“As we have shared over the past 3 quarters, our efforts are focused on management and process improvements that steadily improve margins at Optum Health for 2026 and accelerate into 2027.”

In context

“and others like them are part of our commitment to pursue and invest in new and innovative ways to fulfill our mission to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. With that, I'll turn it over to Patrick. Patrick Conway: Thanks, Tim. Across Optum, positive first quarter results reflect strengthened operations, continued investment in growth and changes that make engaging with us easier for patients and provider and clinician partners. I'll start with Optum Health. Adjusted earnings of $1.3 billion reflect pricing and operational improvements that began in the back half of 2025 as well as actions taken to improve contracts and reshape our value-based care portfolio to better align with the original purpose and risk profile for that strategy. As we have shared over the past 3 quarters, our efforts are focused on management and process improvements that steadily improve margins at Optum Health for 2026 and accelerate into 2027. A key part of the progress is Optum Health's returned to a disciplined, integrated value-based care model with increasing prices from health systems, rising patient acuity and higher consumer expectations, integrated value-based care is the most effective way to improve outcomes and manage total cost of care over time. We are privileged to serve over 20 million patients in our Optum Health care models across the country, including over 4 million in fully value-based arrangements. Both patients and care providers do better when incentives are aligned towards care outcomes and not the quantity of services provided. For example, new research published in the American Journal of Managed Care showed that among nearly 2 million dual-eligible patients, those in value-based care arrangements had”