Health Plan Weekly

On 4Q Earnings Call, UnitedHealth Addresses Macro, Micro Medical Cost Woes

  • Jan 17
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    Jan 17, 2025

    Underscoring the delicate — and sometimes dissonant — balancing act the company plays, UnitedHealth Group’s fourth-quarter earnings call had two overarching themes: philosophical musings about what’s wrong with American health care, and assurances that medical cost pressures that plagued the firm in 2024 won’t follow it into 2025. Still, the company’s stock dropped on the news that its fourth-quarter medical loss ratio (MLR) was higher than expected. 

    The Jan. 16 conference call was UnitedHealth’s first publicly broadcast event since the Dec. 4 death of Brian Thompson, who led the company’s insurance arm and was gunned down outside a New York City hotel where he was slated to participate in UnitedHealth’s annual Investor Day. Luigi Mangione, 26, is now facing charges related to a crime that police have indicated was motivated by simmering anger at the health insurance industry.  

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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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