some clinic and community settings. Our clinical services consist of home health and hospice and rehab therapy, and our supportive care services address activities of daily living and social determinants of health as well. We also provide home-based primary care for patients in senior living communities, long-term care, and individual homes to directly manage and optimize patient outcomes and to

 

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enable value-based care. By providing these complementary and necessary services for complex patients, our care model is designed to address multiple patient needs and better integrate health services delivery to improve quality and patient experiences, while reducing overall costs.

2022 Overview and Key Highlights

 

   

A leading, diversified, independent provider of home and community-based healthcare services in the United States

 

   

Scaled national platform with a presence in all 50 states, a quality and compliance focus, longer-term customer relationships, a successful M&A track record, and an experienced management team

 

   

Complementary pharmacy and provider services that more completely address the multiple needs of complex Senior and Specialty patients across their various settings and over time

 

   

Focus on clinical and operational excellence and coordinated front-line healthcare services to deliver improved outcomes in lower-cost settings with high levels of satisfaction among stakeholders

 

   

Compelling and proven value proposition for all constituents, including our clients, patients and their respective families, customers, partners, payors, employees, and investors

 

   

Over $1.0 trillion combined market opportunity with numerous positive industry trends and drivers

 

   

Growth opportunities available through organic expansion in core pharmacy and provider businesses, our ability to leverage complementary and care management services for integrated care synergies and value-based care payment models, and through strategic acquisitions

 

   

In 2022, grew revenue by $1.0 billion, or 15.3%, to $7.7 billion

 

   

In 2022, net income decreased by $105.5 million to $(54.2) million

 

   

In 2022, increased Adjusted EBITDA by $29.4 million, or 6.0%, to $522.5 million

 

   

Overall, the comprehensive services that we provide at the scale we provide them create economies of scale, stability, and attractive near-term and long-term commercial opportunities that address societal needs

Our Service Offerings

We are one of the largest independent providers of home and community-based health services in the United States, delivering both pharmacy and provider services. We believe our high-quality and complementary health services offerings address significant and important patient and stakeholder needs. We enhance patient outcomes through the delivery and coordination of high-quality services that high-need, high-cost patients require. Our services are principally delivered in patient-preferred and lower-cost settings and often over longer periods of time, given the chronic nature of the patient conditions that we address. We believe our breadth of service capabilities and proven outcomes position us as a provider of choice for patients, families, referral sources, customers, and payors. We deliver services through two reportable segments: Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services.

The following table summarizes the revenues generated by each of our segments for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022:

 

     For the Nine Months Ended September 30,  
($ in millions)    2023     2022  
     Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
 

Pharmacy Solutions

   $ 4,737.0        73.4   $ 3,885.3        67.6

Provider Services

     1,714.6        26.6     1,617.2        28.1

Other

     —         0.0     247.4        4.3
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Consolidated

   $ 6,451.6        100.0   $ 5,749.9        100.0
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

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The following table summarizes the revenues generated by each of our segments for the most recent three years:

 

     For the Years Ended December 31,  
($ in millions)    2022     2021     2020  
     Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
 

Pharmacy Solutions

   $ 5,264.4        68.3   $ 4,389.4        65.6   $ 3,635.9        65.2

Provider Services

     2,181.5        28.2     1,962.7        29.2     1,683.7        30.1

Other

     274.7        3.5     346.0        5.2     260.8        4.7
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Consolidated

   $ 7,720.6        100.0   $ 6,698.1        100.0   $ 5,580.4        100.0
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

Pharmacy Solutions

We opportunistically provide pharmacy services when and where demanded and as required to customers and patients in their homes and communities, often in coordination with our provider services. The Company filled over 34 million prescriptions in 2022 from over 180 pharmacies across all 50 states, with services delivered to approximately 6,000 customer locations, more than 44,000 individual or group homes, and over 350,000 patients, all through over 4,900 unique customer and payor contracts. Our leading pharmacy support across customer and patient settings is achieved through a focus on medication availability and reliability, cost containment, customer staff and patient support programs, clinical and regulatory education and support, and leading customer service. Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy prescriptions and Community Pharmacy prescriptions have grown at more than 20% and 10%, respectively, from September 2022 to September 2023. In addition, the pharmacy patient population grew from 2016 to 2022 with a CAGR of 29%. We have a unique opportunity to increasingly provide more pharmacy services in the future to provider patients and patients transitioning across settings of care. Almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, which we have the opportunity to further address.

Pharmacy services are a universal need and ongoing connection point across medically complex populations. Our pharmacy services delivered into homes and community settings for complex patients are extremely different as compared to retail pharmacy, with more challenging customer and patient needs and service requirements. The average Senior fills approximately 52 medication prescriptions per year, while our average pharmacy patient is usually prescribed approximately nine medications at a given time, or at least two times more than the average Senior. As a result, medication appropriateness, accuracy, and adherence are critical points of emphasis for promoting the overall long-term health and well-being of patients. Non-adherence causes approximately 40% of chronic disease treatment failures and 125,000 deaths per year in the United States. Further, non-adherence costs $100 billion annually, according to the JAMDA study. We deliver on our goals with 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness.

There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in the pharmacy industry. First, large scale, which our pharmacy platform has and is characterized by, is of critical importance. We are able to leverage our large pharmacy scale in purchasing and all supplier contracting, in operating and fixed expenses, in payor contracting, in technology and systems, in sales and marketing and with brand reputation, in being able to address customer and growth opportunities in more markets, in driving synergies post acquisitions, and in leveraging best practices, for example, in operational, quality, and compliance oversight and human resources and people management. Second, the Company has historically targeted and served home and community pharmacy customers, patients, and channels as different from a retail strategy. We believe that these service settings and channels are more challenging to serve and present the opportunity for greater customization of offerings, differentiation, and value-add to customers. Third, and related to the customer types and channels that we serve in pharmacy, we most often provide our services through a local pharmacy and delivery model. Many of our customers require same day pharmacy service or in-person administration, and this

 

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geographical requirement can only be met through local, physical pharmacies. Fourth, many of our customers and patients have different and more significant clinical, educational, and reimbursement needs as compared to the general population’s retail medication profile, which must be addressed through particular expertise and high-touch customer and patient support vehicles and resources. Fifth, and also due to the different setting profile, heightened needs, and medication therapy profile of our patient base, there is an increased importance on service levels and quality measures in our specific pharmacy service types. Companies that outperform on service and quality in our pharmacy customer and patient channels have the opportunity to differentiate themselves in the market and with payors.

