Community Health Systems, Inc.

Thank you for holding for Community Health Systems' second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. The presentation will begin in five minutes. . . . Thanks for watching! . . . Thank you for watching! . . . . . . . . . Thank you for watching! Good day and welcome to Community Health Systems second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in 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 this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Anton High, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Bailey. Good morning and welcome to Community Health Systems' second quarter 2026 conference call. Joining me on today's call are Kevin Hammons, Chief Executive Officer, and Jason Johnson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'll remind everyone this conference call may contain certain forward-looking statements, including all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, which are described in headings such as risk factors in our annual report on Form 10-K and other reports filed with or furnished to the SEC. Actual results may differ significantly from those expressed in any forward-looking statements in today's discussion. We do not intend to update any of these forward-looking statements. Yesterday afternoon, we issued a press release with our financial statements and definitions and calculations of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. We've also posted a supplemental slide presentation on our website. All calculations we discussed today will exclude gains or losses from early extinguishment of debt, impairment gains or losses on the sale of businesses, and expense for employee termination benefits and other restructuring charges. With that said, I'll turn the call over to Kevin Hammons, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Anton. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2026 conference call and for your continued interest in CHS. Before we get into the call, I want to acknowledge the ongoing commitment and effort of all of our teammates and thank them for the work they are doing toward advancing our vision. to make the healthcare experience exceptional for our patients, our communities, and each other. I am proud to say that in the face of a dynamic operating environment, we have continued to make progress on our top priorities of improving quality, physician experience, patient experience, and employee satisfaction. In addition to improving leapfrog safety grades and CMS star ratings that we discussed on last quarter's call, which included 12 of our hospital's achieving a leapfrog A grade and approximately 70% achieving leapfrog A or B grades, we are proud of the recognition coming in from other noteworthy sources. For example, earlier this month, our Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana was awarded the American College of Cardiology's Heart Care Center National Distinction of Excellence, the only hospital in the state and one of only 100 hospitals across the country to receive this designation. Also, several of our hospitals were recognized by CMS for achieving zero hospital-acquired infections, some of the nation's best performance in this area. And many others received recognition and designations reflecting the quality care we provide to our patients. These recognitions underscore the significant progress our clinical teams have driven across multiple measures of safety and quality over the past few years, including record achievement in risk-adjusted mortality index, sepsis mortality, and hospital-acquired infection rates. We are seeing positive movement in patient experience surveys and in the areas of employee satisfaction and physician experience. The record response rates to our recently completed employee surveys shows that we have a very engaged employee base even as we recognize that we have significant work still to be done. Our ability to continue advancing in each of these areas will drive enhanced financial performance over time and long-term value creation for our organization and our shareholders. Turning to our operating performance for the second quarter of 2026, adjusted EBITDA was $330 million compared with $380 million in the prior year period on a 9.8% decline in net revenue, primarily reflecting a smaller prior period benefit from newly approved state-directed payment programs as well as divestitures completed over the past 12 months. Results for the quarter include the benefits from recently approved Medicaid state-directed payment programs in Indiana and Florida, which were offset by a prior period adjustment to the Arizona state-directed payment program and an unexpected increase in uninsured volumes and continued softness in demand for elective surgical procedures among commercially insured patients, which we attribute to continued consumer insecurity related to geopolitical instability and inflationary pressures. Same-store net revenue increased 2.4% over the prior year period. Same-store adjusted admissions increased 2.9%. However, Approximately half of that volume growth was driven by uninsured visits with minimal related net revenue. This factor, together with a lower surgical versus medical mix, was more than enough to offset the rate gains from the new state-directed payment programs, resulting in a 0.5% decline in net revenue per adjusted admission for the quarter. We continue to believe that the non-ACA-related payer mix and service mix challenges that we experienced in the first half reflected temporary disruption in demand for healthcare services in our markets. And in fact, we were encouraged by the improving volume and surgical trends we witnessed exiting the quarter. However, as we consider deteriorating consumer confidence in the markets we serve, economic impacts from escalating hostilities in the Middle East, along with the softer surgeries and unfavorable pair mix we experienced this year to date, we believe it is prudent to be more cautious about the second half of the year and therefore adjusted our full year outlook accordingly. Before handing it over, I want to reiterate how proud I am of the progress we are making as an organization and the focus on our top priorities, which we believe will help us navigate a dynamic operating environment and Emerge position for long-term success and improved financial results. At this point, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jason Johnson, to review financial results and other information in greater detail. Jason.