![]() ![]() "Big picture, really positive," Witty told investors about the insurer's expectations for the space. Over the past five years the payer's MA enrollment has had an average annual growth rate of 13%. Rivals including Humana, Cigna and CVS Health-owned Aetna all entered into new markets for 2022, with the established payer giants facing off against new upstarts like Clover Health and Oscar Health to capture new members.ĭespite dismal projections from some of its peers about slowing MA enrollment, UnitedHealth's slice of the lucrative market continues to grow. 31, with MA accounting for 6.5 million members at year's end, a growth of 780,000 over the past year.Ĭompetition in MA is ramping up as the program continues to swell, currently capturing about 44% of all Medicare beneficiaries. The payer covered 50.6 million medical members as of Dec. Along with expansion in the broader Medicaid market, that growth was spearheaded by growth in both individual and group MA and dual special needs plans, management said. Overall, UnitedHealthcare saw its membership snowball in 2021, adding 2.2 million total people to its rolls. For members requiring inpatient care, severity is apparently lower as they have shorter lengths of stay, according to the executive. Inpatient hospitalization levels in recent weeks are similar to those seen in January 2021, even as national case rates are four times higher, CFO John Rex said. Omicron is driving down non-emergent care, but appears to be causing milder disease than other COVID-19 variants. Over the past several weeks, primary care visits have declined about 10%, while specialty visits have fallen even more, Rex told investors. ![]() In the first few weeks of January, UnitedHealth saw slowing primary care visits and elective and procedural volumes, CFO John Rex said. That's also reflected in the early days of 2022. Omicron is contributing to some differences and changes in severity, but overall the payer is seeing a similar trend to other variants, with higher then anticipated increases in testing and related costs offset by care deferral, according to Thompson. Its commercial segment was largely at baseline performance in the quarter, while Medicare and Medicaid were slightly below, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson told investors on a Wednesday morning call. UnitedHealth reported an MLR of 83.7% in the quarter, only slightly above the past quarter's 83%. That was reflected in its medical loss ratio, a marker of how much it's spending on patient care. UnitedHealth's payer arm, UnitedHealthcare, reported revenue up 12% year over year to $56.4 billion.ĭespite the emergence of the omicron variant in the fourth quarter, pushing the country's daily case reports to record levels, UnitedHealth said utilization trends among its members were similar to the third quarter. UnitedHealth, the largest private health insurer and viewed as an industry bellwether for the earnings season, set a generally optimistic tone for its peers on Wednesday with the release of its financial results. However, it's unclear whether payers will enjoy a similarly positive environment in 2022, with their fate depending largely on the impact of COVID-19. 2021 was a very good year for managed care companies, amid record enrollment in plans through the exchanges set up by the Affordable Care Act, the growing popularity of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans and states pausing Medicaid redeterminations during the COVID-19 public health emergency. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |