HCA Healthcare Inc
For the period ended Dec 31, 2023. Filed Feb 16, 2024.
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FY2023 · Filed Feb 16, 2024
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Item 8. Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors
of HCA Healthcare, Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of HCA Healthcare, Inc. (the Company) as of December 31, 2023 and 2022, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, stockholders’ equity (deficit) and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”). In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company at December 31, 2023 and 2022, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2023, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2023, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (2013 framework), and our report dated February 16, 2024 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matters communicated below are matters arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that were communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relate to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the consolidated financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matters below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matters or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
| Revenue Recognition | |
| Description of the Matter | For the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company’s revenues were $64.968 billion. As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, revenues are based upon the estimated amounts the Company expects to be entitled to receive from patients and third-party payers. Estimates of contractual adjustments under managed care and commercial insurance plans are based upon the payment terms specified in the related contractual agreements. Management continually reviews the contractual adjustments estimation process to consider and incorporate the frequent changes in managed care contractual terms resulting from contract renegotiations and renewals. Revenues related to uninsured patients and uninsured copayment and deductible amounts for patients who have health care coverage may have discounts applied (uninsured and other discounts). The Company also records estimated implicit price concessions (based primarily on historical collection experience) related to uninsured accounts to record these revenues and accounts receivable at the estimated amounts the Company expects to collect. The primary collection risks relate to uninsured patient accounts, including amounts owed from patients after insurance has paid the amounts covered by the applicable agreement. Implicit price concessions relate primarily to amounts due directly from patients and are based upon management’s assessment of historical write-offs and expected net collections, business and economic conditions, trends in federal, state and private employer health care coverage and other collection indicators.Auditing management’s estimates of contractual adjustments and implicit price concessions was complex and judgmental due to the significant data inputs and subjective assumptions utilized in determining related amounts. |
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| How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit | We tested internal controls that address the risks of material misstatement related to the measurement and valuation of revenues, including estimation of contractual adjustments and implicit price concessions. For example, we tested management’s internal controls over the key data inputs to the contractual adjustments and implicit price concession models, significant assumptions underlying management’s models, and management’s internal controls over retrospective reviews of historical reserve accuracy. To test the estimated contractual adjustments and implicit price concessions, we performed audit procedures that included, among others, assessing methodologies and evaluating the significant assumptions discussed above and testing the completeness and accuracy of the underlying data used by the Company in its estimates. We compared the significant assumptions used by management to historical assumptions and to current industry and economic trends and considered changes, if any, to the Company’s business and other relevant factors. We also assessed the historical accuracy of management’s estimates as a source of potential corroborative or contrary evidence. |
| Professional Liability Claims | |
| Description of the Matter | At December 31, 2023, the Company’s reserves for professional liability risks were $2.089 billion and the Company’s related provision for losses for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $619 million. As discussed in Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements, reserves for professional liability risks represent the estimated ultimate net cost of all reported and unreported losses incurred and unpaid through the consolidated balance sheet date. Management estimates professional liability reserves and provisions for losses using individual case-basis valuations and actuarial analyses. Trends in the average frequency (number of claims) and ultimate average severity (cost per claim) of claims are significant assumptions in estimating the reserves. |
| Auditing management’s professional liability claims reserves was complex and judgmental due to the significant estimations required in determining the reserves, particularly the actuarial analyses and assumptions related to the effects of trends in average severity and frequency of claims. |
| How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit | We tested management’s internal controls that address the risks of material misstatement over the Company’s professional liability claims reserves estimation process. For example, we tested internal controls over management’s review of the actuarial analyses, the significant assumptions, and the completeness and accuracy of claims data used in the reserve estimation process. To test the Company’s determination of the estimated professional liability expense and reserves, we performed audit procedures that included, among others, testing the completeness and accuracy of underlying claims data used by the Company and its actuaries in its determination of reserves and reviewing the Company’s insurance contracts by policy year to validate self-insured limits, deductibles and coverage limits. Additionally, with the involvement of our actuarial specialists, we performed audit procedures that included, among others, assessing the actuarial analyses performed by management and its actuaries, testing the significant assumptions including consideration of Company-specific claim reporting and payment data, assessing the accuracy of management’s historical reserve estimates, and developing an independent range of reserves for comparison to the Company’s recorded amounts. |
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/s/ Ernst & Young LLP
We have served as the Company’s auditor since 1994.
Nashville, Tennessee
February 16, 2024
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