CVS Health Corp (CVS) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and welcome to the CVS Health First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded.

女士們先生們，早上好，歡迎參加 CVS Health 2022 年第一季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，今天的會議正在錄製中。

I would now like to turn the call over to Tom Cowhey, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets for CVS Health. Please go ahead.

我現在想將電話轉給 CVS Health 資本市場高級副總裁 Tom Cowhey。請繼續。

Good morning, and welcome to the CVS Health First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call and Webcast. I'm Tom Cowhey, Senior Vice President of Capital Markets for CVS Health. I'm joined this morning by Karen Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Shawn Guertin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session that will include Jon Roberts, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Dr. Alan Lotvin, President, Pharmacy Services; Dan Finke, President, Healthcare Benefits; and Michelle Peluso, Chief Customer Officer, and Prem Shah, Chief Pharmacy Officer, both Co-Presidents of the Retail segment.

早上好，歡迎來到 CVS Health 2022 年第一季度財報電話會議和網絡直播。我是 CVS Health 資本市場高級副總裁 Tom Cowhey。今天上午，總裁兼首席執行官凱倫·林奇 (Karen Lynch) 加入了我的行列；和執行副總裁兼首席財務官 Shawn Guertin。在我們準備好的發言之後，我們將主持一個問答環節，其中包括執行副總裁兼首席運營官 Jon Roberts；藥房服務總裁 Alan Lotvin 博士； Dan Finke，醫療福利總裁；和首席客戶官 Michelle Peluso 和首席藥房官 Prem Shah，他們都是零售部門的聯席總裁。

Our press release and slide presentation have been posted to our website, along with our Form 10-Q that we filed this morning with the SEC. Today's call is also being broadcast on our website, where it will be archived for 1 year. During this call, we will make certain forward-looking statements reflecting current views related to our future financial performance, future events, industry and market conditions as well as the expected consumer benefits of our products and services and our financial projections.

我們的新聞稿和幻燈片演示以及我們今天早上向美國證券交易委員會提交的 10-Q 表格已發佈到我們的網站上。今天的電話會議也在我們的網站上播出，並將在網站上保存 1 年。在本次電話會議期間，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，以反映與我們未來財務業績、未來事件、行業和市場狀況以及我們產品和服務的預期消費者利益以及我們的財務預測相關的當前觀點。

Our forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from currently projected results. We strongly encourage you to review the reports we filed with the SEC regarding these risks and uncertainties, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, our recent current reports on Form 8-K and this morning's earnings press release and our Form 10-Q.

我們的前瞻性陳述受到重大風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果與當前預測結果存在重大差異。我們強烈建議您查看我們向 SEC 提交的有關這些風險和不確定性的報告，包括我們最近的 10-K 表格年度報告、我們最近的 8-K 表格報告和今天上午的收益新聞稿以及我們的 10 表格-Q。

During this call, we will use non-GAAP measures when talking about the company's performance and financial conditions, and you can find a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures in this morning's press release and the reconciliation document posted to the Investor Relations portion of our website.

在這次電話會議中，我們將在談論公司的業績和財務狀況時使用非 GAAP 指標，您可以在今天上午的新聞稿中找到這些非 GAAP 指標的對賬，以及發佈到我們的投資者關係部分的對賬文件網站。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Karen. Karen?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給凱倫。凱倫？

Thank you, Tom. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining our call today. We entered 2022 with significant momentum and delivered strong first quarter results across our business. We grew revenue by over 11% to $76.8 billion, and increased adjusted operating income by nearly 7% to approximately $4.5 billion. Adjusted EPS was $2.22, up over 8.5% over the prior year. In the quarter, we generated $3.6 billion of operating cash flow, representing growth of over 20% as compared to the prior year quarter.

謝謝你，湯姆。大家早上好，感謝您今天加入我們的電話會議。我們以強勁的勢頭進入 2022 年，並在我們的業務中取得了強勁的第一季度業績。我們的收入增長了 11% 以上，達到 768 億美元，調整後的營業收入增長了近 7%，達到約 45 億美元。調整後每股收益為 2.22 美元，比上年增長 8.5% 以上。本季度，我們產生了 36 億美元的運營現金流，與去年同期相比增長了 20% 以上。

Our foundational businesses performed well in the quarter. In Health Care Benefits, revenue increased by 12.8% year-over-year. We achieved adjusted operating income of $1.8 billion. We grew membership sequentially and year-over-year. Overall medical costs remain consistent with projected baseline trends. These results reflect our strong product portfolio, our deep understanding of consumers' health needs and service excellence.

我們的基礎業務在本季度表現良好。在醫療保健福利方面，收入同比增長 12.8%。我們實現了 18 億美元的調整後營業收入。我們的會員人數逐年增長。總體醫療費用與預計的基線趨勢保持一致。這些結果反映了我們強大的產品組合、我們對消費者健康需求和卓越服務的深刻理解。

In Pharmacy Services, revenue increased by nearly 9% year-over-year. Adjusted operating income grew 8.6% despite a flat year-over-year contribution from our 340B product line. Our results demonstrate the consistent value and savings that we deliver to our customers.

在藥房服務方面，收入同比增長近 9%。儘管我們的 340B 產品線的貢獻同比持平，但調整後的營業收入增長了 8.6%。我們的結果證明了我們為客戶提供的始終如一的價值和節省。

In retail, we strengthened our position as a leading community health destination for millions of Americans. We grew revenues by approximately 9% with approximately 15% adjusted operating earnings growth over the prior year. We grew same-store retail scripts by approximately 6%, approaching twice the growth in the marketplace.

在零售方面，我們鞏固了我們作為數百萬美國人領先的社區健康目的地的地位。我們的收入增長了約 9%，調整後的營業收入比上一年增長了約 15%。我們的同店零售腳本增長了大約 6%，接近市場增長的兩倍。

Store visits increased over prior year as more Americans see CVS Health as central to their health needs. We administered more than 6 million COVID-19 tests and more than 8 million COVID-19 vaccines nationwide in the first quarter of 2022.

隨著越來越多的美國人將 CVS Health 視為他們健康需求的核心，商店訪問量比上一年有所增加。到 2022 年第一季度，我們在全國范圍內進行了超過 600 萬次 COVID-19 測試和超過 800 萬次 COVID-19 疫苗。

Given these results, we are raising our full year 2022 adjusted earnings per share guidance to $8.20 to $8.40. Our cash flow guidance for the year remains strong in the range of $12 billion to $13 billion. We are well positioned to achieve near-term and longer-term growth goals.

鑑於這些結果，我們將 2022 年全年調整後每股收益指引上調至 8.20 美元至 8.40 美元。我們今年的現金流指引仍然強勁，在 120 億美元至 130 億美元之間。我們有能力實現近期和長期增長目標。

We are doing this across 5 strategic value-creating imperatives, which we outlined at our Investor Day. Let me just share a few examples of the strong progress we are making in each. First, we are advancing our all-payer primary care delivery capabilities. Our community health destinations are engaging more consumers with 6.5 million in-person and virtual visits in 2021, approximately 1.5 million visits in the first quarter, up nearly 35% from the prior year. Our virtual care solution represents one of many care delivery channels and lower cost sites of high quality of care. We will be broadening our virtual care services in the next 30 days.

我們正在通過我們在投資者日概述的 5 個戰略價值創造必要性來做到這一點。讓我分享一些我們在每個方面取得的巨大進展的例子。首先，我們正在提高我們的全付費初級保健服務能力。我們的社區健康目的地正在吸引更多的消費者，到 2021 年有 650 萬次面對面和虛擬訪問，第一季度大約有 150 萬次訪問，比上年增長近 35%。我們的虛擬護理解決方案代表了眾多護理提供渠道和低成本高質量護理站點之一。我們將在未來 30 天內擴大我們的虛擬護理服務。

More people are accessing health care using digitally-enabled solutions. Pre-pandemic back in 2019, we supported 10,000 virtual mental health visits. Last year, we supported 10 million virtual visits just for mental health. This dramatic increase demonstrates the power of our ability to drive innovation at scale.

越來越多的人正在使用數字化解決方案獲得醫療保健。早在 2019 年大流行前，我們就支持了 10,000 次虛擬心理健康訪問。去年，我們僅為心理健康就支持了 1000 萬次虛擬訪問。這一顯著增長證明了我們大規模推動創新的能力。

Second, we are optimizing our retail portfolio that will be comprised of 3 models: advanced primary care clinics, enhanced health hub locations and our traditional CVS pharmacy locations. As of today, we have closed approximately 100 stores out of the 300 planned for this year and the 900 planned by the end of 2024. Our early experience suggests we are retaining nearly 70% of the prescription volume within our network, demonstrating strong evidence of our value to consumers. Additionally, we retained more than 95% of colleagues and redeployed them to other CVS locations.

其次，我們正在優化我們的零售組合，該組合將由 3 種模式組成：先進的初級保健診所、增強的健康中心位置和我們傳統的 CVS 藥房位置。截至今天，我們已經關閉了今年計劃的 300 家門店和 2024 年底計劃的 900 家門店中的大約 100 家。我們的早期經驗表明，我們在我們的網絡中保留了近 70% 的處方量，證明了強有力的證據我們對消費者的價值。此外，我們保留了超過 95% 的同事並將他們重新部署到其他 CVS 地點。

Third, we are diversifying our growth portfolio with new health services. We are expanding our capabilities in home health as we prepare for the 2023 launch of a post-acute transitions pilot for our Aetna membership in select geographies. Partnering in technology and home-based care will allow us to reduce readmissions and improve care for our customers at this critical juncture on their path to recovery.

第三，我們正在通過新的醫療服務使我們的增長組合多樣化。我們正在擴大我們在家庭健康方面的能力，因為我們準備在 2023 年為我們在特定地區的 Aetna 會員推出急性後過渡期試點。在技術和家庭護理方面的合作將使我們能夠在客戶康復之路的關鍵時刻減少再入院並改善對客戶的護理。

As we broaden our capabilities to create new sources of value, we continually evaluate our portfolio for nonstrategic assets. Our recently announced sale of PayFlex and selected assets from our international businesses are 2 recent examples of our actions. These transactions are in line with our commitment to invest in areas that are aligned with our strategy.

