GoHealth Inc - Ordinary Shares - Class A Aktie

Good day, and welcome to the GoHealth Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to John Shave, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to GoHealth's Third Quarter 2025 Results Call. Joining me today are Vijay Kotte, Chief Executive Officer; and Brendan Shanahan, Chief Financial Officer. Today's conference call contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations.

Numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in these statements. Many of the factors that will determine future results are beyond the company's ability to control or predict. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise.

Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing our results for the third quarter 2025. We have posted the release on the GoHealth website under the Investor Relations tab. In the press release, we have listed certain risk factors that you should consider in conjunction with our forward-looking statements. We encourage you to consider the risk factors described on our Form 10-Q and our Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information.

During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in our press release. You may also refer to the Investor Relations presentation posted on the Investor Relations section of our website for reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed during this earnings call. I will now turn the call over to GoHealth's CEO, Vijay Kotte.

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. Today, more than 65 million individuals are enrolled in Medicare and nearly half participate in Medicare Advantage. Each year, beneficiaries are challenged to decide how to access their coverage. They face an overwhelming number of plan options and annually need to sift through changes to benefits, networks and formularies. Our role is to simplify that decision.

GoHealth's platform is built for more than 30 million shopping experiences, giving our agents a data-driven view of which plans best align with each beneficiary's eligibility, doctors, prescriptions and personalized needs. The foundation of our model remains the same, match beneficiaries to the coverage that serves them best, whether that means enrolling in a new plan or confirming their current one continues to be the right fit.

Turning to the current Medicare Advantage landscape. Demand for Medicare Advantage remains strong, and we believe the role of a trusted broker is more important than ever. However, the shape of growth this year has been different. Based on our analysis, health plans are prioritizing retention, stable member profiles and unit economics rather than broad expansion.

Health plans tighten plan economics, reduced prefunded marketing and adjusted broker compensation. In some cases, the most consumer preferred plans were made non-commissionable or were suppressed and some health plans eliminated or consolidated low-margin plans entirely. The decision to scale back our MA volume earlier this year began when we saw health plans tightening commissions, eligibility and benefit structures. So we pulled back intentionally.

As we disclosed with our Q2 results, we made a deliberate decision in the second quarter to scale back our Medicare Advantage activity in response to tightening health plan economics. We shifted our capacity into GoHealth Protect during SEP and prioritized retention and stable member profiles rather than pursuing volume where unit economics did not justify incremental volume.

What I can tell you based on my personal experience building and running Medicare Advantage health plans is that none of the actions that health plans are taking now are irrational. Frankly, I believe they are very justified and prudent. We believe that health plans are making good decisions and have been clear about what they want and what they do not want. We have been here before.

The industry experienced similar pressures previously. We learned from those cycles, and we use those lessons this year to move early. Rather than chasing volume and declining economics, we focused on 3 key priorities: one, quality over quantity; two, retention over short-term submissions; and three, cash preservation and strategic flexibility. We retain our highest quality agents, shifted marketing toward retention and adjusted compensation to reinforce objective guidance, including confirming the consumer's existing plan when appropriate.

We have significantly reduced overhead while continuing to invest in AI and automation that improve agent effectiveness, consumer experience and member retention. We are confident that this will keep our platform efficient today and maintain our strategic optionality moving forward. These decisions preserve the capabilities that matter to us, our member book, our retention and engagement model, our leadership and special needs plans and our efficient platform. We have continued support from our lenders and have enhanced our governance structure to support this strategy.

Last quarter, we obtained a new senior secured super priority term loan facility, including new capital and covenant relief, and we refreshed our Board with new directors aligned with long-term value creation. We believe these actions provide the capacity to operate, invest and evaluate strategic opportunities, including consolidation in a fragmented broker landscape. Health plans have been very clear about what they want today, retention over new growth, quality over quantity and focused growth on special needs plans.

We are aligning our strategy accordingly. We are protecting the parts of the business that matter to us the most. First, our leadership position in special needs plans where health plans are increasingly reallocating resources. Total available nonspecial needs plan products declined for 2026, while special needs plan options increased. This reflects a clear industry priority, targeted growth where value and continuity of care are highest.

Second, our high-quality member book that supports payment quality; and third, our retention and engagement model. The broker landscape remains fragmented, and we believe the current environment supports consolidation. With a stronger balance sheet, lender support and a refreshed Board, we believe that we are positioned to lead integration where it creates value, reducing duplicative costs, improving back book cash flow, stabilizing membership retention and enhancing the consumer experience.

We look forward to continuing to provide you with updates as we progress down this path. Here are the messages I want to make sure are clear. First, our pullback is intentional. We prioritize long-term value creation rather than near-term enrollment volume. Medicare is complex and choice can be overwhelming. Our role is not simply to move members into new plans. It is to help them understand whether their current plan is still the right fit. That balance between guidance and stability has always been core to how GoHealth serves consumers.

Second, we preserve the capabilities that matter to us the most, including our technology platform, our retention and engagement model, our high-quality member base and our leadership in special needs plans. Third, we believe the industry should consolidate. As others face capital constraints, we are confident that GoHealth is positioned to lead, to integrate and to expand when the environment stabilizes.

Let me leave you with one thought. If our interpretation of the market proves early or overly cautious, we believe we have preserved flexibility through the protection of the member base, the platform and the balance sheet. Alternatively, if we had chased projected volume in deteriorating economics and that assessment was wrong, the downside would have been significant and lasting. We chose the disciplined path.

We also remain optimistic. Medicare Advantage is a durable and important part of the U.S. health care system, and we expect the market to rationalize as benefit designs, STARS performance and cost structures stabilize. Because we read the market and reacted early, maintained our core capabilities, strengthened our balance sheet and aligned with health plan priorities, we believe GoHealth is positioned to return to revenue growth consistent with prior years when the market rationalizes, but with a meaningfully stronger margin and cash profile. With that, we will open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Robert McGuire with Granite Research.

