Monday March 05, 2012
by Richard Moroney, editor Dow Theory Forecasts
The first waves of baby boomers are rolling into Medicare, potentially adding billions in new revenue for companies offering Medicare Advantage coverage.
UnitedHealth Group (
UNH) is a leader in the managed-care group.
The insurer’s outlook brightened in February when the White House issued 2013 payment guidelines for Medicare Advantage, private plans that offer comprehensive care to Medicare beneficiaries.
The official reimbursement rate won’t likely be released until April, but the unoffi cial estimate exceeded analysts’ expectations.
Medicare Advantage, UnitedHealth’s fastest-growing customer segment in each of the past two years, grew by 117,000 members, or 5%, in February with the acquisition of privately held XLHealth.
Specializing in plans for Medicare recipients with special needs, XLHealth is expected to add about $2 billion in annual revenue.
Also in February, UnitedHealth acquired a pair of Florida health plans with a total of 85,000 Medicare Advantage members.
UnitedHealth is introducing cloud-based initiatives aimed at making the retrieval of patent records more efficient and also plans to overhaul its payment system to doctors and hospitals by aligning payments to better and more efficient care. Projected to grow revenue 8% to $109.61 billion this year, UnitedHealth Group is a Long-Term Buy.
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