隨著我們擴大創造新價值來源的能力，我們不斷評估我們的非戰略資產投資組合。我們最近宣佈出售 PayFlex 和我們國際業務中的選定資產是我們近期行動的兩個例子。這些交易符合我們在符合我們戰略的領域進行投資的承諾。

Fourth, we are focused on our digital-first technology-forward approach. We serve nearly 44 million unique digital customers as of the end of the first quarter, up by over 7 million customers since our Investor Day, a testament to the value and ease of our digital offering.

第四，我們專注於我們的數字優先技術前進方法。截至第一季度末，我們為近 4400 萬獨特的數字客戶提供服務，自投資者日以來增加了超過 700 萬客戶，這證明了我們數字產品的價值和易用性。

Digital customers are omnichannel, and on average visit CVS Health 2x more often than traditional customers. We also continue to expand our digital first health dashboard offering. This dashboard makes managing your family's health more seamless, convenient and personalized. It does so by putting critical health information into one place, health records, pharmacy medications and next best actions. We have 5 million active health dashboard users, up over 25% in the past quarter, and we will continue to enhance connectivity to more services later this year.

數字客戶是全渠道的，平均訪問 CVS Health 的頻率是傳統客戶的 2 倍。我們還繼續擴展我們的數字第一健康儀表板產品。此儀表板使您的家庭健康管理更加無縫、方便和個性化。它通過將重要的健康信息、健康記錄、藥房藥物和下一個最佳行動放在一個地方來實現這一點。我們有 500 萬活躍的健康儀表板用戶，在上個季度增長了 25% 以上，我們將在今年晚些時候繼續加強與更多服務的連接。

Finally, we are making progress serving our consumers wherever and whenever they receive health care. In the first quarter, we launched a new fulfillment option for consumers as part of our omnichannel health experience. Consumers can purchase health and wellness products online with an option for free same-day pickup that will be available in approximately 6,000 CVS community health destinations later this year. We are partnering with Google and Microsoft in ways that deliver real benefits to consumers. For example, MinuteClinic scheduling is now integrated into Google Search, driving new and more convenient appointment bookings.

最後，無論何時何地，我們都在為消費者提供醫療服務方面取得進展。在第一季度，我們為消費者推出了一個新的履行選項，作為我們全渠道健康體驗的一部分。消費者可以在線購買健康和保健產品，並可選擇免費當天取貨，今年晚些時候將在大約 6,000 個 CVS 社區健康目的地提供。我們正在與穀歌和微軟合作，為消費者帶來真正的好處。例如，MinuteClinic 日程安排現已集成到 Google 搜索中，推動了新的、更方便的預約預約。

In our specialty pharmacy, we are using Microsoft text analytics and robotics to automate the 40% of prescriptions that are still paper or fax-based, making it easier and faster for us to fill the patient's prescription.

在我們的專業藥房中，我們正在使用 Microsoft 文本分析和機器人技術來自動化 40% 仍然基於紙質或傳真的處方，從而使我們能夠更輕鬆、更快捷地為患者開具處方。

We are increasingly using technology to improve our business process and reduce costs. Here are just 2 examples. Our specialty intelligent medication monitoring and adherence engine uses machine learning to help our most at-risk patients by predicting the likelihood of individual patients becoming nonadherent to their medication. This approach then prompts ways in which we can coach and help them maintain their overall health. Also, using machine learning and robotics, we can now resolve a wide range of prescription drug claims, which previously require the attention of our pharmacists, freeing them up to spend time with patients. This advanced approach reduces overall cost and improve the patient experience.

我們越來越多地使用技術來改進我們的業務流程並降低成本。這裡只是 2 個例子。我們的專業智能藥物監測和依從性引擎使用機器學習通過預測個別患者對藥物不依從的可能性來幫助我們風險最高的患者。然後，這種方法會提示我們可以指導和幫助他們保持整體健康的方法。此外，使用機器學習和機器人技術，我們現在可以解決範圍廣泛的處方藥索賠，這些索賠以前需要我們的藥劑師注意，讓他們騰出時間與患者相處。這種先進的方法降低了總體成本並改善了患者體驗。

These 5 strategic imperatives taken together place the consumer at the center of everything we do. Consumer value is behind the integration of our businesses and we are making steady and real progress. Ultimately, it's the hard work and commitment of our dedicated colleagues that makes our strategy and results achievable. At CVS Health, we are committed to fostering a culture of values. We have made increasing workforce representation, promoting the inclusion and belonging and equitable access to growth and development our priority.

這 5 項戰略要求加在一起，將消費者置於我們所做一切的中心。消費者價值是我們業務整合的背後，我們正在穩步而真正地進步。歸根結底，正是我們敬業的同事的辛勤工作和承諾使我們的戰略和成果得以實現。在 CVS Health，我們致力於培養一種價值觀文化。我們已將增加勞動力代表性、促進包容和歸屬感以及公平獲得增長和發展作為我們的首要任務。

Our commitment to shareholders, customers and communities remains steadfast. In our 2021 environmental social governance report released last month, we highlighted our sharpened focus on sustainable business practices and our priority to advance health equity in America. You can find our report on our website. Our work to fundamentally reshape the delivery of health care in our country is well underway.

我們對股東、客戶和社區的承諾仍然堅定不移。在我們上個月發布的 2021 年環境社會治理報告中，我們強調了我們對可持續商業實踐的高度關注以及我們促進美國健康公平的優先事項。您可以在我們的網站上找到我們的報告。我們從根本上重塑我國醫療保健服務的工作正在順利進行。

Before I turn it over to Sean, I am pleased to announce we have named a new Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Sree Chaguturu. Also, I'd like to acknowledge Jon Roberts, who will be retiring at the end of June, and thank him for his many contributions to CVS Health over his 42-year career at our company. I am grateful to our dedicated colleagues who continue to deliver every day, helping millions of Americans and bringing their heart to every moment of our customers' health.

在我把它交給肖恩之前，我很高興地宣布我們已經任命了一位新的首席醫療官。 Sree Chaguturu 博士。另外，我要感謝將於 6 月底退休的 Jon Roberts，並感謝他在我們公司 42 年的職業生涯中為 CVS Health 做出的許多貢獻。我感謝我們敬業的同事，他們每天繼續提供服務，幫助數以百萬計的美國人，並將他們的心獻給客戶健康的每一刻。

Let me now turn it over to Shawn for a deeper look into our operational results and outlook for the remainder of the year.

現在讓我把它交給肖恩，以更深入地了解我們今年剩餘時間的運營結果和展望。

Thank you, Karen, and good morning, everyone. Our first quarter results reflect strong performance from all our core business segments with continued momentum in revenue growth, cash flow generation and adjusted earnings per share growth, positioning us to increase our 2022 adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $8.20 to $8.40 per share. As we continue making progress towards our financial targets, we remain focused on growth, operational execution and supporting the communities we serve.

謝謝你，凱倫，大家早上好。我們的第一季度業績反映了我們所有核心業務部門的強勁表現，收入增長、現金流產生和調整後每股收益增長的持續勢頭，使我們將 2022 年調整後每股收益指引提高到每股 8.20 美元至 8.40 美元的範圍。隨著我們繼續朝著我們的財務目標取得進展，我們仍然專注於增長、運營執行和支持我們所服務的社區。

A few highlights of total company performance. First quarter revenues of $76.8 billion increased by 11.2% year-over-year, reflecting robust growth across all business segments. We delivered adjusted operating income of approximately $4.5 billion and adjusted EPS of $2.22, representing an increase of 6.6% and 8.8% versus prior year, respectively. Our first quarter adjusted EPS performance reflects both a higher adjusted operating income contribution and lower interest expense versus prior year due to our proactive deleveraging campaign in 2021. Importantly, our first quarter 2022 adjusted EPS was impacted by $75 million of net realized capital losses, which lowered adjusted EPS performance by $0.04. Of the losses noted, approximately $40 million or $0.02 per share related to write-downs of sovereign bonds in Ukraine and Belarus.

公司整體業績的幾個亮點。第一季度收入為 768 億美元，同比增長 11.2%，反映了所有業務部門的強勁增長。我們實現了約 45 億美元的調整後營業收入和 2.22 美元的調整後每股收益，分別比上年增長 6.6% 和 8.8%。由於我們在 2021 年進行積極的去槓桿活動，我們第一季度調整後的每股收益表現反映了與上年相比更高的調整後營業收入貢獻和更低的利息支出。重要的是，我們 2022 年第一季度調整後的每股收益受到 7500 萬美元的淨已實現資本損失的影響，其中將調整後的每股收益業績下調 0.04 美元。在註意到的損失中，大約 4,000 萬美元或每股 0.02 美元與烏克蘭和白俄羅斯主權債券的減記有關。

Turning to the Health Care Benefits segment. First quarter revenue of $23.1 billion increased by 12.8% year-over-year, driven by membership growth across all product lines. We delivered sequential membership growth of over 670,000, reflecting growth across all product lines. We continue to be pleased with the performance of our Medicare franchise, which has been a key growth engine over the years. Medicare Advantage grew about 200,000 members sequentially, up 6.7%. Our momentum in dual eligible plans enrollment also continued into the first quarter, growing 28% sequentially.

轉向醫療保健福利部分。受所有產品線會員增長的推動，第一季度收入為 231 億美元，同比增長 12.8%。我們實現了超過 670,000 名會員的連續增長，反映了所有產品線的增長。我們繼續對我們的醫療保險特許經營權的表現感到滿意，這多年來一直是一個關鍵的增長引擎。 Medicare Advantage 會員連續增長約 200,000 名，增長 6.7%。我們在雙重合格計劃註冊方面的勢頭也持續到第一季度，環比增長 28%。

In our commercial business, a strong national account selling season contributed to membership growth, along with growth in commercial risk membership, driven by group commercial and our reentry into the individual exchange marketplace. Adjusted operating income of $1.8 billion was down slightly as compared to the prior year, as the previously mentioned net realized capital losses impacted growth, along with the continued progression towards normalized medical cost trends.

