Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (NYSE:FMS) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Helen Giza: Yes. Thanks, Graham. I don’t think that there’s anything that we can point to in terms of what is happening with that late-stage CKD funnel and how that’s translating into growth. I mean, as you can imagine, growth is — continues to be a key area for us. But I think the key here is we’re dealing with the annualization still of COVID and we’re exiting these acute contracts but nothing else that I could point to at this point that says anything is changing. In terms of the private payers, as you know, these are more long-term contracts in nature. So they generally locked up for a couple of years. And with some of them, or many of them, we have escalators in already. So we’re not seeing kind of — I mean, we want a higher price.

They want a lower price. So it’s always kind of a thoughtful partnered negotiation. But we’re not kind of anything here on our big contracts that concerns us. But obviously, there are always ongoing discussions and negotiations. Where we’re seeing some of maybe — plans want to change pricing. Obviously, our focus is on profitability, and we are kind of prepared to go out of contract or walk away from these smaller contracts where they don’t make sense. But the larger payers, it very much is a partner discussion, I would say.

Dominik Heger: Okay. So thank you, everyone. I’m sorry that we run out of time, and I’m sorry for the technical issues we had, which obviously also did cost time. So apologies for that. But thank you for being patient with us and listening in. Thank you.

Helen Giza: Yes. Thank you all. Take care. Bye-bye.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded, and you may disconnect your telephone. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day. Goodbye.