Bad Omen: UnitedHealth’s High Costs Portend Rocky 3Q for Payers

  • Oct 18, 2024

    UnitedHealth Group, whose earnings reports are often seen as a bellwether for the entire managed care sector, disclosed third-quarter results on Oct. 15 that did not bode well for its fellow publicly traded health insurers. Still, some Wall Street analysts expressed optimism that the headwinds may be temporary, at least for UnitedHealth. 

    UnitedHealth’s medical loss ratio (MLR) in the quarter — the closely watched metric indicating how much premium dollars are being spent on medical care — was 85.2%. That figure was higher (worse) than the Wall Street consensus estimate of 84.4%, providing one reason why UnitedHealth’s stock dipped after its quarterly results were released.  

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  • Leslie Small

    Leslie has been working in journalism since 2009 and reporting on the health care industry since 2014. She has covered the many ups and downs of the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the failed health insurer mega-mergers, and hundreds of other storylines spanning subjects such as Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage, employer-sponsored insurance, and prescription drug coverage. As the managing editor of Health Plan Weekly and Radar on Drug Benefits, she writes and edits for both publications while overseeing a small team of reporters who also focus on the managed care sector. Before joining AIS Health, she was a senior editor for the e-newsletter Fierce Health Payer, and she started her career as a copy editor at multiple local newspapers. She graduated with a dual degree in journalism and political science from Penn State University.

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