So we've seen slowing and even contraction in parts of the Medicare Advantage market this year. Vijay, can you just give us an idea of your view of the Medicare Advantage growth trajectory over the next 12 to 24 months? And what catalysts could reaccelerate that growth? And what capabilities and investments best position GoHealth as the market stabilizes with retention and value-based plans?

Rob, good to hear your voice. Thanks for asking the question. This is an interesting topic. The market is one that has been dynamic for a lot of reasons, as you know. The health plans have been a driving force in that alongside what the government has been looking at and how they can monitor and manage the program at the same time.

As we think about the future, the propensity for membership to be stable and/or grow again, that's going to be dependent upon the health plan's ability to rationalize their cost structure to really double down in their star scores and to be able to get appropriate rate adjustments from the federal government to be able -- to invest in those products.

So yes, I think the CMS numbers are a projection of a decrease of market penetration of Medicare Advantage versus prior years. That is probably, in my mind, more of a short-term item as the product gets reset and confidence is rebuilt in those products.

That's why we feel it's prudent to have taken the action we did because there is uncertainty as to the stability of the new products that I think that are out there this year as we wait with anticipation as to how the health plans will perform under those products. This is also an interesting period where it's not just is the product good today.

As you know, in our business, it's about cash, cash flow, cash generation. We book our revenue on an LTV basis, but there's a presumption in those as you invest cash at time 0 that relies upon a year 1 renewal. And so understanding which products will be stable for multiple years is really critical. And so we do look forward to an opportunity where over the next 12 to 24 months, health plans will have stabilized that cost structure so that they can rightsize or rationalize those products, which again is consistent with all the verbiage they put out there. But we do believe Medicare Advantage is here to stay.

We think this is a very strategic and valuable tool to consumers who matter the most. This is important for their fixed income to be able to manage their total costs. So a long way to say, over 12 to 24 months, we do believe that the health plans according to their own projections, will have stabilized our cost structures, will be refocused in which geographies and which products make most sense to them. And then we will be able to align with those needs as we have historically.

And the last point I will say is that there's been no doubt the majority of the health plans have doubled down on their interest in special needs plans, and we have maintained that capability while we continue to invest in our technology to support those focused needs as we've been a leader in that space for years.

Okay. I appreciate that. And just a follow-up on growth. Protect, it looked like it continued to grow in the third quarter. Can you give us a deeper discussion on the key drivers of that growth and how you're balancing your focus on Protect during AEP with a more retention-oriented MA posture? And then lastly, how we should think about Protect's 2026 revenue contributions and which quarters could grow or strongest throughout the year?

No, I'm glad you brought it up. GoHealth Protect has been instrumental in the way we think about continued retention of our business. The more we can bring products that can enhance the peace of mind of our consumers, those that we have served in the past who are existing GoHealth customers as well as new consumers who didn't even know these products were available.

And we were able to test these at scale, as we talked about on our Q2 call, really moving most of our floor towards focusing on learning how to serve the population with this new product set and to deploy it in an efficient manner. We've got great partners on the other side of the carriers who support these products. And the strategy has always been to have a portfolio of products that aligned with how we want to serve consumers, both existing and new, while being able to oscillate based upon the seasonality, the natural seasonality that exists in the Medicare Advantage space.

And the GoHealth Protect product set actually is very complementary, meaning the peaks and valleys are offset. So when Medicare Advantage is more peaked, it's actually the lower period of time for the GoHealth Protect or guaranteed acceptance products. So as we go through the next year, now we understand the seasonality of both products very well, and we believe they're very complementary. We will go into 2026 with that same approach.

And obviously, in the current AEP, focusing a little bit more on MA during the peak closing part of the AEP period where we're doing mostly MA and then coming right back into the guaranteed acceptance space and then oscillating a little bit as we read and react to the marketplace in OEP and beyond.

But you should not be surprised that as we think about the MA marketplace, it only really changes when benefit plan cycles change. So now we know the new portfolio of products available on the market for the 2026 plan year. We -- what is unclear is what health plans want to do with those. Will they suppress more? Will they change their compensation for all the products that are out there.

So we're going to be very tentative on that as we watch and learn from what we saw last year where there were suppressions midstream, there were commission changes midstream, and there were -- sorry, continued changes all the way through OEP and going into SEP. So we want to be very thoughtful, and we're prepared for those changes as they might come through. But we are going to make sure that GoHealth Protect is augmented in there and can be more prime during the SEP and OEP period than you might have otherwise assumed.

Our next question comes from Pat McCann with NOBLE Capital Markets.

First, if you wouldn't mind, I know you've spoken about it already a little bit, but if you could talk a little bit about some of the more -- the detailed reasons why you decided to pull back on the MA side of things. And then I guess if you could look at it from 2 different perspectives. On the one hand, what are the implications for you if you read the market correctly. But on the other hand, what would the consequences be if your assessment ultimately proves to be incorrect?

Good to hear you. So look, this is actually a fairly simple answer. We listened to what people were saying. We serve 2 primary constituents. We serve our consumers, the Medicare beneficiaries, who seek our services to help identify the best plan options for them. And we serve the health plans to be able to engage that population and either enroll or retain or service that consumer base.

And both parties have communicated to us that this is a market where we need to pull back on new enrollment and focus on stability. The health plans have explicitly said they value retention, and they're going to do everything they can to drive higher retention to grow their membership as opposed to get aggregate new members. They're trying to balance that, but they have indicated they would trade new members for a retained member nearly every time. So we listen to that.

