That knee surgery you postponed could soon hobble insurance giants
Live MintFrom a financial standpoint, the pandemic years have been good for managed care companies. Hospitals faced unprecedented labor shortages in recent years as nurses and doctors quit their jobs, forcing many patients to defer costly care, a boon to insurers. One data point says it all: the medical loss ratio at UnitedHealth Group, the largest managed care company, has beaten the Wall Street analyst consensus in 10 of the last 11 fiscal quarters, according to data from FactSet. UNH’s higher MLR guide suggests management expects rising patient utilization as the hospital labor shortage eases, Sanford Bernstein’s Lance Wilkes wrote. In a recent note downgrading UNH and Cigna shares earlier this month, Raymond James‘ John Ransom noted it will be tough for managed care companies to replicate another year of low costs, with many of the doctors and nurses that escaped on “revenge travel" in the third quarter coming back, boosting capacity.
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