Elevance Health announced its earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 on January 24, 2024. The health insurer and healthcare-services provider, formerly known as Anthem, posted a profit of $856 million, or $3.63 a share, compared with $865 million, or $3.59 a share, during Q4 2022.
The company also announced $42.5 billion in revenue for Q4 2023, a 7% increase from the $39.9 billion in revenue reported for the prior year quarter. For the full year 2023, Elevance Health brought in $171.3 billion in revenue and $6 billion in profit. This compares to $156.6 billion in revenue and $5.9 billion in profit for 2022. Operating revenue for the full year was $148.6 billion, according to the report.
“We are pleased to have delivered another year of strong performance in 2023, enabled by our relentless focus on customer experience and affordability, and continued investments in growth and innovation,” CEO Gail Boudreaux said in a press release. “The balance and resilience of our business coupled with the focused execution of our enterprise strategy supports our confidence in our outlook for 2024, as we continue to optimize the foundation, and scale our flywheel for sustained growth of the enterprise over the long term.”
The company is focused on building out its payer-agnostic subsidiary, Carelon, which Elevance reports its performance and that of its health insurance business individually. Operating revenue at Carelon was $12.4 billion in Q4 and $48 billion for the full-year 2023. The company saw growth in membership at Carelon Rx, its pharmacy benefit management arm, and touted the November 2022 acquisition of BioPlus as key drivers.
Elevance’s membership fell to 47 million at the end of the year, a decline of about 1% from the end of last year, or about 570,000 members. This was due in part to the the ongoing Medicaid redeterminations, as well as declines in Elevance’s employer group risk-based plans. During Q4, due to the Medicaid eligibility rulings, the company lost a total of 364,000 members.
The company has made one acquisition each year since 2022, when it acquired BioPlus. During 2023, the company acquired Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, the largest provider of health insurance in Louisiana, serving more than 1.9 million members. The company has already kicked off 2024 with the purchase of Paragon Healthcare, which provides infusion services to patients through its omnichannel model of ambulatory infusion centers, home infusion pharmacies and other specialty pharmacy services.
Looking forward, Elevance set its full-year 2024 guidance at $37.10 in earnings per share. The company is forecasting flat to low-single digit percentage growth in operating revenue.
