UnitedHealth Adds 800,000 Medicare Advantage Enrollees

By Allison Bell

News April 14, 2022 at 03:54 PM

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UnitedHealth Group responded to the belief that the Medicare Advantage market has gotten to be too competitive by adding about 800,000 new enrollees.

The company has about 12% more Medicare Advantage enrollees this year than it had last year.

The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based health insurer and health care services company today kicked off the new life, health and annuity issuer earnings season by posting its own results for the first quarter.

The Earnings

The company reported $5.1 billion in net income for the quarter on $80 billion in revenue, up from $5 billion in net income for the quarter on $70 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2020.

COVID-19 spiked hard early in the quarter.

Hospitalizations climbed to 40,000 in January but then fell to about 2,000 in March, according to John Rex, the company's chief financial officer.

The number of people with fully insured U.S. coverage increased to 8 million, from 7.9 million, and the number in self-insured employer health plans administered by United Health held steady at about 18.5 million.

More Medicare Plan Numbers

The number of Medicare supplement insurance users held steady, at about 4.4 million.

The number with stand-alone Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage may reflect the competitive pressure other players were describing. Enrollment for that product fell to 3.4 million, from 3.8 million.

(Photo: UnitedHealth)

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