Centene Corporation

Good day, and welcome to the Centene Corporation first quarter 2022 earnings results conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on a touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note today's event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Jennifer Gilligan. Please go ahead, ma'am. Ms. Gilligan, your line is live.

Thank you, Rocco, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our first quarter 2022 earnings results conference call. Sarah London, Chief Executive Officer, Brent Layton, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Drew Asher, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Centene will host this morning's call, which also can be accessed through our website at centene.com. Any remarks that Centene may make about future expectations, plans, and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for the purpose of the safe harbor provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in Centene's most recent Form 10-K, filed on February 22nd, and other public SEC filings. Centene anticipates that subsequent events and developments may cause its estimates to change. While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. The call will also refer to certain non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of these measures with the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our first quarter 2022 press release. which is available on the company's website under the Investor section. Additionally, please mark your calendars for our upcoming Investor Day scheduled for June 17th. This meeting will be hosted in a virtual format available via webcast. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Sarah London.

Sarah? Thank you, Jen. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us as we review our first quarter 2022 results. I want to begin by acknowledging the passing of a great man, Michael Neidorf, whose leadership and passion built Centene into the purpose-driven market leader that it is today. Michael infused our entire organization with the belief that high-quality, affordable health care should be within reach of every American, especially our nation's most vulnerable. On behalf of the entire Centene team, I want to send our thoughts and prayers to Michael's family. We will miss him dearly, but I can assure you that Michael's legacy lives on in the men and women of this company, and our commitment to his vision has never been stronger. On our call today, I'll begin with an update regarding the company's leadership structure, touch on first quarter highlights, and then provide you an update on strategy and our value creation initiatives. Brent will speak to our performance in our core business lines, and finally, Drew will review our financial results and full year 2022 outlook in more detail. First, the company's core leadership structure. We are updating this morning the construct of the Office of the CEO. This group of individuals represents the most experienced, strategic, and senior leaders of the organization who will assist me in setting policy and driving forward Centene's enterprise agenda. The Office of the CEO includes myself, Brent Layton, our President and Chief Operating Officer, Drew Asher, our Chief Financial Officer, Jim Murray, our Chief Transformation Officer, who will take on expanded responsibilities in addition to our Value Creation Office, and Ken Fasola, who, in addition to leading Magellan, will assume oversight of our portfolio of strategic non-health plan assets. This construct, with key support from our Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, formalizes the manner in which we've been operating for the last several months. and represents the agenda setting nucleus of the organization as we enter the next stage of transformation and growth. Now let's discuss our first quarter results. Centene delivered a strong first quarter performance, including adjusted diluted EPS of $1.83, up 12% compared to the year-ago quarter. We closed the quarter with 26.2 million members, up 8% compared to the year-ago quarter, demonstrating the strength and value of our products in the market and the success of our enrollment periods. As a result, we are raising our full year 2022 outlook from our previously provided range. We now expect our full year 2022 adjusted EPS to be within a range of $5.40 to $5.55. Drew will provide more details on the quarter and outlook in a few moments. Now to strategy. Over the last few months, the opportunities to optimize and strengthen our business have become even clearer. We remain hyper-focused on executing our value creation plan, with many work streams well underway and clear milestones ahead. At the same time, we are refreshing our long-term strategy in order to pave the way for growth beyond our 2024 horizon. As we have said before, focusing on our core business and prioritizing value creation are not just short-term ideas. They are pillars of and critical inputs to a long-term strategic vision for the company. Let me give you an example. Over the last nine months, you have heard us repeatedly talk about operating excellence as a focus of our value creation work. It includes streamlining platforms, standardizing processes, modernizing systems, and using data everywhere to be as smart as possible about how we do our work. It means fewer calls, fewer clicks, and faster answers. Will it create SG&A savings? Absolutely.