Q1 2025 GoHealth Inc Earnings Call
Speaker Change: Good morning, and welcome to Gohealth's first quarter, 2025 Earnings Conference Call.
Tanya: My name is Tanya and I'll be your operator for today's call.
Speaker Change: Currently, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the prepared remarks, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to John Shave, Vice President of Investor Relations. John , you may begin.
Tanya: Thank you and good morning. Welcome to Gohealth's first quarter 2025 results call. Joining me today are Vijay Kotte, Chief Executive Officer, Brendan Shanahan, Chief
Tanya: Today's conference call contains overlooking 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.
Tanya: Many of the factors that would 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 it did a new information, future events or otherwise.
Tanya: Earlier today, we issued a press release containing our results for the first quarter 2025. We have posted the release on the Gohealth website under the Investor Relations tab.
Tanya: In the press release, we have listed certain risk factors that you should consider in conjunction with our forward-looking statements.
Tanya: We encourage you to consider the other risk factors described in our 10K and 10K reports filed with the SEC for additional information.
During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures.
Tanya: These measures are reconciled to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in our press release.
Tanya: You may also refer to the Investor Relations presentation posted to the Investor Relations section of our website for reconciliations of non-GAT measures to the most comparable GAT measures discussed during this earnings call.
Tanya: I will now turn the call over to GohealthCEO, Vijay Kotte, at the time.
Vijay Kotte: Thank you, John , and thank you all for joining us today.
Vijay Kotte: Our performance during Q1's Open Enrollment period exceeded our expectations for submissions, revenue, and a Judson EBITDA.
Vijay Kotte: For those new to the Gohealth story, our mission is to provide support, clarity and peace of mind to Medicare consumers in a landscape often marked by confusion and uncertainty.
Vijay Kotte: The U.S. has over 67 million Medicare eligible consumers with over half enrolled in Medicare Advantage or M.A. In many geographic regions, consumers face over 40 different plan options, creating confusion and deterring them from exploring better options.
Vijay Kotte: Gohealth seeks to simplify these decisions by empowering consumers with unbiased tools and guidance.
Vijay Kotte: At Gohealth, we strive to empower Medicare eligible consumers with proprietary and unbiased tools used by our highly trained and experienced licensed agents.
Vijay Kotte: We've evolved from a traditional Medicare enrollment company to a Medicare engagement company, focusing on building long-term, high-quality relationships with our consumers.
Vijay Kotte: We believe this shift allows us to deliver more integrative and personalized approach to care, reinforcing our unique role in the Medicare landscape.
Vijay Kotte: With that said, let me now turn to our first quarter results, which highlights strong operational execution and meaningful progress across our financial and strategic priorities.
Vijay Kotte: Our performance in the quarter exceeded our expectations. Notably, submission volume in Q1 increased from the previous year, driven by our captive Medicare teams impressive 64% year-over-year growth, while age ahead count only grew by 24% year-over-year.
Vijay Kotte: Our Q-1 2025 revenue increased to $221 million compared to $186 million in Q-1 2024, representing a 19% improvement.
Vijay Kotte: Q1 2025 adjusted eva da, grew to $42 million of 56% Eurorear improved.
RQ-1 results were driven by another quarter of improvements within our age of productivity.
Vijay Kotte: Thanks to the combination of stronger training programs and broader adoption of our AI-driven tools, including plan GPT and the plan fit tool, we cut enrollment average handle times by 12% compared to the same period last year.
Vijay Kotte: More importantly, our captives served more consumers per day while still improving conversion rate.
Vijay Kotte: This balance between speed and quality shows the strength of our model and the discipline we've built into our operation.
Similar to what we communicated after AP.
Vijay Kotte: We attempt to deploy our capital to drive the most appropriate balance of risk and return.
Vijay Kotte: We have invested in valuable year-over-year growth, driven by our strong direct costs of sufficient or CAC, conversion rates, and capacity expansion.
Vijay Kotte: Due to a higher mix of agency versus non-HC submissions, we reported a year-over-year decrease in cash flow from operations of $25 million and in line with our product mix expectations, a 15% year-over-year decrease in sales per submission.
