Hey everybody, forget about the tanked US economy. Let’s all go profit from providing dialysis services to permanent kidney failure patients, like DaVita, Inc.
The Associated Press reports that DaVita posted a 15 percent profit in the fourth quarter of 2008 as a result of increased treatment volumes.
End stage renal disease is big business, kids. Take a look at this: DaVita’s Q4 2008 profits were US$98.4 million—US$0.94 per share—and the company’s revenue for the quarter was up eight percent to a whopping US$1.46 billion.
DaVita opened 90 new dialysis centers in 2008, bringing its total to 1,449 (you just gotta wonder why it didn’t go that little bit extra for a nice round 1,500). The company performed 52,484 dialysis treatments during Q4 2008, an increase of 4.9 percent from the same period in 2007.
More profits from less service: that’s a business model anyone could love. But should dialysis services be a profit center for anyone? Just asking.
DaVita’s profits for 2008 came in at US$374 million—US$3.53 per share—an increase of 10 percent over 2007. The company’s total revenues for 2008 were US5.66 billion, an eight percent increase over 2007. Not bad when you consider that the majority of DaVita’s patients are Medicare recipients.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post‘s Martin Weil reports former DC mayor Marion Barry claims that he failed to file a 2007 tax return because he was “distracted” by dialysis and his expectation of a transplant. Barry has apparently not filed taxes on time in eight of the last nine years. Weil doesn’t mention whether Barry is a DaVita patient or not.
Disclaimer: I receive dialysis services from DaVita. I have deep respect for the caregivers who take care of me and even deeper resentment for the company.
Update: Thursday, 19 February 2009 12:36PM CST: Eva von Schaper reports for Bloomberg that Fresenius Medical Care AG, DaVita’s largest competitor, saw Q4 2008 profits rise by 8.6%. Net income for the quarter rose to US$214 million (US$0.72 per share) while global sales rose six percent to US$2.7 billion (the company’s sales in the US rose by nine percent). The most telling bit of news that can be sussed from the report is that Fresenius cites an average revenue per treatment of US$335 “as a result of higher reimbursement from private insurers” as a factor in its North American revenue growth.
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