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UnitedHealth will jump into 11 more public insurance exchanges next year, as the nation's biggest health insurer grows more comfortable with one of the health care overhaul's main ways of expanding coverage to millions of people. The once-reluctant exchange participant now draws 550,000 customers from that market and predicts that business will improve next year, helped by double-digit price hikes. (10/15)

UnitedHealth Group is expanding its presence on health exchange marketplaces that were created under the federal Affordable Care Act. Currently, the insurer, based in suburban Minneapolis, has about 550,000 customers through health insurance exchanges in 23 states. Industry reports this spring suggested that many people buying exchange policies have used more care than expected, company officials said Thursday during a conference call with investors. (Snowbeck, 10/15)

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) confirmed plans to expand for 2016 into 11 additional states including California with private health insurance products on government exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. The nation’s largest insurer said it would also grow its presence in the 24 states it already has insurance products operating on exchanges. UnitedHealth Group would only confirm that California will be among the 11 new states with public exchange products and the insurer will offer plans in the state’s 38 rural counties. (Japsen, 10/15)

For years, UnitedHealth Group has spoiled its investors. That came back to bite the stock Thursday. Third-quarter revenue came in at $41.5 billion and earnings per share at $1.65, both of which topped analyst estimates. Yet the shares dipped as the company’s net profit margin of 3.8% fell 1.1 percentage points from a year earlier. UnitedHealth attributed the weaker margin, in part, to greater levels of lower-paying, government-sponsored benefits business. (Grant, 10/15)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. reported a better-than-expected 27% rise in third-quarter revenue, helped by a recent acquisition and an increase in members, but shares of the health insurer slid following cautious comments about 2016. During a conference call with analysts, UnitedHealth said it continues to expect “a further lift in the rate of earnings per share growth” in 2016. UnitedHealth’s president and chief financial officer, David S. Wichmann, suggested the company’s results would be within the “quite wide” range of analysts’ projections, but UnitedHealth guidance would likely “begin in a more conservative posture or range.” (Wilde Mathews and Dulaney, 10/15)

UnitedHealth Group Inc (UNH.N), the largest U.S. health insurer, reported a better-than-expected profit in the third quarter, helped by stable medical costs in its health plans and higher revenue from its Optum pharmacy management business. The company said medical cost trends were as expected, an indication that the use of medical services by patients was not increasing unexpectedly. The percentage of premiums paid for medical services fell 80 basis points from the second quarter. (Humer and Penumudi, 10/15)