Vijay Kotte: Reporting on our first quarter performance, I want to take a few minutes to highlight three exciting developments that enable us to expand our ability to serve consumers.
Vijay Kotte: First, is the launch of a new suite of products in the life insurance space. We have called Gohealth Protect. Second, is the continued evolution of our plan-fit platform. And third, there are several new technology enhancements that are already making a meaningful impact.
Vijay Kotte: As we continue to focus on innovation and diversification, we are excited to share that Gohealth has launched Gohealth Protect, a suite of products to cover unexpected life events with the expansion into guaranteed acceptance life insurance, often referred to as final expense insurance as the inaugural product.
Vijay Kotte: Guaranteed Acceptance Life Insurance is a simple, affordable product designed to help families cover the cost of funeral and burial expenses.
Vijay Kotte: This move is a natural extension of our core business and go health mission to ensure consumers peace of mind when making healthcare decisions, enabling them to focus on living lives.
Vijay Kotte: Our Medicare Advantage platform has been the foundation of Gohealth's success, but it's also inherently seasonal, with most of our activity concentrated around the annual enrollment period
Vijay Kotte: That seasonality limits our ability to drive consistent revenue and cash flow throughout the year.
Vijay Kotte: Gohealth Protect, led by our initial guaranteed acceptance life insurance offering, begins to help us solve that problem.
Vijay Kotte: This product offering aligns perfectly with our commitment to bringing peace of mind to the consumers we serve.
We expect that it will also allow us to better support our existing customer base.
Vijay Kotte: We see a real opportunity here. Roughly half of the population over 65 does not have any life insurance coverage today.
Vijay Kotte: We also generate millions of leaves annually across the same population. By leveraging it, our preexisting relationship with this consumer base and our existing sales infrastructure, we believe we will be able to drive growth in a cost-effective way without significant
Vijay Kotte: I'm encouraged by the early progress. During the first quarter, we launched a partnership with the leader in the guaranteed acceptance life insurance space. Their strong brand, simplified product offering, have made them a great fit for our go-to-market approach.
Vijay Kotte: Together, we aim to deliver a high quality, consumer friendly product that our agents are genuinely excited to sell.
Vijay Kotte: With a significant percentage of our agents already holding lack and stress licenses, the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and we expect this strong momentum to continue in the second quarter.
Vijay Kotte: From a financial standpoint, the economics are consistent with the structure and return profile of our non-agency contracts.
Vijay Kotte: The economic value for policy is attractive when factoring in average duration, expected persistency, and a materially lower acquisition cost compared to our core Medicare business.
This creates strong unit economics and accelerated cash realization.
Vijay Kotte: In short, our movement to Gohealth Protect is a highly strategic step for Gohealth. It diversifies our product portfolio, minimizes revenue seasonality, and we anticipate it will put us on a clear path toward long-term, profitable growth.
Vijay Kotte: We believe it aligns with our mission, empowers our agents, and most importantly allows us to better serve the consumers who count on us.
Vijay Kotte: Gohealth Protect was in its early testing phases during Q1. There was minimal contribution to revenue and adjusted EBITDA.
Vijay Kotte: However, we expect it to continue to ramp in Q2 and Q3 and thus be a meaningful contributor to the full year 2025 results and beyond.
Vijay Kotte: Second, we believe our encompassed and planted platforms continue to set us apart and gain traction.
Vijay Kotte: These tools give consumers tailored guidance, whether that's enrolling in a new plan, finding a better fit, or simply validating that their current plan is still the best choice.
Vijay Kotte: In Q1, plan to check up screwed 27% year over year. A strong sign that consumers are engaging more actively with us.
Vijay Kotte: At the same time, we help roughly 15000 consumers stay in their existing plan reinforcing our focus on long term value not just short term sales.
Vijay Kotte: Early results are encouraging and we expect the program to keep growing.
Vijay Kotte: Yes.
Vijay Kotte: Third we delivered several important technology launches with a concentration on automation and artificial intelligence.
Vijay Kotte: They're enhancing both the consumer experience and agent efficiency.