Infusion and Specialty Pharmacy

We provide infused, injectable, and oral medication services in the home and clinic focused on pharmaceutical therapies that require expert administration and high-touch clinical services to patients by our pharmacists, registered nursing staff, and patient support teams. Infusion therapy services are a specialty form of pharmaceuticals that involve the intravenous administration of higher-cost, specially-handled medications that treat a wide range of acute and chronic health conditions, including, for example, infections, auto-immune illnesses, oncology, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and nutritional deficiencies. Oral and injectable medication therapies for complex disease management treat oncology, neurology, dermatology, cardiology, immunology, inflammatory, rare and orphan, and other conditions. Within oncology, as one of the leading independent specialty pharmacies in the United States, our services encompass clinical coordination, patient education, protocol compliance, patient assistance with insurance access and outside funding, and timely delivery of medication. Our certified oncology pharmacists are available 24/7 to provide support for patients and caregivers while working in close coordination with their physicians.

Our customer service and quality metrics are in-line with, or better than, our peers, such as time-to-first-fill (4.2 day average turnaround time, which is significantly lower than the industry average of 9.7 day average turnaround time), overall MPR (96.9%, which is significantly higher than the generally accepted 80% threshold for compliance, which is also the threshold set forth in the Company’s Blue Cross Blue Shield guarantee), and infusion patient satisfaction scores (95.0%, which is in-line with the 95.6% national average). We offer value-add services including technology integrations and real-time analytics for both suppliers and payors. As a result of our unique capabilities in serving pharmaceutical manufacturers and biotech companies, we have exclusive or preferred relationships in specialty oncology drugs, as manufacturers select our pharmacy – exclusively or as part of a group of a few other pharmacies – to distribute and support their therapies in the market. We currently have 116 limited distribution oncology drugs in the market, an increase from 93 in 2021, and 87 in 2020, with an additional 16 in the pipeline still to launch, including 5 exclusive and 11 ultra-narrow drugs with limited pharmacy access. In 2020, 2021, and 2022, as a testament to our leading quality and service, we achieved “world-class” NPS scores of over 90, which also triggered quality incentive payments. The Company receives incentive payments in connection with a payor contract, which includes incentive targets based on the Company’s NPS scores achieved from surveys performed directly by the payor. The Company did not receive any such incentive payments during the year ended December 31, 2020. During each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2022, the incentive payments were approximately $20 million. For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the incentive payments were approximately $30 million.

Home and Community Pharmacy

Our home and community-based pharmacy solutions ensure that medications are accessible and clinically supported for patients outside of retail pharmacies. The Company’s footprint of pharmacies covers all 50 states with a localized model that features “white-glove” and customized programs and allows for faster response times and a better customer and patient experience. We service customer locations typically multiple times a day and 24/7 as needed, within a radius of approximately 100 miles of a pharmacy location. Our services focus on achieving leading medication availability, cost containment, and clinical and regulatory education and support for our customers, and they are designed to provide a consistent, best in-class experience for customers accompanied by local concierge support. Centralized intake and order entry drives consistency across operations

 

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and markets. Our pharmacy services are all customized to specific settings and patients among the Senior and Specialty populations served, for example whether a patient receiving our medications is in a senior living community, a behavioral group home, or a hospice patient in their own home.

In addition to our very strong service delivery metrics, our pharmacy services and proprietary programs reduce drug costs to customers and patients, for example with a 99.9% generic efficiency rate (the percent of drugs dispensed as generic, when both brand and generic versions of a drug are available) and saving customers an average of $58 per therapeutic interchange. Our customers, supported by several thousand pharmacists, pharmacist consultants, and nurses, perform better than the national average, with our patients consistently outperforming non-patients on overall CMS quality measures. Moreover, we believe we have certain comparative strengths in this large and fragmented pharmacy market due to our large pharmacy scale – and associated drug purchasing capabilities and distribution reach – and robustness of proprietary and customized customer and patient support programs.

In 2021, we launched CCRx, which is a longitudinal medication therapy and risk management program for home health patients, attempting to solve one of the biggest challenges and opportunities in healthcare, which is the ongoing management of complex patients in their homes to reduce adverse health events and hospitalizations. CCRx includes patient and home assessments, initial and ongoing medication review and reconciliation, user-friendly adherence packaging, direct patient engagement, and education by pharmacists and clinicians. The program was built for patients discharged from skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities or hospitals, and/or patients going onto home health. Studies have shown that all-cause hospitalizations are higher in patients with poor medication adherence and that medication management associated issues are a leading cause of emergency room visits and hospitalizations. CCRx has been shown to reduce hospitalizations, and, as such, is a key enabler in managing patients in value-based care constructs. For example, the JAMDA study found that home health recipients who are enrolled in CCRx experience a 73.1% lower hospitalization rate than home health recipients who are not enrolled in CCRx.

Provider Services

We deliver a variety of impactful and valuable provider services to high-need, chronic, and complex patients in home and community settings. These services consist of clinical and supportive care to over 34,000 Senior and Specialty populations today, with both census for Home Health Care services specifically, and rehab hours served, having grown approximately 9% from September 2022 to September 2023. While the clinical services that we provide have demonstrated attractive volume growth over the past several years, supportive care services have also demonstrated stability and growth due to the valuable nature of these services that address activities of daily living and social determinants of health. Many of our provider patients also receive their pharmacy services through the Company, which helps to optimize their pharmacy and medication care and needs, simplify their experience, and improve their satisfaction. We believe there is greater opportunity to provide integrated services to all of our patients in the future, as almost every one of the Company’s patients who receive provider services from us have a significant medication support need given their polypharmacy profile, and, vice versa, many of the patients we serve in pharmacy have multiple provider service needs, including, for example, home-based primary care, home health, and rehab. To this end, the Company has endeavored to build out home-based primary care over the last several years to coordinate patient services.

