An Overview Of UnitedHealth’s 2017 Performance

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UNH: UnitedHealth Group logo
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UnitedHealth Group

UnitedHealth (NYSE: UNH), the largest health insurer in the United States, reported better than expected results for 2017. The company posted strong numbers for 2017, with revenues crossing the two hundred billion mark for the first time. With 8.8% year-on-year growth, the revenue for the year was $201 billion. Robust cost management and strong performance across both the Healthcare and Optum divisions boosted its operating margin by 60 basis points over the last year, which led to growth in earnings from operations to $15.2 billion, a 14.5% increase.

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UnitedHealthcare Delivers Strong Performance

UnitedHealthcare revenue jumped from $148.6 billion in 2016 to $163.3 billion in 2017, a 9.9% year-on-year increase. While UnitedHealthcare Employment & Individual saw a slight weakness, the other three divisions posted strong numbers. Medicare’s 40% contribution, the highest, to the total UnitedHealthcare revenue was primarily driven by strong Medicare Advantage performance. Along with the top line growth, cost management drove earnings from operations to $8.5 billion, a 10.9% jump.

Optum Continues To Grow

Optum saw 9.15% revenue growth in 2017, which was impressive despite being lower than the previous two years. Optum revenue jumped from $83.6 billion in 2016 to $91.2 billion in 2017. OptumRx, the largest contributor to Optum’s revenues, continued to perform strongly. However, OptumHealth saw the biggest jump. The 21.7% growth in revenue was driven by a 9.6% increase in the number of customers that resulted from growth in care delivery, consumer health engagement services, and health financial services. Meanwhile, growth in revenue management and business process services drove 10.3% revenue growth for OptumInsight.