Vijay Kotte: In early April we launched Michael Hill, giving consumers the ability to create a profile save their personal information and manage their Medicare journey more easily.
Vijay Kotte: We also piloted a unified enrollment experience that consolidated carrier applications into a single streamline process.
Vijay Kotte: Agents have already reported seeing faster enrollment and a simpler workflow.
Vijay Kotte: For our GPS Downlight agencies, we completed the move to GPS Express and innovation to our enrollment system has improved the efficiency of the post sale consumer experience.
Vijay Kotte: On the go help protect expansion, we rolled out inbound marketing leads to our agents and as expected conversion rates are higher than what.
Vijay Kotte: With manual outbound dialing.
Vijay Kotte: And finally, our marketing and operations teams have deployed a differentiated approach towards identifying tailored messaging to conducting a deep needs assessment with consumers, who may qualify for chronic conditions special needs Medicare plans or <unk>.
Vijay Kotte: Taken together, we believe these operational and technological investments are already driving better engagement greater efficiency and a stronger platform for sustainable growth.
Vijay Kotte: Additionally, we'd like to highlight a key regulatory development.
Vijay Kotte: CMS announced a 5.6% average increase in Medicare advantage revenue for health plans, along with a 10, 72% increase to the broker Commission schedule and its final rate notice.
Vijay Kotte: This represents the most significant adjustment in over a decade and underscores the continued strength of the Medicare advantage program.
Vijay Kotte: It also from the important role brokers play and helping beneficiaries navigate their options.
Vijay Kotte: Looking ahead to the 2025 AEP, while we continue to anticipate positive market dynamics, our outlook has evolved.
Vijay Kotte: We anticipate another disruptive AEP some early indication of the upcoming disruption are the decisions made by health plans. Both during the fourth quarter of 2024 and more recently in Q2 to suppress planned commission eligibility to be even more targeted on where they want to grow hold or pull back for the remainder of planning year 2025.
Vijay Kotte: We believe these moves indicated likely repricing of planned benefits to rightsize margin profiles and will likely result in more consumers needing to assess their options.
Vijay Kotte: Due to our expectation to see how plants deemphasize growth in Q2, and Q3 also referred to as the special election period or S&P as well as the continued evolution of the Medicaid dual eligible changes we plan to continue to ship more capacity and to go help protect for the remainder of SCP as we prepare for another dynamic shopping.
Vijay Kotte: And in the fourth quarter.
Vijay Kotte: We will continue to monitor the market behavior, and ultimately wait to see what happens with final health plan bids and product benefit changes to get a better view on the shopping and appropriate switching behaviors. We can expect to see that consumers going into the 2026 plan here.
Vijay Kotte: We believe the market condition will be favorable ahead or ability to capitalize on those conditions will be dependent on the health plan benefit decisions appetite for growth and willingness to invest in high value service to go help provides alongside our operational and capital efficiency.
Before I turn the call over to Brendan for more detailed review of our financial results I want to briefly address a matter that while not new has recently taken a procedural step forward.
Vijay Kotte: Go health is aware that the United States Attorney's office has decided to intervene in a qui tam lawsuit the names multiple defendants, including go health.
Vijay Kotte: The claims in both the action by the government as well as the original complaint are based on alleged violations of the false claims act and the anti kickback statute.
Vijay Kotte: This case has been under seal and inactive for several years since it was originally filed.
Vijay Kotte: They'll help firmly denies the allegations made by the government in this lawsuit related to events that allegedly occurred between 2016 and 2021.
Vijay Kotte: We are disappointed that the government is pursuing claims against the company that strives to advance the interests of the Medicare advantage program and the Medicare beneficiaries and serves.
Vijay Kotte: We intend to vigorously defend against these claims and we will not allow this litigation to distract us from our mission to provide peace of mind to the Medicare beneficiaries, we serve.
Vijay Kotte: While we take this matter seriously did not change our focus or our momentum we do not intend to further comment on ongoing litigation.
Vijay Kotte: Now I will turn the call over to Brendan Shanahan, our CFO, who will provide a more detailed review of our financial performance for Q1.
Brendan Shanahan: Thank you Vijay.