There are numerous success factors that we believe are important for long-term sustainability in our provider services markets. First, we are able to leverage our investments in human resources and people management initiatives and best practices across the enterprise, including in recruiting scale and centralization, onboarding and training, and career paths. Second, quality and patient satisfaction are critical, and we are able to provide increased quality and compliance and operational oversight across all locations through additional regional and enterprise resources and functions. Third, we drive strong sales and marketing best practices across geographies to drive strong referral and volume growth rates. Fourth, we are able to drive economies of scale in supplier and payor contracting, in technology and systems, and in government affairs and advocacy. Fifth, the ability to address market opportunities and geographic coverage through de novo locations and tuck-in acquisitions that benefit from synergies adds value, which we have

 

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demonstrated. Moreover, provider services scale is perhaps the most important determinant of sustainability for a provider services business, as it enables a company to be able to execute on the aforementioned success factors. Complementary scale in the pharmacy business is additive to provider services quality and growth, as our pharmacy business’ presence and footprint across geographies provide for a base of integrated care patient opportunities.

Home Health Care

We provide patient-centric, highly skilled, and compassionate clinical care to Seniors and others in their homes. For Seniors and other patients recovering from surgery or illness or living with chronic diseases, we provide clinical home health care in the home. These services help patients avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, speed up recovery time, and allow people to stay and feel secure in their own homes, which they prefer. Over $40 billion in annual U.S. health care spending is attributed to hospital readmissions, and home health care can reduce 365-day post-discharge costs by more than $6,000 per patient, each per the American Journal of Medicine. We also provide physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort and support primarily for Senior patients with terminal illnesses and their families through our hospice services. Our services have also been shown to help manage end-of-life healthcare spending. For example, Medicare spend in 2019 for patients that had received hospice care was estimated by NORC at the University of Chicago to be $3.5 billion less nationwide than if all such patients had not received hospice care. Like patients receiving home health care, our interdisciplinary hospice teams tailor individualized plans for patients and their families based on a comprehensive understanding of their needs. Our hospice patients require important daily pharmacy support, which we deliver through our pharmacy services. We have an 9.2 HCI score, calculated using data from CMS provider reports for each of our providers, and we believe that our nurse-to-patient visit frequency and staffing ratio is well above industry averages, as demonstrated by the fact that across our hospice services, our average total visits per patient is 22.7 visits per month as compared to the national average of 14.0 visits per month. Additionally, on average, nursing visits per patient per month was 10.5 as compared to the national average of 6.4 visits per patient per month, which monthly average was based on a MedPac report in 2022. Additionally, for Seniors and others who require supportive care and activities of daily living support that address social determinants of health, including dietary and nutrition management and cognitive and social engagement, among others, we offer these daily or weekly services. We estimate that the average cost per day of supportive home care services is 90% less than hospital care, and as Medicare spends an average of three times more on older adults with functional limitations, we also believe that supportive care services will continue to become a focus for payors to help improve outcomes and delay or prevent unnecessary facility placement.

We are continuing to build out specialized and different primary care capabilities through our home-based primary care medical home model and platform, which we view as central to the future of optimizing patient management, including patient experiences, outcomes, and cost. Many adverse health and/or medication events can be prevented through better understanding patients’ health and risk factors by managing and treating them in the environment where they reside with primary care. In doing so, home-based primary care is more patient-centered and incorporates patients’ specific objectives and goals. Home-based primary care pro-actively addresses gaps in care and triages health events in-place when possible, thus mitigating avoidable emergency room visits and hospitalizations. Home-based primary care coordinates care and resources for patients in pulling together previously disparate information and contact points into one place for more coordinated and informed patient care. Our primary care clinicians, including physicians we directly employ in certain states, optimize clinical and care decisions as they see and manage both Seniors and Behavioral (including I/DD) patients in senior living communities, in individual homes and in group homes, in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities, as well as through transitional care visits after patients leave hospitals or skilled nursing facilities. By engaging with patients more frequently and where they live, the Company’s home-based primary care can mitigate health issues before they escalate further and conduct many applicable treatments and procedures in a home or community setting. Our home-based primary care has delivered leading quality outcomes, including a hospital readmission rate 30% less than the national average and with acute, chronic, and complex patients served still able to spend 355 days per year at home, which is 6% more days than the Medicare average, based on the Health Days study. For I/DD patients, we have seen reductions in hospitalizations and readmissions of 44% and 84%, respectively, since beginning home-based primary care services.

 

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In addition to many of our provider patients also receiving their pharmacy services from the Company, our patients often receive multiple in-home provider services from the Company to improve outcomes, including home-based primary care and home health or hospice and transitions from home health to hospice. In 2021, the Company implemented CCRx, which provides patients with a more coordinated experience and reduces risks through primary care expertise in the home soon after patient discharge and through optimized medication therapy management in an individual’s home. Within the last two years, the Company has built a Clinical (Nursing) Hub to be the contact and coordination point for patients, families, and their pharmacy and provider services. As more of our patients utilize the multiple needed services that they require and we provide, we pro-actively monitor patients and deploy triage tools through our Clinical (Nursing) Hub to address risks and optimize quality outcomes in real-time, particularly for higher risk patients. Within the Clinical (Nursing) Hub, we centralize on-call and tele-triage, perform high-risk patient monitoring and intervention, conduct “Aftercare” patient calls, and manage care coordination opportunities across the enterprise. We see significant potential for additional integrated care opportunities by leveraging our Home-Based Primary Care, CCRx, and Clinical (Nursing) Hub capabilities to support senior living communities, payors, our hospital partners and their patient discharges, and our skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility customers who alone discharge approximately 360,000 patients a year back into the community and their homes.

Community and Rehab Care

Our Community and Rehab Care services provide both client- and patient-centric clinical care and supportive care to Senior and Specialty clients and patients living with age-related acute or chronic conditions, living with life-long indications (including I/DD and autism), or recovering from a catastrophic neuro event (ABI/TBI or stroke) requiring intensive therapy. These services support individuals of all ages who need various forms of expert clinical care and therapy in addition to assistance with daily skill building and living. The majority of these clients and patients receive daily pharmacy support, delivered through our pharmacy business (with an 83% penetration rate), along with ongoing behavioral therapy consults and primary care medical care, which is increasingly being delivered through our home-based primary care practice.

