“Within this range, expect the first half of the year to be below the midpoint and the second half to be above.”

In context

“per share. It's an outlook that I'm extremely disappointed to share with you. This reflects the profile of patients served at Optum Health. It also reflects significantly increased care activity across the UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans. Within that outlook, we expect about 50% to come in the first half of the year. We're affirming the consolidated revenue outlook of $450 billion to $455 billion we shared with you in December. Within this, we expect revenues for both UnitedHealthcare and Optum Rx to be better than our initial view, offsetting a reduced outlook at Optum Health. The full year medical care ratio is now expected to be 87.5% plus or minus 50 basis points, reflecting higher utilization across senior populations and the patient mix and revenue profile of Optum Health. Within this range, expect the first half of the year to be below the midpoint and the second half to be above. At Optum Health, our revenue outlook is $106 billion to $107 billion and operating earnings is $6.2 billion to $6.4 billion based on the factors discussed and which I'll get into more deeply in a moment. Over half of the $10 billion revenue change is the result of transitioning some legacy risk based arrangements to fee base and is neutral to earnings. We expect about half of Optum Health's operating earnings to be in the first half. At UnitedHealthcare, the operating earnings outlook is updated to $16 billion to $16.5 billion and reflects the higher care activity we're seeing. Within UnitedHealthcare, pressure was largely contained within the senior business where we saw a sharp increase in care activities that became apparent as we closed out the quarter. As noted, this was most signifi”