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Americans continued to seek moderate聽amounts of medical care in the first quarter, helping聽insurer UnitedHealth Group聽beat profit expectations amid signs of continued restraint聽in health-care spending.

In an early look at medical-cost trends for 2012, the nation鈥檚 biggest private insurer said today聽that an increase in聽outpatient treatments聽from January through March was partly offset by a lack of growth in hospital stays.聽 The Minnetonka, Minn. company is considered a bellwether for healthcare spending, as well as for the managed care sector, as the first major insurer to report quarterly earnings.

Treatment volume is聽鈥渢racking right in line with our expectations, which is to say we saw a modest increase in utilization,鈥� Dan Schumacher, UnitedHealth鈥檚 chief financial officer, said on a conference call with investors. 鈥淥utpatient is the place where we see the most increase, and on the inpatient side we actually continue to see that very restrained. Our hospital bed days are actually flat to down in each of our businesses.鈥�

The insurer鈥檚 expected 2012 cost increase for medical treatment, which includes聽price hikes from doctors and hospitals,聽as well as changes in how much care members seek, remains at 6 percent, UnitedHealth said.

Growth in the demand for聽care fell聽sharply after the economy tanked in 2008, and analysts聽have wondered聽when it would聽pick up聽as聽a聽recovery took hold.聽 UnitedHealth鈥檚聽results聽from its 36 million members聽suggest: Not yet.

Many analysts pointed to the economic slump as an explanation, saying financially pinched families have avoided seeking care. These analysts聽expected medical visits to pick up as the economy improved. At the same time,聽however, employers and insurers have aggressively sought to contain costs by making workers pay larger聽deductibles and nudging them聽to get聽high-quality, less-expensive care.

Other factors聽influencing the 2012 cost trends are continued consolidation among hospitals and doctors, which gives them greater power to raise prices, and the expiration of patents on blockbuster drugs such as Pfizer鈥檚 Lipitor, which allows patients and health plans to buy cheaper generics, according to consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In today鈥檚聽UnitedHealth results, flat or declining hospital stays stood out as a powerful brake on cost increases, said Thomas Carroll, who follows聽the company鈥檚 stock for Stifel Nicolaus, an investment firm.

鈥淲hat is positive聽are [UnitedHealth鈥檚] comments around inpatient utilization 鈥� that it is still low,鈥� Carroll said. 鈥淎s you know, inpatient is the biggest piece of the health-care cost pie.聽The low utilization in inpatient is likely offsetting higher outpatient鈥� trends聽and price increases by hospitals, he said.

UnitedHealth聽earned $1.4 billion in the first quarter, a聽3 percent increase from results in the same period last year. Revenue was $27.3 billion, much of which includes sales from UnitedHealth鈥檚 non-insurance businesses. UnitedHealth鈥檚 profit of $1.31 a share exceeded the average estimate of聽$1.17 per share from Wall Street analysts, as聽compiled by Bloomberg News.