在我們的商業業務中，由於團體商業和我們重新進入個人交易市場，強勁的全國賬戶銷售旺季促進了會員人數的增長以及商業風險會員人數的增長。調整後的營業收入為 18 億美元，與上一年相比略有下降，因為前面提到的淨已實現資本損失影響了增長，以及繼續朝著正常化的醫療成本趨勢發展。

Our medical benefit ratio of 83.5% increased approximately 30 basis points year-over-year, reflective of the same continued progression towards normalized total medical costs. In total, medical cost trends in our commercial business remain in line with prepandemic trended baselines, with government remaining slightly lower than prepandemic baselines.

我們的醫療福利比率為 83.5%，同比增長約 30 個基點，反映了向標準化總醫療費用方向的持續進展。總體而言，我們商業業務的醫療成本趨勢與疫情前的趨勢基線保持一致，而政府仍略低於疫情前的基線。

Consolidated days claims payable at the end of the quarter was 51.7, up 2.6 days sequentially as we brought on new government and other membership in the first quarter. Overall, we remain confident in the adequacy of our reserves.

本季度末應付的綜合索賠天數為 51.7，比第一季度增加了 2.6 天，因為我們在第一季度引入了新的政府和其他成員。總體而言，我們對我們的儲備充足充滿信心。

In Pharmacy Services, we continue to achieve strong revenue and adjusted operating income growth. This is a natural outcome from our execution, delivering industry-leading drug trend on behalf of our clients, providing leading specialty management capabilities and outstanding customer service.

在藥房服務方面，我們繼續實現強勁的收入和調整後的營業收入增長。這是我們執行的自然結果，代表我們的客戶提供行業領先的藥物趨勢，提供領先的專業管理能力和出色的客戶服務。

During the first quarter, revenue of $39.5 billion increased by 8.6% year-over-year, driven by pharmacy claims growth, growth in specialty pharmacy and brand inflation, partially offset by the impact of continued client price improvements. Total pharmacy membership was roughly flat from year-end at 110 million members as underlying growth in commercial and other government lives helped to offset significant membership losses from the California Medicaid carve-out that started this year. Total pharmacy claims processed increased by 5.8% above prior year, primarily attributable to new business in 2022. Currently, we are approximately 60% through renewals for the 2023 selling season with over 98% core client retention.

第一季度，在藥房索賠增長、專業藥房增長和品牌通脹的推動下，收入為 395 億美元，同比增長 8.6%，部分被客戶價格持續改善的影響所抵消。藥房會員總數與年底大致持平，為 1.1 億會員，因為商業和其他政府生活的潛在增長有助於抵消今年開始的加州醫療補助計劃剝離造成的重大會員損失。處理的藥房索賠總額比上年增長 5.8%，主要歸因於 2022 年的新業務。目前，我們在 2023 年銷售季節的續約率約為 60%，核心客戶保留率超過 98%。

Adjusted operating income of $1.6 billion grew 8.6% year-over-year, driven by improved purchasing economics, reflecting increased contribution from the products and services of our group purchasing organization and specialty pharmacy, partially offset by continued client price improvements and increased expenses to onboard new business at the beginning of the year. As Karen mentioned, our 340B product lines did not grow inside the quarter.

調整後的營業收入為 16 億美元，同比增長 8.6%，這得益於採購經濟的改善，反映了我們的團購組織和專業藥房的產品和服務貢獻增加，部分被客戶價格的持續改善和船上費用增加所抵消年初的新業務。正如 Karen 所說，我們的 340B 產品線在本季度內沒有增長。

In our Retail/Long-Term Care segment, we delivered strong revenue and adjusted operating income growth versus prior year. First quarter revenue of $25.4 billion grew 9.2% year-over-year, largely due to increased prescription and front store volume, including the sale of COVID-19 OTC test kits. Adjusted operating income of $1.6 billion grew 15.1% versus prior year, driven by a few key components: strength in pharmacy and front-store sales, the administration of COVID-19 vaccines and demand for over-the-counter test kits and related treatment categories, particularly at the beginning of the quarter when Omicron incidence was high. These positive factors were partially offset by the impacts of ongoing but stable reimbursement pressure, business investments, including the minimum wage increase and store improvements, and investments in store labor as we were consciously slow to draw down staffing in response to declining Omicron case levels to ensure we had sufficient capacity to meet consumer health needs.

在我們的零售/長期護理部門，與去年相比，我們實現了強勁的收入和調整後的營業收入增長。第一季度收入為 254 億美元，同比增長 9.2%，主要是由於處方藥和門店數量的增加，包括 COVID-19 OTC 檢測試劑盒的銷售。調整後的營業收入為 16 億美元，較上年增長 15.1%，主要受以下幾個關鍵因素的推動：藥房和前店銷售的強勁、COVID-19 疫苗的管理以及對非處方檢測試劑盒和相關治療類別的需求，尤其是在 Omicron 發病率很高的季度初。這些積極因素被持續但穩定的報銷壓力、商業投資（包括最低工資增長和商店改進）以及商店勞動力投資的影響部分抵消，因為我們有意識地緩慢裁員以應對 Omicron 案件水平下降的情況確保我們有足夠的能力滿足消費者的健康需求。

Our liquidity and capital position remained strong at the end of the first quarter, generating cash flow from operations of $3.6 billion and ending the quarter with $3 billion of cash at the parent and unrestricted subsidiaries. We remain committed to maintaining our investment-grade ratings while also having the flexibility to deploy capital strategically for capability-focused M&A. The announced sales of our PayFlex and Aetna international business in Thailand are expected to provide us with additional deployable capital later this year.

我們的流動性和資本狀況在第一季度末保持強勁，產生了 36 億美元的運營現金流，本季度末母公司和不受限制的子公司擁有 30 億美元的現金。我們仍然致力於維持我們的投資級評級，同時還可以靈活地戰略性地部署資本以進行以能力為中心的併購。我們在泰國宣佈出售的 PayFlex 和 Aetna 國際業務預計將在今年晚些時候為我們提供額外的可部署資金。

We repurchased approximately 19.1 million shares of common stock during the 3 months ended March 31, 2022, marking the first time the company has repurchased shares of its common stock since 2017. We also increased the quarterly shareholder dividend by 10% effective with the February 1, 2022 dividend distribution, which resulted in the return of $722 million to shareholders through dividends during the 3 months ended March 31, 2022.

在截至 2022 年 3 月 31 日的 3 個月內，我們回購了約 1910 萬股普通股，這是該公司自 2017 年以來首次回購其普通股。我們還將季度股東股息提高了 10%，自 2 月 1 日起生效, 2022 年股息分配，這導致在截至 2022 年 3 月 31 日的 3 個月內通過股息向股東返還 7.22 億美元。

In March, we also announced we had entered into an agreement with the State of Florida to resolve claims dating back more than a decade related to opioid medications. Under the agreement, we will settle all opioid claims by Florida for $484 million to be paid over a period of 18 years. As a result, upon satisfaction of the settlement terms by the state, CVS will be released from the pending litigation in Florida. Associated with this settlement, we have taken a charge of approximately $370 million after tax in our first quarter 2022 financials, which has been excluded from our adjusted operating metrics.

3 月，我們還宣布我們已與佛羅里達州達成協議，以解決可追溯到十多年前與阿片類藥物有關的索賠。根據協議，我們將在 18 年內以 4.84 億美元解決佛羅里達州的所有阿片類藥物索賠。因此，在該州滿足和解條款後，CVS 將從佛羅里達州的未決訴訟中獲釋。與此次和解相關，我們在 2022 年第一季度的財務數據中收取了約 3.7 億美元的稅後費用，這已被排除在我們調整後的運營指標之外。

As a result of our first quarter performance, we are raising our full year adjusted earnings per share guidance to $8.20 to $8.40, which represents 3.5% to 6% growth versus our 2021 adjusted earnings per share baseline. The increase reflects the favorable impact of prior year's development net of realized capital losses experienced in our Health Care Benefits business, both of which we do not forecast.

由於我們第一季度的表現，我們將全年調整後每股收益指引上調至 8.20 美元至 8.40 美元，與我們 2021 年調整後的每股收益基線相比增長 3.5% 至 6%。這一增長反映了上一年發展的有利影響，扣除了我們的醫療福利業務經歷的已實現資本損失，我們沒有預測這兩者。

As such, we are raising full year Health Care Benefits guidance as follows: membership increases to a range of 24 million to 24.3 million members; revenue increases to a range of $89.3 million to $90.8 billion; adjusted operating income guidance increases by $180 million at the midpoint to $5.94 billion to $6.04 billion.

因此，我們將全年醫療保健福利指南提高如下：會員人數增加到 2400 萬至 2430 萬；收入增加至 8930 萬至 908 億美元；調整後的營業收入指引在中點增加 1.8 億美元至 59.4 億美元至 60.4 億美元。

Similarly, MBR guidance is updated to 83.5% to 84.5% to reflect our first quarter experience. We are maintaining all other guidance shared during our fourth quarter earnings call.

同樣，MBR 指引更新為 83.5% 至 84.5%，以反映我們第一季度的經驗。我們將維持在第四季度財報電話會議上分享的所有其他指導。

Our updated guidance now reflects the assumption that a fourth COVID-19 booster will be administered to adults aged 50 and older and to certain immunocompromised individuals as per the guidelines set forth by the CDC. Administration of a fourth booster is expected to have a net neutral impact to our enterprise, representing an incremental cost to our health benefits segment, but helping to maintain our full year outlook for our retail segment by offsetting first quarter 2022 expense pressures previously mentioned.

