Elevance Health, Inc.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Anthem's second 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 queued. 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 second quarter 2020 earnings call. This is Chris Rigg, Vice President of Investor Relations. And with us this morning are Gail Boudreau, President and CEO, John Galena, our CFO, Preet Haitayan, President of our Commercial and Specialty Business Division, and Felicia Norwood, President of our Government Business Division. 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 that 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 for Anthem's second quarter 2020 earnings call. Since our last earnings review, our business has continued to evolve in response to the ongoing health crisis and social justice issues facing society. The impact of these events are profound for our associates, local communities, and all those we serve. Over the past several months, Anthem has continued to take bold steps to directly support those who need our help. Last quarter, we took action to commit $2.5 billion in financial assistance to ease the burden of COVID-19 among our members, employer customers, care providers, and nonprofit partners. The needs are ongoing, and I'm proud of the way Anthem has responded quickly to provide needed support. We remain committed to creating a more affordable healthcare experience for our valued members and customers. To that end, we removed barriers to care by waiving cost-sharing for treatment of COVID-19, including coverage for testing, treatment, and inpatient hospital stays. We also waived prior authorizations for COVID-19 diagnostic tests and related covered services. To date, we've paid approximately $500 million associated with COVID-19-related diagnoses. In addition, we provided our associates individual and employer group customers with a one-month premium credit ranging from 10% to 15%, while individuals on our standalone and group dental plans received a 50% credit. We continue to deliver value to our customers by providing them with flexible payment terms as well as affordable buy-down options as they navigate the crisis. Our unwavering commitment to our local communities is an integral part of our strategy and legacy at Anthem. For more than 75 years, we've understood the privilege and responsibility we have to make positive change in the communities where we live and work. This commitment reflects our mission and all that we stand for. And it was at the heart of our recent $50 million pledge over the next five years to focus directly on health disparities, racial inequities, and the key drivers of health, such as food insecurity mental health, housing, and economic recovery. We know that food security is one of the most profound needs in the wake of the pandemic. A recent study showed that nearly 40% of households today report moderate to high levels of food insecurity, with children being impacted the most. To combat this trend, we are increasing our support as a leading national partner with Feeding America. Here in our home state of Indiana, We were pleased to recently announce a partnership with Gleaners Food Bank to provide more than 10 million meals as part of our $1 million matching grant to expand access to nutritious food. Our associates are doing their part to give back as well, and it's inspiring. They're deeply committed to fulfilling our purpose and have donated more than 27,000 hours of virtual volunteering with online mentoring, teaching, community outreach, along with donating much-needed resources to local organizations. And today, our social responsibility efforts take a bold new step, as I am pleased to announce we are signing on to the UN Global Compact. Now, more than ever, we recognize the important societal role we play to help shape a stronger, more inclusive, and more sustainable world. As we reflect on our performance, the quarter clearly demonstrates the strength of our diverse portfolio and trust in the Anthem brand. Despite declines in our commercial business, losses were less than expected, particularly in our local group risk-based business, where in-group attrition was partially offset by new sales exceeding lapses. Medical enrollment increased by 1.6 million lives, or nearly 4% compared to the prior year quarter, reflecting growth in our commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid businesses. Putting that growth in perspective, Medicaid enrollment grew sequentially by nearly 10 times the decline in our risk-based employer group enrollment. The pandemic has impacted our Medicaid and Medicare populations particularly hard, and we have moved quickly to deliver true, full-person care. Our customer care associates have been doing one-on-one outreach to our vulnerable members ensuring access to food, safe housing, as well as guiding new members through onboarding and helping them enroll in support programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To date, we've reached out to 80% of our high-risk Medicaid and Medicare members, and this work continues. I remain grateful to our care provider partners for their ongoing work on the front lines of care delivery. As part of our support to those partners, we've simplified policies and procedures, including temporarily suspending prior authorization requirements for patient transfers, oxygen supplies, respiratory devices, and multifunction ventilators, enabling them to focus on delivering exceptional care. In addition, we are extending financial support to targeted primary care physicians who are facing undue pressures during this period, as utilization slowly returns to normal levels. Our compassionate and committed care providers in CareMore, Aspire, and HealthSUN are beginning to return to direct care for our most vulnerable members. These touch points include the use of remote patient monitoring for a variety of chronic conditions, such as congestive heart failure and COPD, along with in-home and online care and support. If we think about innovation, Anthem is helping shape our industry for the digital future. We are pioneering technologies to deliver personalized care designed to improve total health and help consumers manage their health and wellness at every stage of life. Digital first is the cornerstone of the future of healthcare, and our experiences with COVID-19 have only accelerated our efforts in this space. For our employer customers and government partners, We recently launched the C-19 Navigator and C-19 Explorer tools to aggregate real-time COVID-19 data to help inform and guide return-to-workplace decisions and resource planning. And for consumers, our SydneyCare solution is using data and AI to help individuals triage their own symptoms and seek care directly from their phone. To date, we've facilitated more than 475,000 telehealth visits and 82,000 COVID-19 assessments. As one of the first managed care companies to partner with Amazon Alexa, Anthem members can now use our new Anthem Skill personal voice assistant to check their health plan details, schedule calls with customer representatives, and renew prescriptions directly through their Alexa-enabled devices. At its recent peak, virtual health visits by our members were up 300% relative to pre-COVID levels. Life Health Online, our on-demand telehealth solution, surpassed 1 million visits in early April, and demand continues. Demand for telemedicine in the behavioral health space is also increasing, with usage at 56 times pre-COVID levels. Our Beacon Behavioral Health Team has responded to this growing need and pivoted quickly to help transition care providers to a digital interface, enhance online supports and services for consumers, and conduct outreach for our most at-risk members to address special care needs. Collaborative partnerships continue to be a strategic focus in Anthem. We were pleased to join the Fight is in Us campaign, a results-driven, public-private partnership focused on the promising use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma to help improve outcomes and treatments for those with active infections. We're also pleased to serve as a founding partner of the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance, working to help develop scalable tests that are rapid, accurate, and low cost. The Alliance is a global coalition leveraging the power of collaboration, competition, and shared innovation to accelerate solutions that can be applied to COVID-19 and future pandemics. Looking ahead, We recognize there is much unknown regarding the magnitude and duration of this pandemic, given the recent resurgence in COVID-19 cases across the country. Despite this uncertainty, Anthem is well positioned to achieve our 2020 EPS guidance and deliver on our longer-term financial goals. And with that, I will now turn the call over to John to discuss our financial results. John?