Brentwood, Tenn.-based Ardent Health reported a net loss of $23.5 million in the third quarter of 2025, down from a net income of $26.3 million during the same period last year as professional fee expenses and payer denials persisted “more than expected”, according to its Nov. 12 financial report.
The system’s revenue grew 8.8% year over year to $1.6 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30. Admissions grew 5.8% year over year, and net patient service revenue per adjusted admission also grew 5.8% year over year.
Operating expenses grew 13.4% year over year to $1.6 billion. Ardent President and CEO Marty Bonick said professional fee expenses grew 11% year over year, above the system’s high single-digit expectations. Mr. Bonick said payer denials were also more pronounced in the third quarter. CFO Alfred Lumsdaine added on the company’s Nov. 13 earnings call that final denials were up 8% over the first half of the year.
Mr. Bonick said the for-profit system has undertaken a workforce optimization program and has renegotiated key contracts, including with certain payers and agency labor, that will “start to benefit earnings in the fourth quarter.”
He said managed care payers are the “culprits” of the increased denials and that they have ramped up their contracting.
“We’ve integrated how we are approaching this from an internal perspective in terms of our teams coming together, working with our revenue cycle partner, working with our legal team, ramping up our litigation efforts and demand letters as a result because we know that these services were warranted and provided and taking steps to get more aggressive in our response and action for their behavior and push back on us,” he said.
Mr. Lumsdaine said it’s “prudent to not expect that payer behavior is going to change in the foreseeable future and we’re focused on what are the things we can do to improve the throughput and to get paid for the work that we’re doing fairly.”
Ardent reduced its full-year adjusted EBITDA guidance to $530 million to $555 million, down from $575 million to $615 million.
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