我們更新後的指南現在反映了這樣一種假設，即根據 CDC 制定的指南，將對 50 歲及以上的成年人和某些免疫功能低下的個體進行第四次 COVID-19 加強免疫。預計第四次助推器的管理將對我們的企業產生淨中性影響，這意味著我們的健康福利部門的成本增加，但通過抵消前面提到的 2022 年第一季度的費用壓力，有助於維持我們對零售部門的全年展望。

As we evaluate the progression of earnings for the remainder of the year, we would remind investors of our prior statements that we expect 2022 earnings to be modestly higher in the first half of the year. Similar to 2021 earnings progression, we currently project that 47% to 49% of adjusted EPS will occur in the back half of 2022, which we project will be fairly evenly split between the third and fourth quarters. You will find additional details regarding our updated guidance in the slide presentation we posted to our website this morning.

在我們評估今年剩餘時間的收益進展時，我們會提醒投資者我們之前的聲明，我們預計 2022 年的收益將在今年上半年適度增長。與 2021 年的盈利進展類似，我們目前預計 47% 至 49% 的調整後每股收益將出現在 2022 年下半年，我們預計這將在第三季度和第四季度之間平均分配。您將在我們今天早上發佈到我們網站的幻燈片演示中找到有關我們更新指南的更多詳細信息。

We continue to anticipate strong cash from operations in 2022 between $12 billion and $13 billion, and capital expenditures in the range of $2.8 billion to $3 billion as we invest in technology and digital enhancements to improve the consumer experience as well as our community locations. Full year deployable free cash will benefit from our recent divestiture activity while any earnings impact from these divestitures are incorporated into our updated guidance ranges.

我們繼續預計 2022 年的運營現金將在 120 億美元至 130 億美元之間，資本支出在 28 億美元至 30 億美元之間，因為我們投資於技術和數字增強以改善消費者體驗以及我們的社區位置。全年可部署的自由現金將受益於我們最近的資產剝離活動，而這些資產剝離對收益的影響將納入我們更新的指導範圍。

To conclude, we are encouraged by our strong first quarter results and improved 2022 outlook, particularly at this early stage in the year as we continue to sharpen our focus and execute our strategy. As a leader and trusted partner in health care, we strive to deliver a superior health care experience for our consumers through lowering the cost of care, improving access and building engagement and convenience to our consumers and their communities. We will now open the call to your questions. Operator?

總而言之，我們對我們強勁的第一季度業績和改善的 2022 年前景感到鼓舞，特別是在今年的這個早期階段，因為我們繼續加強我們的關注和執行我們的戰略。作為醫療保健領域的領導者和值得信賴的合作夥伴，我們致力於通過降低醫療成本、改善可及性以及為我們的消費者及其社區建立參與度和便利性，為我們的消費者提供卓越的醫療保健體驗。我們現在將打開您的問題的電話。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) We'll take our first question from Lisa Gill of JPMorgan.

（操作員說明）我們將從摩根大通的 Lisa Gill 提出第一個問題。

First, let me give my congratulations to Jon and his retirement. It's been great getting to know you all these years, Jon, so I wish you well in your retirement.

首先，讓我祝賀喬恩和他的退休。這些年來認識你真是太好了，喬恩，所以我祝你退休後一切順利。

On my question, if I look at the guidance, Shawn, the one area where you raised guidance versus previous was in the health benefits business. So can you talk about what the key drivers are of the better MLR going forward? Karen talked about digital. Is that playing a part of it? She talked about virtual. So if you can just give us more color as to how we think about what some of the key drivers are to the better MLR in your guidance.

關於我的問題，如果我看一下指導意見，肖恩，與以前相比，你提出指導意見的一個領域是健康福利業務。那麼你能談談未來更好的 MLR 的關鍵驅動因素是什麼嗎？凱倫談到了數字。那是其中的一部分嗎？她談到了虛擬。因此，如果您可以就我們如何看待您的指導中更好的 MLR 的一些關鍵驅動因素給我們提供更多信息。

Yes. So I think the easiest way to sort of think about that is largely what's being sort of pulled through here is the prior year development that we experienced in the first quarter less the realized capital losses. And just to be clear on that, we talked in my remarks about $75 million of realized capital losses, about $60 million of that was in HCB. So the net of those 2 things is right around $180 million, and that's really the guidance increase.

是的。因此，我認為考慮這一點的最簡單方法主要是我們在第一季度經歷的上一年發展減去已實現的資本損失。為了明確這一點，我們在我的講話中談到了 7500 萬美元的已實現資本損失，其中約 6000 萬美元是 HCB。因此，這兩件事的淨額約為 1.8 億美元，這確實是指導性增長。

To round out the story though, as mentioned, we now have incorporated the fourth booster for the specific populations that it has been recommended for. So that's going to be a cost item, obviously, for HCB. But as you saw, we've had strong volume growth and excellent kind of performance sort of especially post January as Omicron faded on that side. So the biggest thing is the prior year development and the realized capital losses, but we should have ongoing strength from volume that should be able to absorb the cost of the fourth booster.

不過，如前所述，為了完善這個故事，我們現在已經為推薦的特定人群合併了第四個助推器。因此，顯然，對於 HCB 而言，這將是一項成本項目。但是正如你所看到的，我們的銷量增長強勁，而且表現非常出色，尤其是在一月份之後，因為 Omicron 在這方面逐漸消退。所以最重要的是上一年的發展和已實現的資本損失，但我們應該有來自數量的持續力量，應該能夠吸收第四個助推器的成本。

Okay. Great. Then just as my -- I guess, my follow-up from my questions that I've been asking for the last year, and that's around the primary care strategy. I really thought we would have had an announcement by now. You did talk in your prepared remarks about making headway around primary care and some of the offerings you have in the marketplace. But maybe can you talk about are you still looking to make a larger scale acquisition? Or will this be more of internal growth? Just any update on that would be helpful.

好的。偉大的。然後就像我的 - 我猜，我對我去年一直在問的問題的後續行動，這圍繞著初級保健策略。我真的以為我們現在應該已經宣布了。您在準備好的講話中確實談到了在初級保健和您在市場上提供的一些產品方面取得進展。但也許你能談談你是否還在尋求進行更大規模的收購？或者這將是更多的內部增長？對此的任何更新都會有所幫助。

Lisa, let me just comment on that. Yes, we are continuing to look for a broader range of primary care capabilities. It's an interesting market. We are trying to make sure that we are prudent, both strategically and financially, but it is part of our strategy and where more conversations to come. Shawn, you want to talk about capital?

麗莎，讓我對此發表評論。是的，我們正在繼續尋找更廣泛的初級保健能力。這是一個有趣的市場。我們正在努力確保我們在戰略上和財務上都是謹慎的，但這是我們戰略的一部分，也是未來更多對話的一部分。肖恩，你想談談資本嗎？

Yes, I'll talk a little bit about the M&A specifically on this. And Lisa, I certainly understand your question. And I want to be careful because different people will define large different ways. I think we've been pretty clear. We're not talking about a jumbo acquisition here. We're talking about a capability-based acquisition of some size, but not necessarily anything jumbo.

是的，我會具體談談併購。還有麗莎，我當然理解你的問題。我要小心，因為不同的人會定義不同的方式。我想我們已經很清楚了。我們在這裡不是在談論大型收購。我們談論的是某種規模的基於能力的收購，但不一定是巨大的。

We've been very active in this space. We've evaluated a range of assets in and around the care delivery space. I'll remind you, most of these assets aren't out for sale. And so that dialogue starts to process. Our priority areas remain primary care and MSO capability and a home health capability. These assets will serve as the foundation of the platform upon which we'll pursue our strategic vision. So it's essential that we fully evaluate their defining characteristics and capabilities. And so while the valuation environment continues to present its own set of challenges, I'm cautiously optimistic with our ability to begin to execute on our strategic plan in 2022.

我們在這個領域非常活躍。我們已經評估了護理服務空間內和周圍的一系列資產。我會提醒你，這些資產中的大部分都沒有出售。這樣對話就開始了。我們的優先領域仍然是初級保健和 MSO 能力以及家庭保健能力。這些資產將作為我們追求戰略願景的平台的基礎。因此，我們必須全面評估它們的定義特徵和能力。因此，儘管估值環境繼續面臨一系列挑戰，但我對我們在 2022 年開始執行戰略計劃的能力持謹慎樂觀態度。

And Lisa, this is John. Thanks for your kind words. Obviously, I've had a very rewarding career at CVS, and I feel really good about the leadership team that's now here, confident in their strategy and the team's ability to execute. So thanks.

還有麗莎，這是約翰。謝謝你的客氣話。顯然，我在 CVS 的職業生涯非常有價值，我對現在在這裡的領導團隊感覺非常好，對他們的戰略和團隊的執行能力充滿信心。那謝謝啦。

We'll take our next question from Rivka Goldwasser of Morgan Stanley.

我們將向摩根士丹利的 Rivka Goldwasser 提出下一個問題。

Yes. So clearly, 2023 is progressing in line with your expectations. But Shawn, back in December, you also gave us sort of targets for 2023 and 2024. So with kind of like everything that's happening in the macro environment, how is your thinking of 2023 and 2024 stance now? Has it changed in December? Or are we still on track with those targets?

是的。很明顯，2023 年的進展符合您的預期。但是肖恩，早在 12 月，你也給了我們 2023 年和 2024 年的目標。所以在宏觀環境中發生的一切，你現在對 2023 年和 2024 年的立場如何？ 12月變了嗎？還是我們仍在實現這些目標？

Yes. So we remain committed to achieving those EPS targets for '23 and '24, and we're certainly off to a good start in doing that. And as it pertains maybe more immediately to '23, while we're not providing specific guidance as it's sort of too early, there's a lot of moving parts. But to your point, I understand why the question's being answered when you think about macro factors like COVID and the uncertainty about the future testing and treatment protocols there as well as all of the macroeconomic factors that are at work right now in the market.

是的。因此，我們仍然致力於實現 '23 和 '24 的那些 EPS 目標，我們肯定在這方面有了一個良好的開端。由於它可能更直接地與 23 年相關，雖然我們沒有提供具體的指導，因為它有點為時過早，但有很多活動部分。但就您而言，我理解為什麼當您考慮到 COVID 等宏觀因素以及那裡未來檢測和治療方案的不確定性以及目前市場上正在發揮作用的所有宏觀經濟因素時，這個問題得到了回答。

When I think about '23 at this very early stage, and I sort of think about our businesses, I do think there's certainly some headwinds, but there's also a lot of tailwinds. In PSS, we're having a very good retention season. The sales season is still in progress there, but we have the tailwinds of specialty generics and biosimilars, and there's a lot of good things happening there that I expect to continue into the future.

