UnitedHealth CEO Highlights Hospitals, Doctors, Pharma's Role In Soaring Health Care Costs

UnitedHealth Group, Inc. UNH reported its financial results on Thursday after a tumultuous fourth quarter that included the murder of UnitedHealthcare division CEO Brian Thompson and broad public outrage over the nation's health care system. 

What To Know: UnitedHealth posted mixed financial results for the quarter, beating earnings estimates, but missing on revenue by nearly $1 billion. The insurer also reported that its full-year medical care ratio rose to 85.5%, up from 83.2% in 2023,  due to CMS’s Medicare funding reductions, the timing of Medicaid redeterminations and the cyberattack on UnitedHealth’s subsidiary Change Healthcare. 

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Q4 Earnings Call: UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty held a conference call with analysts following the earnings release and opened the call with a tribute to Thompson. 

"He would dive in with passion and caring to find solutions to improve experiences, whether for an individual consumer, an employer or a public health agency," Witty said of Thompson, as reported by Insurance NewsNet. 

The UnitedHealth CEO addressed the public outcry over the high costs of health care and health insurance in the U.S. and pointed to hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical companies as the cause. 

"Health care costs more in the U.S. because the price of a single procedure, visit or prescription, is higher here than it is in other countries," Witty said. 

"There are participants in the system who benefit from these high prices. Lower-cost, equivalent quality sites of service, for example, can be good for consumers and patients, but threaten revenue streams for organizations that depend on charging more for care," he added. 

Witty also staunchly defended pharmacy benefit managers, which have come under scrutiny and criticism as being at least partially responsible for high prescription prices. 

"PBMs are really the only effective mechanism across the system which really holds the pharmaceutical company to account once it chooses to set its price," Witty said. "The PBM is there to try and hold that to account and negotiate on behalf of employers, unions, states and others, to try and bring down those prices." 

The CEO also announced that UnitedHealth's OptumRx PBM will return 100% of rebates from drug companies back to its customers by 2028, up from 98% currently. 

UNH Price Action: According to Benzinga Pro, UnitedHealth shares finished 6.04% lower at $510.59 on Thursday.

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