Vijay Kotte: I will continue with a review of our financial performance for the first quarter of 2025.
Vijay Kotte: First quarter revenue totaled $221 million, representing a 19% increase compared to Q1 2024 higher captive agency submission volumes drove growth helped by improved operational efficiency.
Vijay Kotte: While we reported a GAAP net loss of $9 $8 million. This quarter. This reflects a significant improvement year over year and as progress toward our goal to drive long term profitability.
Vijay Kotte: Importantly, our adjusted EBITDA for Q1, 2025 totaled $42 1, Million% to 56% increase from $26 9 million in Q1, 2024, which we believe demonstrates the underlying strength and scalability of our model.
Vijay Kotte: Cost optimization efforts across marketing agent training and operational infrastructure significantly improved our margins a key driver of these results was the Q1 reduction in our direct operating cost per submission or customer acquisition costs by 18%.
Vijay Kotte: From $640 to $522, which we believe is a testament to our targeted marketing strategies and efficient agent performance.
Vijay Kotte: On the cash flow front, we reported negative cash flow from operations of $12 4 million.
Vijay Kotte: Compared to a positive $12 $5 million in the prior year period, primarily driven by the mix shift from non agency to agency.
Vijay Kotte: Likewise, our commissions receivable grew to over $1 billion at quarter end growing nearly 19% year over year due to the same mix shift from non agency to agency reinforcing the durability and scale of our business.
Vijay Kotte: Disciplined guides our decision, making as we constantly evaluate how much rep rose to pursue recognizing that these are conscientious choices.
Vijay Kotte: Every quarter, we weigh how much we want to invest to pursue additional growth versus how much we're willing to leave on the table to preserve cash to preserve.
Vijay Kotte: <unk> margin or cash flow.
Vijay Kotte: And we do show flexibility and financial discipline to adapt to evolving market dynamics.
Vijay Kotte: A great example of this is our goal help protect initiative, which was deployed in launch during the first quarter. It's still early but we are excited about the potential this business share similar cash dynamics with our non agency model where fees are paid more quickly which will help reduce seasonality.
Vijay Kotte: And our cash flow and drive a more predictable revenue and margin profile.
Vijay Kotte: As Paul help protect scales, we will what we expect it will contribute to lowering our customer acquisition costs, especially as agents are able to serve more consumers with multiple product options.
Vijay Kotte: That's a powerful economic advantage and one we believe we are well positioned to capture in part because we've secured proprietary contracts that are differentiated across the industry.
Vijay Kotte: These agreements give us unique access and flexibility to serve consumers in ways that few others can replicate.
Vijay Kotte: Looking more broadly we remain highly focused on capital discipline and maximizing return on investment we continue to actively evaluate how to best deploy our resources whether through growth investments technology acceleration for further capital structure optimization.
Vijay Kotte: Our goal is to reduce our cost of capital and reinvest in the business in ways that drive long term value.
Vijay Kotte: We will be thoughtful and selective.
Vijay Kotte: We will continue to monitor the market and pursue only those alternatives that offer attractive economics and strategic alignment.
Vijay Kotte: With continued favorable market dynamics, and a potentially disruptive AEP.
Vijay Kotte: We expect further progress in margin expansion operating efficiency and returns on our technology investments. We believe the market will continue to reward models that combined personalized service with operational excellence and the ability to adapt in real time.
Vijay Kotte: I will now hand, it back to Jay for his closing remarks.
Jay: Thank you Brendan our first quarter results underscore the strength of our model and disciplined execution, along with continued momentum to helping seniors navigate Medicare with greater clarity.
Jay: We believe our innovation and deployment of AI tools are empowering our agents and leading to better consumer experiences improving plant fit building trust and strengthening long term relationships.
Jay: Early traction from Golar protected equally encouraging extending our value to existing consumers opened the door to new consumers, reducing seasonality and enhancing unit economics or multi product engagement.
Jay: As we move forward, we remain focused on leveraging our platform agent network and consumer trust to thoughtfully expand into adjacent verticals align with our mission.
Jay: Thank you for your time and interest operator, we're now ready for questions.
