UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) shares tumbled as much as 6% Wednesday after an unnamed executive at the company said they see "disturbance" coming in the firm's Medicaid business.
The comments at the Bernstein 40th Annual Strategic Decisions Conference have also resulted in a decline for other health insurance companies. Centene (NYSE:CNC) declined around 6.3%, while Molina Healthcare (NYSE:MOH) fell 6.5%. Humana (NYSE:HUM) shares dropped 5% while sank Elevance as much as 4%
The company's participants at the conference included CEO Andrew Witty. An executive at UNH touched on Medicaid, stating that they have come through this "very sort of prolonged redetermination cycle."
He added the company has been making sure "the utilization and the rates and everything else stay in perfect synchrony through a multi-quarter cycle."
However, "there's probably going to be some disturbance around that," he said, adding that they are watching it and that Medicaid is an area the company is focused on.
Heather Cianfrocco, the CEO of UnitedHealth's Optum Rx subsidiary, commented that commercial and Medicaid "continue to be a focus for us, but it tends to be geographically specific and employer-specific."