UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

Good morning and welcome to the United Health Group's second quarter 2022 earnings conference call. A question and answer session will follow United Health Group's prepared remarks. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. Here is some important introductory information. This call contains forward-looking statements under the U.S. federal securities laws. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or present expectations. A description of some of these risks and uncertainties can be found in the reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the cautionary statements included in our current and periodic filings. This call will also reference non-GAAP amounts. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP to GAAP amounts is available on the Financial and Earnings Reports section of the company's Investors Relations page at www.unitedhealthgroup.com. Information presented on this call is contained in the earnings release we issued this morning and in our form 8K, dated July 15, 2022, which may be accessed from the investor relations page of the company's website. I will now turn the conference over to the Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Wedde.

Katie, thank you, and good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us today. UnitedHealth Group enters the second half of the year with sustained momentum as we execute on our objective to serve more people more effectively with connected high quality care. For that, I want to thank our 360,000 colleagues. It's their unwavering commitment to our mission and their hard work in support of the people we serve that makes all of this possible. As a result of the strong performance at both Optum and UnitedHealthcare, we are increasing our adjusted earnings per share outlook for the year to a range of $21.40 to $21.90 per share. Comprehensive value-based care is a central theme of our growth strategy, helping more patients and care providers transition from traditional fee-for-service to a value-based orientation. We aim to drive better and more consistent care outcomes at lower overall costs. often for people who are among society's most vulnerable with multiple chronic conditions, limited income, and unmet social needs. Optum Health and OptumRx's clinical platforms span a continuum of care settings, from virtual to post-acute, in clinic and at home, enabling our care teams to meet patients' unique needs by providing personalized, connected care. Our approach helps patients stick with their prescribed care programs, allowing them to spend more time in the comfort of their own homes. The high consumer satisfaction with this comprehensive and consumer-focused approach is evidenced, for example, by a net promoter score of 80 for the 1.5 million people served by our dual special needs plans. We again delivered growth across our health benefits offerings this quarter. As you might expect, Right now, our Medicare teams are finalizing offerings for this fall's open enrollment, focused, as always, on delivering more value, stability, and predictability for seniors. Throughout the year, we gather extensive consumer broker and market feedback to continually improve our products. Our approach is grounded in providing deep customer engagement, high-touch service, and access to the best care. The benefits of this approach are striking, people served by Medicare Advantage spend about 40% less out of pocket than those participating in fee-for-service, which translates into savings of about $2,000 each year for seniors, most of whom are on limited income. And compared to traditional fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage plans devote up to 30% more in resources to primary care and perform up to 50% more preventative screening and testing services for their seniors. The response among seniors in our plans is positive. Plan satisfaction ratings have risen by 450 basis points over the past five years, nearly twice that of the industry. Consumer satisfaction is best demonstrated by the almost 3.4 million additional seniors who have chosen our plans over the same period. Meanwhile, In our domestic commercial health benefits business, over the past 12 months, we have grown to serve over 250,000 more people as a result of innovation in and expansion of our products, including our digital first offerings. To continue driving affordability in areas of greatest need, we are announcing today an important initiative from UnitedHealthcare supported by OptumRx. Starting in 2023, there will be no copay, zero dollar out of pocket for several critical medicines on our preferred drug list for UnitedHealthcare group fully insured members. Included are medicines such as insulin, epinephrine for severe allergic reactions, and albuterol for acute asthma attacks. While this is an important step for vulnerable people's health, the larger and longer-term cost containment of drugs depends upon manufacturers restraining and lowering the list price of their products, which is the fundamental driver of costs. We will continue to use our capabilities to do everything we can to lower out-of-pocket costs for consumers, building on past actions, including point-of-sale discounts. Stepping back, And looking across each of our five growth areas, you'll see a common theme, the deepening of our relationships with the consumers served by Optum and United Healthcare. Throughout 2022, we've been rapidly expanding and accelerating investments in capabilities to reach and serve a broader base of consumers ever more effectively. This includes further enhancing our digital experiences to help consumers find trusted health-related information and drive greater engagement with our direct-to-consumer platforms. Now I'd like to turn it over to Dirk MacMahon, our President and Chief Operating Officer, to share more about these efforts. Dirk?

Dirk MacMahon Thank you, Andrew. Picking up on Andrew's comments, I want to provide you with a little more color on the progress we have been making on our growth strategies. This progress is evidence in our work to serve more people through value-based arrangements and to deliver better care. We are well along in our goals for the year. This expansion has significant implications for clinical quality and consistency. MA patients in value-based arrangements with OptumCare physicians are more engaged in their care, with adherence to wellness checks running five points higher than Medicare fee-for-service patients. helping to deliver a nearly 20% lower hospitalization rate. Further, OptumCare COPD patients served in our value-based arrangements have 80% higher medication adherence rates than Medicare fee-for-service patients, contributing to about 60% fewer respiratory complications, enabling people to avoid emergency room visits. Clinical results like these are a small part of the track record we have built in delivering value-based care at a substantial scale for years now, and what gives real urgency to our work to expand access to such care. We also remain committed as an organization to improving access by driving down the cost of healthcare through applied technology. For example, We are investing hundreds of millions of dollars to enhance the technology backbone of healthcare. Areas such as platform rationalization to reduce unnecessary complexities, greater end-to-end eligibility management for a more seamless customer experience, and a common platform to facilitate a consistent clinical experience for our consumers and providers. These investments will ultimately lead to an enhanced end-to-end service experience lower overall operating costs, and greater value for people we serve. A simpler experience is at the center of our work on the integrated consumer card developed by our Optum Financial Services team. We have seen great consumer response within our initial pilot groups. The simplicity of combining all benefits, even healthy food purchases, onto a single widely accepted card has been a differentiator with consumers. Based on this initial work, we intend to introduce the card to all our individual Medicare Advantage members in 2023. Another key element of our work to improve experience is the optimization of consumer transactions. We know members need and expect timely information at their fingertips. And I'm pleased to report they are responding well to our digital offerings for everything from understanding their coverage to completing a virtual visit. Digital engagement has jumped 170% among Medicare members during the last couple of years. Lastly, in pharmacy services, we are very focused on improving quality of care and access for consumers by driving pharmacist-led offerings. We are on track to have nearly 700 community pharmacies by the end of the year and continue to increase the integrated community pharmacy footprint in our clinic locations. With that, now I'll turn it over to Chief Financial Officer John Rex.