Health Plan Weekly

During the COVID-19 pandemic, payers and federal and local governments are taking steps to improve health outcomes in rural, non-metropolitan communities, where case and mortality rates are significantly higher than in metropolitan areas.

Some of those initiatives include offering grants to health care providers, expanding access to telehealth and hosting events and campaigns to increase vaccinations, according to three speakers who discussed the pandemic and rural health during a Feb. 28 webinar hosted by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation.

Here’s how major health insurers’ stock performed in February 2022. UnitedHealth Group had the highest closing stock price among major commercial insurers as of Feb. 28, 2022, at $475.87. Molina Healthcare, Inc. had the highest closing stock price among major Medicaid insurers at $306.87.

Centene Corp. on Feb. 24 revealed that CEO and Chairman Michael Neidorff took immediate medical leave. That means Neidorff may have served his last day at the helm of the company he built into a Medicaid managed care powerhouse, given the fact that he has already announced plans to retire later this year after 26 years on the job.

Effective immediately, an “expanded office of the chairman” will handle day-to-day management of Centene. That group includes Vice Chairman of the Board Sarah London, President and Chief Operating Officer Brent Layton, Chief Financial Officer Drew Asher and Chief Administrative Officer Shannon Bagley.

With UnitedHealth Group poised to battle the U.S. Dept. of Justice in court over the fate of its proposed purchase of Change Healthcare, Inc., there’s still a host of unknowns about how that legal case will play out. However, one thing does appear to be clear to industry observers: UnitedHealth will be just fine no matter how the fight to salvage its transaction plays out.

In the credit rating world, “if the deal is ultimately stopped by the DOJ, it would be credit positive for UnitedHealth” because it would require the company to take on less debt, “but long-term growth prospects would be incrementally diminished,” Moody’s Investors Service wrote in a Feb. 28 report.