當我在這個非常早期的階段考慮 23 年，並且我有點想我們的業務時，我確實認為肯定有一些逆風，但也有很多順風。在 PSS 中，我們的留存期非常好。那裡的銷售旺季仍在進行中，但我們有專業仿製藥和生物仿製藥的順風，那裡發生了很多好事，我預計未來還會繼續。

On HCB, obviously, we expect some loss in Medicaid as the redeterminations kick in. But we have as good a momentum as we've had in a long time in commercial. We have a strong individual MA franchise. The group MA business is always about jumbo accounts, and so we have some of those that are up for renewal, but we'll also have our ongoing exchange expansion.

在 HCB 方面，顯然，隨著重新裁決的開始，我們預計醫療補助計劃會出現一些損失。但我們的勢頭與長期以來在商業領域的勢頭一樣好。我們擁有強大的個人 MA 特許經營權。集團 MA 業務始終與巨型賬戶有關，因此我們有一些需要更新的賬戶，但我們也將進行持續的交易所擴展。

But maybe most importantly for that business is the outlook on margin. And we've had actually a really good start here with excellent baseline development. And I would point out that in light of the macroeconomic conditions today, much of our '23 pricing is still yet to be set.

但對於該業務而言，最重要的也許是利潤率前景。我們實際上已經有了一個非常好的開始，有著出色的基線開發。我要指出，鑑於今天的宏觀經濟狀況，我們 23 年的大部分定價仍有待確定。

The question, obviously, we get a lot about '23 ends up kind of pointing often at retail. And so I think it's worth spending a few minutes there. Many like to model COVID going to 0 for retail, and that's a convenient modeling assumption, but I think a very highly unlikely outcome for 2023 as we move from pandemic to endemic. We have a very strong testing and treatment franchise there as well.

很明顯，我們得到的很多關於 23 年的問題最終都指向了零售業。所以我認為值得花幾分鐘在那裡。許多人喜歡將 COVID 建模為 0 以用於零售，這是一個方便的建模假設，但我認為隨著我們從大流行轉向地方病，2023 年的結果非常不可能。我們在那裡也有非常強大的檢測和治療特許經營權。

We've had particular strength in the front of the store, both OTC COVID testing as well as other categories. Our CarePass membership is up 33% year-over-year to 6 million members. And while in the pharmacy, reimbursement pressure continues, it has stabilized and moderated a bit in 2022.

我們在商店的前面有特別的優勢，包括 OTC COVID 測試以及其他類別。我們的 CarePass 會員人數同比增長 33%，達到 600 萬。雖然在藥房，報銷壓力仍在繼續，但在 2022 年已經穩定下來並有所緩和。

We'll continue to do all we can to reduce that pressure further. But we're also going to continue to combat this by trying to increase volume and reducing costs. We took share again in retail pharmacy. In other words, we're growing faster than the market. This is probably at least the eighth quarter in a row that that's happened.

我們將繼續盡我們所能進一步減輕這種壓力。但我們也將繼續努力通過增加產量和降低成本來解決這個問題。我們再次在零售藥房中佔有一席之地。換句話說，我們的增長速度超過了市場。這可能至少是連續第八個季度發生這種情況。

We're implementing buy online, pick up in-store, which should help increase volume overall, both in the front and potentially the back. We're well positioned for omnichannel pharmacy, which can both help volume but also give us new ways to fulfill customers' prescriptions and in so doing, potentially have a more efficient, cost-efficient way to fulfill that customer.

我們正在實施在線購買，店內提貨，這將有助於增加整體銷量，無論是正面還是背面。我們在全渠道藥房方面處於有利地位，它既可以幫助增加量，也可以為我們提供滿足客戶處方的新方法，這樣做可能有一種更高效、更具成本效益的方式來滿足該客戶的需求。

And '23 will be the second year of our store closures. And so far in 2022, those are going at or better than expected in terms of the number of stores and the script retention we're having. And as always, we're going to aggressively push on the cost of goods sold.

23 年將是我們商店關閉的第二年。到 2022 年為止，就商店數量和我們擁有的劇本保留而言，這些都達到或好於預期。和往常一樣，我們將積極推動商品銷售成本。

Maybe most importantly, though, as we think about the next couple of years, I continue to feel very positive about our significant capacity to deploy capital. And you'll recall that our '23 guidance only assumes that we repurchase shares enough to offset dilution. So this is a lever that not only helps advance our strategy, but it's also a lever that can be used to deliver on our EPS targets as well.

不過，也許最重要的是，當我們考慮未來幾年時，我繼續對我們部署資本的巨大能力感到非常樂觀。你會記得，我們的 23 年指導僅假設我們回購的股票足以抵消稀釋。因此，這不僅有助於推進我們的戰略，而且還可以用來實現我們的每股收益目標。

Great. And just one quick follow-up there. As we think about those efficiencies and investment in the future, Karen talked about the fact that digital customers visit the stores, I think, 2x more than the average customer. Can you just give us maybe a sense of also how the profitability of those customers compared to sort of the brick-and-mortar customers?

偉大的。那裡只是一個快速的跟進。當我們考慮未來的效率和投資時，Karen 談到了數字客戶訪問商店的事實，我認為，是普通客戶的 2 倍。您能否讓我們了解一下這些客戶與實體客戶相比的盈利能力如何？

Yes. I think it's probably a comparable sort of set when you think about things like basket size and whatnot, but -- than more of a frequency.

是的。我認為當你考慮籃子大小和諸如此類的東西時，它可能是一個類似的集合，但是——而不是頻率。

Our next question comes from Michael Cherny of Bank of America.

我們的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Michael Cherny。

Thank you for a ton of details so far. Shawn, you mentioned the dynamics around '23, and one point that obviously was in there was on specialty and specialty biosimilars. As you think about the conversations you're having during this selling season with a very clear pipeline of some potential blockbusters coming on the biosimilar side as soon as next year, how do you think your customers across the enterprise are preparing for that potential raft of both interchangeable and noninterchangeable biosimilars? And how willing are they -- do they appear to be at this point in time to work with you on driving greater adoption, which obviously seems like it's going to be nicely additive to your overall growth profile?

到目前為止，感謝您提供大量詳細信息。肖恩，你提到了 23 年左右的動態，其中很明顯的一點是專業和專業生物仿製藥。當您考慮在這個銷售旺季進行的對話時，很清楚一些潛在的重磅炸彈將於明年出現在生物仿製藥方面，您認為整個企業的客戶如何為潛在的大量產品做準備可互換和不可互換的生物仿製藥？他們是否願意——他們似乎在這個時間點上與您合作推動更大的採用率，這顯然會很好地增加您的整體增長概況？

Michael, it's Alan. A very timely question. So I would say that our customers are anxiously awaiting the biosimilar kind of way that's really starting in '23 and continues through most of this decade. What they're looking to us to do is to deliver to them strategies, plan designs, programs, approaches that lower their net cost of product. And they're very willing to entertain -- I'm not going to say whatever it takes, but they're very willing to entertain the approaches needed to drive to the lowest net cost.

邁克爾，我是艾倫。一個非常及時的問題。所以我想說，我們的客戶正在焦急地等待這種生物仿製藥的方式，這種方式真正開始於 23 年，並將持續到這十年的大部分時間。他們希望我們做的是向他們提供降低產品淨成本的策略、計劃設計、程序和方法。他們非常願意接受——我不會說任何需要的，但他們非常願意接受驅動到最低淨成本所需的方法。

And so as you pointed out, there are products that will be interchangeable, some of them will be substitutable. The manufacturer pricing strategies aren't entirely set yet. So it's -- one would say it's not quite clear exactly how that's going to come to fruition, but we are very, very confident that the biosimilars will be an important contributor to our continued success in lowering specialty trend and overall trend for our customers. And as we've said many times, generally, when we create that sort of value, our customers are happy to pay us for it.

正如您所指出的，有些產品可以互換，其中一些可以替代。製造商的定價策略尚未完全確定。所以它 - 有人會說這將如何實現還不是很清楚，但我們非常非常有信心，生物仿製藥將成為我們繼續成功降低客戶的專業趨勢和整體趨勢的重要貢獻者。正如我們多次說過的那樣，一般來說，當我們創造這種價值時，我們的客戶很樂意為此付錢給我們。

And if I can just add one more question on Pharmacy Services and growth. You did mention 340B in terms of not growing year-over-year, whether it's within this year's guidance or the multiyear plan, what is the assumption for 340B growth within your overall book of business?

如果我可以再添加一個關於藥房服務和增長的問題。您確實提到了 340B 沒有同比增長，無論是在今年的指導還是多年計劃中，您的整體業務賬簿中 340B 增長的假設是什麼？

So it's Alan again, Michael. So 340B, obviously, the way I would think about 340B is think about it as a volume discussion, right? So subsequent to when we put guidance out last year, there were a number of -- I would -- I guess I would phrase it as the manufacturers continuing to write their own regulations and deciding what they were and weren't going to apply pricing to. And so that reduced the volume.

又是艾倫，邁克爾。所以 340B，很明顯，我對 340B 的看法是把它當作一個體積討論，對吧？因此，在我們去年發布指導方針之後，有一些——我會——我想我會說它是製造商繼續編寫自己的法規並決定他們是什麼，不打算應用定價到。這樣就減少了音量。

So when the volume goes down, right, covered entities make less money, which is the entire reason for the existence of the 340B program, our clients don't have access to lower-cost drugs. Wellpartner, our third-party administrator, doesn't have the volume to reprocess claims and our dispensing pharmacies don't earn the dispensing fees. So that's when volume goes down.

