UHS Battling Behavioral Health Patient-Volume Downswing, Workforce Challenges

King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS) estimates that its annual earnings will be about 19% lower than originally projected. On Thursday, UHS released new, lower annual revenue and earnings estimates after seeing significantly lower than expected profitability in April and May. The shortfall was “due primarily to lower than expected patient […]

‘We’ve Got Patients Lining Up Outside Our Door’: Labor Dynamics Give UHS Leverage with Payers

Universal Health Systems Inc. (NYSE: UHS) will likely continue its strategy of tough talk with low-paying health plans, as long as the workforce situation in its behavioral health segment improves. UHS Chief Financial Officer Steve Filton said this approach could be sustainable and that it has already found “some degree of success.” However, the success […]

UHS to Payers: Keep Up with Reimbursement Trends – Or Go Elsewhere

With behavioral health capacity shortages on the rise, Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS) is telling payers to keep up with reimbursement trends – or go elsewhere. The message is an important shift in behavioral health-payer relations that reflects the current operating environment. It’s also one being echoed across the health care sector, with home […]

UHS’ Workforce Woes May Sink Financial Projections for 2022

Nagging workforce issues may scuttle Universal Health Services Inc.’s (NYSE: UHS) financial projections for 2022. The company’s financial forecasts predicted that the massive increase in labor costs would begin to abate in 2022: It has not. Increased spending on wages for staffing agency workers, driven by COVID-19 and a prevailing workforce shortage, stymied both revenues […]

Increased Demand, Workforce Shortages to Drive Even More Behavioral Health Joint Ventures in 2022

Behavioral health mergers and acquisitions have generated much buzz in the last couple of years, as dealmaking has reached record levels. However, some other providers are choosing to scale up operations by going a different route — joint ventures (JVs). Acadia Healthcare (Nasdaq: ACHC) and Universal Health Systems (NYSE: UHS) – two of the biggest […]

Eleos Health Raises $20M to Fuel Its AI-Powered Voice Analysis Platform for Behavioral Health

The startup Eleos Health announced Tuesday that it landed $20 million in Series A funding. The company — which has offices in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel — casts itself as an integrated “CareOps Automation” provider for behavioral health providers that uses voice AI to interpret the conversation of patients and providers to generate post-session […]

UHS’ Behavioral Health Division Needs Staffing to Stabilize to Take Advantage of Surging Demand

Universal Health Services Inc. CEO Marc Miller struck a bullish tone on the near-term future of the company’s behavioral health division due to signs staffing challenges could be stabilizing. The underlying demand for the behavioral health side of Universal Health Services (NYSE: UHS) has risen since the onset of the pandemic. But the story from […]

Behavioral Health C-Suite 2022 Outlook: Payors Will Demand Quality Outcomes, Traditional Providers to Bridge Gap Between In-Person and Virtual

The year 2021 was defined by the many struggles that organizations had largely foisted on them directly or indirectly by the ups and downs of the coronavirus pandemic. But many providers learned how to adapt to the new normal and began to tackle the even bigger challenges that a changing industry leveled on behavioral health […]

UHS Can’t Beat Behavioral Health Staffing Shortage Even When Willing to Pay Premium

Universal Health Services Inc. struggled to staff up its behavioral health business despite being willing to pay a premium as it grapples with the national health care staffing shortage. However, the King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based acute care and behavioral health company simply can’t find enough workers to fully staff up to meet the demand that […]