RadNet logs ‘record’ fourth quarter, buoyed by 3D mammo expansion, improved reimbursement
Imaging giant RadNet logged a record fourth quarter to close 2020, buoyed by expanded use of 3D mammography and improved reimbursement, company officials announced Monday.
The investor-owned, Los Angeles-based operator collected roughly $50.7 million in earnings—before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—during the year’s final three months, an 8.1% uptick over 2019. RadNet executives credited cost cuts, center consolidations and other changes that helped boost its EBITDA margin to 16.4%.
“Despite a continuing impact from COVID-19, our results in the fourth quarter were the strongest quarterly performance in our company’s history,” CEO Howard Berger, MD, said in a statement.
After the pandemic dragged down imaging volumes earlier in the year, RadNet recorded a rebound to close out 2020. Mammography alone surged 11.7% compared to the same period in 2019. MRI (1.8%), CT (2.4%) and PET/CT levels were all also up.
Given the uptick, RadNet has revised its investor guidance for 2021 to account for the rosier picture. Executives see “upside” in their predictions due to factors that include future acquisitions, further benefit from COVID-related cost reductions, and achieving growth in Arizona stemming through their joint venture with Dignity hospital system.
“Our guidance ranges for 2021 are built with this momentum in mind and the assumption that our business will continue to strengthen as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in the states in which we operate,” Berger said in the announcement.
RadNet bills itself as the “leading” national provider of freestanding, fixed-site diagnostic imaging based on locations and annual revenue, with 331 such centers concentrated in six core markets.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.