Dive Brief:
- UnitedHealth says it will particpate in 11 additional public health insurance exchanges in 2016, steadily increasing its presence since 2014.
- The insurer reports it currently has 550,000 customers from the exchanges but has not detailed its earnings from its exchange business.
- UnitedHealth expects its exchange business to grow in 2016, partly thanks to double-digit price increases.
Dive Insight:
UnitedHealth has grown its exchange presence from participating in just four in 2014 to 24 in 2015. In 2016, that number will grow to 35. Predicting they will become "a strong, viable growth market for us," CFO David Wichmann told analysts during a call last week he expects the company's exchange performance to be "strikingly better" next year.
Despite the growth, exchange customers prepresent only small fraction of the insurer's overall 46 million customers," The New York Times notes.
Even aside from exchange business growth, UnitedHealth is on a growth trajectory. It surpassed expectations with a 27% increase in third-quarter revenue, it reported last week. The increase is primarily attributed to the insurer's Optum services division, which acquired pharmacy-benefits manager Catamaran Corp. this summer. However, the company's insurance business also grew by a reported 9%, according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.