UnitedHealth Group Inc. today kicked off the life and health insurance community's earnings release season for the second quarter of earnings by announcing higher earnings on higher revenue, in spite of all the health insurance-related turmoil in Washington.
(Related: The ACA Watcher's Earnings Release Calendar)
Many well-known insurers in the insurance industry are "mutuals," meaning that they are owned by their policyholders. Those companies send financial reports to insurance regulators. In theory, the mutuals' quarterly reports are public, but, in practice, the mutuals' financial reports are not easy for ordinary laypeople to see. No central organization publishes all of the mutuals' reports on a website that members of the public can use free of charge.
Other companies in the insurance industry are privately held. Those companies may have no obligation to file public financial reports.
But, like UnitedHealth, many of the best insurers, distributors, health care suppliers and support services companies are publicly traded, meaning that many ordinary investors own their stock. The Securities and Exchange Commission imposes tough financial report filing requirements on publicly traded companies, and it posts their filings in Edgar, a free company financial report library system.
Financial professionals can search for Edgar filings here.
Publicly traded companies in the insurance industry are all about to follow in UnitedHealth's report footsteps and expose their financial performance, and clues about their operations and opinions, to investors, through earnings press releases and conference calls with securities analysts.
Most publicly traded companies stream their analyst calls on the internet and post links to recordings of the calls on their websites.
Here's a look at the anticipated earnings release dates for many companies in the life and health sector, along with the questions that might shape analysts', reporters' and financial professionals' thoughts about those companies' earnings:
(Image: Thinkstock)
July 25
6 a.m.: Centene Corp. (NYSE:CNC)
Health insurance
The big question: What's happening to Medicaid and the individual commercial health market?
9:30 a.m.: HCA Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HCA)
Hospitals
The big question: What do hospitals think about what's going on in Washington?
4 p.m.: Ameriprise Financial Inc. (NYSE:AMP)
Life insurance; annuities
The big questions: How about those interest rates? And what do you see happening with the Department of Labor's fiduciary rule?
After 4.p.m.: Express Scripts Holding Co. (Nasdaq:ESRX)
Pharmacy benefits manager
The big question: What do you see Washington, and market forces, doing about pharmaceutical costs?
July 26
6 a.m.: Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM)
Health insurance; supplemental benefits insurance; major Blue Cross and Blue Shield license holder
The big question: Will there be individual major medical coverage in 2018? If so, how?
After 4 p.m.: Torchmark Corp. (NYSE:TMK)
Life insurance; annuities; supplemental health insurance
The big questions: How is the turmoil in the commercial individual major medical market affecting sales of supplemental health benefits?
After 4 p.m.: CNO Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:CNO)
Annuities; supplemental health benefits; long-term care insurance
The big question: Has it made a big deal involving its long-term care insurance operation?
July 27
4 p.m.: eHealth Inc. (Nasdaq:EHTH)
Web-based health insurance and supplemental benefits broker
The big questions: How is the new emphasis on sales of Medicare and micro-group health products working? And what do you think about what's going on in Washington?
4 p.m.: Unum Group (NYSE:UNM)
Disability insurance; voluntary benefits; worksite marketing
The big questions: What's up with portfolio yields? And how is all that turmoil in Washington affecting the worksite and voluntary benefits operations?
After 4 p.m.: Aflac Inc. (NYSE:AFL)
Supplemental insurance products; worksite marketing; health insurance for residents of Japan
The big questions: How is the company's reworking of U.S. distribution going? What is the turmoil in Washington doing to, or for, worksite product sales? How is Japan doing?
4:15 p.m.: Reinsurance Group of America Inc. (NYSE:RGA)
Life and health reinsurer
The big questions: What's really going on inside those insurance companies?
Aug. 1
After 4 p.m.: Genworth Financial Inc. (NYSE:GNW)
Mortgage insurance; long-term care insurance; annuities
The big questions: How is the pending acquisition by China Oceanwide going? What's happening at the long-term care insurance unit?
Aug. 2
6:30 a.m.: Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM)
Health insurance
The big questions: How is the increased emphasis on Medicare plans going? What do you think about what's going on Washington? Is the company trying to make a new deal, to replace the Aetna Inc. acquisition that recently fell through?
4 p.m.: Health Insurance Innovations Inc. (Nasdaq:HIIQ)
