Health insurance brokers and companies along with related professionals are about to provide investors with a peek into how business looked during the first quarter.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) will kick off earnings release season April 19.
Several competitors, including Anthem Inc. (NYSE:ANTM), Aetna Inc. (NYSE:AET) and Centene Corp. (NYSE:CNC) will come out with earnings the following week.
In recent years, securities analysts have asked some questions about the companies’ Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) public exchange programs. Analysts may ask more pointed questions this quarter because of reports about high claims and big 2015 losses at some insurers’ individual units.
See also: Milliman: How PPACA World really worked in 2014
But many of the companies have focused mainly on talking about their Medicare and Medicaid plan operations, with an occasional brief mention of their commercial health business.
Executives at insurance brokers and insurance technology companies often say more about the state of the commercial health insurance market than the insurers do.