UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

Good morning and welcome to the United Health Group fourth quarter and full year 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 security 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 the 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 will also reference non-GAAP amounts. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP to GAAP amount is available on the financial and earnings report 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 January 13th, 2023, 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 Witte.

Thank you. Good morning and thank you all for joining us today. Over the course of the past year, the extraordinary and dedicated people of Optum and UnitedHealthcare delivered strong, well-balanced growth, progress in developing our consumer-orientated capabilities, and strengthen the many ways in which we deliver value-based care in multiple settings. Each of the five growth pillars we discussed with you at our November investor conference are powerful sources of opportunities on their own within large and expanding addressable markets. Yet what really unlocks the potential value we can provide to those we serve is the connectivity of capabilities across our enterprise. For example, this year, we expect 4 million people will participate in fully accountable, value-based care provided by Optum Health, almost 1.8 million more than we served as we entered 2022. We're achieving this by connecting benefits, care, and other services to support our patients. Many of these patients will have a Medicare Advantage plan offered by UnitedHealthcare or one of the many other payers who are accessing Optum's expertise and capabilities in delivering this kind of comprehensive care. We will serve these patients in clinic settings, in their homes, integrating behavioral care supported by our data-driven clinical insights and next best actions, and all coordinated to provide the right care when and where they need it. Pharmacy is another area in which we are more deeply connecting consumers with our services. We engage one million people every day, finding the lowest cost options, managing their specialty drugs, offering vital in-person clinical advice at our community pharmacies, providing complex medication treatments right in their homes, or simplifying access through digital solutions in order to make the process uneventful for them. We believe this connectivity is a path to better outcomes for people and lower costs. It's also driving growth. By the end of 2023, we expect to have more than 750 community pharmacies, nearly 200 more than we had at the beginning of 2020. We continue to see the impact these services have at a very local and personal level, helping providers deliver more complete care and better outcomes. including medication adherence rates, which are about 90%, compared to the 50% U.S. average. Our pharmacists are able to take the time to get to know their patients' treatment plans and support their medication management, collaborating with other care providers. We're guided in pharmacy by the principle of getting to the lowest cost for patients and clients. A good example. As more biosimilars come to market, we're positioned to offer patients, their care providers, and payers significantly more choices in how to secure the best prices for the therapies they need. In addition to biosimilars, we're driving affordability and prescription benefits by combining formulary and cash market pricing to ensure consumers will always get the best economics. Our life-saving drugs program has made very significant progress since our announcements last year. This program offers zero dollar out-of-pocket cost to consumers for drugs such as insulin and epinephrine. Our goal has been to make this available throughout the U.S. and as of today, we've been approved in 48 states for our fully insured business. Moreover, One quarter of our self-funded employers have now chosen to add this offering for their employees, and we expect that number to rise. Getting to this point in such a short period of time was only possible through the work not just of our teams, but of state officials and others in the broader healthcare community, and we're grateful for their support. Looking to the year ahead, let me focus you on a couple of themes you can expect to hear from us. One is continued scaling of our commitment to American consumers, who should and will have an increasing influence over their care experience. Through our core innovations, product design, enhanced digital offerings, and partnerships, such as RVO Health and Walmart, you will see us driving this more broadly across the enterprise, becoming closer to the consumer, helping simplify their experiences, and empowering their decision-making with greater transparency, speed, convenience, and support. You will also hear how we are amplifying our technology capabilities. 2023 will see the emergence of an enhanced Optum Insight, bringing to life the opportunities that the legacy organizations from Optum and Change create, an acceleration of how technology can be used to help care providers, and ultimately patients within the overall health system. We start this year well-prepared to deliver upon the objectives we shared with you in late November and with a deep sense of responsibility to do so on behalf of the people we are privileged to serve. With that, I'll turn it over to President and Chief Operating Officer Dirk McMath.

Thank you, Andrew. While the calendar shows we are two weeks into the new year, our team's 2023 started many months ago and in some cases, years ago. We have been laying the groundwork necessary to execute on our growth strategy and sustain our momentum heading into this year and beyond. To give you the sense of how this develops, I'll step through some of the work that has been long underway to ready our organization to serve even more patients and customers in this new year and provide greater value for consumers across a broad range of initiatives. Take the many new patients we will serve under value-based care arrangements in 2023, deepening our presence in existing areas and adding new regions. Our team's preparations are extensive. That's because the transition to fully accountable care is not simply a matter of downloading a new app. The preparations include significant investments in clinical training, technology, network coordination, and other activities to make certain we are ready to serve. These critical investments help us support both our current year needs and establish foundations for the growth into 2024 and beyond. Our ability to serve people effectively has expanded beyond the four walls of the clinic with the rapid development of our in-home clinical capabilities. These services complement our clinic-based and digital offerings and bring high-quality care access to some of the most challenged and often underserved patients in this country. For instance, for value-based patients, our in-home services have reduced hospital visits by 15% versus fee-for-service, delivering comparable health outcomes and achieving an NPS of approximately 80. Within health benefits, you've heard us discuss how our innovation in commercial products is adding new growth opportunities. One of those is Surest. a unique solution to employers and employees who are looking for first dollar coverage and high transparency into quality and cost. The momentum behind Surest is strong and building. Just two years ago, one in 25 national accounts offered Surest as an option to more traditional plans. Thus far in 2023, it is one in nine, and we expect it will continue to rise. Our offerings for seniors are another area in which we plan, invest, and build capabilities to provide new and valuable offerings for an extended period. For example, we continue to expand the range of clinical services we provide via our House Calls initiative. In 2023, we will increase the types of vaccinations offered, expand testing services, and deploy even more real-time resources to address social determinants of health. Seniors place high value on being able to get care in their home. It comes with an NPS of 75 and is helping to drive improving retention levels as we head into 2023. In addition, our advocacy service solutions help members achieve better health. Our solutions led to a 42% increase in closing gaps in care, up to 15% lower ER visits, and an over 10% increase in clinical program enrollment compared to customers who utilize standard offerings. Turning to health technology, let me offer a few early observations on our progress and long-term growth opportunities we see in this area. With the completed change healthcare combination, we are accelerating our investments to bring this vision of a more intelligent and simpler health system to market as rapidly as possible. We will continue to innovate in and deliver the software, data analytics, technology-needable services, revenue cycle management, and advisory services our customers expect. And we are executing on the synergies of this combination, with most of the financial benefit coming from complementary growth. OptumInsight is uniquely positioned to offer integrated end-to-end technology analytics and services across the entire healthcare value chain. Along these lines, we recently reached two new comprehensive health system partnerships with Northern Light Health in Maine and with Owensboro Health in Kentucky. The services we provide typically feature a full breadth of our advanced solutions, including information technology, revenue cycle management, analytics, and supply chain tools. The key here is that our comprehensive technology solutions are resonating in the market And we expect to see increasing momentum across all of OptumInsight as we invest in and finalize our integration activities. With that, now we'll turn it over to Chief Financial Officer John Rex.