News: UnitedHealthcare profits $17.3 billion in 2021, helps offset coverage of at-home COVID-19 tests

UnitedHealthcare Group’s earnings report shows that the company earned $17.3 billion in total profit for calendar year 2021 and increase of roughly $2 billion, up from $15.4 billion in 2020.

The monetary growth is primarily due to the insurer adding over two million members in 2021, 900,000 of them being new Medicare Advantage members. Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, reported their service increased from 98 million people in 2020 to 100 million in 2021. Revenue per patient was up 33% over the year.

This revenue growth allowed the company to quickly adapt to the federal directive to cover at-home COVID-19 tests by launching a digital tool allowing members to sign into their accounts and find information on how they can receive reimbursement for the home tests. Revenue and profit growth year over year for UnitedHealthcare Group should allow the company to easily manage any potential for a spike in expenses under the new federal directive, while additionally increased costs will likely be partly offset by ongoing care deferrals under the pandemic.

UnitedHealthcare Group says it expects that steady fiscal growth to continue through 2022.

Editor’s note: The UnitedHealthcare Group’s earnings report can be found here. Additional ACDIS coverage about the cost of COVID-19 tests can be found here.