UnitedHealth Group (UHG) (NYSE: UNH) CEO Stephen Hemsley expressed optimism despite a set-up with the company's health services division, reaffirming its commitment to reform following the company's “mistakes” during the insurance giant's second-quarter revenue call on Tuesday. The company has also reaffirmed its plans to acquire Amedisys (NASDAQ:AMED).
Despite numerous challenges over the past year, the company reported revenue of $111.6 billion in second quarter, representing an increase of $12.8 billion compared to the previous year. The company attributes this increase to the growth of UnitedHealthcare and Optum.
UHG suspended its 2025 outlook in May, but has now updated its outlook, including full-year revenues of $445.5 billion to $448 billion, net income of at least $14.65 per share and earnings of at least $16.00 per share. This reflects the first half of 2025 and the remaining forecasts for the year, including higher realization and expected care trends. The company expects to return to revenue growth in 2026.
However, Hemsley spent some time discussing “mission-driven reform ambitions” that he hopes to make future performances even stronger.
“More than anything, it's a tone of change and reform that emerged from our recommendations for our mission to help people live healthier lives and make our health systems better for everyone,” he said in a revenue call. “It's a mission that requires commitment to a culture of value, service, responsibility, integrity and humility.”
He went on to recognize “needs and opportunities,” revisiting and improving internal and external processes and business practices, and acknowledging that the company has the opportunity to re-align the company and set the right path.
“We made pricing and operational mistakes like everyone else,” Hemsley said. “Our key processes, including risk status, care management, pharmaceutical services, and more, are reviewed and reported annually by independent experts.”
UnitedHealthCare continues to grow
UnitedHealthcare's second quarter revenue reached $86.1 billion, an increase of $12.2 billion compared to the previous year. The company served 50 million people in the second quarter. This is 770,000 more people than the beginning of the year.
Company executives expect UnitedHealthcare's full-year revenues to be between $344 billion and $3455 billion in 2025, showing growth of over 15% compared to 2024.
“We face challenges across our business line, but we believe we can solve these issues and regain our potential for revenue growth.
UnitedHealthcare expects to serve 1.1 million more people than in 2024, and is primarily supported by seniors and individuals with complex needs.
However, due to exceeding expectations, UnitedHealthcare is ending certain Medicare Advantage (MA) plans that serve more than 600,000 members. According to Noel, the company also takes a similar approach to pricing for Medicare supplements, Group MA and Stand-Alone Part D.
“The current view for 2025 reflects $6.5 billion in healthcare costs than we expected in our initial outlook,” Noel said. “With the 2026 Medicare offerings open, we are looking closely at the market, so we can better assess the market positioning and respond quickly.”
Optum gets mad
“Optum's performance this year doesn't meet expectations,” CEO Dr. Patrick Conway said over the phone. “We are approaching this with humility and the need for a deep analysis of key issues and a commitment to a substantially improved implementation. We need to focus on the biases of behavior and transparency of all stakeholders.”
Health Services Business operates three subsidiaries: Optum Health, Optum RX and Optuminsight. The company's consolidated revenue was $67.2 billion, an increase of $4.3 billion from last year. Optum predicted annual revenues to reach $266 billion to $267.5 billion, with Optum Health's fees expected to fall 4% year-on-year.
Minnesota-based Optum was founded in 2011 and employs more than 300,000 people providing care on more than 2,000 sites. The company offers hospital and palliative care, acute and pharmacy services, behavioral health, outpatient surgery, primary, emergency and home care, and more.
“Most of these companies are working well and operate at a margin of less than double digits,” he said. “Overall, we expect continuous pressure for the rest of the year, but despite the long road to recovery in value-based care businesses, we look forward to meaningful improvements in business and revenue growth in 2026.”
Overcoming the headwind
UHG CFO John Rex confirmed that the company is moving forward with plans to buy Amedisys despite regulatory headwinds and lawsuits from the Department of Justice. The company extended the merger deadline on December 31, that is, 10 days after the final court decision, but at the same time it came either first, agreed to sell certain assets to address antitrust concerns.
“We continue to work through the process in a productive way with regulators,” Rex said. “But we are committed to those assets and certainly very committed to our ability to serve the people of our homes. That's very important in terms of the fundamental parts of value-based care in terms of how we serve them.”
The leader also collaborates with the U.S. Department of Justice's investigation into our Medicare claims practices, saying the company is increasing efforts to monitor its operations and prevent additional costs for consumers.
“We are enhancing our audit, clinical policy and payment integrity tools to protect our customers and patients from unnecessary costs,” Noel said, adding that the company uses AI tools to improve the service experiences of patients and providers and saves costs.
