Wayne S. Deveydt
Analyst · JPMorgan
Thank you, Angela, and good morning. Premium income was $14.2 billion in the third quarter, an increase of $815 million or 6% from the prior year quarter. This reflected rate increases designed to cover overall cost trends and membership growth in the Senior and FEP businesses, partially offset by a decline in fully insured commercial membership. The administrative fees were $963 million in the quarter, an increase of $26 million or 3% from the third quarter of last year, driven by growth in self-funded membership. As of September 30, 2011, approximately 60% of our medical enrollment was self-funded and 40% was fully insured, compared with approximately 59% and 41%, respectively, as of September 30, 2010. As Angela noted, we now expect to end 2011 with approximately 34.2 million members. We also now estimate the full year operating revenue will be approximately $60.1 billion. The benefit expense ratio for the third quarter of 2011 was 85.1%, highly favorable to our expectation and 50 basis points lower than in the second quarter of 2011. We now expect our benefit expense ratio to be in the range of 85% to 85.2% for the full year of 2011, which is a reduction from our prior guidance and reflects lower than anticipated underlying medical cost trends in the Commercial segment. The benefit expense ratio is expected to increase sequentially during the fourth quarter primarily due to the seasonality of our Commercial and Individual product designs. We now anticipate that underlying Local Group medical cost trend will be in the range of 7%, plus or minus 50 basis points, for the full year of 2011. For the rolling 12 months ended September 30, 2011, medical trend continued at lower than expected levels. Inpatient trend is currently in the very low double digits. Outpatient trend is in the high single digits. Physician services trend is in the low-to mid-single digits and pharmacy trend is in the mid-single digit range. Our rolling 12 month medical trend increased slightly this quarter but by less than we expected. Unit cost increases continue to drive overall medical trend as utilization has remained stable to declining in all categories except pharmacy, which is modestly higher. We are recognizing an increase in the acuity of services as evidenced by the fact that our in-patient admissions per 1,000 numbers are down, but the average length of stay has increased. We currently anticipate that in-patient utilization will rebound in 2012 and we are pricing our business accordingly. Our SG&A expense ratio was 14% in the third quarter of 2011 and was slightly higher than we expected due primarily to expenses designed to enhance our low-cost operating model and the acquisition of CareMore, which closed earlier than we anticipated. Overall, CareMore negatively impacted our third quarter EPS by $0.02 due to recognized-only 39 days of operating activity in the quarter that incurred the one-time transition closing cost. Turning to our reportable segments. Commercial operating revenue was approximately $8.7 billion in the third quarter of 2011, $172 million or 2% increase from the third quarter of 2010. This reflected premium increases designed to cover overall cost trends, partially offset by a decline in commercial fully insured membership. The Commercial segment operating gain was $712 million in the third quarter of 2011, a decrease of $49 million or 6% from the prior year period. Decline was driven by lower prior period reserve development in the third quarter of 2011, which was offset the impact of lower than anticipated underlying medical cost trend. Commercial reserve development was in line with our expectations during the third quarter of 2011, while we recognize an estimated $75 million of higher than anticipated payable prior to reserve development during that third quarter of last year. Our Consumer segment operating revenue totaled approximately $4.6 billion in the third quarter of 2011, increasing by $537 million or 13% from the third quarter of 2010. This was driven by membership growth in Senior including CareMore, high-risk score revenue and premium increases designed to cover overall cost trends. Operating gain for the Consumer segment was $245 million in the quarter, a decrease of approximately $17 million or 6%, compared with the third quarter of last year. This was driven by changes in prior period reserve development and higher medical costs in the Senior business. We recognize an estimated $35 million of higher than anticipated favorable prior year reserve development in the Consumer segment during the third quarter of 2010, but modestly strengthened consumer reserves in the third quarter of 2011. These declines in operating gain were substantially offset by improved results in our California Individual business and higher risk score revenue in Senior. Operating gain in the other segment was $16 million in the third quarter of 2011. It was nearly equivalent to the $17 million reported in the third quarter of 2010. Net investment income totaled $171 million in the third quarter of 2011 down $35 million or 17% in the third quarter of 2010, primarily due to a decline in dividend income from a cost-method investment and lower yields on investment balances in the current year quarter. Interest expense was $108 million in the third quarter of 2011, up $2 million or 2% from the third quarter of 2010, due to higher average debt balances in the current year quarter. In August, we issued $1.1 billion of long term notes and a weighted average interest rate of approximately 3.2%. We recognized net investment gains during the third quarter of 2011 totaling $72 million pretax, consisting of net realized gains from sales of securities totaling $95 million partially offset by $23 million of other than temporary impairments. As of September 30, 2011, the portfolio's net unrealized gain position was $749 million consisting of net unrealized gains on fixed maturity and equity securities totaling $574 million and $175 million, respectively. We continue to be in a sound financial position with subsidiary capital levels comfortably in excess of our targeted thresholds. Our effective tax rate was 34.6% in the third quarter of 2011, down slightly from the prior-year quarter and in line with our expectations. Turning now to our earnings quality metrics. Our higher than anticipated third quarter membership, and earnings results were supported by a slight increase in days and claims payable and adjusted operating cash flow of 1.2x our net income. Medical claims payable totaled approximately $5.5 billion as of September 30, 2011, an increase of $118 million or 2% from June 30, 2011. The increase was due to the CareMore acquisition. Excluding the impact of CareMore, our reserves developed favorably in the third quarter of 2011 relative to our expectations as of June 30, 2011, which shows to modestly increase our reserves of September 30, 2011, primarily in the Senior business. We now believe that we're in the upper end of our margin for adverse