Elevance Health, Inc.

question at any time by pressing star then two. 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 Elevance Health's fourth quarter 2024 earnings call. My name is Nathan Rich, Vice President of Investor Relations. With us this morning on the earnings call are Gail Boudreau, President and CEO, Mark Kay, our CFO, Peter Haitayan, President of Carillon, Morgan Kendrick, President of our commercial health benefits business, and Felicia Norwood, President of our government health benefits business. Gail will begin the call with a review of the progress we've made against our strategic initiatives and a discussion of the quarter and our 2025 outlook. Mark will then discuss our financial results and guidance in greater detail. After our prepared remarks, the team will 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, elevancehealth.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 Elevance Health. These risks and uncertainties can cause actual results to differ materially from our 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.

Thank you, Nate, and good morning, everyone. Before we begin, I'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the millions of people affected by the Southern California wildfires. With over 9 million members and over 6,000 Elevance Health Associates in the state of California, we are especially grateful to the first responders who are working tirelessly to support the ongoing recovery efforts. At Elevance Health, our teams quickly mobilize to facilitate access to essential health resources and provide much needed aid the communities impacted by this devastating event. This moment underscores our shared humanity, reminding us that above all, we are a community dedicated to supporting people's health and well-being. Our purpose as a company of improving the health of humanity remains resolute, and we will demonstrate steadfast leadership in healthcare marked by compassion, dedication, and a profound commitment to improving the lives of the people we serve. For our members, we play a critical role in ensuring simple, affordable, and accessible care. We recognize that the healthcare ecosystem is grappling with significant challenges, including rising costs, administrative complexity, and disparities in access to care. These issues are compounded by evolving consumer expectations and the need for a more integrated approach to physical, behavioral, and social health. In collaboration with our partners across the industry, we're addressing these challenges with great urgency, focusing on streamlining processes, reducing costs, and improving the overall experience for our members. We are reimagining how we connect with consumers to personalize experiences, tailor recommendations to meet their specific needs, and simplify the healthcare journey. Targeted digital interactions through our Sydney app closed critical gaps in care and saved members an estimated 1.5 million hours in 2024, time they would have otherwise spent trying to find the care they needed. Health insurers play a vital role in keeping healthcare affordable by ensuring our members have access to high-quality care at reasonable costs and designing benefit structures that encourage preventative care and early intervention. Through the value-based partnerships we have with care providers, we reduce inefficiencies, drive better health outcomes, and lower overall costs for members. In our Medicare Advantage portfolio for 2025, 90% of our plans have no monthly premium, and nearly all plans offer $0 copays for primary care visits and access to supplemental benefits. These innovative plan designs demonstrate how we align affordability with improved member health. Our data demonstrates that dually eligible members who utilize supplemental benefits are 40% more likely to access preventative services and nearly 15% less likely to have an inpatient admission. Solutions like our Total Health, Total You advocacy program enable personalized outreach through digital channels and address whole person care before complex health needs arise. Employers recognize the value this program brings reflected in a net promoter score of 82. For our care providers, we create a real impact on health by going beyond the contract, and we strive to be an active partner in the care of our members. Our value-based programs account for nearly two-thirds of care today, with over 35% taking downside risk compared to less than 20% just three years ago. Over the past year, we broadened our capabilities through the launch of Mosaic Health in partnership with CDNR. Mosaic Health serves nearly 1 million consumers across 19 states and provides the foundation for us to expand our advanced primary care and physician enablement solutions to serve a growing number of people in the years to come. We have invested significant resources in partnering with hospitals and physicians to provide real-time insights and tools that ease administrative burdens and allow care providers to devote more time to caring for patients. In cases where we have aligned data sharing with a health system, we have nearly eliminated claims denied due to incorrect or incomplete information, significantly easing the administrative burden for these systems. We are making good progress in expanding the solution to more partners. When health plans and care providers have access to the