因此，當數量下降時，承保實體的收入會減少，這就是 340B 計劃存在的全部原因，我們的客戶無法獲得低成本藥物。 Wellpartner，我們的第三方管理員，沒有重新處理索賠的數量，我們的配藥藥房不賺取配藥費用。所以這就是成交量下降的時候。

What we've now seen going into the first quarter of 2022 is that manufacturers have articulated the conditions by which they will open up contract pharmacy 340B pricing for covered entities. So that volume comes back, now there is a timing issue, right, how fast to covered entities make the decisions they need to make, what are the restrictions that are placed on it. So -- and then there's an ultimate volume, which manufacturers decide to do. So within all of those variability, so as the volume comes back, covered entities make money, our clients save money, Wellpartner has more volume to process. So within all of the totality, we're estimating basically flat in the program year-over-year, which is sort of our best thinking right now.

我們現在看到進入 2022 年第一季度的是，製造商已經闡明了他們將為受保實體開放合同藥房 340B 定價的條件。所以這個數量又回來了，現在有一個時間問題，對，涵蓋實體多快做出他們需要做出的決定，對其施加的限制是什麼。所以 - 然後是製造商決定做的最終數量。因此，在所有這些可變性中，隨著交易量的回升，涵蓋的實體賺錢，我們的客戶省錢，Wellpartner 有更多的交易量需要處理。因此，在所有總體中，我們估計該計劃的年復一年基本持平，這是我們目前最好的想法。

We'll take our next question from Steven Valiquette of Barclays.

我們將向巴克萊銀行的 Steven Valiquette 提出下一個問題。

So just for the LTC subsegment, the former Omnicare operations that nobody ever really asked about. I just wanted to ask, we've seen some pretty notable increases in the skilled nursing facility, or SNF, industry occupancy gains in the first 3, 4 months of '22 after a slower occupancy recovery in calendar '21. So I'm just wondering if that's translating into just better Rx volume results for the LTC Omnicare operations in early '22?

因此，僅針對 LTC 子部分，即以前沒有人真正詢問過的 Omnicare 操作。我只是想問一下，在 21 年日曆的入住率恢復較慢之後，我們已經看到專業護理機構或 SNF 的行業入住率在 22 年的前 3、4 個月出現了顯著增長。所以我只是想知道這是否會轉化為 22 年初 LTC Omnicare 運營的更好的 Rx 量結果？

Steven, we've seen that volume come up a little bit. And for the most part, that business has tracked with our expectations this year, but I certainly wouldn't characterize it as an inflection point or anything like that. It's definitely been recovering from its bottom during COVID and has more or less been consistent with expectations this year.

史蒂文，我們已經看到音量增加了一點。在很大程度上，該業務今年符合我們的預期，但我當然不會將其描述為拐點或類似的東西。在 COVID 期間，它肯定已經從谷底復甦，並且或多或少與今年的預期一致。

We'll take our next question from Nathan Rich of Goldman Sachs.

我們將向高盛的內森·里奇提出下一個問題。

Maybe just start on the retail business. Shawn, could you give a little bit more detail on the margin dynamics that you saw play out in the first quarter? I guess gross margin was down a little more than we expected year-over-year. Can you maybe just talk about what's driving that and kind of what you expect over the balance of the year?

也許剛開始零售業務。肖恩，您能否詳細介紹一下您在第一季度看到的利潤率動態？我猜毛利率同比下降比我們預期的要多一點。你能不能談談是什麼推動了這一點，以及你對今年剩餘時間的期望？

And then it looks on like on the cost side, SG&A came in favorable. Can you maybe just talk about how wage increases have trended relative to your expectations?

然後看起來在成本方面，SG&A 是有利的。您能否談談工資增長相對於您的預期的趨勢？

Yes. It's -- obviously, we had a very strong quarter. There's some dynamics in the quarter year-over-year that have to do with sort of the vaccine program starting last year, and we had very high expense levels last year in the vaccine business, and that's obviously been fine-tuned now. So year-over-year, despite the fact that vaccine volumes were down, which I think is a little bit of the gross margin question and answer, we actually did better kind of bottom line-wise because of sort of the G&A components and some of the reimbursement has changed over that period of time, too.

是的。這是 - 顯然，我們有一個非常強勁的季度。與去年同期相比，該季度的一些動態與去年開始的某種疫苗計劃有關，去年我們在疫苗業務中的支出水平非常高，現在顯然已經進行了微調。因此，與去年同期相比，儘管疫苗數量有所下降，我認為這是毛利率問題的一部分，但我們實際上在底線方面做得更好，因為 G&A 組件和一些在那段時間裡，報銷的金額也發生了變化。

Testing, again, that's probably been down sort of year-over-year. But overall, we probably had a contribution towards growth of a couple of hundred million from COVID in Q1. The other dynamics, I think were very -- so we had a light kind of cold and flu season, right? So there was that going on, both in the front store and the back of the store. But again, script growth was good. There was nothing particularly surprising on the reimbursement side. The front store was good across sort of a broader set of categories than just OTC.

再次測試，這可能逐年下降。但總的來說，我們可能在第一季度從 COVID 中貢獻了數億美元的增長。我認為其他動態非常 - 所以我們有輕微的感冒和流感季節，對吧？所以在前面的商店和商店的後面都發生了這種情況。但同樣，劇本增長良好。報銷方面沒有什麼特別令人驚訝的。前台商店在比 OTC 更廣泛的類別中表現良好。

In fairness, last year's first quarter '21 was still probably somewhat depressed because of what was going on. But overall, the metrics look good.

公平地說，由於正在發生的事情，去年 21 年第一季度可能仍然有些沮喪。但總的來說，這些指標看起來不錯。

Okay. Great. If I could just ask a quick follow-up on your comments on the M&A landscape. And I guess it sounds like there's still a disconnect on valuations between buyer and seller. I guess, have you seen that conversation start to shift at all just given what we've seen kind of play out in the market so far this year?

好的。偉大的。如果我能快速跟進您對併購領域的評論。而且我猜這聽起來買賣雙方之間的估值仍然存在脫節。我想，鑑於我們今年迄今為止在市場上看到的情況，您是否看到談話開始發生轉變？

Yes. And it's been an interesting dynamic, right? When we set out on this journey, some of these companies were valued at 7 to 8x revenue, right? And now they've -- and that probably wasn't right, right? But now some of them have regressed to maybe 1 or 2, and that may not be completely correct either. So I mean, the answer is the longer this persists, right, the greater this becomes sort of the reality upon which people make some decisions. And so I would say sort of directionally, yes, but it still remains challenging given sort of the memories of where some of these values were.

是的。這是一個有趣的動態，對吧？當我們開始這一旅程時，其中一些公司的收入估值為 7 到 8 倍，對吧？現在他們已經——這可能是不對的，對吧？但現在他們中的一些人已經倒退到可能是 1 或 2，這也可能不完全正確。所以我的意思是，答案是這種情況持續的時間越長，對，這就越成為人們做出某些決定的現實。所以我會說有點方向，是的，但考慮到其中一些價值所在的記憶，它仍然具有挑戰性。

We'll take our next question from Justin Lake of Wolfe Research.

我們將從沃爾夫研究的賈斯汀湖提出我們的下一個問題。

First question, just, Shawn, appreciate your comments on COVID. You talked about $200 million contribution year-over-year in retail. I was getting to an estimate of about $800 million benefit to the year. Is that a reasonable ballpark? And then how much was the total benefit in the first quarter? And then just lastly, does this completely get offset in your mind by a weakness in COVID -- negative COVID impact in the benefits business?

第一個問題，肖恩，感謝您對 COVID 的評論。您談到了零售業每年 2 億美元的貢獻。我估計這一年的收益約為 8 億美元。這是一個合理的球場嗎？那麼第一季度的總收益是多少？最後，在您的腦海中，這是否完全被 COVID 的弱點所抵消——COVID 對福利業務的負面影響？

Yes. So the -- let me just sort of talk a little bit about what our COVID expectations are. And the answer to your question eventually will be that's probably in the neighborhood, albeit we've gotten there with a little bit different path now with the fourth booster. We expect now about 18 million vaccines for 2022, including the provision for the fourth booster for the defined populations. This would be a decline of about 70% versus 2022.

是的。所以 - 讓我稍微談談我們對 COVID 的期望是什麼。你的問題的答案最終可能會在附近，儘管我們現在已經有了第四個助推器的一些不同的路徑。我們現在預計到 2022 年將有大約 1800 萬支疫苗，包括為特定人群提供第四次加強免疫。與 2022 年相比，這將下降約 70%。

Testing, excluding OTC, is expected to be down 50% plus or minus. And the OTC test will be in the same neighborhood, maybe a little bit higher. But overall, that's going to probably produce a contribution year-over-year. That's down 60%, 65% on COVID. And if you do the math, you're not going to be far off your number.

不包括 OTC 在內的測試預計將下降 50% 上下。 OTC 測試將在同一社區進行，可能會更高一些。但總的來說，這可能會逐年產生貢獻。這下降了 60%，COVID 下降了 65%。如果你做數學，你的數字不會太遠。

A lot of that contribution, maybe half-ish is in the first quarter of this year, and it is more front-end loaded than back-end loaded going forward. And again, to some extent, the jury is out in an endemic situation in terms of where we'll go with additional boosters, testing and test to treat and things like that. So there's more to play out as in terms of how that ripples out in the second half of this year but into next year.

很多貢獻，也許是今年第一季度的一半，而且它的前端負載比後端負載更多。再一次，在某種程度上，陪審團處於流行的情況下，我們將在哪裡使用額外的助推器、測試和測試來治療以及類似的事情。因此，就今年下半年但到明年的影響而言，還有更多的事情要做。

For HCB, the picture is more nuanced in the sense that we're now 3 years removed from our 2019 baseline. But maybe most importantly, we've now been able to reflect the COVID expenses in product pricing. And so as I mentioned in my remarks, overall cost trends came in consistent or slightly better versus our trended baseline, which, while I'm not going to declare victory prematurely, that's a very encouraging result, both for '22 and potentially '23 as well.

