UnitedHealth's headquarters in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Credit: UnitedHealth
UnitedHealthcare thinks that it can persuade employers to pay more for health coverage in 2026, but employers are looking hard for ways to get more out of each dollar spent.
UnitedHealthcare runs UnitedHealth Group's health insurance businesses.
Tim Noel, the chief executive officer of the UnitedHealthcare businesses, said Tuesday during a conference call with securities analysts that the company has already priced about 60% of the company's insured group health coverage for 2026.
"Our commercial pricing reflects the elevated cost levels we've seen this year, which we expect to persist in 2026," Noel said.
Daniel Schumacher, UnitedHealth's chief strategy and growth officer, said employer plans are paying about 11% more for care.
"That's how we've priced into 2026," Schumacher said.
Employers always talk about affordability when they buy or renew health coverage, but they're doing that "a little bit louder now, given the current health care cost trends and the pricing associated with the trends," Schumacher said.
Some employers are continuing to respond to cost pressure by looking at the idea of shifting to self-insured plans, Schumacher said.
Schumacher said UnitedHealthcare is also seeing strong interest in patient advocacy programs, or programs that help patients resolve coverage access and billing problems and, sometimes, negotiate for lower rates.
UnitedHealthcare recently started a "copay-only" plan, or a health plan that uses copayment levels to steer patients toward what plan administrators believe to be high-value care from high-value providers, and cost pressure has also helped the sales pipeline for copay-only plans, Schumacher said.
UnitedHealth held the call to go over earnings for the third quarter with securities analysts.
The Minnetonka, Minnesota-based company streamed the call live online and has posted a recording on its website.
The earnings: The third quarter ended Sept. 30.
UnitedHealth reported $2.5 billion in net income for the quarter on $113 billion in revenue, compared with $6.1 billion in net income on $101 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2024.
The UnitedHealthcare health benefits unit reported $1.8 billion in operating earnings on $87 billion in revenue, compared with $4.2 billion in operating earnings on $75 billion in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
The company ended the quarter providing or administering health coverage for 20.2 million people, up from 19.6 million people a year earlier.
Enrollment in fully insured coverage fell to 8.4 million, from 8.8 million.
Enrollment in self-insured employer health plans that UnitedHealthcare helps administer increased to 21.5 million, from 20.9 million.
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