We provide specialized, highly-skilled, and custom-designed rehabilitation services, including physical, speech and occupational therapy and ABA, for clients and patients of all ages with a range of injuries and conditions, including brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, pediatric neuro conditions, and autism. Our services make a dramatic impact on the trajectory of a patient’s independence, skills, and life and significantly lower longer-term costs. Rehab patients see profound improvements in their conditions, with the Company’s outpatient rehab services receiving a 99% patient satisfaction score and over 99% of patients who would recommend our services. We also offer a variety of programs for individuals with I/DD through our community living services, including group homes, supported living and family living models (host homes), behavioral therapy, vocational therapy, and case management. Our programs are principally administered in individuals’ homes and are predominantly based on individual support and clinical care plans designed to encourage greater independence and manage medical conditions, as the majority of I/DD individuals have multiple chronic conditions and require eight or more medications.

Locations of Operations

We are headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky with operations in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Canada. We deliver a higher proportion of services in select regions with favorable demographics and regulatory environments.

We serve patients from and across approximately 9,500 offices, customer locations and group homes, as well as serving approximately 250,000 patients in their own homes, every day with co-location of our pharmacy and provider services in 40 states.

Payor Mix

We are characterized by payor diversification across our platform. Our payors are principally federal, state, and local governmental agencies, commercial insurance, private, and other payors. No payor represents more than 40% of our revenue in the aggregate for the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020 or for the nine

 

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months ended September 30, 2023 and 2022. Additionally, our Medicaid payors can be further broken down across each individual state with our top 10 Medicaid states representing 16% of total Company revenue. Our payor mix has become increasingly more diversified since 2020 primarily due to organic growth and acquisitions throughout our portfolio. The federal, state, and local programs under which we operate are subject to legislative and budgetary changes that can influence reimbursement rates.

 

     For the Nine Months Ended September 30,  
($ in millions)    2023     2022  
     Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
 

Medicare D

   $ 2,442.1        37.9   $ 2,010.5        35.0

Medicaid

     1,476.6        22.9     1,335.3        23.2

Commercial Insurance

     1,341.2        20.8     1,101.2        19.1

Medicare A

     756.0        11.8     705.8        12.2

Private & Other

     371.2        5.6     318.5        5.7

Medicare B

     64.5        1.0     31.2        0.5

Department of Labor

     —         0.0     247.4        4.3
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 
   $ 6,451.6        100.0   $ 5,749.9        100.0
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

     For the Years Ended December 31,  
($ in millions)    2022     2021     2020  
     Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
    Revenue      % of
Revenue
 

Medicare D

   $ 2,713.3        35.1   $ 2,259.0        33.7   $ 1,903.7        34.1

Medicaid

     1,806.6        23.4     1,634.1        24.4     1,512.5        27.1

Commercial Insurance

     1,487.9        19.3     1,215.7        18.2     999.4        17.9

Medicare A

     946.8        12.3     813.2        12.2     494.3        8.9

Private & Other

     447.6        5.8     399.6        5.9     385.4        6.9

Department of Labor

     273.4        3.5     346.0        5.2     260.8        4.7

Medicare B

     45.0        0.6     30.5        0.4     24.3        0.4
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 
   $ 7,720.6        100.0   $ 6,698.1        100.0   $ 5,580.4        100.0
  

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

 

We provide our services across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and Canada, with our top 10 states of operations comprising 54% of total Company revenue in the year ended December 31, 2022.

Trends and Other Factors Affecting Business

Continued Growth of our Pharmacy Solutions Patient Populations

We focus on providing health-dependent medications in a timely and well-supported manner to our patients receiving pharmacy solutions in their home and community-based settings. Our pharmacy services are primarily delivered directly to patients in their place of residence, home, or stay, and sometimes in a clinic setting. Our high-need Senior and Specialty patients depend on closely and expertly managed daily medication regimens that are supported by pharmacist and nurse consultants and available in a timely and 24/7 manner. According to industry reports, pharmacy solutions delivered to and tailored for the home environment, such as home infusion services, oncology services, and daily medication management services in the home, will continue to grow faster than the overall and general pharmacy market. Each of the end markets that these home and community-based pharmacy services supply and support are growing at attractive rates, and the lack of appropriate pharmacy medication management and resulting non-adherence among complex and polypharmacy patients in homes are significant contributors to ER visits, hospitalizations and increased costs.

We have continued to expand our pharmacy capabilities to serve this need. Overall, our pharmacy has grown patient census and prescriptions by 9% and 6%, respectively, over the past year. We are a leading independent pharmacy provider in our respective pharmacy patient markets, and we expect to continue to increase our share. Our growth in serving numerous patient types has been well into the double digits, including home infusion patients,

 

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specialty oncology patients, behavioral patients, in-home Seniors, and hospice patients. Also, due to the strength of our quality and customer and patient support and relationships with pharmaceutical drug manufacturers, from 2020 to 2022 the unique number of exclusive or limited distribution drugs we dispense has increased by 24%, and the annual revenue impact from these drugs and relationships has increased by nearly 91%.

Continued Growth of our Provider Services Patient Populations

We focus on delivering high-touch and coordinated services to medically complex Senior and Specialty patients in the home and community-based settings where they live. As the baby boomer population ages, Seniors, who comprise a significant majority of our patients, will represent a higher percentage of the overall population. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the U.S. population aged 65 and over will grow substantially from 15% of the population in 2016 to 21% of the population by 2030, and the population size of people over age 85 is expected to double by 2040, according to the Administration for Community Living. Given the proven value proposition of home-based health services, we believe patients will increasingly seek treatment and referral sources and payors will increasingly support treatment in homes more often than in higher cost, less convenient, higher acuity institutional settings. Home health care can reduce 365-day post-discharge costs by more than $6,000 per patient, and as healthcare spending rises, home health care can improve the continuity of care while reducing overall costs. In addition, advancements in medical technology have allowed providers to expand access points and the breadth of services available in the home.

