“we see continuing opportunities both in the near-term, with operating costs for '25 improving still further, and well beyond, given the rapidly expanding scope and impact of these initiatives.”

In context

“nts above the '24 result. In addition to factors discussed earlier, the increase is driven by IRA impacts, the second year of the Medicare funding cuts, a continued mix shift toward public sector offerings, and a respectful view of care activity. Our '24 operating cost ratio improved about 150 basis points over the prior year. Roughly half of the change was driven by contributions from the business portfolio initiatives mentioned earlier. The other half was due to accelerating our efforts to realize operating efficiencies, even as we improve consumer experiences. Some of these advances are a result of the very early stage impacts we are beginning to realize from AI-driven initiatives to help our customer service representatives respond to consumers' needs more effectively and quickly. And we see continuing opportunities both in the near-term, with operating costs for '25 improving still further, and well beyond, given the rapidly expanding scope and impact of these initiatives. These actions and the resourcefulness of our people helped deliver upon the objectives set out over one year ago, and helped to partially balance the multiple billions of unanticipated impacts. With that, I'll run through our businesses, offering some key points for each, starting with Optum Health, where revenues grew to about $105 billion in '24 and are expected to approach $117 billion in '25. Our care delivery business continues to deepen its presence in existing areas, while expanding into new geographies and services. In '25, we expect Optum Health will serve about 5.4 million value-based care patients, growth of 650,000 over '24. While our current position provides a solid footing, it's a small fraction of the hundreds of millions of patients who can ultimately benefit from value-b”