Speaker Change: Thank you as a reminder to ask a question. Please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced.
Jay: To withdraw your question. Please press star one again, please standby, while we compile our Q&A roster.
Speaker Change: And one moment for our first question, which will come from Rob Nick wire.
Speaker Change: Granted research your line is open.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
Rob: Good morning, Rob So yeah. Good morning, terrific so with regards to.
Speaker Change: Your capital structure can you just kind of give us an idea are there opportunities to improve your capital structure at this point or do you think that Doj actions might defer that for the time being.
Speaker Change: But I think we I've always commented on there are going to always going to be multiple scenarios and multiple alternatives and how we think about our capital structure.
Speaker Change: We have a term loan we have revolvers, we have a lot of different alternatives as to how we can think about.
Speaker Change: Running and investing in the business.
Speaker Change: We are always assessing becoming more efficient to open up more doors to do more things and I think some of the innovation around new products like go hog protect to help support the way we want to invest in the business and finding different ways to do that internally are going to be ones that we're going to continue to consider as Brendan said in his prepared comments.
Speaker Change: We are going to make sure that whatever we do consider at the right time right terms that will improve our position not making weaker so we're going to continue to assess it under that.
Kind of.
Speaker Change: <unk>.
Speaker Change: Considerations, but more importantly, what I would tell you that the Doj piece by itself. Obviously, it's something that we're going to be working on separately as we described but it doesn't change our plans to go ahead and assess multiple alternatives and all of the different options out there to enhance our capital structure. So that we can invest in the business appropriately.
Speaker Change: Thanks, Thanks for Jay and then this morning I don't know if you caught the news on United was just curious you made the comments regarding the fourth quarter AEP.
Speaker Change: Is there.
Speaker Change: Do you have any thoughts on United and the changes that they're experiencing and then can you kind of give us a little more detail on your expectations for this year is coming AEP versus last year on a relative basis.
Speaker Change: Yeah, No I didn't see the news its a little early to digest all of that but what I would say is that across the industry there.
Speaker Change: There has been <unk>.
Speaker Change: No the deficit of health plan, describing some of their margin challenges either last year coming into this year <unk> in their attempts to try to manage their margins <unk> growth profile as they move into the new plan year of 2026. So this transition aerie period as I indicated earlier.
Speaker Change: Are they are they were reading those tea leaves as best as we can and what that tells US is that the health plans are uncertain about the margin profiles are having challenges with those margins even into 'twenty five.
Speaker Change: Either have announced that in their earnings or they have pulled back on what they are making commission eligible in their sales for a new commissioner level sales.
Speaker Change: And that is a strong indication that those are products that need to be reset because it doesn't meet the margin threshold or theyre seeing unexpected Martin and medical expense trends or otherwise.
Speaker Change: What we see that to mean is that there's a higher likelihood that there's going to be more benefit resets and disruptions coming now coming AEP, especially in those products that didn't get reset last year right. So if you wrote on products that were redesigned already for last year. Those are probably good products for the products that didn't get reset or maybe.
Speaker Change: The market competitiveness wasn't being able to be assessed at the time when health plans to introduce 2025 benefit plans back last October.
Speaker Change: Then those are the ones who are most likely to be reset. So we don't know for sure we're going to have to monitor for the rest of the year, but early indications as we said lead us to believe that there are going to be more benefit adjustments going into the next AEP and thats going to cause for a new shopping experience or demand for shopping and comparison of options for concern.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: Thank you and our next question will be coming from Pat Mccann.
Pat McCann: Of noble capital markets Pat Your line is open.
Pat McCann: Hey, Thanks. Good morning, Thanks for taking my questions first of all I wanted to ask about golf protect and.
Pat McCann: Yes.
Pat McCann: First question. There is are you partnering with a specific carrier or carriers or what are the mechanics of that offering and as well as how does that impact. The marketing strategy is this something where you are.
Pat McCann: Marketing specifically for that offering or is it more something that is.
Pat McCann: You kind of add it all as an additional sales point after a consumer comes through.
Pat McCann: The top of the funnel that you already.
Pat McCann: We have implemented for the Medicare advantage business.