The vast majority of patients we serve in our provider businesses are served in the home, and we have purposefully continued to expand our service offering and footprint to serve patients in this lower cost setting. Over the past five years we built upon supportive care services to patients, as we have meaningfully expanded our footprint of highly clinical and expert services to home health, rehabilitation, and hospice patients to address a large national healthcare need and more completely and better serve Senior and Specialty patients in the home. For example, our census for Home Health Care services have grown approximately 9% from September 2022 to September 2023. Our complementary services that address the multiple needs of these patient populations will increasingly provide integrated care opportunities to provide more complete and better coordinated services to patients across health settings and stages.

Stable Reimbursement Environment Across our Portfolio of Businesses

Our revenue is dependent upon our contracts and relationships with payors for our “must-serve” patient populations. We partner with a large and diverse set of payor groups nationally and in each of our markets to form provider networks and to lower the overall cost of care. We structure our payor contracts to help both providers and payors achieve their objectives in a mutually aligned manner. Maintaining, supporting, and both deepening and increasing the number of these contracts and relationships, particularly as we continue to grow market share and enter new markets, is important for our long-term success.

We have observed relatively stable reimbursement rates from government and commercial payors in our pharmacy and provider services over a number of years, particularly for services provided to high-need, medically complex populations. Due to the medical necessity of our services, which are lower cost than healthcare services provided in other settings and reduce ER, hospital and institutional facility utilization, we have a history of reimbursement stability characterized by low-to-mid single digit rate increases across our lines of business from 2014 to 2022. Our average reimbursement rate increases based on revenue during this time period included 4.2% for personal care services associated with activity of daily living services for Seniors, 4.5% for Behavioral services, 2.2% for hospice services, and 1.6% associated with long term care pharmacy services.

Culture of Quality and Compliance and Consistent Operations Execution

Quality and compliance are central to our strategies and mission. We have demonstrated leading and excellent service and customer/patient/family satisfaction scores across the organization, as referenced in prior and other sections of this prospectus. In addition to quality and compliance resources and programs in field operations, we invest over $200 million a year in people, training, auditing, signature programs, accreditations,

 

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advocacy, and technologies to support quality, compliance, and safety as part of our “Quality First” framework. We have demonstrated consistently high and often leading marks for service levels, satisfaction scores, and quality metrics in our industries.

For example, across our pharmacies we achieve 99.99% order accuracy and 98.46% order completeness, “excellent” and “world class” NPS, a 95% satisfaction rating from infusion patients, and a reduction in hospitalizations with CCRx, while also driving savings through medication adherence and therapeutic interchanges. We achieve 99% patient satisfaction in our outpatient rehab services, and we achieve an 84% overall rating of care in hospice, hospitalizations 30% lower than the national average in our home-based primary care, and four stars (out of five) in the CAHPS home health patient survey ratings. Our complex Behavioral clients, often with three or more comorbidities and requiring eight or more medications, are still able to spend 359 days a year at home on average. We believe that we are positioned to identify potential medical problems and avoid adverse events due to our highly proximate position to patients and attentive care protocols, as evidenced by these quality metrics.

Operational excellence is also an ongoing focus at the Company, including how we collect and share key metrics, hold operational reviews, audit, conduct training, deploy expert support resources, execute on corrective and preventative actions, and implement continuous improvement initiatives across the organization. In addition to ongoing efficiency and cost reduction activities in the businesses, the implementation of our PMO-led continuous improvement program over the past seven years at the enterprise level has resulted in approximately $41.5 million of annual savings in 2022 (and in addition to annual efficiencies and savings work achieved throughout field operations) from improved processes and working smarter, and these efficiencies have been used to reinvest in employees (both existing employees through wages and benefits and new employees to support key strategies, innovation and infrastructure needs to further scale), quality, technology, and growth initiatives. We have continued to make investments in automation, data, and technology systems to support enhanced workflows, further scale, and future growth across service lines.

Ability to Build De Novo Locations

We have a proven ability to augment growth of existing operations by expanding our presence and opening new locations – in both of our operating segments in Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services – across geographies with consistent ramp-up in performance after site opening. We believe our platform can continue to build further scale nationally, adding density to additional and targeted key markets as a lever to facilitate maximum pharmacy and provider services overlap, integrated and value-based care, and growth. The Company’s geographic and operations scale and platform of complementary segments and service lines provides us with access to more de novo opportunities to consider and prioritize.

Since January 1, 2018, we have opened 138 de novo offices (branches/agencies) and clinics in new locations across our pharmacy and provider services. Since beginning our de novo program in late 2018, we have accelerated the pace of our de novo openings, having opened eight in 2018, 22 in 2019, and an average of 30 per year from 2020 through 2022. We typically identify and open new locations within proximity of an existing location as we leverage existing market knowledge and presence to expand in target markets, regions, and states. Our internal support resources in real estate, purchasing, IT, credentialing, payor contracting, HR, and sales and marketing, along with our PMO, help to support and manage de novos from start to opening. We expect to continue to selectively and strategically expand our footprint within the United States and extend our service offerings to our patients and for customers, referral sources, and payors, and we believe de novo investments facilitate more integrated care capability and are a meaningful organic growth driver for the Company.

Ability to Facilitate Integrated Care

Our operating model consists of complementary pharmacy and provider services that high-need Senior and Specialty populations require, and it is designed to increasingly coordinate, manage, and serve patients across our various needs and settings over time, leading to improved patient, family, physician, and referral source

 

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satisfaction, improved payor experiences, and better outcomes. Our performance and potential to drive increased service volume for increased patient and health outcomes impact is driven partly by our appeal with our patients, families, customers, referral sources, and payors to provide multiple integrated care services – either in the same setting at the same time or across settings and stages of health – within our collection of pharmacy solutions and provider services and differentiated overall capabilities.

We provide multiple pharmacy and provider services to approximately 20,000 patients today, and we believe that there are substantially more opportunities to deliver more integrated care, given the hundreds of thousands of patients we serve and a similar number of patients discharging from customers annually. Value-add, beneficial, and multiple integrated care opportunities exist for our customer base and all Senior and Specialty patient populations and not only across pharmacy and provider services, but also within each segment. Within the pharmacy services, CCRx is aimed at providing medication risk and therapy management continuously and longitudinally post discharge from hospitals and skilled nursing customers. Within the provider services, patients often transition from home health to hospice services and can receive therapy and supportive care services concurrent with each other and with home health and hospice.

