Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc at Bank of America Home Care Conference (Virtual) Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : No, thank you so much for this. Yes. So maybe just circle back to the PDS and the preferred provider contracts because clearly, you had a very good success there, right, and exceeding your target for the year. And I want to say on third quarter call, you said something about like 56% or so of your managed care PDS volumes were in these preferred payer contracts, so call it, more than half right on the way to increase in Q4, it sounds like. But the question is, how much more room there is to, I guess, do more of these preferred provider contracts. Is there some limitations, I guess, what I'm trying to figure out is or sort of like once you have the 30 or so in your head, it just makes it easier to kind of convert the rest of the business?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : And I guess you alluded to this idea of rate differential, right that allows you to hire the workers that are needed to provide care to these children. But can you share like on average, the differential between these preferred provider contracts and just say, an average contract?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : For sure. And also on a similar topic, I guess, the other piece in terms of your efforts around the, I guess, state rate increases. So it sounds like you made some progress there. But I want to say on third quarter call, you had mentioned there were actually some state that put temporary rate reductions. I mean this sounds like it was a lot like low single digits or something like this. But then you have like clearly some other states that are giving you a nice increases. So kind of as you think about on average, how we should think about the rate growth that you expect into next year or maybe a couple of next years?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Yes. So hopefully, that shall. But you mentioned the [OBB], so that's what I was getting at. In terms of just -- are you hearing that the states are already kind of responding to what might come in the future in terms of when they try to figure out their budgets and their rates? Did we lose the Aveanna team? these rate reductions, the temporary reductions, whether this -- this was in response to the cuts that are coming in the future in terms of the beautiful bill? And if not, and maybe just kind of give us an update whether you are hearing from these states kind of being concerned and kind of preparing for what might happen to their budgets in the future under the reconciliation though?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : All right. So I guess that's more TBD, but as of now, like it doesn't seem like this governor necessarily target PDN, but I guess they're trying to work it out, I guess, -- so I guess we'll see where it lands. And I guess your long-term growth algorithm includes a couple of percent -- percent to 1.5% from deals, right? So given this beautiful bill and potential uncertainty for my comments such, should we expect you to continue to do the deals? Or do you first want to kind of see how states respond to the funding cuts under the reconciliation bill? How should we think about that piece?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Right, right. And then so on that growth, I guess, algorithms. So it sounds like the rate growth is going to slow down, but then I want to ask you about that volume growth. So clearly, there is the acquisition, but even if you exclude that deal in third quarter, the hours actually grew LSEG STREETEVENTS | www.lseg.com | Contact Us consent of LSEG. 'LSEG' and the LSEG logo are registered trademarks of LSEG and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2025 / 5:30PM, AVAH.OQ - Aveanna Healthcare Holdings Inc at Bank of America Home Care Conference (Virtual) very nicely. So what is the sustainable growth in hours, I guess, so thinking about volumes in that business, say, into next year, a couple of years going forward?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : And if we may have a couple of minutes left. So your other businesses. So Home Health is relatively small for you guys, but historically, you did talk about this being like a growth driver, where you want to grow more. And now we finally got the final Home Health regulation, it's clearly much better than the proposal, but still a cut, right? And how we should think about the impact to you guys and any mitigation strategies there? And then just your thoughts on how we should think about Home Health rate outlook going forward? It sounds like there are some moving pieces, but I would like to hear how you're thinking about that, reg?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : And do that add so -- go ahead --

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : And to that end, I want to ask you specifically. So do you think this is like enough, I guess, visibility from the final regulation to see more investment in this space and more, I guess, deal activity?

Question: Joanna Gajuk - Bofa Merrill Lynch Asset Holdings Inc - Analyst : Great. That's all the time we have for today. But thank you so much to the Aveanna team. And thanks, everyone, for listening. Please stay tuned for more today.