Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Omega Healthcare First Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialists 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 has been recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms. Michele Reber, Senior Director, Asset Manager of Operations. Ms. Reber, the floor is yours, ma'am.

Thank you, and good morning. With me today are Omega's CEO, Taylor Pickett, CFO, Bob Stephenson, COO, Dan Booth, Chief Corporate Development Officer, Stephen Insoft, and Megan Krull, Senior Vice President of Operations. Comments made during this conference call that are not historical facts may be forward-looking statements, such as statements regarding our financial projections, dividend policy, portfolio restructurings, rent payments, financial condition or prospects of our operators, contemplated acquisitions, dispositions, or transitions, and our business and portfolio outlook generally. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially. Please see our press releases and our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, our most recent report on Form 10-K, which identifies specific factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements. During the call today, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures, such as NAREIT FFO, Adjusted FFO, FAD, and EBITDA. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable measure under generally accepted accounting principles, as well as an explanation of the usefulness of the non-GAAP measures, are available under the Financial Information section of our website at www.omegahealthcare.com and, in the case of Navy FFO and Adjusted FFO, in our recently issued press release. In addition, certain operator coverage and financial information that we discuss is based on data provided by our operators that has not been independently verified by Omega. I will now turn the call over to Taylor.

Thanks, Michele. Good morning and thank you for joining our first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. We are very pleased with our first quarter results that allowed us to comfortably declare a 67 cent per share dividend that will be distributed on May 15th. Payout ratio improved as expected to 84% of adjusted FFO and 90% of funds available for distribution. Today, I'm going to focus my comments on the impact of COVID-19 on our operating partners and the potential impact on our company as the COVID pandemic evolves. The following are things that we know. We know the operator reported number of omega facilities, residents, and employees have tested positive for COVID-19. We know that labor and personal protective equipment costs have increased significantly, and for facilities with positive cases, the increases can be dramatic. CMS, the federal government, and the states have provided meaningful and absolutely essential regulatory and financial support to the skilled nursing facility industry. Census in facilities has declined, at least in part due to the elimination of elective hospital procedures. What we do not know, we do not know how long census disruption and elevated COVID-19 costs will last and if the funding support from the federal government and the states will be sufficient to cover all of these incremental costs. We do not know the ultimate number of omega facilities that will have widespread high cost outbreaks of COVID-19. Some longer-term observations. The demographics that drive our bullish perspective of increasing demand for needs-based skilled nursing care have not changed. There will be increased clinical protocols for infection control within facilities and the monitoring of employees, guests, and others entering facilities. We do not know if future reimbursement rates will be sufficient to cover the increased costs of enhanced infection control and monitoring. We had good financial results in the first quarter. Additionally, in April, we have collected virtually all of our grants. Nevertheless, we've withdrawn our 2020 guidance in recognition of the significant COVID-19 driven uncertainty that we face for the remainder of 2020. Lastly, and most importantly, I cannot overstate the tremendous efforts that our operating partners and their staff have undertaken to care for residents within our facilities. The dedication of the direct caregivers is heartwarming and humbling, dramatically outweighs some of the negative press over the last month. We cannot thank them enough. I will now turn the call over to Bob.