Aligning to Value-Based Care Reimbursement Models with Innovative Solutions

The scale and depth of our complimentary platform of diverse yet related customer and patient services – that complex patients require – positions us at the forefront with governmental and commercial payors who are increasingly seeking ways to expand value-based reimbursement models. In 2021, CMS established a goal to have 100 percent of Original Medicare beneficiaries, and the vast majority of Medicaid beneficiaries, in accountable, value-based care relationships by 2030. Our high-quality services that are delivered in home and community-based and patient and family-preferred settings at lower comparable costs are well-positioned for the long-term, and we continue to add wraparound care management capabilities and offerings to our core services. We believe our ability to enable more patients to move from the institutional acute care setting to the home (and other community settings) represents a critical part of this industry transition effort, as we have demonstrated improved patient outcomes to payors while driving incremental volume of service solution and revenue growth. In addition to our large Medicare and Medicaid beneficiary populations, we have a large number of non-governmental payor contracts across the organization today, which both diversifies our payor mix, and provides for additional value-based opportunities and partnerships.

The Company’s focused build out of its (i) Home-Based Primary Care, transitional care programs, and in-home medication therapy management (CCRx), and (ii) Clinical (Nursing) Hub, are key enablers to coordinate base pharmacy and prover services and drive improved quality and lower costs for value-based care constructs. In addition to numerous payor contracts that feature reimbursement incentives, in the past year the Company has entered into several ACO arrangements to participate in shared savings from its attributed primary care patients and other ACO partnerships and contract as a preferred provider.

New Equity Awards

We expect to grant approximately $163.3 million in non-cash share-based compensation with respect to equity awards expected to be granted to our management and certain other full-time employees at the time of the consummation of this offering or subsequently, starting in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. See “Executive Compensation—Equity Incentive Plans—2024 Incentive Plan—New Equity Awards.”

Factors Affecting Results of Operations and Comparability

Acquisitions and Divestitures

In addition to organic growth, we have grown through acquisitions that have deepened and expanded our presence in current markets and facilitated entry into attractive adjacent markets.

 

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During each of the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021, and 2022, we completed 12 acquisitions, 12 acquisitions, and six acquisitions, respectively, within the Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services segments. Aggregate consideration, net of cash acquired, for these acquisitions was approximately $414.7 million, $1,137.1 million, and $45.0 million, respectively. During the nine months ended September 30, 2023, we completed three acquisitions within our Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services segments. Aggregate consideration, net of cash acquired, for these acquisitions was approximately $70.0 million. Select highlights of these acquisitions are as follows:

 

   

On April 16, 2021, we completed the acquisition of Abode for approximately $749.2 million, net of an acquired Medicare Advanced payment liability of $25.0 million. We funded the acquisition through the incurrence of incremental term loans under our First Lien Facilities and available cash. With the purchase of Abode, we expanded our growing home health and hospice offerings with a leading and high-quality provider in 12 states that complement our existing home health and hospice states, leveraging operating infrastructure that had previously been assembled at BrightSpring, further strengthening our clinical service offerings, driving hospice pharmacy revenue synergies (and home health pharmacy revenue synergies in the future), and better positioning us to acquire “tuck-in” home health and hospice companies in the future.

 

   

On November 1, 2021, we completed the acquisition of Hospice Home Care for approximately $213.0 million, net of cash acquired. We funded the acquisition through the incurrence of incremental term loans under our First Lien Facilities and available cash. With the purchase of Hospice Home Care, we expanded our growing hospice and palliative care offerings with a leading, high-quality provider operating in three states and positioned ourselves for additional expansion in the market.

 

   

On September 30, 2020, we completed the acquisition of OPPC for approximately $190.0 million. We funded the acquisition primarily through incremental borrowing on our Revolving Credit Facility and available cash. With the purchase of OPPC, we expanded our pharmacy offerings in the hospice pharmacy services market with value added to the OPPC platform through accelerating de novo hospice pharmacies in new target markets, leveraging our existing national pharmacy network to locally fulfill hospice drug prescriptions directly to patient homes in more markets, enhancing sales through our hospice provider relationships, and driving purchasing and cost savings in further leveraging our scale. We also rolled out these hospice pharmacy services internally to hospice patients that we serve in our Provider Services segment.

 

   

On October 15, 2020, we completed the acquisition of OptionOne Pharmacy; on December 9, 2020, we completed the acquisition of Sacred Journey Hospice; and on December 31, 2020, we completed the acquisition AbilisHealth, for approximately $19.6 million, $71.0 million, and $51.6 million, net of cash acquired, respectively. We funded each of the acquisitions primarily through incremental borrowing on our Revolving Credit Facility and available cash.

On November 1, 2022, the Company completed the sale of Workforce Solutions, which comprises the single business in our Other segment, for a sales price of $155.8 million, net of cash divested of $2.7 million. As of September 30, 2022, we adjusted the carrying value of the disposal group to the agreed upon sales price, which resulted in goodwill impairment loss of $15.4 million and a loss on assets held for sale of $5.5 million, which is reported in the consolidated statements of operations within selling, general, and administrative expenses. The Company used the proceeds from the sale of Workforce Solutions to pay down the Revolving Credit Facility and to fund its operations. The divestiture did not represent a strategic shift with a major effect on the Company’s operations and financial results and therefore is not reported as a discontinued operation. The results of operations of Workforce Solutions are consolidated in the Company’s results of operations for the year ended December 31, 2022. The divestiture reflects our decision to focus on driving our community-based healthcare strategy. With the sale complete, we have dedicated our resources to the Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services segments and further strengthening our position in our service offerings as well as a focus towards the connectivity of care services across our business lines in order to best serve our patients.

 

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Legal Costs and Settlements Accrual

In November 2023, the Company agreed to settle the Silver matter, as discussed under “Business—Legal Proceedings,” without admitting liability. The settlement agreement is subject to the approval of the United States Department of Justice and the District Court. The estimated financial impact is $115.0 million, which is included in selling, general, and administrative expenses in the unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations for the nine months ended September 30, 2023. See Note 9 “Commitments and Contingencies” within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, included elsewhere in this prospectus.

