About Premier, Inc.
Premier, Inc. (NASDAQ: PINC) is a leading technology-driven healthcare improvement company, providing solutions to two-thirds of all healthcare providers in the U.S. Playing a critical role in the rapidly evolving healthcare industry, Premier unites providers, suppliers, payers and policymakers to make healthcare better with national scale, smarter with actionable intelligence and faster with novel technologies. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier offers integrated data and analytics, collaboratives, supply chain solutions, consulting and other services in service of our mission to improve the health of communities. Please visit Premier’s news and investor sites on www.premierinc.com, as well as X, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Premier’s blog for more information about the company.
Premier’s Use and Definition of Non-GAAP Measures
Premier uses EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, segment adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, adjusted earnings per share, and free cash flow. These are non-GAAP financial measures that are not in accordance with, or an alternative to, GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. We include these non-GAAP financial measures to facilitate a comparison of the company’s operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period and to provide measures that, when viewed in combination with its results prepared in accordance with GAAP, we believe allow for a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting the company’s business than GAAP measures alone.
Management believes EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA and segment adjusted EBITDA assist the company’s board of directors, management and investors in comparing the company’s operating performance on a consistent basis from period to period by removing the impact of the company’s earnings elements attributable to the company’s asset base (primarily depreciation and amortization), certain items outside the control of management, e.g., taxes, other non-cash items (such as impairment of intangible assets, purchase accounting adjustments and stock-based compensation), non-recurring items (such as strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses) and income and expense that have been classified as discontinued operations from operating results.
Management believes adjusted net income and adjusted earnings per share assist the company’s board of directors, management and investors in comparing our net income and earnings per share on a consistent basis from period to period because these measures remove non-cash items (such as impairment of intangible assets, purchase accounting adjustments and stock-based compensation) and non-recurring items (such as strategic initiative and financial restructuring-related expenses) and eliminate the variability of non-controlling interest and equity in net income of unconsolidated affiliates.
Management believes free cash flow is an important measure because it represents the cash that the company generates after payments to certain former limited partners that elected to execute a Unit Exchange and Tax Receivable Agreement (“Unit Exchange Agreement”) in connection with our August 2020 restructuring, capital investment to maintain existing products and services and ongoing business operations, as well as development of new and upgraded products and services to support future growth and cash payments to OMNIA for the sale of future revenues and tax payments on proceeds received from the sale of future revenues. Free cash flow is important because it enables the company to seek enhancement of stockholder value through acquisitions, partnerships, joint ventures, investments in related or complementary businesses and/or debt reduction.
Also, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow are supplemental financial measures used by the company and by external users of our financial statements and are considered to be indicators of the operational strength and performance of our business. Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow measures allow us to assess our performance without regard to financing methods and capital structure and without the impact of other matters that we do not consider indicative of the operating performance of our business. More specifically, segment adjusted EBITDA is the primary earnings measure we use to evaluate the performance of our business segments.
Non-recurring items are income or expenses and other items that have not been earned or incurred within the prior two years and are not expected to recur within the next two years. Such items include acquisition- and disposition-related expenses, strategic initiative- and financial restructuring-related expenses, loss on disposal of long-lived assets, income and expense that has been classified as discontinued operations and other reconciling items.
Non-cash items include stock-based compensation expense and asset impairments.
Non-operating items include gains or losses on the disposal of assets, interest and investment income or expense, equity in net income of unconsolidated affiliates and operating income from revenues sold to OMNIA in connection with the sale of non-healthcare GPO member contracts, less royalty payments retained.
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