UnitedHealth Group Inc. posted higher revenue and profit for the first three months of 2022, and raised its full-year earnings outlook.
The healthcare and health-insurance giant, the first industry heavyweight to report first-quarter results, posted double-digit revenue growth at both its Optum and UnitedHealthcare units, as the Omicron variant-driven surge in Covid cases at the start of the quarter faded.
The company, based in Minnetonka, Minn., on Thursday also raised its full-year earnings guidance, powered in part by growth in the company’s Optum health-services arm.
The company said it now expects full-year earnings to be between $20.30 a share and $20.80 a share, up from its previously issued guidance of $20.20 a share to $20.70 a share. Adjusted earnings for the year are now expected to be between $21.20 a share and $21.70 a share, up from $21.10 a share to $21.60 a share.
Throughout the pandemic, at times when Covid-19 cases have surged, the company has seen levels of usual healthcare, like colonoscopies and joint replacements, fall off in tandem. In the latest quarter, the company appears to have effectively managed through the recent wave of Covid cases while increasing revenue and keeping costs down.
Revenue for the quarter ended March 31 rose more than 14% to $80.15 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected revenue of $78.73 million.
The company’s profit, stripped of amortization and tax effects, was $5.49 a share. Analysts had been expecting adjusted earnings of $5.36 a share, according to FactSet’s survey.
The medical-loss ratio, a closely watched measure of the proportion of premiums going to medical care, was 82%, below analysts’ expectations.
The company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance business saw revenue grow 13.6% in the first quarter to $62.6 billion. The business added 350,000 members last quarter, with growth in programs tied to government benefits, such as Medicare Advantage and Dual Special Needs Plans, leading the increase.
Prescriptions filled by OptumRx, the company’s pharmacy-benefits division, grew to 352 million in the quarter, compared with 329 million in the same quarter last year.
UnitedHealth’s Optum health-services arm notched 18.9% growth in the period, with revenue rising to $43.26 billion. Optum Health now expects to serve 600,000 new patients under value-based care arrangements this year, up from its initial outlook of 500,000 new patients, the company said.
The company said last month that it agreed to buy LHC Group for about $5.4 billion in cash, marking a push deeper into the home-health business.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text
