UnitedHealth Group Incorporated

Good morning and welcome to the United Health Group first quarter 2026 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. 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 call will also reference non-GAAP amounts. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP to GAAP amount 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 April 21st, 2026, which may be accessed from the investor relations page of the company's website. I will now turn the conference over to the chairman and chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, Stephen Hemsley.

Thank you, Lisa. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. The first quarter unfolded largely as expected. reflecting actions taken in the past several months to drive consistent performance across each business. The quarter saw continued progress in advancing our organization's performance, culture, and better business practices. All of our major business segments exceeded plan for the quarter. At UnitedHealthcare, pricing is improving relative to elevated healthcare cost trends, and affordability initiatives are generating positive momentum. At Optum Health, operational improvements continue to take hold as we more deeply embed disciplined, integrated, value-based care practices market by market. Optum Insight is seeing increased market interest with its AI-first enterprise approach. Tim Knoll and Patrick Conway will discuss these efforts in more detail in a minute. We're encouraged by the way the year has started. We remain grounded in the need for consistent execution in managed care fundamentals. and on a strategy to help build an integrated value-based health system that together makes things better and simpler for care providers, patients, and customers. We are investing in AI-enabled modernization. While early, these capabilities are already improving experiences for consumers and care providers, increasing productivity, and reducing administrative burden. The application of technology has long been foundational to how this enterprise operates and how we can help others across the health system improve their operations through OptumInsight. We remain on track to invest nearly $1.5 billion in AI-related initiatives in 2026. I hope our conversation today gives you a sense of the momentum building at our company and the steps we've taken to strengthen the enterprise and position it for long-term success. We have refocused the organization squarely on U.S. healthcare, exiting non-U.S. businesses. We've refreshed nearly half of our top 100 leadership roles. Our accelerated technology and AI investments are showing meaningful potential, and we're actively evolving business practices in areas such as data and processing interoperability and speed, pharmacy practices, prior authorization, product and reporting transparency, and management practices more broadly. At the corporate level, we've strengthened governance by creating a public responsibility committee of the board, naming a new lead independent director and new committee chair, adding a new independent director, and accelerating our board recruiting process. And we've redoubled community engagement and support with renewed focus and resources to the United Health Foundation, and an expanding commitment to improving rural health care, expanding the health care workforce, strengthening maternal and children's health, addressing the challenges of behavioral health, and more. We strive to be an organization of people proud to work for and with. These efforts and others will remain central to those goals. With that, I'll turn it over to Tim and Patrick to provide insights on our quarter and goals for the remainder of the year. Tim?

Thanks, Steve. As Steve said, the actions initiated last year are driving early momentum in UnitedHealthcare, both in our business results and in the experiences members and care providers have when they engage with us. Medicare and retirement results reflect disciplined pricing strengthened by affordability initiatives in an elevated but stable medical trend environment. Community and state results continue to reflect the pressures in state-based rate environments, but were within the overall expected range. Commercial and ACA results were consistent with pricing and trend assumptions, albeit still early in the year. Our 2026 approach prioritized margin recovery and product stability with a deliberate trade-off on membership growth. particularly in Medicare and commercial markets. Care utilization trends in the quarter remained consistent with our expectations for 2026. The quarter's medical cost performance overall was driven primarily by net reserve development, better mix, and enrollment dynamics in government programs. As we monitor underlying utilization trends, they remain consistent with the high levels we saw in the prior year. At this distance, we anticipate trend to remain at the anticipated levels for 2026. In Medicaid, we remain focused on improvements in high-acuity care management and operating cost management. First quarter performance reflected a combination of favorable reserve development and early in-year medical cost experience. We continue to expect membership attrition and negative margins in 2026. In light of continuing high trend and insufficient funding with modest margin improvements beginning in 2027. Many state rate processes are still open for the remainder of 2026 and into 2027. Appropriately aligning state rates to elevated medical cost trends in these programs. Is essential to sustainably serving people who rely on them. We continue to advocate for this with state partners. alongside our own discipline cost management and operational efficiencies. We are intensifying our work with states to address areas of potential fraud, waste, and abuse. For a commercial business, membership levels, renewals, and trends were generally in line with the expectations we shared with you. The pricing actions we have previously discussed are materializing as intended. preserving margin while contributing to some moderation and growth. Self-funded offerings continue to perform well. We are approaching the 2027 salving season with a focus on appropriate pricing for the elevated cost environment and meeting employer needs for more modern tools to support consumer engagement and affordability. As anticipated, the individual ACA business continues to contract. We still expect total membership to decline by approximately one-third in 2026. Our approach in the ACA market continues to be directed toward the bronze and gold tiered products, where member mix and utilization rates are largely aligned with plan. As a reminder, we pledge to refund any 2026 profits from these plans, and our first quarter results reflect this pledge. In Medicare, Medical trends remain elevated but in line with our pricing assumptions. This reflects continued service intensity and higher provider billing patterns consistent with what we saw exiting last year. This is an issue that we are squarely addressing. Turning to enrollment. Results from the annual enrollment period were largely as expected and OEP retention has remained stable. At this point in the year, we expect membership to contract consistent with previous guidance but centering more around a drop of 1.3 million. On the final Medicare Advantage rate notice for the 2027 plan year, we appreciate that the Trump administration better aligned funding with increasing healthcare costs. It's an important step to preserving stability for the millions of seniors who rely on MA and toward ensuring this vital program's long-term sustainability. Turning now to our efforts to improve the patient and clinician experience when they engage with us, starting with prior authorization. Prior authorization remains a critically important tool for eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse, and for helping ensure patient safety and quality care. We also recognize it is a source of frustration, and we are working to reduce that. Nearly 95% of prior authorization requests are now submitted electronically. About 50% of those are processed in real time and more than 90% are approved on average in one business day. We are working to enable more prior authorization submissions to be made directly within care provider workflows. In addition to the steps we are taking to further reduce the overall number of medical prior authorizations by 30% or more by the end of this year. Member adoption of UHC AI-powered digital tools continues to grow. Almost half of all members are now registered for and using UHC digital access. We saw 73 million digital visits in Q1, up 42% over the last two years, reflecting sustained and growing engagement with our digital platform. Digital self-service is now the primary way members interact with us. with over 80% of consumer contacts through digital formats, and an MPS in the top quartile of the industry. For care providers, digital channels continue to grow, with transaction volumes up 75% year-over-year and about 75% of in-network providers using our portal or API tools. This improves real-time access to eligibility, benefits, and claim status while reducing manual outreach, enabling clinicians to spend more time on caring for patients. We are intensifying our efforts to help independent rural health care providers. We will accelerate payments in all lines of business by 50% for rural hospitals and exempt rural health care providers from most medical prior authorization requirements. And we are building network partnerships between rural providers and leading regional health systems. Together, these initiatives will help lower costs and simplify processes for care providers and greatly enhance access to quality care for people in rural communities. All these efforts, and others like them, are part of our commitment to pursue and invest in new and innovative ways to fulfill our mission, to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. With that, I'll turn it over to Patrick.