Hythiam, Inc. Q1 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2008-05-13 16:24:08.0

Tags: Hythiam Inc.

Question-and-Answer Session

Opeator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). Our first question is from the line of Jonathan Aschoff with Brean Murray Carret. Please go ahead with the question.

Jonathan Aschoff

Hi. Thank you. Hi Terren.

Terren Peizer

Hi.

Jonathan Aschoff

I was wondering, can you just be anyway specific as to what CIGNA most used in their selection process and may be if you can help us a little more on what triggers going from Dallas towards a Houston as you suggested or the rest of Texas and outside of Texas and national, can you be a little more clear on those triggers?

Terren Peizer

Sure. Firstly, the relationship with CIGNA goes back pretty much to the fourth quarter of ’07 and I would say the tipping point clearly was the Urschel's double-blind placebo controlled data not so much by what the data said specifically but by the very fact that it scientifically validated that there was a scientific basis beyond the mechanisms of actions of the preclinical data and beyond the many pilots and clinical experience of the doctors or providers around the country and the patients, but the scientific validation gave them the comfort of moving forward and then looking beyond and how it can impact their own patient population. They did exhaustive due diligence. They spoke to every possible or I should say they pickup every stone unturned that they came to the conclusion that they believe that this would benefit their patient population. They intuitively knew it would drive down medical cost as well. But obviously before they could roll it out throughout the country, they need to see it in their patient population and then see what the ROI or at least project the return on investment would be in terms of the cost savings relative to the payment of the Catasys offering.

As far as the expansion, I think it's safe to say they would like us to be in Houston tomorrow. We are going methodically to operationalize Dallas. We don’t think it will be too long until we are fully launched in Dallas and then we will begin our launch in Houston. And again it was CIGNA’s intention that we would expand throughout Texas and then in the process, evaluate the data both clinically and financially and to determine the mechanism for rolling it out throughout the country.

Jonathan Aschoff

So it's accurate then to say the Texas is purely executional and ex-Texas is success based.

 

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