Operator
Operator
Good morning and welcome to the Centene Corporation Second Quarter 2016 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ed Kroll, Senior Vice President of Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir. Edmund E. Kroll - Senior Vice President-Finance & Investor Relations: Thank you, Denise, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on our 2016 second quarter earnings results conference call. Michael Neidorff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Schwaneke, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Centene, will host this morning's call. Today's call may also be accessed through our website at centene.com. A replay will be available shortly after the call's completion also at centene.com or by dialing in the U.S. and Canada 877-344-7529, or in other countries by dialing 412-317-0088. The playback number for both dial-ins is 10088567. Any remarks that Centene may make about future expectations, plans and prospects constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the Safe Harbor provision under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including those discussed in Centene's most recently filed Form 10-Q dated today July 26, 2016, and our most recent Form 10-K dated February 22, 2016, and other publicly available SEC filings. Centene anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause its estimates to change. While the company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Michael Neidorff. Michael? Michael F. Neidorff - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Ed. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Centene's second quarter 2016 earnings call. During the course of this morning's call, we will discuss our second quarter results and provide updates on Centene's markets and products. Additionally, we will bring you up-to-date on the Health Net integration and the fair value analysis of legacy Health Net's balance sheet. Let me begin with a few comments on second quarter results. The second quarter marks Centene's first full quarter with Health Net. Overall, we are pleased with our operating performance which is marked by strong top and bottom line growth. We recognize there have been questions regarding the Health Net balance sheet and underlying operations. Consistent with our previous comments, we continue to make progress on the fair valuation of the Health Net balance sheet. Importantly, there has been no unfavorable development on the medical claims liability established at March 24th. We did increase reserves for medical claims associated with disputed substance abuse treatment center costs. Additionally, we recorded premium deficiency reserves primarily associated with Arizona and California individual PPO business. We believe we have effectively addressed these concerns with the purchase accounting adjustments. We also believe the opening balance sheet is appropriately estimated at fair value and the PDRs offset losses for certain contracts in 2016. While there are some moving parts, it is important to note these issues are not unusual in a large acquisition, and we believe they are manageable. We are addressing them in a manner consistent with Centene's approach and have taken significant actions to improve these operating results in 2017 and beyond. These include price increases, plan design changes, and a significant reduction in our Arizona commercial book. Jeff will provide further details on this topic in his prepared remarks. Turning to second quarter financials. Total revenues increased 98% year-over-year to $10.9 billion. Membership at quarter end was 11.4 million, representing an increase of 6.8 million beneficiaries over the second quarter of 2015. The HBR improved 250 basis points year-over-year to 86.6%. This was mainly attributable to the product mix shift from Health Net. Importantly, we continue to see as well as anticipate stable medical costs trend. Lastly, we reported adjusted diluted earnings per share of $1.29, which includes a $0.19 benefit related to 2015 risk adjustment and reinsurance reconciliation under the ACA. This compares to $0.76 reported in the second quarter of 2015. Jeff will provide further financial details including updated 2016 guidance. Now on to the Health Net integration. As we discussed at our June Investor Day, the integration is on track or ahead of schedule in many areas. Our integration team continues to closely monitor financial and operational metrics. We have now completed the actions needed to capture over 90% of the $75 million first year synergy target. As a reminder, this target is for the first 12 months following the March 24 close of the deal. Additionally, we continue to believe we will achieve over $50 million in synergies in 2016 or approximately 70% of the first 12 months' target. We have begun to transition Health Net to Centene reserving methodology, and anticipate this will be completed by the beginning of 2017. We are also on track to begin the conversion of the California Plan into Centene's medical management system in the third quarter of 2016. Next, market and product updates. First, we will discuss recent Medicaid activity. In Pennsylvania, in April, Centene was selected to serve Medicaid recipients enrolled in Pennsylvania's HealthChoices Program in three zones in the state. This contract was expected to commence on January 1, 2017. However, on July 21, the state reissued the RFP with a 30-day response period and an anticipated start date of April 1, 2017. We are confident in the value we demonstrated in our response to the first RFP and look forward to this potential opportunity. Maryland. In May, Centene's specialty solutions division, Envolve, was selected by Maryland Care to provide health plan management services for its managed Medicaid operations effective July 1, 2017. This award highlights Centene's depth and breadth of management services packaged under the Envolve plan. Indiana. In June we successfully reprocured our contract in Indiana to serve Medicaid beneficiaries in the state. This new contract is expected to commence on January 1, 2017. Now, Medicaid expansion. At June 30, we served over 1 million Medicaid expansion members in nine states. This represents an increase of more than 630,000 recipients over the second quarter in 2015 and is primarily driven by the acquisition of Health Net's Medicaid expansion members. In July, Centene began serving Medicaid expansion beneficiaries in Louisiana under the state's newly implemented expansion program. We currently serve over 60,000 expansion members in Louisiana. Moving into Medicare and duals, at June 30 we served over 300,000 Medicare and dual beneficiaries. We expect to launch additional Medicare Advantage plans in four Centene states in 2017. As a reminder, the new plans will be launched under our four-star banner, which will give us the benefit of incremental premium revenue. I would also like to reiterate that we are focused on designing Medicare Advantage products to meet the needs of low income seniors. Next, Health Insurance Marketplaces. Centene's Exchange experience continues to be favorable and we are achieving margins at the high end of our targeted range. I would like to remind you that Centene's Exchange approach differs from most of our managed care peers. Our market price strategy has been and continues to be focused on targeted low-income subsidized individuals. We designed our Exchange solutions to be able to leverage our Medicaid platform, including provider networks. In the second quarter, over 90% of our Exchange members were subsidy eligible. This is consistent with 2014, 2015, and the first quarter of 2016. We ended the second quarter with approximately 618,000 Exchange members across 15 states. We continue to anticipate serving approximately 550,000 Exchange members at year end, due to normal attrition. Now Centurion, our correctional healthcare business, continues to successfully expand. In May, Centurion was selected to provide correctional medical services, as well as pharmacy services, to over 7000 inmates in New Mexico. These two separate contracts both commenced on June 1 and are operating in line with our expectations. New Mexico marks Centurion's seventh state of operation. At June 30, we served over 136,000 correctional members, nearly tripling the membership on a year-over-year basis. Turning to commercial, we ended the second quarter with over 805,000 commercial members. We remained fully committed to the success of the existing business in California. Finally, Federal Services. Last week, we were awarded a new contract for the TRICARE West region to manage the health care needs of active and retired military personnel and their families. Centene will serve approximately 2.9 million eligible beneficiaries in 19 states and regions (13:55). We are currently the managed care contractor for the TRICARE North region. The Department of Defense has reduced the number of regions from three to two as part of this procurement process. We expect a new contract to commence in the middle of 2017. Shifting gears to the rate outlook. For Medicaid, we continue to expect a 2016 composite rate adjustment of between 0% and 1%, consistent with the past 3 years. In conclusion, the second quarter was significant, as it was our first full quarter as a combined company, and we demonstrated our ability to execute on multiple fronts. We posted strong results. We increased full year guidance. We won new RFPs, and the Health Net integration remains firmly on track. We continue to be optimistic about our future and our ability to extend Centene's leadership position in government-sponsored healthcare. Thank you for your interest in Centene. Jeff will now provide further details on our second quarter financial results. Jeff?