Anthem, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Anthem's first quarter earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session where participants are encouraged to present a single question. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. You will hear a prompt that you have been cued. You may withdraw your question at any time by pressing star then 2. These instructions will be repeated prior to the question and answer portion of this call. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to the company's management. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome to Anthem's first quarter 2021 earnings call. This is Steve Tennell, Vice President of Investor Relations, and with us this morning on the earnings call are Gail Boudreau, President and CEO, John Galina, our CFO, Peter Haitayan, President of our Commercial and Specialty Business Division, and Felicia Norwood, President of our Government Business Division. Gail will begin in the call by giving an overview of our first quarter financial results, provide an update on our response to the pandemic, and touch on our updated financial guidance before turning the call over to John, who will discuss our financials in greater detail. We will then be available for Q&A. During the call, we will reference certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are available on our website, antheminc.com. We will also be making some forward-looking statements on this call. Listeners are cautioned that these statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Anthem. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We advise listeners to carefully review the risk factors discussed in today's press release and in our quarterly filings with the SEC. I will now turn the call over to Gail.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today for Anthem's first quarter 2021 earnings call. This morning, we reported first quarter gap earnings per share of $6.71 and adjusted earnings per share of $7.01, reflecting growing momentum in our business, despite the challenges of the environment. When we came together for this call a year ago, we were only just beginning to understand the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications for healthcare. Over these last 12 months, I'm incredibly proud of how we've led during a period characterized by uncertainty. From day one, we partnered with local, state, and federal officials to ensure our members were prepared with the resources and support they need to navigate through the pandemic. In 2020, our associates logged more than 110,000 volunteer hours and more than 17,000 hours so far in 2021. addressing critical issues in their local communities, such as food insecurity and social isolation. Our efforts have recently shifted from a focus on treatment and testing to vaccinations. We recognize that we play a critical role in the fight against the pandemic and in ensuring safe and equitable access to vaccines in our communities. Through our multi-channel approach, we've been able to reach nearly two-thirds of our members with information regarding where, when, and how they can access COVID-19 vaccines in their own communities, including coordinating in-home vaccinations for our homebound members while covering vaccine administration costs for our commercial members with no out-of-pocket cost sharing. In addition, clinicians at our CareMore and HealthSun clinics have helped thousands of our most vulnerable seniors get vaccinated. I'm incredibly grateful to our associates, who have adapted seamlessly and worked diligently through the pandemic to support our consumers. Our focus on health starts with our own associates, and we're committed to empowering them to live a healthy lifestyle. For those who receive the vaccine, we're offering a choice of a one-time credit towards their own health care premiums or a donation on their behalf to the Anthem Cares Fund, which provides financial support to Anthem associates in need. As a company that has been grounded in our local communities for more than 75 years, we have an unwavering commitment to positively influence not only the health of our consumers, but the health of the communities in which we live and work. Membership growth in the first quarter clearly reflects the balance and resilience of our core business, with strong growth in our government business led by Medicaid. With eligibility re-verifications on hold across the country, organic growth remains robust. Medicare Advantage membership also tracked in line with our expectations, growing 15% year-over-year through the first quarter. We're honored to have been selected to serve Medicaid beneficiaries in Ohio, a state where Anthem currently holds the leading commercial and Medicare Advantage market share positions. With the launch of this contract, Anthem will serve consumers across all products in the state of Ohio. further underscoring our ability to be a lifetime trusted health partner. Commercial enrollment grew sequentially to start the year, outperforming expectations with growth led by our risk-based business. As expected, commercial membership decreased slightly year over year, driven by in-group attrition in our group fee-based business. In spite of many national account prospects electing to delay decisions until 2022, We had one of our strongest selling seasons in the past five years. Sales exceeded lapses in our large group fully insured business for the sixth consecutive quarter and for 10 of the past 11. Our success speaks to the strength of our sales team, the value of our innovative solutions, and our commitment to being a valued partner to our customers. Given our solid overall performance in the first quarter, we are increasing our 2021 adjusted earnings per share guidance to greater than $25.10 from greater than $24.50, putting us