{"id":35543,"date":"2023-05-05T14:27:56","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/cignas-health-insurance-strength\/"},"modified":"2023-05-05T14:30:36","modified_gmt":"2023-05-05T14:30:36","slug":"cignas-health-insurance-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/cignas-health-insurance-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigna’s health insurance strength drives profit forecast raise"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leroy Leo and Khushi Mandowara<\/p>\n

(Reuters) -Cigna Group on Friday raised its annual profit forecast after lower medical costs at the company’s health insurance business helped it beat estimates in the first quarter, lifting shares 7.5% in morning trade. <\/p>\n

The health insurer also cut the midpoint of its 2023 medical cost ratio – or spending on claims as a percentage of premiums – by 10 basis points to between 81.5% and 82.3%. <\/p>\n

Peers including UnitedHealth and Humana also beat profit estimates and raised forecasts this quarter thanks to strength in their government-backed plans and low medical costs.<\/p>\n

Still, that has largely failed to allay investor concerns around 2024, when regulatory pressure on insurers and drug middlemen is seen ramping up in light of the U.S. elections.<\/p>\n

Investors have also fretted over insurers recording softer medical costs even as hospitals and medical device makers saw a recovery in non-urgent procedures. <\/p>\n

“Should we not see economic weakness transpire later in the year or should we pick up some unexpected customers from the Medicaid re-determinations, we may have some upside in our Cigna Healthcare customer accounts,” Cigna CFO Brian Evanko said in an investor conference call.<\/p>\n

Insurers are hoping to re-absorb members who may be deemed ineligible for Medicaid as U.S. states resume dropping beneficiaries from the health insurance for low-income people, a process that was halted during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Revenue from Cigna’s Evernorth unit – home to its pharmacy benefit management business – rose nearly 8% to $36.18 billion.<\/p>\n

While revenue across segments was stronger than expected, the forecast increase primarily reflected strength in the insurance business, J.P. Morgan analyst Lisa Gill said in a note.<\/p>\n

Excluding one-off items, Cigna reported profit of $5.41 per share, beating estimates of $5.22, and raised its profit forecast by 10 cents to at least $24.70 per share.<\/p>\n

(Reporting by Khushi Mandowara and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)<\/p>\n

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By Leroy Leo and Khushi Mandowara (Reuters) -Cigna Group on Friday raised its annual profit forecast after lower medical costs at the company’s health insurance business helped it beat estimates in the first quarter, lifting shares 7.5% in morning trade. The health insurer also cut the midpoint of its 2023 medical cost ratio – or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":35544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1213],"tags":[1223],"class_list":["post-35543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-business","tag-updated"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportBusinessNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ440AS-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35543"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35780,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35543\/revisions\/35780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}