The second piece is we looked at the product landscape. We understand that a number of the products that are some of the best in certain geographies are ones that are not even commissionable. And many of the products that we've written are still stable. They are the best products for the consumers that we saw last year. So when we look at that fact base, and we hear what people are looking for, consumers want stability and peace of mind.

Health plans want retention over new enrollment. And they're putting their money where their mouth is. And the consumer relationship to us is a long-term play. So when we assess all that, we said the best use of our capital is not to confuse the market. It is to focus on the consumers who have relied on us in the past to drive retention when there's noise to try to probably take some of those members we served and put in the right plan before to distract them and confuse them into some other product that may be commissionable by another broker and to make sure our base is stable and those -- they're in the right spots.

And we feel confident the majority of our membership that we wrote is -- and as we proved a couple of years ago, when we launched the PlanFit Save program, we built a reputation with our consumers that we were going to tell them what the right thing was for them regardless of whether we got paid for it.

And we've done that in a very concerted way on our current membership base as opposed to burning cash in the general marketing trend and having a lot of consumers come in that we're ultimately going to tell them to do nothing.

And we believe that should be the most consistent message delivered this year by anybody speaking to a consumer. And so as we think about that dynamic, you could say, well, hey, there's a lot of messages out there today. How do you know you're right? We don't know for a fact that we're right. But our data says that we're directionally correct. The question is to the extent we're correct and where are the places that we're wrong.

And I would say we, as a leadership team, assess it from what are the risks here. The downside of our approach is that we might have not grown as much as we could have. We might have left an opportunity on the table. But we have retained all of our assets and our capabilities. We've maintained a cash position that gives us strength to move forward. We've retained and continue to invest in our technology to be able to scale back when we're ready.

So we might be just a little bit behind if we're wrong. But if we're right and if we're more right than wrong, then that means if we hadn't made this decision and we have continued to go into the market like we might have otherwise gone because of the attractiveness of the disruption in the marketplace, then that would have likely burned a lot of upfront cash that would not have been returned let alone in the first part of next year, but even within a renewal cycle because there's going to be a lower probability of those renewals.

And as you know better than anyone, Pat, in this industry, you need that first renewal to do a cash-on-cash return on traditional agency-based business. So in history, Pat, we have always relied on looking at agency, non-agency when we could do that when we didn't think products were predictable. This year, we didn't have that option because of the health plans lack of interest in new business.

And thus, we think if we are -- would have gone down the path of trying to lead towards growth in the traditional manner, we would have had a lasting result, which would not have been good. And burning cash without an expectation to get a return on it is not the right way to survive the long game in the Medicare Advantage business.

So those are the ways we looked at it. Those are the factors we assessed, and that's how we think about it. If we're wrong, we've just got to re-ramp and get going. But if we're right, the worst thing we could have done was to deploy a bunch of capital into this market.

I appreciate that, Vijay. And then finally, could you talk a little bit about why you think the industry should consolidate and what specifically positions GoHealth to be a leader in that consolidation?

Yes. I think there's been a development of specialization within the broker space, but there is some unnecessary duplication of cost. We do know that we all serve consumers the same way and have different approaches to the way we do it, but the consumers are seeking the same thing from everybody. And when you think about the way to efficiently invest cash and capital to serve the most consumers you can without causing extra noise in the business.

We believe that a large volume of brokers in the industry, a lot of different constituents, marketing at a significant level, introduces additional churn by their natural existence. We do believe there's duplicative expense on the fixed cost side, duplicative investments and enhancements in technology and other type of capabilities that if you were to be able to combine, you could take the power of a strong consumer base in your back books, deploy it against leaner, more built-for-purpose administrative costs that can allow self-investment of cash.

You generate enough cash to drive your growth. less dependence on cash and compensation models with health plans. It gives you a lot of independence and capability. So the market has grown to a point and you found natural leaders who do it the right way. And we believe that natural leaders with different expertise coming together get scale leverage. And that's why we think this is a prime time to do just that, and we're actively assessing the market for those types of endeavors.

Our next question comes from Ben Hendrix with RBC Capital Markets.

We've heard from carriers this quarter with Humana kind of setting forth the most direct messaging about slowing new sales to protect the economics of their existing members and also, in some cases, suspending broker relationships ahead of AEP.

We just wanted to get an idea of how pervasive that kind of mentality is across your carrier base, the degree to which you're seeing that in other carriers. And then if Humana is kind of the more -- just what that weighting looks like in your book in terms of the importance to your Encompass platform and other business.

Thanks, Ben. I appreciate the question. This is one where I think you referred to Humana specifically. But what I would tell you is most of the major health plans have learned the lesson, right, which is going back to '21 AEP, '22, I said in my prepared remarks that we've seen this story before. Any type of outsized growth, either intentional or unintentional has not been a good move or outcome for the health plan who won that disproportionate growth in share. Why?

Well, the health plan has been very specific about the challenges in profitability. But in addition, they've also highlighted the headwind it puts on your Star scores. And each of the major health plans has been in that spot over the last 3 to 5 years, where they won more than they thought. It had significant profitability challenges for them to onboard all that membership in Q1.

That onboarding challenge leads to STARS challenges off the bat and then it hits you on the medical cost side, especially in the V28 world. So all of that said, the health plans are trying to be very thoughtful of they'd rather grow slower or less than planned and then be able to try to tweak it up than to be in a position where they need to pull it back. And I will tell you that is exactly what the health plans are trying to do.

Nobody wants broad-based growth. Everybody wants even more than we've ever seen, very specific targeted growth with very specific limits on it, but nearly every one of them has maintained that they want us to focus on stability, consistency and retention. And that's exactly what we've done. So I think that's what's been happening in the market. That's what the health plans are doing, and that's how we're serving them because nobody wants to be that big winner that yields a big headwind for them in the first quarter of next year.

