Thank you, guys. Okay. Alex gorsky from j j, appreciate it well be back tomorrow cnbcs special coverage continues right now. Good monday morning welcome to squawk on the street, im Carl Quintanilla with jim cramer and david faber. Coming to you live from separate locations even on set as we practice social distancing futures are stable to start the week as the president extends those social distancing guidelines to april 30th j j, as you just heard, announcing a lead candidate for a covid19 vaccine a lot of people were astonished that the futures, just at the moment when the president said, look, we have to extend things. Take away that april 12th deadline, it will go all april at the very moment we saw the futures start reversing. I think this is a day, dont know how much more, a day where science trumps the pain and the disaster frankly that is covid there have been many, many days weve come in and science has been playing catch up game today it sounds like science is on target. Listening to alex gorsky, ive known alex for a long time, there was nothing in his voice that was tentative it was all full speed ahead. We also know there will be a lot of mayhem between now and when that happens i think theres a sense that this thing is here to stay the idea that everybody can be back to normal is fanciful when you start hearing about vaccines, you start knowing about the companies involved, you start thinking one day maybe physical distancing, social distancing, whatever, could become something of the past so i dont know, we have david back here. Hes certainly physical and socially distanced from me i do think that this is a day where you say, if im short, im betting against science, not betting against the lackadaisical attitude of many people in the country. Youre also dealing with a situation none of us have ever actually seen before and when it comes to the market, certainly the sense is that nobody knows anything at this point. Were all trying to understand how quickly the virus will spread, and or how quickly a vaccine will be available or more importantly in the nearterm how quickly antivirals may be available that would certainly slow or mitigate the effects of the virus and therefore really add a significant element to our treatment of it. Or even the antibody tests that would give people the sense of or let them know whether they have it or not unchartered territory continues. Nobody really has a great sense for any of those things i mentioned. Theres a positive response this morning despite what was not great news over the weekend. Im so glad you mentioned the antivirals. Theres a lot of lore going around, a lot of urban legends on what works and doesnt t the hydroxychloroquine one thing that intercepted the notion of where we are is the president s conviction that certain things are working we certainly want them who wishes things werent as perfect as the president says they are then he says i never said it was perfect. You understand the notion of wanting to be on wartime footing, wanting to have many antivirals working versus the notion of seeing pictures on the beach and the notion of crowd distancing being something that works in some places and other people seem to ignore it then the pictures out of new york which make you look like pictures out of wuhan. Then the pictures out of wuhan are what you want for new york were on wartime footing, to criticize the president during wartime is a disedicious. Dr. Fauci saidant to be optimistic thats what we have to offer viewers. You were clearly on twitter annoyed by some of the crowds you saw on some of the florida beaches. Jim, david is exactly right. If this medical curve goes in tranches and vaccines are the final tranche, whats more important nearterm . Is it gilead saying we expect remdesivir results in weeks . Is it abbotts test that can be done small and portable in the hospital what is important to watch in the nearterm . We do have miles white tonight on mad money to talk about abbott i felt over and over and over again its testing, testing, testing. The way you beat this is to have as many tests going on what you want to do, you want to have a plan for the country to come back. But the country can only come back if we know whos healthy and whos not. Theres a perception that everybody is awaiting getting this there is also just a terrible series of just as there is too much hope being given to many antivirals, theres way too much of the of what i would regard as were all going to get it. Well all put our hands to our face well all be connected to it theres no hope to it. I find both are just really, really, id say, illadvised in terms of what were trying to do for the people david, i think that you know that the impact on the economy is far worse than what were making it out to be. Theres too many team who cant pay rent too many mortgages out there weve got a lot of different products that are predicated on the idea that it is sack croissakr sacrosanct that you pay rent there are real issues being confronting us in the next few months that would make it so that the recession is like the depression if were fighting over the number of ventilators, the spare number of ventilators that are somewhere in a warehouse somewhere, were missing the larger point the larger point is will society function in the time when no one seems to have to pay anything . Youre absolutely right, jim. Those are the conversations youve been having, that ive been having as well over the course of the weekend, and certainly during the workday, so to speak that we have these days the concern amongst people who run businesses is how theyre going to pay the rent and, in fact, many are choosing not to it is also turning to restructuring. You talk to people in private equity, for example, where there are obviously a portfolio of companies that oftentimes sort of is the width and breadth of the u. S. Economy, you get a sense that theres a lot of problem areas, those that are not right now are expected to be thats whats going on everybody is trying