Matt: Good morning, Matt Thanks for the question.
Speaker Change: What I would say that it's first and foremost this guaranteed acceptance life insurance or also known as final expense insurance within the industry is not a novel concept people do it.
Speaker Change: What <unk> is doing here is similar to the way we think about how we deliver on Medicare advantage is that we don't have to be the first mover, but we will do it with a consumer oriented Atlanta, and we will do it more efficiently through our standardization through our technology and through our <unk>.
Speaker Change: Innovative approach to marketing to match consumers with the products that they need.
Speaker Change: And in this vein as we've been testing in Q1 going into Q2, you want to be thoughtful about how many partners you bring into that so we've been selective in that process. We've been testing all the different approaches as we indicated in my earlier remarks.
Speaker Change: Between doing outbound and serving consumers who are already with us and who have demonstrated some interest with it.
Speaker Change: <unk> also doing some inbound marketing.
Speaker Change: I know at which consumers would react to the marketing on in a more direct response basis for that type of product. So we've been testing all of it as we do with Medicare advantage and we have a balanced approach to how we do that.
Speaker Change: And as time goes on we'll see the different products and different alternatives that are available for consumers and make sure within our portfolio of what we expect to be expanding with go help protect more products to be offered to match those needs that may be what the same.
Speaker Change: Our carrier or there could be multiple carriers. It really depends on what we start to assess is the demand function from the consumer side that they're interested in.
Speaker Change: I'm pretty excited about it because we have proven that once we find that there is an economic structure and a value proposition that matches with the consumers we serve and the operating model. We deliver we can do it at scale and really lead within the industry and we expect to be.
Speaker Change: Scaling up to be just that within this portfolio of products. So more to come. It is still early you don't want to go too broad to that and what youre going to offer because otherwise it's hard to be great at it and so we're going to do it slow and steady and calculated but as we indicated continue to ramp through Q2, and Q3, and we expect it to be meaningful.
Speaker Change: We move forward.
Speaker Change: Thanks, That's helpful. And then my last question was just off.
Speaker Change: I wanted to touch on something in the presentation.
Speaker Change: The sales per submission.
Speaker Change: Being down 15% and I think you mentioned that that was within expectations, but I was just wondering if you could quickly touch on on that and what.
Speaker Change: What's kind of going on behind the scenes there.
Vijay Kotte: Yes, so it's a great question, Pat and I think there's a reason why I wanted to explicitly call. It out in our prepared remarks, which is because we saw the same dynamic we started actually 16% drop in the fourth quarter year over year.
Vijay Kotte: And that was and now it's 54% this quarter year over year and that is the exact same dynamic that is happening which is agency versus non agency, it's a mix shift.
Vijay Kotte: In between the agent and non agency contracts and agency contracts as you may recall back when we originally went into the non agency business back in late 2022, we were actively.
Vijay Kotte: Choosing which products, which help plants, we wanted to make that shift over and when we made the shift we got to pick up in sales per submission for those non agency contracts as the mixed dynamic shifts back to agency because that's the best product that matches. The consumer's needs again, we will put our thumb on a scale. There then youre going to see the opposite effect where the.
Vijay Kotte: Blended average is coming down the isolated rates for agency and non agency arent necessarily changing it's the mix shift that's driving that change in the perception of sales for a submission and so that's why in line with the change the mixed shift to non agency and agency. We saw in Q4 that you should see run through Q1.
Vijay Kotte: That's why it's the same dynamic and nothing more to talk about on that issue. It's the same story and the same underlying costs.
Vijay Kotte: Okay.
Vijay Kotte: And our next question will be coming from James Sidoti.
Speaker Change: The Dougherty <unk> company James Your line is open.
James: Hi, good morning, Thanks for taking the questions. So you had some pretty impressive growth with regard to the number of submissions can you break it out can you tell us how many of those submissions came from there.
Speaker Change: Recently, we acquired <unk> agents.
James: Yes.
James: As we think about our operating model.
James: At coming out of the fourth quarter in the first quarter.
James: This year, we have been actively starting to work on integrating as much as possible we've shifted some of the.