Impact of COVID-19 and CARES Act

On January 31, 2020, the Secretary of HHS declared a national public health emergency due to a novel coronavirus. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19, a disease caused by this novel coronavirus, a pandemic. In May 2023, the World Health Organization determined that COVID-19 no longer fit the definition of a public health emergency and the declaration of a public health emergency associated with COVID-19 subsequently expired on May 11, 2023. COVID-19 has continued to result in a significant number of hospitalizations, and the future course of the pandemic remains uncertain; however, compared to earlier periods, the number of COVID-19 infections and related hospitalizations has significantly declined. We will continue to closely monitor the impact of COVID-19 on all aspects of our business, including the impacts to our employees, patients, and suppliers. In recognition of the significant threat to the liquidity of financial markets posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve and Congress took dramatic actions to provide liquidity to businesses and the banking system in the United States. One of the primary sources of relief for healthcare providers is the CARES Act, which was expanded by the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, or the PPPHCE Act, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, or the CAA. In total, the CARES Act, the PPPHCE Act, and the CAA authorized $178 billion in funding to be distributed to healthcare providers through the Provider Relief Fund, or the PRF. This funding is intended to support healthcare providers by reimbursing them for healthcare-related expenses or lost revenues attributable to COVID-19.

Our primary COVID-related impacts have been in prescription drug volume with our skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility customers. During 2020 and 2021, we experienced an annual script reduction of approximately 2.7 million scripts when compared with our pre-pandemic levels in January and February 2020. These script volume impacts were due largely to industry declines in skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility occupancy rates. We took action quickly to reduce costs and mitigate the impact of these COVID-related declines. Additionally, due to the Company’s complementary diversification and mix of services we provide as a whole, we were able to continue to grow, despite the pandemic, and perform well in many of our other pharmacy and provider businesses, which helped to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 overall. Partially as a result of these factors, we dispensed 34.1 million scripts during 2022, which volume we believe was not materially impacted by the pandemic and related factors. The following portions of the CARES Act have impacted us in 2020, 2021, 2022, and into 2023:

Provider Relief Fund

Beginning in April 2020, funds were distributed to healthcare providers who provide or provided diagnosis, testing, or care for individuals with possible or actual cases of COVID-19. The payments received under the PRF are subject to certain terms and conditions. Payments are to be used to prevent, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19.

We received $22.7 million, $31.4 million, and $0 in PRF funds in the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, and an additional $18.8 million in PRF funds in the nine months ended September 30, 2023. We returned $0.1 million and $3.9 million of these funds in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In each year, the funds received and recognized were offset directly by healthcare related expenses attributable to

 

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COVID-19 in accordance with HHS guidelines, which resulted in no financial impact to the Company. As of December 31, 2022, we had received a total of $50.1 million, net of returns, in cumulative PRF funds. As of September 30, 2023, we had received a total of $68.9 million, net of returns, in cumulative PRF funds.

In order to receive and use PRF funds, the Company has certified to various terms and conditions, as required by the HHS, including but not limited to: (1) it provides or provided after January 31, 2020 diagnosis, testing or care for individuals with possible or actual cases of COVID-19, (2) that the PRF funds will only be used to prevent, prepare for and respond to COVID-19, (3) such PRF funds shall reimburse the Company only for healthcare related expenses or lost revenues that are attributable to COVID-19, (4) the Company will not use the PRF funds to reimburse expenses or losses that have been reimbursed from other sources or that other sources are obligated to reimburse and (5) the Company will submit reports as HHS determines are needed to ensure compliance with conditions that are imposed on PRF funds. The Company believes that it is in compliance with all applicable terms and conditions, regulations, and interim guidance regarding the receipt and usage of PRF funds.

Deferred payment of the employer portion of social security tax

We were permitted to defer payments of the employer portion of social security tax for 2020, which was payable in 50% increments, with 50% due by December 31, 2021 and the remainder due by December 31, 2022. This deferral increased our 2020 cash flow from operations by approximately $66.7 million and subsequently reduced our cash flow from operations by $33.7 million in 2022 and $32.5 million in 2021 on the payback of those amounts.

Components of Our Consolidated Statement of Operations

Revenues. The Company recognizes the amount of revenue to which it expects to be entitled for the transfer of promised goods or services to customers. For transactions involving the transfer of goods, revenues are primarily recognized when the customer obtains control of the products sold, which is generally upon shipment or delivery, depending on the delivery terms specified in the sales agreement. For transactions exclusively involving provision of services, revenues are recognized over time based on an appropriate measure of progress.

Cost of Goods and Cost of Services. We classify expenses directly related to providing goods and services, including depreciation and amortization, as cost of goods and cost of services. Direct costs and expenses principally include cost of drugs, net of rebates, salaries and benefits for direct care and service professionals, contracted labor costs, insurance costs, transportation costs for clients requiring services, certain client expenses such as food, supplies and medicine, residential occupancy expenses, which primarily comprise rent and utilities, and other miscellaneous direct goods or service related expenses.

Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses. Selling, general, and administrative expenses consist of expenses incurred in support of our operations and administrative functions and include labor costs, such as salaries, bonuses, commissions, benefits, and travel-related expenses, distribution expenses, facilities rental costs, third-party revenue cycle management costs, and corporate support costs including finance, information technology, legal costs and settlements, human resources, procurement, and other administrative costs.

Goodwill Impairment Loss. Goodwill impairment loss consists of non-cash expense resulting from the excess of the carrying values of the reporting units over their estimated fair market values during the reporting period.

Interest Expense, net. Interest expense, net includes the debt service costs associated with our various debt instruments, including our First Lien Facilities and Second Lien Facility, and the amortization of related deferred financing fees, which are amortized over the term of the respective credit agreement. Interest expense, net also includes the portion of the gain or loss on our interest rate swap agreements that is reclassified into earnings.

Income Tax Expense (Benefit). Our provision for income taxes is based on permanent book/tax differences and statutory tax rates in the various jurisdictions in which we operate. Significant estimates and judgments are required in determining the provision for income taxes.