對於 HCB 而言，情況更加微妙，因為我們現在距離 2019 年的基線已經過去了 3 年。但也許最重要的是，我們現在已經能夠在產品定價中反映 COVID 費用。正如我在評論中提到的，總體成本趨勢與我們的趨勢基線一致或略好，雖然我不會過早宣布勝利，但對於 22 年和可能的 23 年來說，這是一個非常令人鼓舞的結果也是。

I think what this means for '23, though, is I think we have to return to how we've traditionally looked at this business, which is by matching price increases with expected cost trends and managing revenue growth and operating margin levels.

不過，我認為這對 23 年意味著什麼，我認為我們必須回到我們傳統上看待這項業務的方式，即將價格上漲與預期成本趨勢相匹配，並管理收入增長和營業利潤率水平。

Got it. And if I can just ask a follow-up. You mentioned capital. So running some numbers there, I'm getting to over that 3-year period, you talked about at the Investor Day '22 to '24, about $20 billion of potential capital above and beyond what you've already kind of earmarked but about 2/3 of that coming from free cash flow generation and about 1/3 from potential leveraging up to about 3.5x. Is that a reasonable ballpark number in terms of what you think your excess capital could be that's already not in guidance? And then maybe...

知道了。如果我可以要求跟進。你提到了資本。因此，在那裡計算一些數字，我將在 3 年期間，您在 22 年至 24 年的投資者日談到，大約 200 億美元的潛在資本超出了您已經指定但大約其中 2/3 來自自由現金流的產生，約 1/3 來自潛在槓桿率高達約 3.5 倍。就您認為您的超額資本可能已經不在指導範圍內的情況而言，這是一個合理的數字嗎？然後也許...

I think that probably assumes some leverage ratio that's a little bit higher than where we are today, but still consistent with sort of our investment-grade rating strategy. But I think that ballpark is in the neighborhood.

我認為這可能假設一些槓桿率比我們今天的水平略高，但仍符合我們的投資級評級策略。但我認為那個球場就在附近。

We'll take our next question from A.J. Rice of Credit Suisse.

我們將回答 A.J. 的下一個問題。瑞信的賴斯。

Can you hear me now?

你能聽到我嗎？

Yes, proceed with your question.

是的，繼續你的問題。

Yes. Sorry about that. So as you commented, the primary care area is still a little pricey. You also mentioned home health. I wondered if maybe you can flesh out a little more what the capabilities you want. I mean are you looking as some of your peers have done for something that's got a platform of fee-for-service that you can then pivot to value-based? Is there other aspects of a home health platform that would be of interest to you?

是的。對於那個很抱歉。所以正如你所評論的，初級保健領域仍然有點貴。您還提到了家庭健康。我想知道您是否可以進一步充實您想要的功能。我的意思是，您是否像您的一些同行一樣為某項服務所做的事情做了一個收費服務平台，然後您可以轉向基於價值的平台？您是否會對家庭健康平台的其他方面感興趣？

And I think there's an anxiety in the marketplace a little bit that you sort of set up an idea that one of these areas would start to contribute in '24. It's been about a year since the Investor Day, not quite, but about. And people are getting a little anxious that nothing's been announced. Could you give us maybe your perspective on your ability to -- how important is doing some sort of deal to being able to deliver on some of your long-term objectives? Or do you feel pressure that you need to do something? Maybe just have a few comments on that.

而且我認為市場上存在一種焦慮，即您會產生一種想法，即這些領域中的一個將在 24 年開始做出貢獻。自投資者日以來已經過去了大約一年，不完全是，但大約是。人們開始有點擔心什麼都沒有宣布。您能否向我們提供您對您的能力的看法 - 達成某種交易對於實現您的一些長期目標有多重要？或者您是否感到需要做某事的壓力？也許只是對此有一些評論。

A.J., it might feel like a year since Investor Day, but it's actually only been 4.5 months since Investor Day. But I think we all look like it's been a year. But anyway, let me just comment broadly on our home health strategy, and then I'll kick it to Shawn to talk a little bit about kind of what we're thinking.

A.J.，可能感覺距離投資者日有一年，但實際上距離投資者日只有 4.5 個月。但我認為我們看起來都已經過了一年。但無論如何，讓我對我們的家庭健康策略進行廣泛的評論，然後我將把它踢給肖恩，談談我們的想法。

Obviously, as a company, we're uniquely positioned to integrate our existing capabilities. As we think about primary care and extending into the home, we -- there's a number of opportunities for us. We're starting very early with our post-acute care transitions. We'll look at opportunities to support, first and foremost, the Aetna membership, particularly to support improvement in Medicare cost and then expand into a payer-agnostic.

顯然，作為一家公司，我們具有獨特的優勢來整合我們現有的能力。當我們考慮初級保健並擴展到家庭時，我們 - 我們有很多機會。我們很早就開始了我們的急性後護理過渡。我們將首先尋找支持 Aetna 會員的機會，特別是支持改善醫療保險成本，然後擴展到與付款人無關的領域。

So there's a lot in the home, but clearly -- and as you know, we're already in the home with Coram, with our virtual care, with our new post-acute transitions. And then we'll expand coverage where we can link it into primary care. So there's a number of options, and we are looking at that, too, as part of our acquisition strategy as well. But our first and foremost priority is really to advance our primary care capabilities. And as Shawn mentioned, we continue to navigate our way through the valuation. Shawn, do you want to talk about '24?

所以家裡有很多東西，但很明顯——正如你所知，我們已經和科拉姆一起在家，有了我們的虛擬護理，有了我們新的急性後過渡期。然後我們將擴大覆蓋範圍，將其與初級保健聯繫起來。所以有很多選擇，我們也在考慮將其作為我們收購戰略的一部分。但我們的首要任務是真正提高我們的初級保健能力。正如肖恩所提到的，我們繼續在估值中導航。肖恩，你想談談 24 年嗎？

Yes. So what I would say, A.J., on this is we certainly remain committed to delivering the EPS target for 2024. And what we described at Investor Day was a pathway to sort of get there with an M&A contribution. And I certainly wouldn't step away from that yet. But it was a pathway and inevitably, pieces of that pathway might be different.

是的。所以我要說的是，A.J.，在這方面，我們當然仍然致力於實現 2024 年的每股收益目標。我們在投資者日所描述的是通過併購貢獻實現目標的途徑。我當然不會放棄這一點。但這是一條途徑，不可避免地，這條途徑的某些部分可能會有所不同。

And I am not sort of abdicating the number that we won't get the earnings contribution, but I do want to go back to the capital point that if we were hypothetically in that position, capital continues to be a lever that we can use. You'll recall at Investor Day, when you just looked at the pure capital, if we did just sort of deploy all that capital, you can get on top of these numbers. So it's -- this is about the longer-term strategic positioning that we're doing. And again, I think it's important that we do the right deal for us and for the strategy, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that we can satisfy both commitments. But I also want to make sure we do the right deal because it's that important for our future.

而且我並沒有放棄我們不會獲得收益貢獻的數字，但我確實想回到資本點，如果我們假設處於那個位置，資本仍然是我們可以使用的槓桿。你會記得在投資者日，當你只看純資本時，如果我們只是部署了所有的資本，你就可以掌握這些數字。所以它 - 這是關於我們正在做的長期戰略定位。再一次，我認為重要的是我們為我們和戰略做出正確的交易，我將盡我所能確保我們能夠滿足這兩個承諾。但我也想確保我們做正確的交易，因為這對我們的未來非常重要。

Okay. Just a brief follow-up. You haven't been asked this late in the call, so it's surprising. On inflation, supply chain, labor, any updated thoughts on any of that?

好的。只是一個簡短的跟進。這麼晚了還沒有人問你，所以這很令人驚訝。關於通貨膨脹、供應鏈、勞動力，有什麼最新的想法嗎？

Yes, A.J., on inflation, obviously, we're incredibly mindful of this topic. And as you know, the U.S. hasn't seen these kinds of inflationary pressures in decades. There are some aspects of inflation that impact that could be very positive to us. But as we think about each business and inflation, there's varying reactions to inflation. And I'll ask Shawn to kind of go through a little bit of those details by each of those businesses to give you a firmer view of what it looks like.

是的，A.J.，關於通貨膨脹，顯然，我們非常關注這個話題。如你所知，美國幾十年來從未見過這種通脹壓力。通貨膨脹的某些方面可能對我們產生非常積極的影響。但當我們考慮每項業務和通貨膨脹時，對通貨膨脹的反應各不相同。我會要求肖恩通過這些業務中的每一個來詳細介紹一下這些細節，以便讓您更深入地了解它的外觀。

Yes. And I would say in the quarter, mainly, I think, because we made wage moves last year, I don't think we felt a lot of pinch. But the one -- obviously, the one place that we did see it is actually a result of the kind of cousin of inflation, and that's interest rates. And some of the losses that we realized, capital losses that we took in the portfolio related to that. And that will be something to keep in mind going forward. We have a $20 billion plus fixed income portfolio that has moved from about $1 billion gain position, unrealized gain position at the end of the year to approximately $1 billion unrealized loss position. And there's always some element of portfolio turnover and management during the year. So that's something that I think we'll continue to monitor closely.

是的。我會說，在本季度，我認為主要是因為我們去年調整了工資，我認為我們並沒有感到太多壓力。但是一個——很明顯，我們確實看到它的一個地方實際上是通貨膨脹的表親的結果，那就是利率。我們意識到的一些損失，我們在投資組合中承擔的資本損失與此相關。這將是未來需要牢記的事情。我們有一個超過 200 億美元的固定收益投資組合，從年底的約 10 億美元的收益頭寸、未實現的收益頭寸變為約 10 億美元的未實現虧損頭寸。並且在這一年中總會有一些投資組合周轉和管理的因素。因此，我認為我們將繼續密切關注這一點。

As you mentioned, I mean, as we think forward, there's a potential across all of our businesses for both the labor and G&A aspects. But I think as I've thought about this, it's the cost of goods sold aspect that I've -- we've certainly thought about a lot. I'd remind everyone that historically, higher inflation has also driven a higher top line, particularly in the HCB and the PSS businesses.