That makes sense. And also, I appreciate your commentary about maintaining flexibility while also significantly reducing kind of costs related to the workforce. I wanted just to talk to you about kind of the mechanics of a re-ramp, like when you -- when we need to get back into this -- into kind of a full sales mode, kind of what are the hurdles and the mechanics of getting re-ramped back to full capacity in the future?

No, it's a great question. Obviously, we had to make sure we scrutinize that to maintain all the capabilities that enable that. We've invested, as we've talked about over the last almost 3 years in enhancing our technology to do one thing. We -- when I started here, one of the biggest cash burns was the cost of ramping agents during SEP in advance of AEP, right? Because ramp is always generally a challenge in any dynamic and positive marketing environment. Ramp has been a challenge.

And so what did we do? We focused our efforts to standardize our technology and tools to really leverage how do you tie in your learning and development function to train and bring on agents faster, to deploy them with high quality, to do it in the shortest time possible. When we first started here, it took up to 16 weeks to get an agent up to the ready to sell, as we would call it, and have the right training.

As you saw last year, we brought on the e-TeleQuote team. We did that within 2 weeks and got them to double their production, and that is what our tool can do. So we're maintaining that capacity, maintaining that capability, continuing to invest in the AI and automation tools that standardize the process. That's the key to ramp, standardize the experience so that a new person who's licensed can easily flow in and let the technology do their work and let the agent do what they're supposed to do on the call, answer nuanced questions and give peace of mind. They can't. They're not there to decipher the 3,000 plans. That's what the tech does.

So when we think about identifying that market opportunity where the health plans are starting to lean back into it, they tend to give you a little bit of line of sight into that. And then we begin to ramp. And there are plenty of agents out there. When we needed them, we can go out and get.

And right now, I think a lot of people are available if you wanted to start to ramp tomorrow, saying that's what we're doing. But I will tell you that when you want to, we'll be able to find those agents, and we'll be able to put them through our platform and bring them on and ready to sell faster than anything we've seen in the market thus far.

Our next question comes from Jim Sidoti with Sidoti & Co.

So I'm trying to figure out how you navigate the next 12 to 24 months until enrollment start to ramp again. Where is your cash balance today? And what do you think the cash burn will be over the next few quarters?

Yes, let's just start. I mean I think you'll see in our filings, approximately $32 million of cash at the end of the third quarter. And you've also seen we do have access to the continued draws for the new money that we brought in as part of that super priority lender deal that we entered into at the end of last quarter. But this is really about making sure that you have a plan.

Like I said, this is about cash management. This is about making sure you're deploying cash in an efficient way that is going to give you the best return on cash-on-cash return on that. And so when we think about our pro forma, we've got our plans in place to enable us to have sufficient liquidity to run and operate our business to maintain compliance with our covenants, et cetera, but give us the flexibility to come back when we're ready, when the market is ready for us to do that. And we're going to be very thoughtful about how we time it.

And as we said in the previous response to Ben's question, it's critically important to have the continued investment in technology. We're not stopping our investments in our capabilities. We're going to enhance them. We're going to be very thoughtful on how we deploy our cash against it to ensure that we are going to be even more ready.

You can have even a shorter time to be re-ramped. That's the key is being able to turn it up and turn it off quickly and effectively. And that capability is what we've, I think, proven to do well, and we're going to continue to develop, and that enables us to have confidence that our current plans allow us the liquidity and the capital structure to be able to still be a leader in serving consumers in the space.

And how much capital is available to you from that super priority facility?

As you may recall, it was $40 million of new money that had multiple opportunities for draw throughout the third quarter here at different trigger points based upon time date triggers. So the short answer is $40 million of new capital since we have accessible since we entered into that agreement.

So between the cash you have on hand, the additional cash, do you think that's enough? And why? Why do you think that's enough?

I mean, one, obviously, we think it's enough because we think it maintains our capabilities, our stability and still allows us to make investments. It also allows us to continue to pursue the consolidation of the industry, which we think is critical. We think that is a major unlock in the space, too. But more importantly, how are we able to do it? We're able to do it because we're doing what we do now.

We're reading the market, and we're not trying to hope that there's going to be a cash-on-cash return. We want high confidence, risk-adjusted cash-on-cash returns. And I can't stress that enough. The math isn't just 606 revenue or LTV to CAC. I need year 1 cash-on-cash versus a CAC. And so when we start to see that open up, that's when we'll do it.

So that rigor, that discipline around how we deploy the cash is going to lean conservative. That lean is going to enable us optionality. We're always going to leave some business on the table and not try to shoot to the maximum possible, and that's being disciplined and thoughtful. And this team, my team, which I'm very proud of all the hard work they've done. It's not easy to make the moves we have, gives me the confidence that we can continue to be nimble as the market shifts.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Dave Storms with Stonegate.

I just want to start, there's been a lot of emphasis on retention as a core part of the model for this year. Can you maybe walk through some of the logistics, some of the stuff that you're seeing on the ground to support this retention, thinking between conversation structure, any post-enrollment engagement support, stuff like that? And then maybe any early indications of success from some of the more recent cohorts that you're applying this to?

No. Thank you, Dave. It's an excellent question. It's so important to not just use words. Everybody is saying retention. Question is, what are you doing to put your money where your mouth is on retention. So yes, we have not done broad-based -- you can go assess it. You can see in AEP. We're not doing broad-based marketing to the general population.

What we're doing is we're having focused service follow-ups with our consumers that we've had in our back book and continue to serve. We want to make sure that we're focusing our agents and not distracting them. So those of you who have ever been in these types of businesses, you'll realize when an agent is on the phone and he has an option to make a follow-up phone call or -- and he's seeing a queue of leads coming in, what does that generate?

