CRH Medical Corporation Announces Two Additional Anesthesia Transactions

VANCOUVER, March 2, 2015 /CNW/ - CRH Medical Corporation (TSX: CRH) (OTCQX: CRMMF), a North American medical company focused on providing physicians with innovative products and services for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, today announced two transactions to provide anesthesia services to four ambulatory surgery centers in Florida and North Carolina representing approximately 9,000 patient procedures per year. The first transaction, representing the acquisition of an anesthesia provider servicing three ambulatory surgery centers and approximately 5,000 annual procedures, is effective immediately. The second transaction represents a new anesthesia services customer and will be effective in May 2015. The transactions will be funded internally through CRH's cash on hand.

Highlights of the transactions:

• Adds approximately 9,000 new annual procedures
• 19% increase in annual procedure volume (to more than 56,000 annual procedures)
• Expected to increase annual revenue by estimated US$2.5 million
• Immediately accretive to CRH EBITDA
• Leverages existing infrastructure

Edward Wright, CEO of CRH, stated, "In early December 2014, we announced our entry into the U.S. Gastroenterology anesthesia services market in what we expected would be the first of a number of transactions. We are pleased to report today that we have added significant new procedural volume to our business.  These transactions allow us to scale our current business and leverage existing infrastructure to provide increased efficiencies that will benefit both CRH and our GI partners and their patients. We believe that we will have additional opportunities to grow our anesthesia business in the future."

About CRH Medical Corporation:

CRH Medical Corporation is a North American company focused on providing physicians with innovative products and services for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases. The Company's product distribution strategy focuses on physician education, patient outcomes, and patient awareness. The Company's first product, the CRH O'Regan System, is a single use, disposable, hemorrhoid banding technology that is safe and highly effective in treating hemorrhoid grades I – IV.  CRH distributes the CRH O'Regan System, treatment protocols, operational and marketing expertise as a complete, turnkey package directly to physicians, allowing CRH to create meaningful relationships with the physicians it serves. CRH recently acquired a full service gastroenterology anesthesia company, Gastroenterology Anesthesia Associates, LLC ("GAA"), which provides anesthesia services for patients undergoing endoscopies and colonoscopies. Performing these procedures under anesthetic makes these procedures more comfortable for patients and allows gastroenterologists to perform more procedures. CRH's plan is to leverage the capabilities it acquired through GAA to consolidate the highly fragmented gastroenterology anesthesia provider business. The Company's goal is to establish CRH as the premier provider of innovative products and essential services to gastroenterologists throughout the United States.

Forward looking statements:  

Information included or incorporated by reference in this press release may contain forward-looking statements.  This information may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements.  Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "plan," "intend" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Readers are cautioned regarding statements discussing profitability; growth strategies; anticipated trends in our industry; our future financing plans; and our anticipated needs for working capital.  Forward looking statements in this press release include statements regarding increasing annual procedure volume and annual revenue and making future acquisitions.  Actual events or results may differ materially from those discussed in forward-looking statements.  There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements currently contained in this report will in fact occur. The Company bases its forward-looking statements on information currently available to it, and assumes no obligation to update them. The Company disclaims any intent or obligations to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, estimates or options, future events or results or otherwise, unless required to do so by law.

Forward-looking information reflects current expectations of management regarding future events and operating performance as of the date of the press release. Such information involves significant risks and uncertainties, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in forward-looking information, including, without limitation: we may not be able to successfully recruit and retain qualified clinicians to provide anesthesia services; our need for additional financing and our estimates regarding our capital requirements and future revenues and profitability; our ability to successfully market and sell our products and services; our estimates of the size of the potential markets for our products and services; we may be subject to competition a which may impact the price of our services; our ability to and the cost of compliance with extensive existing regulation and any changes or amendments thereto; government-funded programs or private insurers may limit, reduce or make retroactive adjustments to reimbursement amounts or rates; we may not be able to collect reimbursements for our services from third-party payors in a timely manner; the Affordable Care Act may have a significant effect on our business; changes in key United States federal or state laws, rules, and regulations; the healthcare industry is highly regulated, and government authorities may determine that we have failed to comply with applicable laws, rules or regulations our ability and forecasts of expansion and the Company's management of anticipated growth; our senior management has been key to our growth and we may be adversely affected if we are unable to retain, conflicts of interest develop or we lose any key member of our senior management; changes in the industry and the economy may affect the Company's business; adverse events relating to our product or services could result risks relating to in product liability, medical malpractice, insurance and product recalls; risks associated with use of our products in unapproved circumstances; various risks associated with other legal, regulatory or investigative proceedings; we may not find suitable acquisition candidates or successfully integrate our acquisitions; our acquisitions may expose us to greater business risks and could affect our payor mix; there may be competition for anesthesia services impacting our ability to source and close future acquisitions; competition may negatively impact our ability to renew exclusive service agreements; new technologies may impact the demand for the anesthesia services we provide; our anesthesia services are provided under exclusive service agreements of varying duration, our ability to renew or replace these agreements could significantly impact our revenue and net income; we have significant debt which requires us to generate significant cash flows from operations in order to make scheduled interest payments and principal payments; we may not be able to meet certain covenants under our credit facilities and our inability to meet these covenants could result in acceleration of our long term liabilities and or increased cost; we may be subject to the risks of foreign exchange rate fluctuation which could result in foreign exchange losses; and risks associated with the trading of our common shares on a public marketplace.

SOURCE CRH Medical Corporation

Edward Wright, Chief Executive Officer, CRH Medical Corporation, 604.633.1440 x1008, [email protected]; Richard Bear, Chief Financial Officer, CRH Medical Corporation, 604.633.1440 x1048, [email protected] or visit: www.crhmedcorp.com.