Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is Liz Tallett, Chair of the Board. Welcome to the Elevance Health 2024 annual meeting of shareholders. I will preside as Chair of today's meeting. The meeting is called to order, and the polls are now open. Shareholders of record and their proxy holders can vote and ask questions online during the formal meeting by clicking on the Q&A icon on the meeting website. After the formal meeting, Gail Boudreaux, President and CEO, will provide a business update followed by a question-and-answer session. Joining online are our other directors as well as several key Elevance Health executives and representatives from Ernst & Young, our independent auditors. I will now ask Kathleen Kiefer, Corporate Secretary, to proceed with the meeting agenda.
Thank you, Liz. The agenda and rules of conduct and procedures for the meeting and the question-and-answer session are posted on the meeting website. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that you abide by these rules. As set forth in the rules of the meeting, the only matters to be acted upon by the shareholders during the meeting are as set forth in the agenda. Alisa Zagare and Kathleen Reyes from Computershare have been appointed to act as inspector of election for the matters to be voted on during today's meeting. I will file the oath of office of the inspector of election with the minutes of the meeting. A complete list of our shareholders of record is available for review on the meeting website. Most shareholders have already voted by proxy, and the proxy votes have been tallied.
If you are a shareholder of record or a beneficial shareholder and have already voted, then there is nothing further for you to do. If you are a beneficial shareholder who has requested a legal proxy in attending this meeting, your previous vote, excuse me, has been revoked, and you need to revote. Shareholders can vote by clicking on the vote icon on the meeting website. A total of 232,613,930 shares of Elevance Health Common Stock was outstanding on March 18th, entitled to be voted at this annual meeting. Proxies representing approximately 90% of the shares of Common Stock outstanding and eligible to be voted have been received, and thus a quorum is present. As described in the proxy, there are four items to be voted on during this meeting.
The first item is the election of directors Lou Hay, Antonio Neri, and Rami Peru, each to hold office until the 2027 annual meeting of shareholders and hold office until their successors are elected and qualified. The board recommends a vote for each of the director nominees. The second item is an advisory vote on the compensation of our company's named executive officers, or the Say-on-Pay vote. The board recommends approval of this proposal. The third item is to vote on ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young as our company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2024. The board recommends approval of this proposal. The fourth item is to vote on a shareholder proposal to adopt a policy to require certain third-party organizations to annually report political activity expenditures prior to us donating to the organization.
This proposal was submitted by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Laura Campos will act as the proponent's representative. Ms. Campos, you have three minutes to present the proposal. Operator, please open the line.
Ms. Campos, your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning. My name is Laura Campos, and as said, I am here on behalf of the Nathan Cummings Foundation to move proposal number four. Our proposal asks Elevance Health to adopt a policy requiring third-party organizations operated primarily to engage in political activities and receiving funds from Elevance that support those activities to report to the company at least annually on these expenditures. There is no question that political spending poses risks for corporations and their investors, especially in today's highly polarized environment. Now more than ever, corporations must have a comprehensive framework for addressing that risk. That's why we're asking Elevance Health to take steps to ensure it is aware of all political spending supported with its funds.
By requiring 527 committees, trade associations, social welfare organizations, and others focused primarily on engaging in political activities to provide specific information on those activities, Elevance can better oversee and mitigate any risks associated with its third-party political spending. This is an essential part of meaningful due diligence and enterprise risk management and protects companies and their shareholders. Elevance has contributed $millions to third-party groups since the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Among other things, this spending has supported third parties connected to attacks on voting rights, efforts to stymie climate action, and other controversial issues that can create reputational risks for our company. Ultimately, the outcome of these third-party expenditures can undermine the health of the entire U.S. economy with potentially negative impacts on diversified investors' entire portfolios.
Elevance has tried to avoid implementing this best practice by claiming that it can't possibly require third parties to let them know what their money ultimately supports, but that's a disingenuous argument at best. When third parties come calling, you can bet that if it comes down to a choice between leaving empty-handed or disclosing basic information on where that company ultimately lands, most will choose the latter. If they don't, they're likely to be exactly the type of group Elevance should think twice about supporting. As long-term shareholders with a vested interest in the health and profitability of this company, we urge the board to reconsider its opposition to this best practice. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Campos. The board recommends against this proposal. That concludes the matters to be voted on during this meeting, and the polls will be closed shortly. I'll turn it back to you, Liz.
Thank you. The polls are now closed. According to the preliminary report provided by the inspector of election, the director nominees have been elected, the executive compensation has received advisory approval, E&Y has been ratified, and the shareholder proposal to adopt a policy to require certain third-party organizations to annually report political activity expenditures prior to the company donating to the organization did not pass. We will provide the final voting results in a Form 8-K filed with the SEC. The formal meeting is adjourned, and the window to submit questions is now closed. Gail will now provide a brief business update followed by a question-and-answer session. Kathleen, please review the rules for this session.
We will make forward-looking statements during this section, and actual results may differ materially from these statements. You should refer to our periodic SEC filings for the risk factors related to our business that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements. As mentioned earlier, the rules of conduct and procedures will apply during this Q&A session. Now I'll turn it over to Gail.
Good morning. On behalf of our board of directors and our associates around the world, welcome to Elevance Health's annual shareholder meeting. 2023 was a strong year for our company as we leveraged the diversity and strength of our health benefits and Carelon businesses to drive growth for our shareholders through our multiple complementary lines of business. Driven by our purpose to improve the health of humanity, we remain focused on whole health, embracing new technologies and innovation across our enterprise to address the physical, behavioral, social, and pharmacy needs of our customers. We were pleased with our performance in 2023 and with our continued transformation from a traditional health benefits organization to a lifetime trusted health partner. We successfully launched our CarelonRx and Carelon Services brand, bringing together our services businesses as part of our brand portfolio evolution.