to understand how bad is it going to be . For how long what will my cash flows look like what do i need to do in terms of cutting back my spending to be able to survive. Thats not even the Small Businesses, which you know are just at this point getting crushed around the country given most of them, many of them are not open the base of the country, the 85 that is small and mediumsized business for the most part is closed. What does that mean for stocks you come in i think we all talk to a lot of people whom we regard as being thorough about stocks theres a disconnect between what stocks are doing and what people expect the economy to do. Stocks have long since divorced themselves from the actual economy, only because theyre big internationstional companies im going through the technology stocks, do i care what theyre building here . They tend not to be here theyre in china when i look at the ventilator business, the gown business, weve long since outsourced these. These are not american businesses we had 900,000 seamstresses in the country in 1990, now we have zero can we make them here . Yes. For the most part were a Service Economy. The Service Economy for lack of a better term is just shut down. Jim, it does bring us to the week, we have ahead of us. We will get more data which is likely to be bad well get the end of quarter flows. We have competing calls tactically from the likes of goldman which says dont trust last weeks rally, versus Morgan Stanley which says forced liquidation is behind us, and we stick with the view that the worst is behind us if you have a 6 to 12month horizon . Where is your head great question. I look at the companies that are involved lets take social media. Social media is part of f. A. N. G. Its clear that engagement is way up thats great its also very clear that advertising is way down. Thats bad we have a lot of things that are really like that the fueling of the economy, whether for entertainment or online, for autos, they require demand. When youre trying to put food on the table or buy a car you are trying to figure out whether you have a job or whether youre going to be able to buy at ross stores. In the interim you have to figure out if youre paying rent or do you skip rent and hope nobody catches you i think were at a moment where its a freeforall. In a free for all, its a tough environment to take a big swing at general motors. Yeah. Does remind me other upgrades to watch as well, which well get to including ulta, procter and others when we come back, the president and ceo of cigna, david cordani, will join us this monday morning. Yes. Its the first word of any new discovery. But when allergies attack, the excitement fades. Allegra helps you say yes with the fastest nondrowsy allergy relief and turning a half hearted yes, into an all in yes. Allegra. Live your life, not your allergies. Welcome back to squawk on the street. Lets get over to Bertha Coombs who joins us with a special guest, hes cignas ceo, david cordani. Thank you very much cigna was the first insurer to move to say it was going to cover all of the costs on covid testing, now its joined with humana to say its also going to be covering first dollar costs for all of the treatments for coronavirus patients, not just hospitalizations, but also future medications, future vaccines, and theyll do that both in network and out of network. David cordani joins me now to talk about that decision david, how did you come to this decision and what were some of the considerations that you took in good morning. As you know, were a Global Health service company, in a time of crisis, which is what we confront right now, were telling ourselves to step forward and help our customers help our patients and provide them peace of mind, appreciate your reference to the testing. We also leaned in with expanded telemed resources, 90day delivery of medication, in our announcement this morning we acknowledge were redeploying hundreds of doctors and nurses to support outside third party telemed choices. Were stepping in to help customers, and in this case as we step back and see individuals fighting the health challenge, we wanted to take the financial burden off their docket. Its a simple condition, complex, but it is putting the customer and patient front and center and trying to provide them peace of mind its a complex decision, s p global analysts estimated in a severe pandemic that the medical costs for insurers could be near 1 100 billion as you take on this responsibility and some of your peers likely will follow, how are you going to be able to handle that . Again, we acknowledge were in unprecedented times lets step back and understand what were saying here an individual has an out of pocket financial responsibility tied to insurance, whether its commercial insurance, individual exchange insurance, medicare advantage, medicaid, were saying were taking that individual responsibility on ourselves. Backing that is a large responsibility in regards to the government with medicare or medicaid or the corporate employer which remains so were taking the portion for a Covid Patients treatment and were taking that financial obligation on. Thats a large diversified Financial Service company and Health Service company we weve were well positioned to do so well track this over the next several months as we serve our customers and patients stepping back we think its the right thing to do. Individuals are in hospital situations dealing with treatment, we wanted to take this burden off their lap and off their faap and provide them the peace of mind they deserve david, thank you so much for what youre doing. Jim, good to hear your voice. Thanks for coming on mad money a bunch of times, too im trying to figure out the priorities, what would help you the most a fiveminute test that would tell you what youre what some of the lives that you back are seeing, or something about more personal protective equipment because it does seem you go through it quickly, thats hurt the process in hospitals. I know its difficult