 

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Results of Operations

Consolidated Results of Operations

Nine Months Ended September 30, 2023 Compared to Nine Months Ended September 30, 2022

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, our consolidated results of operations:

 

     For the Nine Months Ended September 30,     Change  
($ in thousands)    2023     2022              
     Amount     % Revenues     Amount      % Revenues     Amount     %  

Revenues:

             

Products

   $ 4,736,993       73.4   $ 3,885,331        67.6   $ 851,662       21.9

Services

     1,714,638       26.6     1,864,593        32.4     (149,955     (8.0 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Total revenues

     6,451,631       100.0     5,749,924        100.0     701,707       12.2
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Cost of goods

     4,226,075       65.5     3,416,707        59.4     809,368       23.7

Cost of services

     1,160,477       18.0     1,316,618        22.9     (156,141     (11.9 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Gross profit

     1,065,079       16.5     1,016,599        17.7     48,480       4.8

Selling, general, and administrative expenses

     986,161       15.3     836,935        14.6     149,226       17.8

Goodwill impairment loss

     —        0.0     15,400        0.3     (15,400     n.m.  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Operating income

     78,918       1.2     164,264        2.9     (85,346     (52.0 )% 

Interest expense, net

     241,539       3.7     157,865        2.7     83,674       53.0
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

(Loss) income before income taxes

     (162,621     (2.5 )%      6,399        0.1     (169,020     n.m.  

Income tax (benefit) expense

     (12,987     (0.2 )%      3,935        0.1     (16,922     (430.0 )% 
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net (loss) income

     (149,634     (2.3 )%      2,464        0.0     (152,098     n.m.  

Net (loss) income attributable to non-controlling interest

     (1,568     (0.0 )%      213        0.0     (1,781     n.m.  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Net (loss) income attributable to BrightSpring Health Services, Inc. and subsidiaries

   $ (148,066     (2.3 )%    $ 2,251        0.0   $ (150,317     n.m.  
  

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

    

 

 

   

 

 

   

 

 

 

Revenues

Revenue was $6,451.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared with $5,749.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $701.7 million or 12.2%. The increase primarily resulted from the following segment activity and factors:

 

   

a $851.7 million, or 14.8% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated revenue, increase in Pharmacy Solutions revenue. See additional discussion in “—Segment Results of Operations” below; and

 

   

a $97.4 million, or 1.7% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated revenue, increase in Provider Services revenue. See additional discussion in “—Segment Results of Operations” below; offset by

 

   

a decrease of $247.4 million, or 4.3% decline on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated revenue, as a result of the divestiture of the single business in our Other segment that was effective on November 1, 2022.

Cost of Goods

Cost of goods was $4,226.1 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared with $3,416.7 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $809.4 million or 23.7%. The increase primarily resulted from an increase in Pharmacy Solutions cost of goods. See additional discussion in “—Segment Results of Operations” below.

 

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Cost of Services

Cost of services was $1,160.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared with $1,316.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, a decrease of $156.1 million or 11.9%. The decrease resulted from the following segment activity and factors:

 

   

an increase of $59.9 million, or 4.5% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated cost of services as a result of an increase in Provider Services cost of services. See additional discussion in “—Segment Results of Operations” below; partially offset by

 

   

a decrease of $216.0 million, or 16.4% decline on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated cost of services, as a result of the divestiture of the single business in our Other segment that was effective on November 1, 2022.

Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses

Selling, general, and administrative expenses were $986.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared with $836.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $149.2 million or 17.8%. The increase resulted from the following segment activity and factors:

 

   

an increase of $43.3 million, or 5.2% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, as a result of growth in our Pharmacy Solutions and Provider Services segments. See additional discussion in “—Segment Results of Operations” below;

 

   

an increase of $116.1 million, or 13.9% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, due to legal costs and settlements. See Note 9 “Commitments and Contingencies” within the unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and related notes, included elsewhere in this prospectus;

 

   

an increase of $5.7 million, or 0.7% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, as a result of investments in corporate personnel and other corporate operating costs;

 

   

an increase of $4.8 million, or 0.5% growth on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, as a result of significant projects expenses including ransomware attack response costs; offset by:

 

   

a decrease of $5.5 million, or 0.7% decline on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, as a result of a loss on assets held for sale recognized in the nine months ended 2022 related to the divestiture of Workforce Solutions;

 

   

a decrease of $15.2 million, or 1.8% decline on the nine months ended September 30, 2022 consolidated selling, general, and administrative expenses, as a result of the divestiture of Workforce Solutions that was effective on November 1, 2022 and therefore not included in 2023 results.

Included within selling, general, and administrative expenses for the nine months ended September 30, 2023 were $6.0 million of certain pre-opening startup costs associated with our corporate de novo program as compared with $4.4 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022. The costs are attributable to certain strategic initiatives, and include costs incurred prior to opening de novo locations in connection with our expansion into specific new geographies, and fluctuate based on the number, timing and geographic footprint of new locations.

Goodwill Impairment Loss

During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, we recognized a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $15.4 million related to the Workforce Solutions reporting unit. There was no goodwill impairment recognized for the nine months ended September 30, 2023.

 

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Interest Expense, net

Interest expense, net was $241.5 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared to $157.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, an increase of $83.7 million or 53.0%. The increase primarily resulted from the increase in the variable interest rates applicable to our outstanding debt as compared to the prior period offset by $21.9 million of interest income related to cash flow hedges of interest rate risk in the nine months ended September 30, 2023. There was no interest income related to cash flow hedges during the nine months ended September 30, 2022.

Income Tax (Benefit) Expense

Income tax (benefit) was $(13.0) million for the nine months ended September 30, 2023, as compared to an expense of $3.9 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2022, a decrease of $16.9 million. The decrease was primarily the result of the reduction in pre-tax income during the period and discrete tax expense in 2022 related to our goodwill impairment that was not deductible for tax purposes offset by discrete tax expense related to a legal settlement accrual in 2023 which is not expected to be deductible for tax purposes.

Years Ended December 31, 2022, 2021, and 2020

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, our consolidated results of operations:

 

    For the Years Ended December 31  
($ in thousands)  

 

   

 

    

 

     ’22 v ’21 Change     ’21 v ’20 Change  
    2022     2021     </