The number of UnitedHealth Group Inc. insurance plan members using behavioral health services has risen by more than 10 percent versus last year, CEO Andrew Witty and other executives said July 14, pointing to greater adoption across age groups.
“It’s a great thing [and] we are planning on that continuing,” CFO John Rex told analysts on a conference call discussing Minnesota-based UnitedHealth’s second-quarter earnings. “We don't see why that trend slows down so we’re designing our benefits for that to continue.”
Witty said on the conference call that more people are growing increasingly comfortable with the idea of turning to mental healthcare providers, which has intensified a trend that has been active for several years.
“What’s encouraging from a public health perspective is it isn’t strictly young people,” said Optum Health CEO Wyatt Decker. “It’s across the board. We’re seeing 30-, 40-, 50-year-olds accessing behavioral healthcare for needed care for conditions like anxiety, depression, substance use disorder.”
Decker said United has been investing in capacity to meet that demand. The company now offers ambulatory services in 37 states and has rolled out some self-paced modules that can be beefed up with a therapist where appropriate. More such investments are in the works, he added.
Witty and his team aren’t disclosing the financial details of the growth they’ve seen in behavioral care, which is part of the broad Optum Health organization that last year booked $71 billion in revenues. But the services are a core part of their Optum Health strategy that also includes primary, multi-specialty, surgical and urgent care offerings to 102 million people around the country. The business also feeds into the success of United’s pharmacy services division, OptumRx, which last year managed $124 billion in spending on pharmaceuticals.
The utilization comments from United’s leaders came about two months after their peers at CVS Health Corp. called out higher use of behavioral care services and said they also plan to invest in capacity. For the parent of Aetna, that includes staffing a number of Los Angeles-area MinuteClinics with licensed mental healthcare providers.
United posted a net profit of nearly $5.7 billion in the three months ended June 30, an increase from $5.2 billion in the same period last year. Helped by the recent acquisition of Change Healthcare, revenues climbed more than 15 percent to $92.9 billion.
The company’s insurance operations maintained their 6.2 percent operating margin while growing revenues to more than $70 billion from about $62 billion in 2022’s Q2. But its Optum healthcare and pharmacy services saw its operating margin slip to 6.6 percent from 7.3 percent a year earlier due to both higher utilization rates—something executives flagged a few weeks ago—and investments in services such as behavioral care or bringing new patients into value-based care arrangements.
“If I had the choice on a slightly suppressed margin in Q2 or the very significant growth that we’ve taken in, I’ll take the growth all day long,” Witty told analysts. “I’ll take that growth because it’s going to underpin years of growth going forward.”
Shares of United (Ticker: UNH) rose on the earnings news and accompanying 2023 guidance raise. They were up more than 7 percent to nearly $480 in July 14 afternoon trading. Year to date, however, they are still down about 8 percent, which has trimmed the company’s market capitalization to $447 billion.
