UnitedHealth 3Q profit rises 23 percent to $1.28 billion

Associated Press:

UnitedHealth covers over 14,000 Oregonians, mostly in the large group market and as a third-party administrator for national and international corporations that have employees in Oregon.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit jumped 23 percent, propelled in part by premium growth, enrollment gains and moderate health care use.

The Minnetonka, Minn., managed care company also raised its 2010 profit expectation for the second time this year. It now expects earnings per share to range from $3.85 to $3.95, up from a previous forecast of $3.40 to $3.60 per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect, on average, earnings of $3.60 per share.

The performance, coupled with the big profit guidance increase "couldn't come at a worse time politically," Citi analyst Carl McDonald said in a research note.

Health insurers have fallen under greater government scrutiny since the federal government passed health care reform to expand coverage of the uninsured earlier this year. The Department of Health and Human Services is still working out particulars of the law, including how to enforce minimum medical loss ratios that will start next year.

Those ratios measure the percentage of revenue from premiums an insurer spends on medical care. The government still has to decide how much flexibility it will grant in making insurers abide by these minimums or pay refunds to consumers.

"United beating its initial earnings guidance this year by over $1.6 billion pre-tax certainly doesn't help the industry's cause," McDonald said.

UnitedHealth earned $1.28 billion, or $1.14 per share, in the three months that ended Sept 30. That's up from the $1.04 billion, or 89 cents per share, it earned in the same quarter last year.

Revenue was up 9 percent to $23.67 billion, led by a 9 percent jump in premiums to $21.47 billion.

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