No old A/R collections yet?I infer three things from the financial statements and MD&A. I have not yet listened to the conference call.
1) As of Dec 31/09, they have not collected any of the $5 million the insurance company failed to pay in 2008. Since it was not mentioned in the subsequent events section of the notes to the financials, I infer that as of today, the entire amount is still outstanding. If collectible, this will help cash in future.
2) Non-partner doctors who used to go to Palladium are now taking their business elsewhere because they owe Palladium money. Not sure why they owe Palladium money. I thought both Palladium and the doctors collected directly from the insurance companies for their respective work (facilities fees and surgery fees). We are also told that an insurance company (same one as in point #1?) is clawing back money from the doctors to put them on the same in-network fee structure as Palladium moved to. How is this affecting their relationship with Palladium? Don't know.
3) One of the three Partner-Doctors at Palladium has stopped performing surgeries at Palladium. Is this the same person as the medical company which launched the lawsuit yesterday for breach of contract? Is he opening up across the street?
Based on #2 and #3, there is only one Doctor-Partner who are still active at Palladium. There are three Doctor-Partners at Palladium, but I infer that one of the three is Kramer. No wonder volumes are down at Palladium (volumes referenced in the amendment to the Kovnat lawsuit.
I would love to know how volumes are doing at Kirby in 1Q/2010. Palladium and Kirby are only 4 miles apart. We will have to wait until late May for 1Q results to find out.