Following a Medicare open-enrollment period that included the company's debut in Minnesota, UnitedHealthcare officials said Tuesday that the health insurer expects in 2019 to add more than 400,000 Medicare Advantage enrollees across the country.
UnitedHealthcare was already the nation's largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans, a newer form of coverage where enrollees opt to receive their government benefits through a private health insurance company.
At the end of last year, 4.9 million people were enrolled in the company's MA health plans. Government data show that UnitedHealthcare enrolled about 2,300 Minnesotans in Medicare Advantage plans this month.
"We completed a strong Medicare Advantage enrollment season last month and are on track to achieve 2019 growth within the 400,000 to 450,000 range of expectations," said Steve Nelson, an executive vice president at parent company UnitedHealth Group, during a conference call.
Shares of UnitedHealth Group closed up more than 3 percent in trading Tuesday after the Minnetonka-based health care giant beat analyst expectations for fourth-quarter profit on continued growth at its Optum division for health care services.
For the first time, annual sales at Optum hit the $100 billion mark, company officials said Tuesday, as the division's operating earnings for the year grew more than $1.5 billion, or 23 percent, to $8.2 billion.
Optum provides patient care through medical practices, surgery centers and urgent care clinics. The division sells data and IT consulting services to doctors and hospitals. Optum also is one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs), which handle the pharmacy portion of insurance benefits for health plans.
The PBM business faces renewed competition since large health insurance rivals Aetna and Cigna are merging with large pharmaceutical benefit managers CVS and Express Scripts, respectively. UnitedHealth Group Chief Executive David Wichmann said Tuesday of the new competition: "We're not going to underestimate it, but we also remain highly confident in our own capacities to compete and continue to grow and manage our business."