Home infusion shines in Apria earnings

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - Apria Healthcare Group has reported $603.4 million in net revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to $527.7 million for the same period in 2010, an increase of 14.3%.

The provider credited its home infusion business and its acquisition of Praxair's assets for the increase in revenues.

Apria, which recently announced plans to separate its respiratory/HME and home infusion business units, reported a net loss of $712.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2011, largely due to non-cash impairment charges.

Those charges, based on the results of its 2011 annual impairment testing, include a goodwill impairment of $509.9 million; a trade name impairment of $60 million; capitated relationships intangible asset impairment of $30.4 million; patient service equipment impairment of $45.5 million; property, equipment and improvements impairment of $12.1 million; tax benefit relating to the goodwill, intangible and long-lived assets impairment of $166.9 million; and valuation allowance against net deferred tax assets of $220.5 million. All of the charges relate to the respiratory/HME business unit, except for the trade name impairment, which relates to both business units.

All told, these impairment charges resulted in a $711.5 million increase in net loss in fiscal 2011.

Apria reported net revenues of $2.3 billion for 2011 compared to $2.08 billion for 2010, an increase of 10.6%. It reported a net loss of $747.3 million for the year, largely due to the above impairment charges.

During its impairment testing, Apria estimated that the fair value of the home infusion business unit increased significantly compared to the fair value in 2010 and substantially exceeded book value.