Dive Brief:
- UnitedHealth's exit from the majority of ACA markets in 2017 due to high losses will not necessarily leave a hole in the industry, as a previous analysis has studied.
- Tenet Healthcare Corp, one of the largest U.S. for-profit hospital systems, predicts other insurers will absorb whatever business UnitedHealth leaves behind, company executives told Reuters this week.
- Tenet is bullish on the exchanges after seeing a surge in hospital business from patients newly insured under ACA exchange plans.
Dive Insight:
Fluctuation in the marketplaces is to be expected, suggests Tenet senior vice president of public affairs Daniel Waldmann, pointing to previous adjustments that took place when Medicare Advantage managed care plans were first introduced.
"You are going to see that. There are others who will be looking to pick up that UnitedHealth business," Waldmann told Reuters.
The hospital system itself has skin in the game and incentive to support the exchanges thanks to its boost in business. It reports admissions growth from ACA-insured patients to be up more than 27% in the first quarter of 2016 compared to last year.
Chief Executive Trevor Fetter says the health system has strategically worked to be included as in-network by insurers offering ACA plans.
"It is important for us to do everything to make sure the exchanges are viable and successful, and that consumers perceive value and choice in the exchanges," Fetter told Reuters.