That means you lean towards the new sales typically when you have those leads coming in and you see the queue. What we've done is we've shut that queue off. The queue is only for existing consumers to make sure we're focusing on servicing them as AEP begins. And that's a really important part of our strategy to start there, don't distract.

Well, how are you going to make sure that your agents are really going to do a quality job there? You can put quality metrics, you can put KPIs in place, but you've got to change the compensation model, and that's exactly what we did. We did this years ago when we started the PlanFit Save model, and we doubled down on that program now.

This is not just for interactions that you have on the phone. This is with our new members with PlanFit Save was taking leads out of the marketplace, and we put them in and we push them through PlanFit Save. When we're doing it now, we're saying we're giving you a special compensation for servicing the back book. Most brokerages out there aren't paying their agents incremental commissions and/or variable compensation to support individual members. And that is what we've done.

So we've done a concerted marketing effort complemented by training, technology, which is enhanced to deliver service in comparison of your current plan and then doubling down on that by putting a compensation model to reward the right behavior and discourage bad behavior. And so we've done all those things. And the early indications in the first few weeks by some of our carriers has already been that our retention rate is better than the field. And that's well ahead of where we were in previous years.

And so I will tell you that we are very excited about it. We're very proud of our agents. We've retained the best agents, the highest quality to serve the most consumers of this back book to be able to do just this. And each one of those tactics so we can always be better is performing better than we had expected.

That was very helpful. One more follow-up for me. There's been a lot of folks, and I think we've all noticed the focus on the shift into special needs plans. How do you feel about your strategic positioning there? Maybe what differentiates GoHealth's ability to serve these SMP members effectively? And any training positioning, anything you're doing to maybe be ready for that shift there would be very helpful.

00:38:16

Thanks, Dave. The special needs population is one that is actually very near and dear to my heart. I've been building dual special needs plans for nearly 20 years. I mean it's been a long haul here. And that's a population that has a very unique set of needs and questions. And for the average broker, it is hard. And it's a complicated conversation. It doesn't give the average broker a confidence that they're going to have a consumer enroll and stay on that product.

And so what we've done is we've taken that friction with agents out. How do we do that? We use our proprietary technology. The PlanFit tool helps guide not only a consumer through the shopping process, but an agent through the shopping process to help support integrations with data sets to verify eligibility to pull in data to give you potential eligibility on chronic special needs plans as well.

And then to give the agent confidence that when that is the highest ranked product, meaning a dual special needs plan or a chronic special needs plan, it's the highest ranked product according to our proprietary tools to facilitate enrolling the consumer in that and helping the agent ask real-time questions via our PlanGPT platform that helps them get very nuanced answers to the specific question of the special needs population.

That requires great technology, as we've described, extensive training and a lot of experience answering the what-if for this population. So when we have a lead come in that's presumptively likely eligible for a special needs plan, our technology is automatically routing that lead to an agent who has experience in that geography and with those sets of special needs plans.

It's not random. It's not first in line. It's not a FIFO type approach. What it is, is a very thoughtful AI logic-driven rating and matching system that ensures that a very special consumer is getting a trained and knowledgeable agent who can help facilitate that. Because of all this complexity, that is why health plans are compensated in a different way. This is why health plans are able to drive different margin profiles with that population.

It's an important but complicated population who requires incremental investment to be made in infrastructure to support. We have that infrastructure. We have differentially delivered in this space, and that is why it's a strategic alignment with what health plans want. So hopefully, that was responsive. And I know probably a little bit long-winded, but I'm really proud of this technology and what we're able to do to serve this population.

I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn it back to Vijay Kotte, CEO, for closing remarks.

Thank you, Daniel. This is a dynamic marketplace. It has been. The key as we look at it, is to ensure that we are taking all the information we're exposed to and really sticking true to one clear statement. Most people tell you what you want or what they want. What they -- what you need to do is hear it, and we have heard it. We've listened to it. We've seen it. We've anticipated it, and we've taken the deliberate and disciplined actions to react to it to enable ourselves to serve everybody the way they want to be served.

Consumers want peace of mind. Health plans want stability and retention. They don't want us just being the market with a bunch of marketing. They didn't invest. They didn't prefund. They didn't provide MDF the same way they historically did. They want to invest in reinforced retention. That's what the health plans have actually done. They put more incentives in retentions and renewals. And we have been nimble to be able to deliver on those capabilities to support exactly those things, peace of mind, stability and retention.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank our team who has been so nimble with us, showed so much integrity, versatility, resilience to be able to trust what we're doing, to understand our goals to serve and to pass the temptation of short-term opportunity while we think about long-term cash-on-cash viability and strategic opportunity. So with that, we will close, and I really do appreciate everybody's participation this morning.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and welcome to the GoHealth Second Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference call over to John Shave, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to GoHealth's Second Quarter 2025 Results Call. Joining me today are Vijay Kotte, Chief Executive Officer; and Brendan Shanahan, Chief Financial Officer.

Today's conference call contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations. Numerous known and unknown risks and uncertainties may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or projected in these statements. Many of the factors that will determine future results are beyond the company's ability to control or predict. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of these statements, whether due to new information, future events or otherwise.

Earlier today, we issued a press release announcing a series of strategic capital and governance actions that significantly enhance GoHealth's financial flexibility and long-term positioning as well as our results for the second quarter 2025. We have posted the release on the GoHealth website under the Investor Relations tab.

In the press release, we have listed certain risk factors that you should consider in conjunction with our forward-looking statements. We encourage you to consider the other risk factors described in our Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports filed with the SEC for additional information.

During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in our press release. You may also refer to the investor presentation posted to the Investor Relations section of our website for reconciliations of non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures discussed during this call.

I will now turn the call over to GoHealth's CEO, Vijay Kotte.