James: <unk> agents to get better distribution better oversight more consistency with our or historically, what you would call. The go held captive team integrated now with <unk>, we are getting much more integrated than that so we're not going to split out the agent counts because now it's more mixed within all of our teams as opposed to a separate distinct team there is.
James: Smaller agent base that is still managed by predominantly <unk> leadership, but I'd say in general it's been mixed between but I would say as you think year over year, we got a 25% year over year increase in agent head count available on the floor in Q1 and a good portion of that came from <unk>.
James: As part of that transaction late last year.
James: Okay, Alright, and then we look at the last two quarters.
James: Despite the.
James: The lower revenue per submission you were able to grow total revenue, 40% in the fourth quarter, 20% this quarter.
Speaker Change: No you don't give.
Speaker Change: Specific guidance, but I mean do you think those trends continue in June and September do you think you'll have a higher revenue.
Speaker Change: Relative to a year ago.
Speaker Change: And again as I've indicated.
Speaker Change: Weighted we're thinking about how we're going to look at the full year, we're reading and reacting to how the health plans are behaving in the Q2 and Q3 and you want to be nimble, there and you want to be able to assess what's the most efficient use of capital and what is going to be the greatest.
Speaker Change: I guess Avenue for investment to allow you to have the capacity one two.
Speaker Change: React to whatever the fourth quarter is going to look like so I know not a lot of conclusive items. There. We are optimistic about what the shopping dynamic will look like in the fourth quarter and Q2 and Q3, we're seeing that it's not the greatest environment as you see health plans pulling back and you have to be thoughtful about where you want to grow relative to that and their interest in growing.
Speaker Change: And then that's why we were introduced to go help protect a hedge against that so that we have more stability and predictability in Q2, and Q3, despite or regardless of what health plans in the M&A space are trying to do so long story non way to answer your question no I'm not prepared to give you any clear indications of what we think about revenue year over year, what I can tell you though.
Speaker Change: Is that we are reading the situations, we are making sure we have a portfolio of options to work with them to be able to optimize our performance and leverage the assets. We've got to do so so we are.
Speaker Change: <unk> indicated clearly that in Q2 Q3, we're going to lean more into go help protect because of those dynamics. We're observing and then if we get better line of sight to what the actual behavior will be in the fourth quarter beyond what we're starting to see as being disruptive once we could see more of where it will be disruptive. It is going to be more snip more non snip is it going to be which.
Speaker Change: Fees within the country, we can read and react there to be able to determine.
Speaker Change: Herman how much of the opportunity in the fourth quarter, we will be able to reap.
Speaker Change: But that's what we're focused on right now is reading and reacting as we continuously go and that's why we we hold off on giving full year guidance.
Speaker Change: Because where there are too many unknowns till we get to the later parts of the year.
Speaker Change: Okay, and then can you give us some.
Speaker Change: Some balance sheet information.
Speaker Change: Cash at the end of the quarter total debt.
Speaker Change: Sure, let me give that to Brendan yes. Thank you, yes sure.
Speaker Change: Cash at the at the end of the quarter was.
Speaker Change: Went to 222.
Speaker Change: $22 million, one and Thats down from.
Speaker Change: At year end.
Speaker Change: Okay.
Speaker Change: And our next question.
Speaker Change: We will be coming from day storms of Stonegate. Your line is open.
Speaker Change: Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions.
Speaker Change: Just wanted to ask my first one.
Speaker Change: Around go health protect you mentioned a lot of the synergies that you're expecting in <unk>.
Speaker Change: And that you're expecting.
Speaker Change: Into the second half of the year, what are some of the logistics.
Speaker Change: Logistical hurdles, so you'll need to clear to get there.
Speaker Change: Sorry can you repeat that question I didn't catch it all.
Speaker Change: Sorry, just around go help protect some.
Speaker Change: Some of the logistical hurdles that youll need to clear to see that growth through the second half of the year.
Speaker Change: Yeah, No I mean.
Speaker Change: We are we're making sure that we have our agents a license that we have a significant portion of our floor will already have life insurance licenses.
