Premier, Inc.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Premier Incorporated First Call 2021 conference call. At this time, all participants are in the listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your touchstone telephone. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ms. Angie McKay, Vice President of Investor Relations.

Thank you, Christian. Welcome to Premier's fiscal 2021 first quarter conference call. Our speakers this afternoon are Susan DeVore, Premier's Chief Executive Officer, Mike Elkire, President, and Craig McCasin, our Chief Administrative and Financial Officer. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that copies of our earnings release and the supplemental slides accompanying this conference call are available in the investor relations section of our website. at investors.premiereinc.com. Management's remarks today contain certain forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially from those discussed today. These forward-looking statements speak as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update them. Factors that might affect future results are discussed in our filings with the SEC, including our Form 10-Q for the fiscal first quarter, which we expect to file soon. We encourage you to review these detailed safe harbor and risk factor disclosures. Please also note that financial results presented today reflect continuing operations following the completion of our sale and exit of the specialty pharmacy business on June 7th, 2019. Also, where appropriate, we will refer to adjusted or non-GAAP financial measures to evaluate our business. Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to GAAP financial measures are included in our earnings release in the appendix of the supplemental slides accompanying this presentation and in our earnings form 8K, which we expect to furnish to the SEC soon. I will now turn the call over to Susan DeVore. Susan?

Thanks, Angie. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. This afternoon, we'll review our fiscal 2021 first quarter results. share our perspectives on the potential impact of the presidential election on Premier, and discuss the reasons we believe we're well positioned to execute our strategy, provide superior products and services to our members, and deliver value to our stockholders. We're pleased with our first quarter results, which we believe reflect solid execution and the differentiated value that we deliver to our members. We're delivering these results in a very challenging environment, And we continue to play a key role in helping our healthcare providers navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Compared with the prior year period, we produced 15% growth in consolidated net revenue, 14% growth in our supply chain services segment net revenue, and 18% growth in our performance services segment net revenue. As we expected and previously communicated when we discussed our restructuring and separate amendment and extension of our member owner GPO agreements, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share declined year over year. The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is also impacting our year over year profitability. Craig will provide more details on these topics in his remarks. We experienced sequential improvement compared with the fiscal 2020 fourth quarter related to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, but expect some ongoing pressure given the pandemic's continuing effect on various parts of the country and our economy. Given current surge patterns and the uncertainty surrounding the approval, distribution, and adoption of an effective vaccine, it remains difficult for us to predict by exactly how much and for what duration of time we will continue to be affected. As a result, it's not possible for us to accurately forecast the full financial impact on our business for the remainder of this fiscal year. And as such, we are not providing fiscal 2021 guidance at this time. We will continue to diligently monitor healthcare utilization patterns, current COVID-19 hotspots and trends, resurgence by geography, vaccine approval distribution and adoption implications, consumer behavior, and the continuing phased reopening, or as the case may be, renewed closures of businesses and other organizations in various states. Most importantly, we will also continue to take a leadership role, helping our members navigate this challenging environment, assisting them in monitoring and preparing for current and future COVID-19 resurgence, and helping create a more resilient healthcare supply chain in the future. As we've communicated over the past several months, the pandemic's impact on our healthcare provider members has further validated and reinforced our belief in our technology-enabled end-to-end supply chain and enterprise analytics and performance improvement strategies. Moreover, we believe Premier is well positioned irrespective of the outcome of the election. Regardless of politics, many of the underlying problems of cost, quality, and safety will remain across healthcare. In some respects, these problems have intensified as a result of the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare providers. And both parties will need to contend with the challenges facing the Medicare Trust Fund and state budget pressures resulting primarily from increasing healthcare spending and relief subsidies. Employers will also continue to seek solutions for healthcare spending, which is growing faster than the cost of other employer-paid benefits. This will fuel the movement to risk-based payment models for providers and a focus on the efficient delivery of patient-centric services. Finally, both parties are equally focused on preventing a repeat of the recent supply chain challenges that resulted from an over-dependence on critical products coming from a few countries. Healthcare providers have learned from the pandemic that we need diversified sources for critical products, including expansion of domestic manufacturing capabilities, an area in which we've been at the forefront, pursuing a robust strategy in partnership with our member health systems. We expect this issue will be prioritized by the next Congress and administration, no matter the outcome of tomorrow's election, which we believe will benefit the investments that we've made. So we're off to a solid start in fiscal 2021 and focused on executing our strategy to achieve our near and longer term goals. As we've said previously, beginning in fiscal 2022 and subject to the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect to target a multi-year compound annual growth rate in the mid to high single digits. We believe the work we've been doing and will continue to do positions us well for the long term. Now I'll turn the call over to Mike Alkire, our president.