正如你所提到的，我的意思是，正如我們向前考慮的那樣，我們所有的業務在勞動力和 G&A 方面都有潛力。但我認為，正如我所考慮的那樣，這是我所考慮的商品銷售成本方面——我們當然已經考慮了很多。我要提醒大家，從歷史上看，更高的通脹也推動了更高的收入，特別是在 HCB 和 PSS 業務中。

From a COGS standpoint, I wouldn't say we're seeing it show up in pharmacy yet. '22, I think we're in very good shape as most of our contracts are all locked down in HCB. Our average HCB contract is about 3 years in duration. And so obviously, some number of those will be coming up for '23. But I'd also point out, one of my earlier comments that we still have a lot of pricing leverage on 2023 and will certainly fully reflect our thinking on inflation as we think about forward pricing.

從 COGS 的角度來看，我不會說我們還沒有看到它出現在藥房中。 '22，我認為我們的狀態非常好，因為我們的大部分合同都被鎖定在 HCB 中。我們的平均 HCB 合同期限約為 3 年。很明顯，其中一些將在 23 年出現。但我還要指出，我之前的評論之一是，我們在 2023 年仍然有很多定價槓桿，並且在我們考慮遠期定價時肯定會充分反映我們對通脹的看法。

Now on retail, obviously, we'll be watching that as well, but it is a dynamic that can actually help, frankly, with our membership programs and also make our store brands more attractive relative to other products. So there are certainly a lot of fingers of this, but I do think we're looking at this kind of thoroughly and thinking about all the levers we can pull to mitigate the impact.

現在在零售方面，顯然，我們也會關注這一點，但坦率地說，它實際上可以幫助我們的會員計劃，也可以使我們的商店品牌相對於其他產品更具吸引力。所以肯定有很多手指，但我確實認為我們正在徹底研究這種情況，並考慮我們可以拉動的所有槓桿來減輕影響。

Yes. And A.J., on your labor question, obviously, we continue, like everyone else, to experience a very tight labor market. But as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, when we're closing stores, we've been able to retain those retail colleagues, which has been really helping us out in those locations. We also had very strong retention across our business, and we've been very successful in hiring some of the key areas in our company like digital and tech and analytics. So -- and the other thing I would just say is we're very pleased that more than half of our hires are diverse and are reflecting the communities that we serve.

是的。 A.J.，關於你的勞動力問題，很明顯，我們繼續像其他人一樣，經歷一個非常緊張的勞動力市場。但正如我在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，當我們關閉商店時，我們已經能夠留住那些零售同事，這確實在這些地方幫助了我們。我們在整個業務中也有很強的保留率，我們在招聘公司的一些關鍵領域方面非常成功，比如數字、技術和分析。所以 - 我想說的另一件事是，我們很高興我們一半以上的員工是多元化的，並且反映了我們所服務的社區。

We'll take our next question from Eric Percher of Nephron Research.

我們將向 Nephron Research 的 Eric Percher 提出下一個問題。

Shawn, I appreciate the color on the factors impacting quarterly profit in HCB and pharmacy. I wanted to drill into pharmacy services. For the year, do you expect fluctuation given COVID and large onboarding? And is there any fluctuation from sourcing benefit or 340B through the year?

肖恩，我很欣賞影響 HCB 和藥房季度利潤的因素的顏色。我想深入研究藥房服務。對於這一年，鑑於 COVID 和大量入職，您預計會出現波動嗎？全年採購收益或 340B 是否有任何波動？

On PSS, to your point, I think when you looked at our first quarter result, and this is something we anticipated, but we did have a very successful growth season and a very successful welcome season, and we did staff to sort of create that positive experience for our new customers. So expense levels are certainly a little bit higher in Q1 than sort of the run rate for the rest of the year. there's some movement, but the rest of the year, the quarters are generally sort of in the same neighborhood as each other for the rest of the year. Alan mentioned before from a 340B standpoint, we're largely assuming a flat year-over-year contribution. So a lot of the increases are coming sort of from the core elements of the business kind of around growth and specialty and things like that.

關於 PSS，就您而言，我認為當您查看我們的第一季度業績時，這是我們所預料的，但我們確實有一個非常成功的增長季和一個非常成功的歡迎季，我們讓員工來創造那種為我們的新客戶帶來積極的體驗。因此，第一季度的費用水平肯定比今年剩餘時間的運行率高一點。有一些變動，但在今年剩下的時間裡，這些季度通常在今年剩下的時間裡彼此在同一個街區。 Alan 之前從 340B 的角度提到過，我們在很大程度上假設同比貢獻持平。因此，很多增長都來自業務的核心要素，例如圍繞增長和專業之類的東西。

And Alan's comment, if I caught it correctly, was that there are ways to expand volume. Does that suggest that your view is that your support covered entities providing data and that's key to seeing the volumes increase, which ultimately gets you flat for the year?

如果我沒聽錯的話，艾倫的評論是有辦法擴大音量。這是否表明您的觀點是您的支持涵蓋提供數據的實體，這是看到數量增加的關鍵，這最終使您今年持平？

So Eric, it's Alan. The volume growth is off of the kind of depressed base from the actions that the manufacturers took, right? So it's not year-over-year volume growth, it's just a kind of a recovery of the volume. And so that's the first thing I'd say.

所以埃里克，是艾倫。銷量增長與製造商採取的行動所造成的那種低迷的基數不同，對吧？因此，這不是銷量同比增長，而只是銷量的一種恢復。這就是我要說的第一件事。

The second thing is ultimately the decision about whether or not they supply data to the manufacturers is up to covered entities. And so they will work with us and tell us when they are or aren't ready to turn the program back on and under what conditions.

第二件事是最終決定他們是否向製造商提供數據取決於相關實體。因此，他們將與我們合作，並告訴我們他們何時準備好或不准備重新啟動該程序以及在什麼條件下。

We'll take a question from Brian Tanquilut of Jefferies.

我們將回答 Jefferies 的 Brian Tanquilut 的問題。

Alan, just a follow-up question on -- just on your side of the business. As I think about some of the changes that we saw -- we've seen with sign of service shift because of the pandemic. So as things normalize in terms of hospital visits and physician visits, what are you seeing in terms of the durability of your Coram home infusion side or maybe even specialty mail just in terms of the volumes? And how that shift has -- is that sticking on both sides?

艾倫，只是關於您業務方面的後續問題。當我想到我們看到的一些變化時——我們看到了由於大流行而出現服務轉移的跡象。因此，隨著醫院就診和醫生就診的情況正常化，您對 Coram 家庭輸液側的耐用性或什至僅就數量而言甚至是專業郵件的耐用性有何看法？這種轉變是如何產生的——是雙方都堅持的嗎？

Yes. So I guess, I think of the 3 business units within the company, the Pharmacy Services segment probably had the least variability in terms of underlying core business activity. So the specialty pharmacy itself, there was a little bit of a dip along the way in new prescriptions as you saw people not going to the doctor. But by and large, the sign of service shifts there were nonmaterial.

是的。所以我想，我認為公司內的 3 個業務部門，藥房服務部門在潛在核心業務活動方面的變化可能最小。因此，專業藥房本身在新處方中出現了一些下滑，因為你看到人們不去看醫生。但總的來說，服務轉移的跡象並不重要。

The Coram business was a little bit more impacted. Obviously, a lot of the acute scripts, the infusion and antibiotics. There weren't as many hospitalizations. That was offset to some extent by more oncology, things that were kind of traditional hospital outpatient that we picked up on. So net-net, I would say it's probably not a material change that impacts the Pharmacy Services segment just given the relative size of Coram versus the rest of the company.

Coram 業務受到的影響更大一些。顯然，很多急性腳本，輸液和抗生素。住院人數沒有那麼多。這在一定程度上被更多的腫瘤學所抵消，這些都是我們接受的傳統醫院門診。所以 net-net，我想說這可能不是影響藥房服務部門的重大變化，只是考慮到 Coram 與公司其他部門的相對規模。

I want to thank you all...

我要感謝大家...

And Shawn, just a quick follow-up. As I think about buybacks, a little -- probably a little earlier than I would have expected. So is this just capital deployment because your cash flow is really strong during the quarter? Or is it because of the delays with some of the acquisitions that you had planned? And should we expect potential upside from the buybacks as a result?

肖恩，只是一個快速的跟進。當我考慮回購時，可能比我預期的要早一點。那麼這僅僅是資本部署，因為您的現金流在本季度非常強勁嗎？或者是因為你計劃的一些收購的延遲？我們是否應該期待回購的潛在上行空間？

Yes. I mean it certainly emanates in some ways, right, from the strength of our ongoing ability to generate sort of deployable capital, and I want to make sure people understand that. It's less that it's something that we're going to rush out to do than it is to fully understand the strength of that capital and the fact that, that remains a lever that we can pull over time and in some ways has the potential to be a safety net from year-to-year given just the normal fluctuations of the business.

是的。我的意思是，它在某些方面肯定來自於我們持續產生可部署資本的能力，我想確保人們理解這一點。與其說這是我們要急於做的事情，不如說是要充分了解該資本的實力以及事實是，這仍然是我們可以隨著時間推移而拉動的槓桿，並且在某些方面有潛力成為考慮到業務的正常波動，每年都有一個安全網。

I want to thank you all for joining our call today and just leave you a few comments. As you can see, we -- our team continues to execute. We entered into 2022 with very powerful momentum and strong growth across all of our businesses. We remain confident we'll continue that momentum for the remainder of the year and beyond, and we look forward to updating you on our progress throughout the year. Thanks for joining the call.

我要感謝大家今天加入我們的電話會議，並給大家留下一些評論。如您所見，我們 - 我們的團隊繼續執行。進入 2022 年，我們的所有業務都擁有非常強勁的勢頭和強勁的增長。我們仍然有信心在今年餘下時間及以後繼續保持這種勢頭，我們期待著向您通報我們全年的進展情況。感謝您加入通話。

This concludes today's CVS Health First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call and Webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day.

今天的 CVS Health 2022 年第一季度收益電話會議和網絡廣播到此結束。你可以在這個時候斷開你的線路，並有一個美好的一天。