UPDATED: July 15 at 1 p.m. ET
Medicaid remains a thorn in Elevance Health’s side financially, and investors are grilling the company’s top brass about what back half of 2026 holds for this market.
Elevance held its Q2 earnings call on Wednesday morning, where CEO Gail Boudreaux said that the insurer views 2026 as a “trough year” for its Medicaid business, “with improvement over time supported by better rate alignment and the maturation of our care management actions.”
The company continues to evaluate the strategic positioning of its Medicaid portfolio, and recently reached an agreement with officials in the District of Columbia to exit its Medicaid market. Boudreaux said to expect additional exits over the next 12 to 18 months in markets “where we do not see a path to sustainable performance.”
“The Medicaid environment continues to be dynamic, and we’re managing it with discipline,” she said. “We regularly assess each market based on strategic fit, operational requirements, and the ability to generate an appropriate return on capital.”
Boudreaux added that the company is taking a balanced view of the Medicaid space in the back half of the year as it navigates an elevated cost environment and improvements to rate alignment.
Chief Financial Officer Mark Kaye said during the call that the company’s Q2 performance in Medicaid “supports the full-year margin framework we laid out earlier this year.”
He said the company expects an operating margin in this market for the year of -1.75%.
“Cost drivers remain elevated and concentrated in the categories we have discussed previously, including behavioral health, specialty pharmacy, outpatient surgery and emergency department utilization,” Kaye said.
“Our outlook assumes this operating environment persists through the balance of the year,” he said.
PUBLISHED: July 15 at 7:05 a.m. ET
Elevance Health is kicking off another round of quarterly earnings results for major insurers, posting $1.5 billion in profit for Q2.
That’s down from the prior-year quarter, where the company earned $1.7 billion in profit, according to its earnings report released Wednesday morning. However, the profit results still surpassed Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, per Zacks Investment Research.
Elevance also beat the Street on revenue for the quarter, bringing in $50.5 billion. By comparison, revenues were $49.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025.
The company said that the revenue growth was supported by higher premium yields in its insurance business and a rise in revenue from CarelonRx, its pharmacy benefit management division.
Elevance Health had a medical loss ratio of 89.7% in the quarter, up from the 88.9% it posted a year ago. The insurer said the increase was backed by an “expected” rise in medical cost trends for its government plans, though it was partially offset by improvements in its Affordable Care Act marketplace business.
“Our second quarter results exceeded our outlook, supported by disciplined execution and improved operating performance across our diversified portfolio,” CEO Gail Boudreaux said in the earnings release.
Operating revenue at Elevance Health’s insurance division was $42.7 billion in the quarter, according to the report. The company boasted 44.9 million members as of Q2, down by about 469,000 from Q1 due to attrition in the individual market and “a known commercial fee-based customer transition.”
At Carelon, meanwhile, operating revenues were $19.2 billion, up 6% year-over-year, according to the report. The company attributed the increase to higher CarelonRx revenue and further scale in the risk-based solutions offered by Carelon Services.
On the back of the results, the company said it would increase its guidance for the year to at least $27 in earnings per share. Previously, it anticipated at least $25.50 in EPS.
Boudreaux said in the release that the performance allows the company to accelerate investments in several key areas, including “medical cost management, member experience, provider connectivity, operating efficiency and Carelon’s value-based solutions.”
“These actions will strengthen how we operate, improve consistency over time, and reinforce our confidence in returning to at least 12% adjusted EPS growth in 2027 off our 2026 earnings baseline,” she said.
Despite the upbeat tone in the release, shares in Elevance Health were down 7.5% premarket. Skittish investors still have questions about the company’s potential margin performance, according to analysts at Investing.com, particularly as MLR worsened compared to Q2 2025.