Minnesota health insurer UnitedHealth Group, which has significant Hartford operations, reported first-quarter profits of $1.1 billion, a decline of 7.5 percent from the same quarter last year.
Earnings per share were $1.10, down from $1.16 a year ago, when the insurer earned $1.19 billion.
Revenue was $31.71 billion, up 4.5 percent from $30.34 billion. Expenses also increased by nearly 5 percent, to $29.65 billion.
UnitedHealth characterized the results as strong, noting that it was able to fend off much of a 35-cents-per-share impact from newly effective Affordable Care Act taxes and lower Medicare Advantage payments that forced it to exit certain markets.
The company’s subsidiary, United Healthcare, recently cut more than 2,000 Connecticut doctors from its Medicare Advantage network.
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