Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACHC) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And then we alluded in the prepared remarks to some of the remote monitoring software that we’ve been able to put in place that also has proven some really strong benefits to our patients as well. And I think overall, just given how paper-intensive this industry has been – we just know that we’re going to continue to see back office improvement as time goes on as well. So those are just some of the broader things. I mean, clearly, as we continue to roll out the EMR across all of our acute facilities, we’ll continue to see greater efficiencies. But I think the point I would want to make is that we are already seeing the benefit to date on the patient engagement side and on the employee engagement side and also just with these surveyors and regulators already.

Whit Mayo: And last question, just views on the physician fee schedule, the proposal there, the impact on the CTC business? And maybe any updated thoughts on the opioid settlement, some of the states are disclosing now direct support to OTP program, so wondering if you had any updated views? Thanks.

Chris Hunter: Yes. I mean clearly, we continue to watch the CTC, the settlement dollars very closely. $54 billion, again, have been allocated, only about $3 billion of the total settlement funds have been dispersed to this date. There was a report that we saw earlier this summer by Reuters that only 16 states right now actually have a central statewide publicly available process for organizations to apply for funding. But we have been successful in applying for and receiving funds early on. Usually, this is at the individual county level. And to date, it’s been for things like harm-reduction services and wraparound care, things like case management and even housing support. But I would just say it’s still very early days. We’ve bolstered some of our capabilities there and continue watching and tracking these grants as they come over and think that we’ll continue to be really well positioned for that.

But overall, I think we just continue to be really optimistic here. 70% of the money that has actually is received by states has to be spent on future opioid remediation efforts. And so we feel great about that and the transparency that we’re beginning to see. I think there’s 15 states now that have explicitly promised to publicly report 100% of their settlement expenditures, which is really a contrast to the way the tobacco settlements worked out. So it’s still very early stages here. We’ve bolstered our team on the CTC side and just continue to feel very positive about our ability to continue to win many of these awards as they continue to come out. But clearly, this will accelerate into 2024 and well into 2025 as well.

Whit Mayo: Okay, thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from A.J. Rice with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

A.J. Rice: Thanks. Hi everybody. Just maybe first to delve in a little bit more on the pricing for the back half of the year and year ahead. You had, I think, back in February when you gave the fourth quarter release, there have been some discussion, and it actually created a little bit of confusion that the company was at least baking into guidance at that point, the possibility of a moderation in pricing in the back half of the year as pricing has been pretty robust. It sounds like you’re feeling a little better about the sustainability of at least the level you’re at now. Can you just comment on whether I’m hearing that right? And does that tend to concentrate more on what you’re seeing on the Medicaid side, on the commercial side? Any thoughts on that?