Speaker Change: As we started this we were always thoughtful our operating team is very impressive and being able to take a small test group are really kicking the tires and figure out what works what doesn't work and then when they feel like there is a scalable model being able to really ramp up with our agents ensure that their train. If you look back at for example, what we did with <unk>.
Speaker Change: <unk> last year within weeks of closing that transaction be able to ramp them up onto our tools and getting them to be very efficient with it. So once we prove that model in the late part of Q1 are rolling into Q2, we started to scale back up those scale up those agents those who are qualified and getting them appointed appropriately and then.
Speaker Change: And what the appropriate leads to be able to deliver so it really is just making sure that everybody is licensed and appointed and then that we've got them set up to operate with aren't within our technology to write that business. There's not a lot. There. That's what we said there are minimal investment necessary from us on a fixed basis to get there it's more about investing in.
Speaker Change: On the marketing or leveraging the market and we already do to be able to sell these products to those who need it in.
Speaker Change: And the question for US is just making sure that we have a thoughtful ramp as opposed to moving too quickly.
Speaker Change: Because yes, you want to make sure that you keep learning and getting your best practices deployed before you go to the full floor.
Understood. Thank you and then maybe just a macro question what kind of customer behavior do you see.
Speaker Change: When the markets get volatile the way. They are do you see more customers coming out to do plan to checkups more inbound calls or anything like that.
Speaker Change: If we go back to history last year, you can see we had a lot more opportunities that came through the door, but more importantly, the opportunities that came in.
Speaker Change: We're more disproportionately those who needed to make changes because disruption happening there were a lot of planned exits last year. So first and foremost. The question is how many planned exits will there be because those are our shoppers who need to make a plan change under all circumstances, they have to choose something new when theyre just benefit degradation, it's more of a.
Speaker Change: Are my options better or worse than the other ones available right are they playing them on did it change in a way that's going to be exorbitantly expensive to me and there are are there alternatives that can actually help.
Speaker Change: Support.
Speaker Change: My my daily cost of living et cetera, et cetera. So what we ended up seeing it more people shop, because they hear about the disruptions that youre everything going on in the industry you have more shoppers come through the door and generally found that those shoppers who come through and comment on the inbound have a higher probability of meeting a switch and that's what we've observed last year and that's what.
Speaker Change: We're expecting that we'll have more coming in this year, we'll wait to see what benefits ultimately do but our expectation that there's going to be a lot of a lot.
Speaker Change: A lot of demand for shopping to compare their options as there will be continued benefit and repricing.
Speaker Change: Our current expectation.
Speaker Change: Yeah.
Speaker Change: Thank you.
Operator: And I'm showing no further questions at this time I would now like to turn the call back to Vijay Kotte CEO for closing remarks.
Operator: Well. Thank you all for your time here I know we've had a lot of really good questions. There is a lot of that's exciting going on with <unk>. There's a lot of things going on within the industry that we need to monitor the health plans are continuing to reassess how they.
Operator: They want to show up for Medicare advantage, there's no doubt, it's a valuable product and serves a lot of consumers and those consumers need help.
Operator: Figuring out what matches for their needs the health plans need help to balance their needs as well and the one common denominator. There is players like go health can enable that.
Operator: Ability to balance needs against the.
Operator: The market dynamics, we are excited about how that plays forward. There's a lot that we're working on to read and react as we see the market coming.
Operator: As we think about our flexibility our capital structure as we talked about earlier, making sure that we have the ability to invest appropriately to seize the opportunity data they're thoughtful.
Operator: Positive contributors to revenue EBITDA and our cash position all of those are really important balancing act for US we want to make sure that we are prepared for the market to come so with that we appreciate your time, we're excited about the opportunity and we look forward to speaking to you all again very soon.
Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program and you may now disconnect.
Operator: [music].
Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Yeah.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Great.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Please.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: <unk>.
Operator: Yes.
Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator:
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yeah.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Right.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Yeah.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Thanks.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: <unk>.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
[music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Thanks.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Hum.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Thanks.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Alright.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Hi.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Thanks.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Right.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Sure.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.
Operator: Okay.
Operator: [music].
Operator: Okay.
Operator: Yes.