James H. Bloem
Analyst · Justin Lake of JPMorgan
Thanks, Bruce, and good morning, everyone. First, I'll walk through our first quarter results before turning to our updated 2013 expectations and capital deployment plans. Looking then at the first quarter, we are pleased to report earnings per share of $2.95, which exceeded the midpoint of our previous guidance by $1.15. Additionally, our pretax income for the first quarter of $730 million represented an increase of $340 million over last year's first quarter. There were many items impacting the over-performance for the quarter, the major ones are highlighted on the slide. First, our first quarter 2013 results included the beneficial effect of a $48 million, or $0.19 per share, favorable settlement with the Department of Defense in connection with the TRICARE matter that we discussed on the second quarter 2012 call. Additionally, the 1 month delay of sequestration increased our pretax income by $18 million or $0.07 per share versus our previous guidance. You will recall that we assumed in our 2013 Medicare bids that sequestration would occur on January 1. So in comparing the first quarter year-over-year, approximately $50 million of the $340 million improvement can be attributed to the 3-month sequestration delay from January 1, its originally intended start date. Of course, since sequestration became effective on April 1, this year-over-year favorable comparison will not continue for the remainder of the year. Now the operating improvement of $205 million or $0.81 per share versus our prior first quarter guidance, primarily resulted from the following 4 items. First, favorable prior period development. Relative to last year, we experienced $125 million more in favorable development, including $77 million more in the Retail Segment, mostly Medicare Advantage, as well as $61 million more in the Employer Group Segment. Second, we also experienced favorable medical expense trends in most lines of business. This was primarily driven by lower levels of hospital utilization after the flu season, rapidly abated in the third week of January. Although we are pleased with the results of these favorable medical expense trends, we continue to be cautious in our outlook for the remainder of the year. It's important to note that when comparing the first quarter of 2013 with the first quarter of 2012, there was a significant medical expense benefit from weekday seasonality, including the absence of weekday in the first quarter of 2013. Weekday seasonality alone accounted for approximately $125 million of the $340 million improvement over last year's first quarter. Third, our PDP business exceeded plan during the quarter, as we experienced a favorable drug utilization mix versus both plan and last year. However, as we re-project the members' progression through the various cost-sharing phases over the full year, we don't see the first quarter over-performance continuing to the same degree during the second half of the year. Fourth, we also benefited from a lower operating cost ratio versus plan. As highlighted in this morning's press release, we experienced a year-over-year reduction in our operating cost ratio of 150 basis points in our Retail Segment and 110 basis points in our Employer Group Segment. Most of these operating cost reductions were anticipated in our prior guidance. But since we performed better than plan, we reduced our forecasted 2013 full year operating cost ratio by 25 basis points. So in summary, with respect to the first quarter, these 4 items accounted for the $205 million or $0.81 per share of operating over-performance shown on the slide, with favorable prior period development accounting for a little less than half of that total, while the remaining 3 items accounted for the remainder. In terms of the $340 million pretax improvement versus last year's first quarter, these same items apply, as well as the beneficial impact of weekday seasonality and the 1 quarter delay in sequestration that I discussed. Finally, with respect to the first quarter, we picked up $0.07 a share as a result of revising the estimate of income tax liability associated with the non-deductibility of executive compensation, as is required by the health insurance reform law, as well as $0.01 per share from share repurchases. Again, both of these are against our previous guidance. So turning now to the full year. The same items discussed for the quarter similarly impact the full year. However, most of the operating over-performance for the first quarter does not trend forward, primarily for 2 reasons. First, we do not and have not included any additional prior period development in our forecast. And second, while we're pleased with our first quarter utilization trends, we remain cautious in our full year trend outlook since we're only 1/4 of the way through the year. Importantly, and also as indicated on the slide, we expect to make further investments in our 15% solution and clinical care model. That will continue to enhance our ability to both improve health outcomes and lower medical cost in 2014 and beyond. We're confident that the investments we have made to date are resulting in better outcomes and believe strongly that these investments will continue to pay off as we tackle the challenges of 2014 and beyond that Bruce described. Finally, we're making additional investments in our exchange readiness and information technology associated with our individual Employer Group businesses. Both of these investments also will further prepare us for the future. Now the final slide updates our 2013 operating cash flows and financial resources, as well as our capital deployment plans. With respect to our operating cash flows, first quarter 2013 operating cash flows were $412 million, or $81 million, 24.5% higher than those in the first quarter of 2012 after excluding the April 2012 Medicare payment received in that period. Accordingly, we've raised our 2013 full year operating cash flow guidance by $100 million at the midpoint to a range of $1.9 billion to $2.1 billion. From the standpoint of our current financial resources, we're very pleased to report that after consultations with the various state departments of insurance and the credit rating agencies, we expect to receive approximately $970 million in 2013 dividends from our operating subsidiaries during the next 90 days. This amount compares with $1,220,000,000 in 2012 subsidiary dividends and will enhance our March 31, 2013, parent cash and investments balance of $202 million. The $250 million reduction in 2013 subsidiary dividend primarily results from the higher surplus associated -- the higher surplus requirements associated with 2012 premium growth. You'll recall that premium growth is a major factor in determining the state required surplus amounts. With respect to our 2013 capital deployment plans, we expect to continue our constant review of potential strategic acquisitions and investments, as well as capital projects, while at the same time consistently returning capital to our shareholders through both an increased quarterly cash dividend and a strong share repurchase program. As noted in our press release, the Board of Directors increased our quarterly cash dividend to $0.27 per share. At the same time, it also refreshed our $1 billion share repurchase program through June 30, 2015. Like the previous authorization, the refreshed repurchase program permits shares to be repurchased from time to time at prevailing prices in the open market by block purchases or in privately negotiated transactions. With that, we'll open up the lines for your questions. [Operator Instructions] Operator, please introduce the first caller.