UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the United Health Group third 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 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 followed 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 Reconciliation of the non-GAAP to GAAP amounts is available on the Financial and Earnings Reports section of the company's Investor 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 October 14th. 2022, which may be accessed from the investor relations page of the company's website. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witte. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. As we approach the final stretch of 2022, let me start by recognizing our colleagues, the people of Optum and UnitedHealthcare, who continue to work diligently day in and day out for those we serve. Their efforts allow us to deliver durable and balanced growth and to increase our 2022 adjusted earnings outlook to a range of $21.85 to $22.05 per share. As an enterprise, we remain focused on our mission and on advancing our growth strategies. Our aim is to serve more people through value-based care and expanded health benefits offerings, a robust foundation on which to consistently drive strong growth into 2023 and beyond. Consumers want value, especially in the current economic environment, and that means high-quality care that is more accessible, more affordable, and more responsive to their individual needs. In the past quarter, we've accelerated efforts to deliver on this critical consumer proposition, launching several initiatives to reach more people in more communities while deepening relationships with those we already serve. For example, in September, we announced a long-term collaboration with Walmart to provide Optum technology and expertise that will enable America's largest retailer to provide value-based care to consumers in its clinics. Starting in 2023, we will jointly develop 15 Walmart health clinics in Florida and Georgia, and will extend into additional geographies over time. As we expand the collaboration, there will be broad opportunities to address social determinants of health by improving access to benefits such as healthy foods, medications, dental and vision services, and more. We also launched a distinctive partnership with Red Ventures, a digital media company connecting tens of millions of consumers each month to its clients' products and services. through a broad portfolio of proprietary digital content platforms. This partnership, called RVO Health, combines RedVenture's popular health and wellness platforms, including Healthline and Healthgrades, with Optum's consumer marketplace, the Optum Store, and the Optum Perks prescription discount card. RVO Health will enable us to engage with more than 100 million active monthly visitors seeking the health advice and insights they need introducing them to relevant products and services through a customized end-to-end digital platform. Affordability is an essential component of value in healthcare, especially when it determines access to the life-saving medicines people need for themselves and their families. In July, we announced zero consumer cost share on drugs for diabetes, severe allergic reactions, and other emergency situations, starting in January for those we serve with commercial insured benefits. Now we are working with self-funded employers who are exploring how they can provide these vital medications for zero copay. So far, this benefit will be available to more than one million additional people, and we are actively engaging with many additional employers. We're also improving access to essential medicines for those even without health benefits coverage. For example, Optum Store launched a new partnership with Sanofi to help consumers without insurance obtain insulin for $35 a month, and they will be able to have it delivered to their home. Turning to health benefits, today nearly half of American seniors are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans compared to about 25% a decade ago. And MA plays a vital role in serving those consumers who are significantly more diverse have lower incomes, and more complex care needs than the average senior. There are compelling reasons why seniors increasingly choose MA. Through Medicare Advantage, people are experiencing better health outcomes than in traditional fee-for-service Medicare across a wide spectrum of measures. For example, MA members with diabetes have over 50% lower rates of any category of complication and over 70% lower rates of serious complication. This is due to our ability to provide deeper, more coordinated levels of care. And this is accomplished at lower cost. People served by MA spend as much as 40% less compared to those in Medicare fee-for-service. And this high value for people is delivered at a lower net cost to the government. We are confident our differentiated offerings will once again this year resonate with consumers who are even more focused on affordability, value, and simplicity, given the rising costs of daily life. Today, in the United States, more people than ever have access to health benefits, an important milestone on the path toward universal coverage, an objective we have long supported. Much of this expanded coverage has occurred in Medicaid. Looking to 2023, and given the potential resumption of eligibility redeterminations next year, a high priority for our team is assuring continuity of access and care for those we serve. The initiatives our team is pursuing to help assure continuous coverage include launching direct outreach and partnering with states and community organizations to identify those at risk and help them retain their benefit coverage. Partnering with national retailers and pharmacies to educate consumers about available coverage options and assistance while they are shopping in store. And engaging with employers to extend annual enrollment periods and drive education efforts to employees who are eligible for coverage. Underpinning our growing consumer agenda is an ambitious multi-year effort to deepen and expand our enterprise technology capabilities. The recent combination of OptumInsight and Change Healthcare reflects our accelerating efforts to help create more effective and simpler experiences for consumers, payers, and care providers, while lowering costs across the health system. I want to formally welcome our newest colleagues, the talented and compassionate team at Change Healthcare, with whom we have just started working to build upon our shared vision for a more effective and adaptive health system for all participants. With that, I'll turn it over to President and Chief Operating Officer, Dirk McMahon.

Thank you, Andrew. As Andrew just mentioned, we are very excited about the recent combination of Change Healthcare and OptumInsight. With a grand total of 11 days of integration work behind us, I thought I would provide a bit more commentary on how together we can make the health system simpler and more efficient. Overall, change brings a robust transaction network built on strong payer and provider connectivity. Together, our focus areas include, first, improving the quality of healthcare delivery by offering critical point-of-care insights aligned to evidence-based medical standards within the workflow of physicians. Second, simplifying administration by fully automating claims transactions, including editing in the EDI stream, improving claim accuracy. Lastly, we are reducing friction in the payment process by providing patient benefits and payment obligations at point of service and applying payment integrity edits up front. Our teams have started out of the gate working intensively together to make these visions a reality and to create the next era of growth for OptumInsight. We are very confident that our combined capabilities will enable us to better serve all healthcare constituents. Beyond OptumInsight, as you might imagine, I spend a lot of time engaging customers of all sizes, operating in almost every sector, and representing diverse employee populations. Across these customers, no matter the person or the industry, I hear the same consistent message, the need for deeper levels of support and more resources to comprehensively meet health needs in both the traditional, but also increasingly focused on behavioral health. Companies want to provide a broader range of resources and deeper levels of support for their employees and their families. And the groundwork we've been building is resonating in this rapidly evolving area. Here's what we're doing about it. First, we're tackling access. We have expanded our behavioral health network by 25% over the last couple of years, including a growing complement of behavioral clinical practices owned and operated by Optum. And as many of you know, Behavioral health is a 24 by 7 challenge, so we are continuing to expand our portfolio of digital offerings, supporting a range of needs, allowing patients to get resources when they need them. We have also made significant improvements to help consumers access vital information more easily through improved navigation tools. Guiding consumers to the appropriate, condition-specific level of behavioral health is a challenge we are prioritizing. These new experiences have improved customer satisfaction, and we are getting people to the right care more quickly. Behavioral health plays an integral role of the overall health and well-being of the people we serve. So you will continue to see us increasing access, quality, and affordability in this clinically important and sensitive area. Another tenet of our consumer focus is meeting people where they are, which includes expanding our clinical capabilities to care for people more holistically in their homes. We know that at-home care settings, especially for people with mobility challenges and highly complex health needs, can improve outcomes, elevate patient experience, and result in better care. So we bring together teams with medical, behavioral, and palliative experience in addition to our home infusion capabilities of OptumRx. By doing so, we help patients and their families keep multiple chronic conditions in check while significantly reducing the need for care in acute and post-acute settings, a real positive for them. The expanding clinical breadth and deepening integration of our value-based care offerings are moving us beyond the confines of traditional clinical settings, creating an opportunity for us to serve more people more effectively. With that, now I'll turn it over to Chief Financial Officer John Rex. Thank you, Dirk.