same information, we make the same decision. We are working in concert with our many vital partners across the healthcare ecosystem to promote solutions that enhance outcomes and empower healthier communities. With this unified voice, we can more effectively advocate for holistic solutions that address the physical, behavioral, and social drivers of health. We are on a promising path and will work tirelessly in the coming years to achieve our bold purpose to improve the health of humanity. Now turning to our results. Today, we reported fourth quarter GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.81 and adjusted diluted earnings per share of $3.84, consistent with the expectations we shared back in October. These results reflect the immediate actions we took in response to unprecedented cost trends in our Medicaid business. Our Medicaid business serves as a cornerstone in advancing health outcomes for individuals managing chronic and complex conditions. Our complex care management programs provide the support of a dedicated care team and digital resources that have led to a reduction in inpatient admissions by 7%, We are uniquely equipped to drive better health outcomes through complementary capabilities of our integrated health benefits and Carillon platforms. Fourth quarter Medicaid cost trend remained elevated at levels aligned to the outlook we provided last quarter. We are grateful for the continuous and constructive collaboration of our state partners. While rates today remain insufficient to cover the elevated level of cost trend we are experiencing, We remain confident that rates will ultimately reflect the underlying acuity of our Medicaid membership over time. In Medicare, benefit reductions and market exits in 2024 create a strong foundation for profitable growth. During annual open enrollment this year, seniors value the stability in our benefit offerings, evidenced by improved retention. We anticipate Medicare Advantage membership growth in the range of 7% to 9%, consistent with our prior expectations and inclusive of new wins in Group MA. We remain confident in our ability to balance growth and margin performance in 2025. We are pleased with the performance of our commercial businesses in 2024. Our integrated medical and pharmacy offering is resonating in the market. We welcomed 18 new national accounts who chose Elevance Health for 2025, including several who selected us as the sole source provider to manage their medical and pharmacy benefits, continuing a trend we have seen the last few years. We also saw record retention in our national accounts business for 2025, a testament to the differentiated value we provide the market's largest and most sophisticated clients who value simplicity and affordability. Our individual exchange business experienced strong growth of more than 30% in 2024. We delivered innovative, affordable products that resonated with consumers, and as we enter 2025, we anticipate another year of strong growth in this market. Turning to Carillon, in 2024, We made progress against our strategy to further scale our enterprise flywheel for growth. In the fourth quarter, we closed on the acquisition of CareBridge, which will bolster our home and community-based services for chronic and complex members and serve as a foundation for Carillon's home health business. CareBridge's innovative approach aligns well with our enterprise focus on whole health, utilizing technology, and comprehensive clinical support to improve care quality and efficiency while enhancing patient outcomes and independence. The expanding breadth and diversity of our pharmacy, advanced primary care, and home and community-based solutions will serve members and drive greater alignment with our health plans. Care Alliance Services experienced impressive internal and external growth in 2024. and we are positioned for revenue growth above our long-term target range for this segment in the year ahead. Shifting to our expectations for 2025, we are providing guidance for adjusted diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $34.15 to $34.85. We will navigate 2025 with the same focus and discipline that has been central to the long-term success of Elevance Health. We will continue to manage cost trend for our clients, deepen the impact of our Carillon assets, and execute on the growth opportunities ahead of us. The actions we are taking now will enhance the long-term earnings power of our enterprise and underscore our confidence in returning to at least 12% adjusted EPS growth annually on average over time. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to our extraordinary team of over 100,000 associates and their unwavering efforts during this dynamic period for the industry. Our associates went above and beyond last year, logging over 280,000 hours of volunteer time in our communities, setting a record for Elevance Health This remarkable dedication underscores our collective commitment to improving the health of humanity by making a tangible, positive impact on the people we are privileged to serve and the communities we call home. As we advance our mission, we remain focused on being our members' lifetime trusted health partner and ensuring our work elevates health beyond healthcare. I'll now hand over the call to our CFO, Mark Kay, who will provide more details on our financial results and guidance. Mark?