to balance these, but i feel like testing, testing, testing would really help cigna ill boil it down into three. Weve been working every other day, theres a group of ceo leaders who come together crossing hospital, lab, home health care, Skilled Nursing facility, Pharmacy Services, to ask those very questions you hit on two of the three. One is ppe we need to have the ability to get the ppe or the personal Protection Equipment to the right place at the right time. And the way in which the country is rising up to that is quite inspiring, though there are hot spots and additional acceleration necessary in the production and distribution. Second then is testing the accelerated testing. Theres a hierarchy. Inpatient first, medical professionals, First Responders second individuals who are highrisk third and others fourth. And then third is what weve all become accustomed to talking about now, social distancing reducing the risk of onset taking on the responsibility to reduce the risk of onset, all americans have that responsibility weve learned now washing our hands for 20 seconds is really important. Weve learned social distancing is very important. If you take those three items, while the medical system is working feverishly to triage those who are ill as well as to evolve therapies and vaccines, thats what we need, those three items plus the medical system doing its work would a would the number three item, social distancing, would that benefit from a National Lockdown or National Travel ban thats not my call. I think you see the country going through different phases of it. First and foremost im proud to see what Corporate America did Corporate America stepped in and aggressively moved to supporting individuals to work at home, for example. We have probably in excess of 90 of all of our colleagues in a work at home situation from that standpoint because of the nature of our business, some people need to be in the work setting. Weve limited that social distancing from that standpoint we provide additional pay for those who have to be at work, whether its tied to care delivery, Pharmacy Service delivery, et cetera. We also offered an additional 10 days of emergency ppo because we know individuals are trying to balance work life, caregiver, sandwich generation, et cetera so number one, corporations are stepping in quite aggressively then secondly, the government has to deal with in from a local to national and national to local basis. Were not a one size fits all country, in this case its not a one size fits all solution, but the intensity is ramping up. More political leaders are finding that more aggressive postu posture, social distancing is probably in societys best interest over the nearterm. David, david faber. What is your sense right now in terms of the Financial Health of our nations hospitals i would assume theyll benefit from the fact that youll be covering all the costs related to some of their patients or the patients who have your insurance. What are you hearing and how will this industry look once this virus passes . Yeah. Theres strains to every business, no doubt about it. I was listening to jims comments before i came on. So the strain is acute as you deal with the hospital and the care delivery part of the equation, obviously were seeing in the country those elective procedures or those deferrable procedures are being asked to be deferred by hospital leaders, but policy leaders and otherwise, thats an extraction of revenue from that standpoint. Conversely theres an onset of Certain Services consumed. Youre vecorrect, the action we took, were doing our part by saying the hospitals dont worry about that part of the reimbursement, dont worry about that part of the collection process, dont worry about bad debt attached to that, we want to support you from that standpoint as you saw the stimulus bill, theres dollars being allocated towards Health Care Delivery services from that standpoint. Well see most cases the strongest of the strong will be there. The strong players will provide support for their brother and sister locations around the country. And some of the hospitals that may be in a little weaker financial state might find themselves in a state of disarray more rapidly. Elected officials need to be prepared to step in quickly to provide the financial backing that they need david, its carl. I thought your answer on testing priorities was interesting because do you think the debate is going to come down to when we get high speed testing at scale and Antibody Testing at scale, do you test highrisk individuals first because of their vulnerability like you said or do we test lowrisk individuals first because theyre the ones who are most able to get back to work i think when the Testing Capacity eanour country testing a higher rate across the board my comment, carl, was relative to the present time. Lets take an example of why i referenced what i did. Working with hospital partners, were able to see that, the priority is to get nonCovid Patients out of the hospital if possible into longterm care, Skilled Nursing facilities or home so our industry works with hospitals to accelerate those transitions, we needed to make sure that individuals were covid negative so, therefore the prioritization of inhospital individuals consuming first. To your point, as the rate and scope of testing expands, and it is, Companies Like quest, labcorp and others are ramping at quantum pace and theres additional testing in terms of speed or type of tests that expand, well see societally more consumption of the testing to help identify individuals at risk or people who may be a symptomatic and carriers from that standpoint. Thats the next thing to come. David, one of the things that you have talked a lot about over the last couple of years is whole Health Mental health help you have expanded telehealth access to Mental Health. Are you seeing people access this in this time when people may not be sick but certainly feeling the stress appreciate the question simple answer is yes you recall t