Well, we had a strong third quarter as COVID-19 molecular volumes increased throughout the summer.
In late summer, we experienced some softness in the base business across the country, but saw a rebound in September.
Importantly, our base business continued to improve sequentially in the third quarter, which speaks to the ongoing recovery.
But before turning to our results into the third quarter, I'd like to update you on our progress we've made in our Quest for Health Equity initiative, a more than $100 million initiative aimed at reducing healthcare disparities in underserved neighborhoods.
Since we've established just over a year ago, we have launched 18 programs across the United States and Puerto Rico ranging from supporting COVID-19 testing of vaccination events, to educating young students on healthy nutritional choices, to providing funding support for a long-haul COVID-19 clinic in Puerto Rico.
Total revenue of $2.77 billion, down 40 basis points versus the prior year; earnings per share were $4.02 on a reported basis, down approximately 3% versus the prior year; and $3.96 on an adjusted basis, down 8% versus the prior year.
Cash provided by operations increased by nearly 20% year-to-date through September to approximately $1.75 billion.
We performed an average of 83,000 COVID-19 molecular tests today in the third quarter and maintain strong average turnaround times of approximately one day for most specimens throughout the surge.
We are currently performing K through 12 school testing in approximately 20 states with five additional states ready to come online.
We continue to build on our exceptional health plan access of approximately 90% of all commercially insured lives in the United States.
Also, effective October 1, we gained access to 1 billion Managed Medicaid members in Florida as their coverage transitions to Centene's Sunshine Health Plan.
Altogether, our PLS business is expected to exceed $500 million in annual revenue this year.
And then finally, our MyQuest app and patient portal now has almost 20 million users.
Turning to our second strategy, driving operational excellence, we made progress and remain on track to deliver at our targeted 3% annual efficiencies across the business.
Last week, we announced that we completed the integration and consolidation of our Northeast regional operations into our new 250,000 square foot next-generation lab in Clifton, New Jersey.
This state-of-the art highly automated facility services more than 40 million people across seven states.
Now, more than 50% of patient service center visits are now by appointment versus walk-ins and this enables patients to be very satisfied and also improves our ability to drive productivity of our phlebotomists.
As a demonstration of our gratitude, we're assisting our employees with a one-time payment of up to $500 designed to reimburse cost they incurred during the pandemic.
For the third quarter, consolidated revenues were $2.77 billion, down 0.4% versus the prior year.
Compared to 2019, our base DIS revenue grew approximately 6% in the third quarter and it was up nearly 2% excluding acquisitions.
Volume, measured by the number of requisitions, increased 5.3% versus the prior year with acquisitions contributing approximately 2%.
Compared to our third quarter 2019 baseline, total base testing volumes increased 9%.
Excluding acquisitions, total base testing volumes grew approximately 4% and benefited from new PLS contracts that have ramped over the last year.
We resulted approximately 7.6 million molecular tests and nearly 700,000 serology tests in the third quarter.
So far in October, average COVID-19 molecular volumes have declined approximately 10% from where we exited Q3 but are still above the levels we expected prior to the surge of the Delta variant, while the base business continues to improve since September.
Revenue per requisition declined 5.4% versus the prior year, driven primarily by lower COVID-19 molecular volume and, to a lesser extent, recent PLS wins.
Reported operating income in the third quarter was $652 million or 23.5% of revenues compared to $718 million or 25.8% of revenues last year.
On an adjusted basis, operating income in Q3 was $694 million or 25% of revenues compared to $831 million or 29.8% of revenues last year.
Reported earnings per share was $4.02 in the quarter compared to $4.14 a year ago.
Adjusted earnings per share was $3.96 compared to $4.31 last year.
Cash provided by operations was $1.75 billion through September year-to-date versus $1.46 billion in the same period last year.
Revenue is expected to be between $10.45 billion and $10.6 billion, an increase of approximately 11% to 12% versus the prior year.
Reported earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $14.69 [Phonetic] and $15.09 and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $13.50 and $13.90.
Cash provided by operations is expected to be approximately $2.2 billion and capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $400 million.
At the low end of our outlook, we assume approximately 50,000 molecular tests per day in Q4 and serology volumes to hold relatively steady at approximately 5,000 tests per day.
As you may know, late last week, the public health emergency was again extended another 90 days through late January.
We have raised our outlook for the remainder of the year based on higher than anticipated COVID-19 volumes as well as our continued progress we expect to see in our base business.

Summary:
Well, we had a strong third quarter as COVID-19 molecular volumes increased throughout the summer.
In late summer, we experienced some softness in the base business across the country, but saw a rebound in September.
Importantly, our base business continued to improve sequentially in the third quarter, which speaks to the ongoing recovery.
Total revenue of $2.77 billion, down 40 basis points versus the prior year; earnings per share were $4.02 on a reported basis, down approximately 3% versus the prior year; and $3.96 on an adjusted basis, down 8% versus the prior year.
For the third quarter, consolidated revenues were $2.77 billion, down 0.4% versus the prior year.
Reported earnings per share was $4.02 in the quarter compared to $4.14 a year ago.
Adjusted earnings per share was $3.96 compared to $4.31 last year.
Revenue is expected to be between $10.45 billion and $10.6 billion, an increase of approximately 11% to 12% versus the prior year.
Reported earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $14.69 [Phonetic] and $15.09 and adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $13.50 and $13.90.
We have raised our outlook for the remainder of the year based on higher than anticipated COVID-19 volumes as well as our continued progress we expect to see in our base business.