deviation target range. Including in our press release is a reconciliation and roll forward of the medical claims payable balance. We report prior year redundancies in order to demonstrate the adequacy of prior year reserves. Medical claim reserves established at December 31, 2011, developed favorably and we experienced positive prior year reserve development of $206 million for the 9 months ended September 30, 2011. The level of prior year positive development declined by $16 million during the third quarter predominantly in our refunding business including FEP. Prior development for our traditional risk business was essentially stable in the quarter. We believe our medical claim reserves are conservatively and appropriately stated as of September 30, 2011. The days and claims payable or DCP was 41.6 days as of September 30, 2011, an increase of 0.8 days from 40.8 days at June 30, 2011. The increase was almost entirely related to CareMore, as we recognized only 39 days of benefit expense in the quarter, while our medical claim reserves fully reflected the CareMore membership. Excluding CareMore, DCP was 41 days as of September 30, 2011, an increase of 0.2 days from June 30, 2011. Operating cash flow in the third quarter of 2011 was $1.4 billion or 2.1x net income, and included receipt of the October 2011 monthly payment from CMS which totaled $597 million. Excluding this payment, our adjusted operating cash flow was $833 million, 1.2x net income in the third quarter of 2011, and $2.7 billion or 1.2x net income for 9 months ended September 30, 2011. We now anticipate that full-year of 2011 operating cash flow will be at least $2.9 billion. Please note that our reported fourth quarter operating cash flow is expected to be unusually low due to the timing of the October CMS payment. In the third quarter, we utilized $898 million to repurchase 13.4 million shares of our common stock, bringing our year-to-date repurchase activity to 34.2 million shares or 9% of the shares we had outstanding as of December 31, 2010 for approximately $2.4 billion. On September 30, 2011, our Board of Directors increased our share repurchase authorization by $5 billion, which we currently intend to utilize over the next couple of years. Also during the quarter, we used $88 million to pay our quarterly cash dividend. And yesterday, the Board approved a fourth quarter dividend of $0.25 per share. We ended the third quarter with $2.4 billion of cash and investments at the parent company. We expect to receive approximately $600 million of ordinary dividends from our subsidiaries in the fourth quarter, and anticipate uses of parent cash totaling approximately $800 million. We therefore expect to end 2011 with approximately $2.2 billion at the parent company. Our debt to total capital ratio was 29.7% at September 30, 2011, with an increase of 290 basis points from 26.8% at June 30, 2011, due to the August debt issuance. We're currently the middle of our targeted range of 25% to 35%. We continue to have significant financial flexibility which we value in light of the current health benefits marketplace. Moving now to our updated outlook. We are increasing full-year 2011 guidance for membership, earnings per share and operating cash flow based on our strong year-to-date results. Specifically, we now expect the net income will be in the range of $7.18 to $7.28 per share including net investment gains of $0.28 per share recorded during the first 9 months of 2011. On an adjusted basis or excluding the net investment gains, our EPS guidance equates to a range of $6.90 to $7. Year-end medical enrollment is now expected to be approximately 34.2 million consisting of 13.7 million fully insured members and 20.5 million self-funded members. Operating revenues is now expected to be approximately $60.1 billion. The benefit expense ratio is now expected to be in a range of 85% to 85.2%. SG&A expense ratio is now expected to be approximately 14.1%. This expectation now includes the impact of CareMore, as well as approximately $50 million or $0.09 per share of restructuring costs anticipated in the fourth quarter that we yield savings for 2012 and beyond. And finally, operating cash flow is now expected to be at least $2.9 billion. We're currently finalizing our business plans for 2012. While it's too early to provide a specific guidance, we currently expect growth in both operating gain and earnings per share next year. Some of the tailwind to EPS growth include the following: we expect significant improvements in the Senior business given the changes we are making to our Medicare Advantage portfolio, and the expansion of service areas. I will note that the 2011 outlook for our California Medicare Advantage business has improved modestly from last quarter, and we now anticipate that our Senior business operating gain will improve by approximately $150 million in 2012. In commercial, we expect fully insured pricing to be generally commensurate with medical cost trends. Although, these increases are expected to be partially mitigated by in-group membership attrition and lapses during -- due to the economy. We also expect operating gain growth in the National business. We expect our focus on SG&A efficiency and continuous improvement to yield a lower SG&A expense ratio. And finally, our share repurchase activity will result in a lower diluted share count. In terms of headwinds, we continue to expect that State Sponsored business will be pressured due to state fiscal situation unless we apply the changes in certain markets. This could reduce operating gain by up to $75 million based on the outcome of certain regulatory issues and rate negotiations. We also expect the and combined headwinds of approximately $125 million of pretax between our investment income and interest expense. With a fixed income portfolio of $16.7 billion, we reinvest around $4.5 billion of securities each year due to the timing of maturities and many of our existing securities are currently invested in higher rates. We also anticipate that we'll be carrying higher average debt balances during 2012 than we did over the course of 2011. And finally, we expect our effective income tax rate to increase and be closer to 35% for the full year of 2012. Please recall that we benefited from some -- favorable tax settlements in the second quarter of 2011 and we're not projecting additional settlements in 2012. In summary, we are pleased with our performance in 2011, which continues to exceed our original expectations for 2011. We've significantly grown our membership this year executing on our SG&A reduction initiatives and continue to manage our capital effectively resulting in year-to-date adjusted earnings per share of $5.96, which represents a growth of 10.8% over the same period of 2010. Based on these results, we have raised our full year 2011 adjusted earnings per share guidance. We anticipate that we can grow from this increase base in 2012. I will now turn the conference call back over to Angela to lead the question-and-answer session.