Bruce
Japsen Senior Contributor
Nov 26, 2018
UnitedHealth
Group is projecting annual 2019 revenues of between $243 billion to $245
billion as the nation's largest health insurer continues its impressive growth
trajectory.
UnitedHealth, which is
slated to unveil future strategies at its annual investor conference Tuesday in
New York, said 2019 net earnings are projected to be in a range of $13.70 to
$14.00 per share, "and adjusted net earnings of $14.40 to $14.70 per
share." Cash flows from operations are projected in a range of $17.3
billion and $17.8 billion, which is an indication the insurer has the financial
strength to engineer more acquisitions.
UnitedHealth, which
expects $226 billion in revenue for this year, sells an array of health
insurance products including commercial coverage, Medicaid health plans for the
poor and Medicare Advantage plans for seniors. It also is getting deeper into
the provision of healthcare services, expanding its Optum business which owns
the OptumRx pharmacy benefit management company and scores of doctor practices,
urgent care centers and medical groups.
UnitedHealth's
investor conference comes as rival health insurer Aetna's sale to drugstore
giant CVS Health is nearing completion. The state of New Jersey Department of Banking and
Insurance was the latest to approve the Aetna-CVS merger, which
will create national healthcare company positioning itself to compete with
UnitedHealth. The state of New York's health insurance regulator is the final state needed to approve the
Aetna-CVS deal and that is expected soon.
By comparison, the
combination of CVS and Aetna will have more than $220 billion in annual revenue
as the two healthcare giants try to attract employers, consumers and government
health programs Medicaid and Medicare to their businesses that provide
healthcare and administer health benefits. Once the deal closes, CVS,
which operates pharmacies, retail health clinics inside its stores and one of
the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) companies, will add
Aetna and its medical membership of more than 22 million.
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