As UnitedHealth Group executives continue to mourn the death of one of the top healthcare giants … [+]
As UnitedHealth Group executives mourn the death of one of their top executives, the nation’s largest health insurer is preparing for this week’s response to another multibillion-dollar fourth-quarter profit.
The year ended after the death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson on Dec. 4, which sparked a barrage of scrutiny over health insurers’ denials of medical care and certain other business practices from social media trolls and industry critics, including some in Congress. who say that they. I would like to see reforms.
The company, along with most other rival health insurers, has remained mostly dark with few press releases, while companies including UnitedHealth have removed executive photos, biographies and other information from their websites.
Thompson was among several executives who led UnitedHealth Group businesses with the title of CEO. UnitedHealth includes the health insurance company UnitedHealthcare that included Thompson as well as the medical care services business Optum and its many subsidiaries including OptumRx, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the country.
Thursday will be the first time UnitedHealth executives led by CEO Andrew Witty will speak publicly since Dec. 4 when the company was scheduled to hold its investor day, which was canceled after the New York shooting.
When UnitedHealth releases its fourth-quarter and 2024 financial results Thursday before the market opens, the report will almost certainly include a profit despite rising medical costs for seniors covered by its Medicare Advantage plans and spending that most of businesses UnitedHealthcare and Optum endured one of the nation’s largest cyberattacks on an American company.
A cyberattack last February on the company’s Change Healthcare business caused chaos for doctors and medical care providers across the country, paralyzing Change Healthcare’s massive billing and payment system. The attack caused a shutdown of parts of Change Healthcare’s electronic system, leaving doctors and other medical care providers without the ability to obtain insurance approval for patient services.
The total impacts of cyberattacks on UnitedHealth and its subsidiaries are expected to be more than $2.2 billion for all of 2024, the company has predicted. A final number will be included in Thursday’s report.
But the cyberattack hasn’t stopped UnitedHealth from making billions of dollars each quarter this year. In the company’s third quarter, for example, UnitedHealth Group reported earnings that eclipsed $6 billion thanks to its diversified portfolio of health insurance and medical provider services that helped offset the costs of a cyber attack on its businesses in beginning of this year.
But Wall Street analysts are bracing for the continued impact of rising medical costs on UnitedHealthcare.
Like the health insurance industry more broadly and insurers like UnitedHealth that have Medicare Advantage businesses, medical care costs have risen. UnitedHealthcare has more than 50 million health plan customers, including 7.8 million people in Medicare Advantage, which is the privatized insurance coverage for seniors that has seen cost increases this year.
Third-quarter net income was $6.06 billion, or $6.51 per share. Analyst estimates for UnitedHealth’s Q4 earnings average $6.72 per share, which would be up more than 9% from Q4 2023. Revenue is expected to be more than $102 billion. , which would be an 8% increase from the prior year quarter.