on track to achieve our long-term 12% to 15% annual adjusted EPS growth target, even as we continue to dedicate resources to combating the pandemic. Looking ahead, our digital solutions will continue to drive growth, and we are fundamentally changing how we leverage technology to deliver the exceptional experiences that consumers expect from us and to help address health disparities and improve outcomes by sharing insight with care providers. We now have close to 10 million people engaged on our digital channels with access to a wide array of virtual care specialties and resources to help them lead healthy lives. One of our digital solutions Anthem's concierge care program aims to solve distinct problems for our customers. Our suite of programs universally offer a seamless experience for members facing chronic or complex conditions, connecting them with their entire care team on a single centralized platform and allowing them to seek support in real time when it's right for them. Today, our concierge care programs are available to just under 1 million members. with line of sight into tripling enrollment over the next few years. This program integrates remote patient monitoring that shares real-time data with care providers at all times. We have also partnered with connected device manufacturers to leverage their capabilities to expand remote care options that allow patients and their clinicians to conduct virtual office visits, culminating in personalized experiences for our members, better outcomes, and improved affordability. Our deep roots in our communities and our partnership with local care providers enable us to scale these initiatives in real time with a focus on collaborating across the continuum of care while ensuring our care provider partners have access to best-in-class digital tools and capabilities to help them deliver better outcomes. Predictive AI and real-time access to data, coupled with a growing focus on value-based arrangements with care providers, is enabling us to improve access to high-quality, affordable health care and facilitate better consumer and physician decision-making. The integration of these capabilities is what will enable us to deliver on our commitment to drive commercial medical cost trend down towards CPI by 2025, a goal we shared with you at our Investor Day last month. Earlier this year, we launched the nation's largest high performance network in partnership with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. The Blue High Performance Network is guiding members towards providers who are aligned with our goal of driving greater affordability and improved outcomes. The benefits are compelling, with average savings of 11% and up to 20% in certain markets. Through AI and machine learning, We're also providing members with access to personalized health information to help them make informed healthcare decisions. When searching for providers, most digital tools automatically default to recommending providers based solely on location. Anthem's Smart Provider Finder on our Sydney Health app gives consumers greater control of their care by taking into account the factors that matter most, such as condition-specific needs, affordability, and quality. We're intensely focused on enhancing our capabilities aimed at addressing the needs of people with chronic and complex conditions. Our pending acquisition of MyNexus combines the power of digital and advanced analytics to expertly manage and coordinate home-based healthcare. Anthem has been a customer of MyNexus since 2017. With more than 830,000 of our individual and group retiree Medicare Advantage members, currently managed by MyNexus. We have seen firsthand the positive contributions MyNexus has had on our members' quality of life, and we look forward to expanding this impact across even more of our members. Equally important, this acquisition provides Anthem with another pathway to managing a greater portion of the overall healthcare dollar, a key strategic pillar of our diversified business group. that will allow us to create end-to-end seamless experiences from post-acute care to home health with pathways to services like AIM, Aspire, and Beacon. As we continue to focus on addressing the social drivers of health, Anthem is introducing new programs and partnerships to positively impact community health. Beginning this year, Beacon is launching an innovative program designed to address the basic needs of an employer's workforce through on-site resource coordinators focused on things like housing, food, transportation, and other core resources. Through this program, BEACON will help employers identify and remove obstacles to creating a safer and more productive work environment for their employees. The need for this type of solution will only increase as employers transition their workforce back into the workplace. and we look forward to scaling this offering across our markets in the future after going live with a major national retailer in the second quarter. As we look ahead to the balance of the year, we stand ready to adapt and carry forward our momentum. Anthem's benefit business is among the most balanced and resilient in the sector, and we have ample opportunity to unlock our full potential by scaling best-in-class healthcare services businesses to serve Anthem's members, as well as other healthcare plans externally. Should the pandemic come to an end sooner and the economy recover faster, our commercial business will be well-positioned to accelerate its growth. Should the pandemic persist, our Medicaid business will likely continue to grow at an accelerated pace, regardless of the outcome. We are confident in our ability to deliver on our commitments to our consumers, care partners, and shareholders. I'll now turn the floor over to John to discuss our financial performance in more detail. John?