The Ensign Group and Centene Corporation have announced dates for presentation of 4th quarter, 2022 results – February 3rd and February 7th respectively. Ensign and Centene are the two largest and the only publicly listed corporations earning the bulk of their revenue from Medicaid. The Ensign Group is engaged exclusively in long-term and skilled nursing care. Centene primarily provides Medicaid managed care services to states.
Given that Medicaid is means-tested and lower tier poverty medicine, it is notable that these two corporations have experienced rapid revenue growth and high earnings while lavishing executives with generous compensation packages.
In this post, I will review Ensign Group’s 3rd Quarter, 2022, results, which will be a point of comparison for the upcoming 4th Quarter results and cover more of Centene’s financial performance and executive pay in a later post. The purpose of this post is to focus attention on the dissonance between claims of industry-wide low earnings made by American Health Care Association – the nursing home industry’s propaganda organ – and public information available through the Securities and Exchange Commission. The AHCA’s claims are not verifiable because closely held corporations aren’t required to make their consolidated financial statements public.
Selected Ensign Group 3rd Quarter, 2022 Results
- Revenue, Three Months Ended September 30:
$770,005,000 (compared to 668,530,000 2021 3rd Quarter). - Revenue, Nine Months Ended September 30:
$2,215,936,000 (compared to $1,934,319 to 2021). - Net Income 3rd qtr. 2022:
$56,242,000 (7.3%)
Compared to $48,344,000 3rd qtr. 2021 (7.0%) - Net Income, Nine Months Ended 2022:
$2,215,936,000 (compare to $1,934,319,000).
Executive Compensation
We will not know Ensign executive compensation until the company releases its proxy statement in April. The following are 2021 compensation data for executives:
- Barry R. Port, CEO: $7,421,472 (13.9% increase over 2020 compensation).
- Suzanne Snapper, CFO: $6,532,955 (19.5% increase over 2020).
- Chad Keech, CIO: $4,275,539 (17.7% increase over 2020).
- Spencer Burton, President and Chief Operating Officer: $5,029,146 (9% increase over 2020)
Ensign Stock Has Been Increasing During Stock Market Down Year:
Between late 2021 and the end of 2022, the NASDAQ had declined by 30%. It was a bad year. However, Ensign stock was trading at $77.20 on November 29, 2021. It closed at $94.00 yesterday (February 1, 2023) – a 22% increase.
Christopher Christensen, CEO Emeritus owns $1,478,499 shares of Ensign stock). The value of Mr. Christensen’s stock increased in value by $24,838,783.
The three beneficial owners: BlackRock (15.1% or 8,340,870 shares), Wasatch Advisors (11.1% or 6,121,470 shares) and Vanguard (11% or 6,104,354 shares).
We must insist on truthful information from the industry receiving taxpayer funds for providing medical care to Americans experiencing poverty. As the only public information we are receiving suggests, investors and executives are excessively rewarded while wages and salaries for direct care workers remain seriously low. If the bulk of financial information is hidden behind a veil of secrecy, taxpayers and their representatives do not have a voice in determining what we should be receiving for what we are paying.
David, This is shocking data. How can any executive be making $7 million, or $6 million or $5 million in a year. And this is operating primarily on Medicaid patients.
Jane’s brother John in St. Louis has finally landed at Bethesda Meadow, in Ballwin, MO/also listed at Ellisville, MO. John will soon be a medicaid patient, with the spend down. I think that other places rejected him because he was close to being a medicaid patient. It is no wonder that both MO & KS annually spend over 1 billion dollars for medicaid patients, and it would be in the best interest of both states to investigate why Ensign Group and Centere Corp. are making so much money and paying their Exec. so well. This must be revealed publicly. Thank you for the good work you are doing. Henry
Thank you for your comments which are spot on Henry. It is amazing that this corporate rip off is going on while the health of America is deteriorating. We need to get the word out to the people. Dave
I agree Henry. Let’s discuss how we can do that. It is time for a public conversation in which the public has access to the facts. We know from history and experience if a single payer universal health care system were put on the ballot, the American people would pass it. That is why we can’t even get Medicaid expansion on the ballot in Kansas. Thanks for the comment!. Dave