Thanks, John. Our press release issued earlier today provides the detailed components of our results of operations for Q2 2025. We believe the capital and governance milestones achieved in recent weeks, as detailed in the 8-K also filed this morning, are far more consequential to the trajectory of the business and will be the focus of our call today.

As you may recall, at the end of June, we began by amending our existing credit agreements to extend the maturity of our revolving credit facility and providing a covenant holiday so we could focus our energy on a more fulsome and long-term solution for our capital structure.

Since that amendment, we have been working diligently to co-design and negotiate with all relevant stakeholders the agreement we successfully closed yesterday for a superpriority senior secured term loan facility totaling $115 million. The new facility includes $80 million in new money, half funded at closing and half available on a delayed draw basis, plus the roll-up of $35 million in existing revolving loans.

We believe that this capital and amendment alleviate the going concern status with our auditors, provides us with the financial runway to prepare for the upcoming annual enrollment period and allows us the capacity to pursue a range of strategic options, including acquisitions.

The agreement also includes covenant relief through the third quarter of 2025, maturity extensions through 2029 and consent from our lenders to evaluate additional capital structure solutions. As part of the transaction, our lender group received equity consideration equal to 4,766,219 shares of Class A common stock, reinforcing strong alignment with GoHealth's long-term success.

We also made meaningful changes to our governance structure to support this next phase. Contemporaneously with the execution of this new facility, 3 new directors were appointed to our Board, replacing 3 outgoing members.

Together, these capital and governance actions represent a significant step forward for GoHealth. They provide not just the flexibility to operate and invest, but also a clear path to capitalize on broader industry dynamics. Combined with our recent progress in technology, product diversification and cost discipline, we believe we are well positioned to execute in the dynamic Medicare landscape.

Critically, this facility allows us to actively pursue mergers and acquisitions in a fragmented market that we believe is ripe for consolidation. We are convinced that GoHealth is uniquely positioned to be a disciplined acquirer and integrator, leveraging our proprietary technology, automation and AI to drive scale, efficiency and stockholder value creation. This new facility gives us the capacity to move forward with confidence as we evaluate potential transactions.

Finally, a brief update on our quarterly filing. Although our Form 8-K and quarterly results press release were filed today, we are in the final stages of completing intangible asset impairment testing with our auditors. The going concern evaluation has already been completed, and we expect that designation to be removed. Based on preliminary results, we do not -- sorry, we do expect to record an impairment related to intangible assets. This is the only remaining item required to finalize our Form 10-Q, which we anticipate completing shortly.

We're encouraged by the support of our lenders, the clarity of our strategic direction and the financial flexibility now in place to pursue meaningful stockholder value creation opportunities. Everything we're doing from strengthening our capital position to evaluating and potentially pursuing strategic M&A is focused on creating long-term value for our consumers, our partners and our stockholders.

With that, we welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of David Storms with Stonegate.

Just want to start with this new loan. Maybe you could help us compare and contrast the covenants, how stringent they are compared to the old.

Yes, David, I appreciate the question. The covenants, as we worked through our negotiations with the lenders, were really collaborative in the process, right? So these covenants, as we said, align with shareholder and stakeholder priorities and are going to be more flexible for us than we previously had. We are only going to have one covenant moving forward, and that is a minimum liquidity covenant. And that covenant allows us flexibility to have that grow and be nimble within the AEP period. So we see this as being more flexible for the company than the previous set of covenants that we had.

That's great. And I know you mentioned in your prepared remarks, this allows you to maybe pursue some M&A activities. I know it's probably still pretty early innings in this, but any sense of what a profile would look like for an ideal transaction?

Yes, David, we've talked about this in the past as to opportunities for consolidation in the industry, especially after we completed the ETQ acquisition last year. We always want to focus on those that we can be -- we believe that there's a lot of integrated value. So if there's a diversification of product, talent, there's contract assets, there's size and significance that can be enabled via our platform of tools, that's the type of targets we're looking for, those that align with our values and have all of those components in some way, shape or form that can advance our capabilities on a faster pace than we can do on our own.

Our next question comes from the line of Rob McGuire with Granite Research.

Maybe could you just talk -- do you think that the -- and when you think about these transformative acquisitions, is this a major priority for the 3 new Board members and lenders for the company? Or are you simply just -- I'll just leave it at that. Is this a new priority for them? Or -- and I get that you've been looking at transactions up to this point in time and have done transactions up to this point in time, but is this something they'd like you to pursue more aggressively?

No, great question, Rob. Yes, we've always been looking for those great opportunities. And based upon our capital structure, it was very difficult to be able to seriously look at paying for those types of transactions. We got very -- we had a great opportunity with e-TeleQuote. We were very excited about that, and it enabled us to do that transaction in that environment.

Now as you'll see as part of the 8-K and the filings, there's -- these new Board members are also going to be joining a Transformation Committee. And that Transformation Committee is going to look at a lot of different opportunities that the company can pursue, including things like the securitizations, other financing things, overall financial capital structure options and very specifically focused on identifying and vetting opportunities for acquisitions.

So it is a more focused priority with capacity to be able to pursue those transactions. As you'll see as part of our PR and the 8-K, there's a basket of up to $250 million that our lenders have already blessed for us to be able to pursue new transactions, which is not something we've had in the past. So I think these are reasons why something is different now with both the focus of these new Board members and the Transformation Committee that we've established as well as this debt basket capacity to pursue said transactions.

I appreciate that. I think we'll probably get some more questions on this topic, but just to shift real quick. Can you just talk a little bit about your CAC in the quarter, where you think you can get that down to perhaps by year-end? And as well as just the revenue per submission, down a little on a year-over-year basis. Maybe you can just discuss that a little.

Yes, Rob, I think the best way to describe the quarter is consistent with what we spoke about on the Q1 call, which is we read the market. In May, we pulled back significantly from the Medicare Advantage space and writing new business there, primarily because of the uncertainty around health plans, what they were doing, their actions tied to their profitability, et cetera. So we read the market and we reacted to that.

