UnitedHealth Group's health services subsidiary Optum saw large revenue and profit gains in the second quarter of fiscal year 2020.
Five things to know:
1. Optum reported $32.7 billion in revenues for the second quarter ended June 30, up 16.8 percent year over year. Optum's operating earnings totaled $2.2 billion in the second quarter, up nearly 5 percent year over year. Both increases were led by growth in OptumHealth.
2. OptumHealth focuses on care delivery. UnitedHealth said OptumHealth served 97 million people in the second quarter of this year, up 2 million year over year. Revenue per customer grew 25 percent compared to the second quarter of last year.
3. Optum accelerated the growth of its employed and affiliated physicians at OptumCare in the second quarter. The unit shifted more than 14,000 OptumCare physicians to telehealth for patients visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
4. Growth in technology and managed services boosted OptumInsight's revenue to $19.4 billion in the second quarter. OptumInsight is UnitedHealth's consulting firm, whose subsidiary is The Advisory Board. OptumInsight's activity levels for volume-based services were negatively affected by care deferrals amid the pandemic.
5. OptumRx, Optum's pharmacy division, said growth in home infusion services, community-based behavioral health pharmacies, e-commerce and specialty drugs was partially offset by a lower number of prescriptions being filled during the pandemic. OptumRx has started to see prescriptions return to pre-pandemic numbers.