Equipped with diversified services, digital capabilities, and strong provider partnerships, we enhanced our ability to serve consumers throughout their entire health journey. Every day, we embrace our responsibility to connect individuals to the care, support, and resources they need, and we prioritize health equity so that everyone has a chance to live their healthiest life. We're proud to lead the industry and National Committee for Quality Assurance Health Equity Plus accreditations, which recognize our values and ongoing efforts to develop solutions to ensure access to high-quality healthcare for all. At the end of 2023, 21 of the 28 plans receiving this esteemed accreditation were Elevance Health plans serving over 90% of our Medicaid members.
We also saw excellent progress on our ambitious goal to improve Black maternal and child health by reducing the disparity in preterm birth rates between Black and non-Black communities, improving the disparity gap by 5.2% relative to our 2022 baseline. Our passion for our purpose and sustainability practices earned the company recognition on USA Today’s inaugural America's Climate Leaders 2023 list. We were also named to the 2023 Dow Jones Sustainability North America and World Indices and the JUST 100, all for a sixth consecutive year. Our strong corporate responsibility and sustainability practices continue to be a shared passion for our associates as we strive to achieve our business objectives. Our 2023 Associate Engagement Survey found that over 90% of our associates understand and are inspired by the company's purpose of improving the health of humanity.
Powered by our associates' dedication, the company was named as a great place to work for the fourth consecutive year and included on the 2023 Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list, Time's list of the World's Best Companies, and Newsweek's list of America's Greatest Workplaces for 2023. Turning to our 2023 business performance and strategy for the future, we have made significant strides building upon our flywheel for growth, which is the synergistic relationship between our health benefits and Carelon businesses, where the success of one drives the success of the other in a self-reinforcing and virtuous cycle. We leveraged the strength and diversity of both businesses to deliver solid performance, and we're well-positioned to drive ongoing growth for our shareholders.
Total operating revenue for the year was just over $170 billion, an increase of approximately 9% over the prior year, and total operating gain for the year was $8.5 billion. We continue to grow and expand Carelon, including the acquisitions of BioPlus, a specialty pharmacy, and Paragon Healthcare, a company specializing in infusion and injectable therapies. These accelerated capabilities complement CarelonRx's primary suite of pharmacy services, which include a fast-growing specialty pharmacy business and our advanced home delivery service. Carelon's services are poised for strong growth in 2024 with the onboarding of new clients and the expansion of services provided to Elevance Health medical members, including risk-based oncology products. We've also launched comprehensive Carelon Behavioral Health Management Services to address the whole health needs of Medicaid beneficiaries living with serious mental illness.
We launched a series of initiatives to improve and simplify the consumer experience, including enhancing our associates' ability to better serve our members through the integration of AI support and natural language processing. This has significantly accelerated our first-call resolution and claims auto-adjudication rate. We're further broadening the use of AI to automate elements of our provider directory and other administrative processes, which have directly led to improved data accuracy and consumer and care provider experience. We expanded My Health Advocate, our personalized customer service model that moves past providing transactional interactions using innovative technology to provide a high-touch, relationship-based experience. This model increased satisfaction for our commercial members, and we've now implemented it to meet the needs of our Medicare members.
We're similarly focused on improving our member touchpoint measures, which is how the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association measures our operational and service performance to determine responsiveness to customers. We had our best-ever performance in this area last year and will strive to continue to elevate our results going forward. We recently announced a strategic partnership to build an advanced primary care business by bringing together the strength of three innovative care provider entities, including certain care delivery and enablement assets of Carelon, to accelerate innovation, enhance healthcare experiences, and improve health outcomes for consumers. The combined company will be payer-agnostic and serve nearly 1 million consumers across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid health plans upon formation. At the onset, Elevance Health will hold a significant minority position in the combined business with a clear path to first majority and then full ownership in approximately five years.
Driving all of this are Elevance Health's over 100,000 associates. Guided by our purpose and our culture, we will continue to execute on our strategy to be a lifetime trusted health partner and deliver on our commitments to our stakeholders. On behalf of our board of directors and leadership team, thank you for joining us. We appreciate your continued interest and support of Elevance Health as we advance our bold purpose of improving the health of humanity. Now we'll open it up for questions. Kathleen, are there any questions?
Yes, we have received one question from Ed Durkin. The question is as follows: The company has in place a director resignation governance policy that provides the board post-election discretion to determine whether to accept or reject the resignation of an incumbent director who fails to be reelected. Does the policy undermine the voting rights of shareholders by allowing the board to have the final say on the unelected director status? Liz, I'll turn it over. I'm sorry, Gail, I'll turn it over to you.
Well, thank you, Kathleen, and thank you for the question. Our director resignation policy applies only if an incumbent director does not receive support from a majority of the votes cast in an uncontested election, in which case, to promote continuity, state law provides that the director may remain in office until his or her successor is elected or qualifies, or until there is a decrease in the number of directors on the board. We believe our policy prudently balances state law concerns over stability and continuity at the board level with the rights of shareholders to express their views throughout their vote. Our policy is consistent with the overwhelming majority of policies adopted at other companies.
Thank you. That concludes the questions we've received. Thank you for attending the Elevance Health annual shareholder meeting. Have a nice day.
That concludes the meeting. You may now disconnect.