Evolent Health, Inc. (NYSE:EVH) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: The next question comes from Charles Rhyee of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Charles Rhyee: Yes, thanks for the question. I wanted to follow up on the Florida Blue expansion here in the cardiology and think about the ramp up. John, you said it likely starts in Q1. maybe talk about the regional density you might have in cardiology in Florida. Is there already any kind of performance suite with Florida in cardiology that could help maybe ramp it faster? Or is this relatively a new market for cardiology performance suite, so we would think of a more normal ramp-up? Because if I recall, you kind of said with oncology, if you have the regional density of oncologists using performance suite, adding on new lives can ramp quicker to maturation. Thanks.

Seth Blackley: Hey, Charles, it’s Seth. Look, I think in general, regional density is really useful, right? I think it’s a good concept. We do strive to grow in ways that, think first about existing markets before we jump to a new state because we want to be very disciplined. On the underwriting, we understand the market. We understand the providers. We have relationships. We have scale, etc. So, that’s absolutely a strategic choice that we’ve been making. We don’t have a lot of cardiology risk business in the state. So, I don’t think it’s like if we added oncology relationship, but look, we understand – we know the multi-specialty groups. We know the health systems, and so we, I think, do have familiarity in the markets. I think of it as sort of somewhere in between, given those two factors. But it is overall the kind of dynamic you want to see, which is growing in markets where we have relationships.

Charles Rhyee: Great. And then if I just follow up, you talked previously about building an at-risk model for MSK, I think, for 2025. Any sort of update or progress on the development of this program and any kind of more details you can share on how an at-risk model for MSK might look?

Seth Blackley: Yes. I’d say just in general, it’s going to look a lot like what we’re doing in oncology and what we’re doing in cardiology, so things like IDG begin to get folded into that and things like imaging get folded into that and physical medicine, things that we brought from different places, right? So, I think the design of it’s pretty clear, and the value proposition will be really clear as well. In terms of timing, Charles, like, we’re working on it. It’s not super near-term. We’re not ready to kind of talk about a specific date yet. I think the big thing for us, right, is growing at 50% organically on the specialty side in the quarter. We have so much opportunity with what we have that we want to make sure we stay disciplined.

And when we roll new things out, we don’t need to take incremental risk on right now on the MSK specialty front. So, we’re going to do it thoughtfully and carefully, and the time line you laid out is probably a reasonable one as a starting point. So, not a super near-term item.

Operator: The next question comes from Jeff Garro of Stephens. Please go ahead.

Jeff Garro : Yes, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Some more positive comments on the pipeline. So, I want to ask a couple there, rolling them into one here. Just broadly, any more color on the kinds of deals that you’re seeing enter the pipeline? And maybe more specifically, you had previously talked about efforts to rebuild the NIA pipeline given the multiple changes in ownership of that asset. So, I was hoping to get a progress update there.

Seth Blackley: Sure. Let me just give you a couple examples, Jeff, that I think will answer your question, including the last question, right, which is we have several things in the pipeline that are large performance suite opportunities, right, across oncology, cardiology, and even the complex care piece. And those are usually with existing customers. So, let’s say we have a relationship with a customer, and we’re in some states but not all the states, or we’re in one specialty and not the other. There’s a number of those that are in the pipeline that feel really good. There are a number of opportunities with new logos that are probably broader, maybe more tech and services oriented that might have multiple specialties involved.