So Q2 is not a great indication of the capabilities and the unlock in our cost structure that we can deliver. And that will be more representative as we grow, as we deliver more volume, and we expect performance in the forward-looking quarters.

As you think about coming and preparing for AEP with a very measured thought process and preparing for a traditional marketing environment where we are going to be monitoring to see what the health plans are doing, but as health plans indicate more traditional behaviors will be a better indication of things like revenue per sale or sales per submission as we reported or direct cost of submission.

But in total, we still believe that there's more efficiency there, and we are delivering more of those capabilities to enable that efficiency.

Our next question comes from the line of Pat McCann with NOBLE Capital.

First off, I just had a question regarding the shares you issued to the lenders. It looks like you had to take a little bit of dilution in order to get this done, I suppose. And I'm wondering -- I guess I'm wondering, is there anything that I might be -- first of all, was that something you were expecting to have to do in order to get this done initially? And was -- how does that kind of line up with your expectations? How pleased or disappointed are you in terms of the level of shares that you had to issue there? Is there anything I'm missing in terms of those having maybe being options or anything like that? If you could just maybe give a little quick debrief on the share count dilution there.

Yes. No, Pat, very good question. I appreciate you asking it. It is one that I expect people to ask. The short answer is there's nothing -- I'll start with the end and then work back towards the beginning of your question.

These were Class A common shares in that 4.7 million total count. And it's hard to pick a part of the overall deal structure to critique or to comment on. In total, when you combine all the pieces of the new money, the extensions of maturities, the flexibility with covenants, then the debt basket to go after new transactions, the removal of the going concern, there are a lot of good things in total.

So we're very excited about the flexibility this offers us in total, the transaction, the alignment of incentives it offers between -- amongst all of our stakeholders. And then more importantly, the ability to play some real offense in an industry that we think is continuing to be fragmented that needs to tap into and leverage the scale that -- scale capacity of proprietary technology that can really unlock efficiency within the industry. That's what we're most excited about the overall deal.

So it's hard to, again, pull out one piece in any of the overall deal structure. But when you put it all together, we're pretty excited about what it opens up for us in flexibility and optionality and, again, to play offense as opposed to just defense.

Okay. And then also, I don't -- maybe I missed it, and you guys -- if you did, and I apologize if I did, but the -- I guess, the interest rate situation with the new liquidity that you gained, if you could maybe comment on that.

Yes. It's in the 8-K, but ultimately -- and Brendan, you correct me if I'm wrong. It's, I think, 550 plus SOFR is the rate there that we have for the new money. And then you'll also know, for completeness there, there is a multiple on invested capital commitment depending on when the payback of that priming or the superpriority funding is paid back, and it is tiered over time for those paybacks, with the first inflection point being if we pay that back prior to the end of this calendar year.

Got it. And then if I could finally just maybe turn more towards the operations of the business. Could you have -- do you have any comments regarding how final expense has gone so far now that we're through the second quarter? And then maybe also if there have been any changes so far in terms of your outlook as we look ahead to AEP?

Yes. As we told you, there would be more substantive, meaning final expense, GoHealth Protect and that suite of products, which has been highlighted by our final expense or guaranteed acceptance product. We have been continuing to deploy that as we pulled our resources away from Medicare Advantage, as we said in Q1. We've refocused them at scale into the final expense product, training them, preparing them, getting them appointed to do that with significance that is now coming through in the financial statements. You'll see it under other revenue, and you'll see it as a line item there. Just north of approximately $8 million in the quarter was recognized there.

We're seeing expectations meet our performance. Our performance is meeting those expectations. Our team is really excited about the product we're offering. It really aligns well with the population that we serve, and it is a great way to reconnect and reengage with our consumer base.

So we're excited about that. We continue to expect to do that for the foreseeable future and have it as a portfolio product that we offer, and we're able to scale up with our capacity and shift it amongst GoHealth Protect and our traditional Medicare Advantage shopping and matching process.

As we think about the AEP period, it's still very early to assess what's going to happen. We're being very measured in the way we think about our overall capacity to serve that population. Of course, this new facility that we put in place is going to help provide us the capital and the ability to invest as we see the market open up.

But we've got very different messages from health plans. They're taking a little bit longer than usual to give us guidance as to what they expect or what they want. But most of the things that we've always seen still hold true. That is that health plans have very specific areas where they like to grow, other areas that are more problem areas for them. And they like to find partners who can help be very precise in the way that we can support their growth efforts.

And that's always been a differentiator for GoHealth. We have a very sophisticated technology and supply-demand matching mechanism that allows us to be very targeted in geographies and to cut the market and prioritize markets accordingly while still not putting our thumb on the scale, letting consumers within those markets have access to the best products, but being able to match the health plans' goals along with the consumers' needs is a valuable asset for us.

And so we'll still monitor that information to see what the health plans are doing. We do expect it to be disruptive. We've already heard certain health plans making significant changes to their benefits that would disrupt significant ownership amongst the overall Medicare Advantage pool.

And so we'll monitor that. There are other players who said they want to maintain stability. But across the board, we know that all the carriers have areas they want to grow and have areas they want to be stable. And we're looking forward to partnering with them, but it's still too early to tell exactly where and with whom and how much. So more to come as we get that information over the coming weeks and months.

Our next question comes from the line of Jim Sidoti with Sidoti & Co.

So I can imagine that the last couple of months has been taking up -- shoring up the balance sheet. Now that that's over, what is top priority for management? Is it looking at new deals, getting ready for the AEP? What's going to be the main focus over the next 6 months?

