The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted health spending in 2020 and its long-term health effects are adding more uncertainties looking ahead, according to the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation.

Health spending per capita jumped at a rate of 9.3% in 2020 from the prior year, mainly caused by the COVID-related public health activities. Meanwhile, out-of-pocket health spending declined 4.0% per capita in 2020, as a result of delayed or forgone routine care during the early months of the pandemic. Looking forward, CMS expects health spending and prescription drug spending to grow moderately through 2030, but the new COVID variants and treatments add a great deal of uncertainties to the coming years. Out-of-pocket health spending growth was expected to rebound starting in 2021 and average at a rate of 3.5% for the following seven years.

CVS Health Corp. is on the verge of making a bid on home health care provider Signify Health, Inc., according to an Aug. 7 report from the Wall Street Journal. Health care insiders tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that CVS’s rumored move — part of a planned $25 billion transaction spree — accelerates an existing trend of diversifying health care firms buying their way into home care, even as the rate of transactions in the space slows.

CVS, the parent company of Aetna, is just the latest national health insurance firm with designs in the home care market. As the deal has not been announced, terms have not been disclosed, but Signify’s market capitalization is north of $4.5 billion, per the Journal. UnitedHealth Group, the multi-hyphenate parent company of insurer UnitedHealthcare, announced a $6 billion cash bid for home care provider LHC Group, Inc. in June.

Here’s how major health insurers’ stock performed in July 2022. UnitedHealth Group had the highest closing stock price among major commercial insurers as of July 29, 2022, at $542.34. Humana Inc. had the highest closing stock price among major Medicare insurers at $482.00.

In a finding that could serve as a wakeup call for health insurers and their employer clients, a new study has found that significant health disparities exist among workers based on their race, ethnicity, income levels and sexuality.

Caroline Pearson, senior vice president of health care strategy at NORC at the University of Chicago, says the results show companies must do much more than simply offer coverage to their employers and need to focus on other issues impacting their health outcomes. NORC, a nonpartisan research organization, conducted the study of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI), which was sponsored by Morgan Health, the health care arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

The national uninsured rate reached an all-time low of 8% in the first quarter of 2022, according to new data from the HHS’s National Health Interview Survey. Since 2020, about 5.2 million people have gained coverage, which the report attributed to enhanced marketplace subsidies under the American Rescue Plan Act, the suspension of Medicaid redeterminations during the COVID-19 public health emergency, several recent state Medicaid expansions and “substantial enrollment outreach” by the Biden administration in 2021 and 2022.

If the 12 holdout states expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, 3.7 million fewer people would be uninsured next year. That’s according to a new analysis from the Urban Institute and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which noted that “Black individuals, young adults, and women —particularly women of reproductive age — would realize the largest coverage gains if the 12 states expanded eligibility.” Fiscally speaking, extending Medicaid expansion nationwide would increase federal spending by $34.5 billion in 2023, but that would be partially offset by $2.6 billion less government spending on uncompensated care.

Although many people still associate CVS Health Corp. with its ubiquitous retail pharmacy locations, executives during the company’s second-quarter 2022 earnings call highlighted the Health Care Benefits segment — which houses legacy health insurer Aetna — as one of the firm’s strongest business assets. Meanwhile, the Rhode Island-based company said it’s planning to acquire more care-delivery assets by the end of the year.

During an Aug. 3 conference call to discuss quarterly financial results, CEO Karen Lynch touted the Health Care Benefits segment’s “strong quarter,” noting that the business line saw revenue growth of nearly 11% compared to the prior-year period. The firm’s medical loss ratio (MLR) of 82.9% also improved by 120 basis points year over year, “reflecting medical cost trends that remain modestly favorable to our pricing assumptions,” according to Chief Financial Officer Shawn Guertin.

Cigna Corp.’s ability to rein in medical costs during the second quarter of 2022 impressed equities analysts and led the health insurer on Aug. 4 to surpass the Wall Street consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimate while raising its full-year EPS outlook.

Cigna posted “the largest MLR beat among MCOs this quarter,” with its medical loss ratio of 80.7% coming in 220 basis points below the consensus estimate, Evercore ISI analyst Michael Newshel pointed out in a note to investors. That comes after a 110 basis-point beat in the first quarter of 2022, he added.

And SVB Securities analyst Whit Mayo observed that “medical costs were well-controlled during the quarter,” with Cigna’s MLR “driving the bulk of the [company’s] outperformance.”

Molina Healthcare, Inc. posted solid results in the second quarter of 2022, earning favorable reviews from Wall Street despite posting a high medical loss ratio (MLR). Executives from the Medicaid- and marketplace-focused carrier touted a recent streak of acquisitions — and teased more transactions and new contract awards.

Total revenues for the second quarter of 2022 amounted to $8.05 billion, up from $6.8 billion in the second quarter of 2021. Profits also increased, with Molina posting $266 million in net income for the quarter with an after-tax margin of 3.3%, up from $199 million and a 2.9% margin in the second quarter of 2021. According to Barclays analyst Steve Valiquette, those results beat Wall Street’s projected margin of 1.2%. Earnings per share (EPS) were $4.55, up from $3.40 in the second quarter of 2021.

Reforms to telehealth and insulin pricing are stalled in Congress despite notable progress on health care policies like enhanced marketplace subsidies in recent days. D.C. insiders tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that comprehensive fixes to either issue are unlikely to make their way into the landmark Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA), which seems poised to pass the Senate.

Telehealth reforms have passed the House of Representatives, but insiders tell AIS Health that they are unlikely to pass the Senate. They are also not expected to be included as part of a final version of the IRA, which should emerge in the coming days. Some insulin reforms may be included in the IRA, but D.C. experts expect that reforms affecting the commercial market are unlikely to pass as part of the bill. Instead, the insulin price changes are likely to be restricted to Medicare.

During the past two years, the number of people enrolled in Medicaid and marketplace plans has significantly increased thanks to legislation meant to help people as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. But millions of those people may lose their health insurance coverage in the coming months if those policies end, which could lead to difficult circumstances for them and the health care industry as a whole, according to health policy experts who spoke during a July 15 webinar sponsored by Alliance for Health Policy, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit.

As of March 2022, nearly 87.9 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program, up from just over 71.2 million in February 2020, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF). Sara Collins, Ph.D., vice president for health care coverage and access at the Commonwealth Fund, noted that much of the increase could be attributed to the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA).