The following article was published by Becker’s Hospital Review.
In today’s complex healthcare environment, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are proving to be more challenging than ever, with heightened governmental regulations impacting both the operation of an entity and the purchase and sale of an entity.
To successfully navigate a transaction in the healthcare sector, it is paramount that buyers and sellers make informed decisions through all of the tools made available to them. For sellers, this can come in the form of understanding how their business operates, understanding inefficiencies and growth opportunities, and even understanding what their business is worth. For buyers, informed decision making relies heavily upon understanding the markets in which they are investing, including governmental regulations in some states that may impact their ability to invest and operate; understanding the key operating metrics of similar companies in similar industries; and ensuring that they are paying an appropriate amount for the business. This is especially important because, in healthcare transactions, the capital used to purchase is often provided by investors who are counting on timely positive returns.
Financial due diligence (FDD) is pivotal to the success of any healthcare transaction, as it requires detailed investigation and analysis of a company’s financial information and is used to validate a company’s true run-rate operating potential. With most healthcare M&A transactions, purchase price is based on a multiple of a company’s salable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). As such, the buyer and seller must perform the appropriate financial due diligence procedures prior to executing a transaction. Below are five vital aspects of the financial due diligence process.
1) Quality of Earnings
The Quality of Earnings (QofE) process consists of making adjustments to the entity’s reported financial statements to normalize EBITDA. The bulk of these adjustments involve adjusting or removing impacts of non-recurring and one-time items from earnings to arrive at an adjusted EBITDA figure that represents a more accurate view of the entity’s true cashflows. This process also gives the FDD team the opportunity to pose pointed questions related to the entity’s operations, finances, and accounting functions, highlighting key information that could negatively or positively impact adjusted earnings. Specific to healthcare transactions, some of the relevant areas of interest with respect to potential EBITDA adjustments are:
- Cash-to-accrual conversion of revenues and expenses
- Removal of any non-recurring or out-of-period revenues or expenses
- Normalization of specific revenue and expense accounts
- Quality of Revenue analysis
2) Quality of Revenue
The Quality of Revenue (QofR) analysis may be the most important part of the FDD process when it comes to healthcare-related transactions, given the unique characteristics and nuances of healthcare revenue. During this process in many middle-market healthcare deals, the conversion of revenue from cash basis to accrual basis is a fundamental exercise with respect to the QofE analysis. The cash waterfall approach is the gold standard and therefore the most common method for accomplishing the cash-to-accrual conversion. With this method, detailed billing data is obtained from the entity’s revenue cycle management (RCM) system, which includes charges by date of service and payments by date of service and by date of payment. In this analysis, payments are adjusted back to their specific date of service (accrual basis), and outstanding collections on charges billed during the period under analysis are estimated based on historical collection patterns cut by payor, CPT code, or various other means.
3) Pro Forma Considerations
Pro forma adjustments are forward-looking projections on certain aspects of the business, which are layered back in across the historical financial statements. These assumptions can help buyers understand potential areas of future direction and growth opportunities for the company; however, these adjustments should be thoroughly scrutinized during buy-side FDD procedures to ensure the adjusted EBITDA and purchase price are not over- or understated. These estimations tend to lean more in favor of the seller and are often a primary area of focus by the opposing buy-side FDD team. As such, a seller should understand all aspects of the business, especially as they relate to these forward-looking projections, and should be able to support the key inputs utilized to derive these pro forma adjustments. If properly supported, these adjustments often increase the sale price of the business enough to cover the cost of FDD procedures incurred by the seller, if not many times over. Some examples of commonly observed pro forma adjustments in healthcare related QofE reports include:
- Hiring/ramping of new providers on staff
- Opening/closing of facilities
- Renegotiation of payor contracts
- Implementation/expansion of service lines.
4) Net Working Capital
Another common analysis in FDD procedures is a Net Working Capital analysis, which is used to determine the working capital (current assets less current liabilities, excluding cash and debt) required to operate a business in the post-transaction environment. This subsection of FDD typically involves substantial negotiation between buyers and sellers when approaching the close of a deal, as both parties will view various inputs differently, often striving to set a working capital peg that is more favorable for themselves. As a miscalculation of this peg can cost a seller on a dollar-for-dollar basis if the agreed-upon level of net working capital is not met, it is imperative that management and their advisors are involved and knowledgeable on this calculation.
5) Debt and Debt-Like Items
Most of the time, healthcare transactions occur on a cash-free, debt-free basis. Standard with any cash-basis business, many debt and debt-like items have the potential to be inaccurately reflected within a company’s balance sheet. As such, a Debt and Debt-Like Items analysis can assist buyers and sellers in understanding a company’s debts and liabilities as of the date of sale. These items can include potential tax-related exposures, outstanding litigation and legal settlements, deferred compensation, notes payable, and others.
Conclusion
In closing, FDD is a necessary step in ensuring that sellers have the keys to sell their businesses at the best possible price, and buyers can protect the money of their companies, firms, or investors by making a sound investment in the target company. This proactive approach creates trust between all parties and leads to more lucrative transactions for all.
