Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare posted $12.86 billion in first-quarter 2020 revenues, but suspended quarterly dividends and withdrew its full-year guidance due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
HCA Healthcare CEO Sam Hazen discussed the company's future on an April 21 earnings call, transcribed by The Motley Fool.
On the pandemic: "In general, the first 80 percent of the quarter was very similar to the growth we had experienced over the past two years and was a reflection of the momentum we had heading into the year. Then, the effects of the pandemic begin to hit us in mid-March. … Like most things in our company, the basic approach was to find ways to maximize unique enterprise capabilities, leverage financial resources and further develop corporate relationships with others to support our hospitals."
On moving forward: "I say with confidence that we will get back to normal in time, but we realize it may be a new normal. Fortunately, I see HCA Healthcare as uniquely positioned to help define the new normal and capitalize on new opportunities."
On ramping up elective procedure capacity: "We won't immediately reopen with the existing capacity that we had in the middle of May. So we're determining ways to reopen our capacity very efficiently. We think this will result in some early consolidation of existing operations until we get to the next phase. … We're hopeful that the reboot process will be accomplished across all of our markets by the end of the second quarter."
On the difficulty of projecting the recovery period: "The recovery period is really difficult to determine at this point. We don't know what the full effects and the damage to the economy are going to be. We don't understand clearly what the uninsured levels are going to be. So we anticipate the effects to vary by market."