Jim, I appreciate the question. Let me just start there. You hit all the items. We have just put forward a Transformation Committee. We've got that capacity. We're going to be pursuing. We believe there are opportunities, and there are a number of strategic things we should be considering within the marketplace, and we want to make that a focus while we are continuing to develop our GoHealth Protect and enhance that product offering for consumers and begin the more diligent preparation and reading of the marketplace in advance of AEP. So those are the 3 priorities.

To do that, you need to have a solid team, and you want to make sure that you've got everybody focused on all the right things, and ensuring that we are maintaining our team and the energy around it and investing with very thoughtful efforts in partnership with our Board is where we're focused. We're going to onboard these new Board members as part of this governance structure. We're going to get the Transformation Committee going, and we're going to be focused on AEP.

And with regards to GoHealth Protect, is performance in line with where you thought it would be at this point? And are there other products similar to that, maybe not life insurance, but other products you can add to diversify what you guys offer?

Yes. Look, Q2, as we said, was the first at-scale launch of the product. We've done it in smaller scale in Q1. We started scaling it up as we aggressively pulled back on Medicare Advantage because we thought that to be prudent given the uncertainty that came with health plans. And I think that was generally the right read of the marketplace.

We shifted the members -- the agents to be working, learning, training and moving over into the GoHealth Protect product set. They have licenses. We have a number of more agents than we had even before who have our dual license in health and life, and they're able to switch between those products. We like that flexibility it offers us from product diversification to read the market and go forward.

So I would say, to answer your question specifically, it met and aligned with what we expected it to do in Q2, and it will obviously continue to grow and develop in Q3. And then we'll reallocate and determine how much of our resource will be focused on that product versus Medicare Advantage depending on the receptivity and the needs of the health plans as that is juxtaposed to the demand function of the consumers within the geographies we focus on.

So long way to say that we're really going to continue to have the GoHealth Protect product suite develop. We don't need to add a bunch of product right now. It's good to do one thing well. We like to really focus and be the best at those things that we do and not just throw everything in the kitchen sink out there and really not know how to be great at it.

So we're continuing to optimize GoHealth Protect with our technology and tools. We still have not unlocked all of that efficiency that we think we can deliver, similar to what we've done with Medicare Advantage, where over time, we've had more integrated product technology enabling more efficiency for the agents. We're still at the very early stages of that level of efficiency with GoHealth Protect. That's where our focus area will be as we continue to invest in that product suite.

All right. And then just a modeling question. What should we model for share count for Q3 and then Q4 now that this transaction is completed?

We'll follow up with you on the one-on-ones to give you all those reconciliations, but it is a good question, and we'll help you with the modeling on that.

Our next question comes from the line of Ilya Zubkov with Freedom Broker.

So I have a revenue-related question. So nonagency revenue was notably lower in Q2 compared to the same period last year. Could you just elaborate on the key factors that contributed to the decline?

Yes, Ilya, great to hear your voice. Appreciate the question. Nonagency, as we've talked about, is really a function of carrier contracts or health plan contracts and the competitiveness of those products within the consumers' needs. So specifically in Q2, first and foremost, you should -- we should highlight again that we pulled back significantly Medicare Advantage starting in May. So really only had our typical expected capacity serving the population in April, switched in May and then obviously continued that refocus into GoHealth Protect through June.

But as you think about the agency-nonagency mix, the health plans that were winning in this SEP period were more agency as we saw actually in Q1 in the open enrollment period as well as in annual enrollment period. The winning plans who had the best products available for consumers were on an agency basis. So that's where that shift happened. And that is really the driver of the change on a year-over-year basis. It's health plan mix.

All right. And one more question. I apologize if I missed it. But I'm just curious, do the current changes in the regulatory environment in the health plan market have any material impact on your confidence in the strength of the upcoming AEP at the year-end, I mean, in terms of the planned switching activity?

No, it's an excellent question. We obviously have some inclinations and beliefs as to what we are going to see. We listen -- we watch and we listen. We try to watch and listen to what the health plans do.

So the regulatory environment will impact the health plans. That's likely already been priced into their bids to the best of their abilities. They have beliefs as to how competitive they're going to be and where they're going to be competitive. They then -- around the August and September time frame, you get more of that detail. And then you assess where you're going to be able to deploy your resources against that to efficiently deliver revenues and returns.

And so we're in that phase right now. It is very -- I know it's unsatisfactory to hear, but it's still too early to assess all of that. We've heard what many of the health plans said in their Q2 earnings calls as to what their plans are for the remainder of the year and what stability they're seeing in their profitability. And generally, most are indicating that things are stabilizing for them on the Medicare Advantage front. But others are saying they still need to disrupt and change their benefits to reprice and adjust the margin profile of the business.

So long story short, it feels like it's going to be another disruptive market. I don't know how to put it into context on previous disruptions, but it will be disruptive. There will be a number of consumers needing services of shopping similar to what GoHealth provides in an unbiased way. And the real question is going to be where are health plans willing to invest so that we can deliver our full high-quality, unbiased shopping experience to consumers.

[Operator Instructions] There are no more questions. I will now turn the conference back over to Vijay for closing remarks.

Thank you again for joining the call today. We believe this is a new chapter for GoHealth. It gives us an opportunity, as I said before, to really stare at the market and do what we think is necessary to react to the market dynamics. And that is to really leverage the investments we've made in technology and capability and know-how to build a very efficient, if not the leading, platform for supporting shopping within the business and then identifying other ways to consolidate this fragmented industry to solve many of the issues that are out there to drive compliance, to drive efficiency and to deliver a consistent experience for more consumers when they need it most.

We're excited about what this opens up. We're excited about the future, and we are looking forward to seeing and hearing from all of you as we continue down that path. Thanks for being part of the story. And most importantly, thanks to my team for driving so hard to deliver these results to make this all. So thank you all, and we look forward to chatting with you soon.

This concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.