Managed care earnings tracker Excel is the spreadsheet you want open when the biggest US health insurers report Q2 2026 results across the back half of July and into early August. UnitedHealth, Elevance, Cigna, Humana, CVS Health, Centene and Molina do not all report on the same day, and the metric that moves each stock is not revenue or even headline EPS. It is the medical loss ratio, the share of premium dollars that goes back out the door as medical claims. A single dashboard that lines up MLR, underwriting margin, valuation and the consensus EPS bar for every payer turns a scattered three-week reporting stretch into one readable table. This guide shows you how to build that tracker in Excel, why MLR is the number that matters this quarter, and it comes with a free template driven by live MarketXLS formulas.
This is educational analysis, not investment advice. The tickers below are used to demonstrate how the formulas and the tracker work, not as recommendations to buy or sell anything.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: The Q2 2026 Reporting Lineup
The reason a tracker matters this earnings season is that managed care has been the most headline-prone corner of healthcare for more than a year. Medical costs ran hotter than payers priced for through 2025, Medicare Advantage utilization stayed elevated, and every guidance revision moved the whole group. Heading into Q2 2026 prints, investors are watching for one thing: is the medical loss ratio finally stabilizing, or is cost trend still outrunning premium. Here is the group the template is built around and roughly when each is expected to report.
| Ticker | Company | Expected Report Window | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNH | UnitedHealth Group | Mid-July 2026 | Largest payer, sets the tone for the whole sector and Medicare Advantage read |
| ELV | Elevance Health | Mid-to-late July 2026 | Blue Cross franchise, Medicaid redetermination exposure |
| CI | The Cigna Group | Late July / early August 2026 | Commercial plus pharmacy benefit manager scale |
| HUM | Humana Inc. | Late July / early August 2026 | Purest Medicare Advantage play, most MLR-sensitive |
| CVS | CVS Health | Late July / early August 2026 | Integrated payer, retail and PBM under one roof |
| CNC | Centene Corp. | Late July 2026 | Government-sponsored plans, Medicaid and exchange heavy |
| MOH | Molina Healthcare | Late July 2026 | Pure-play Medicaid and Medicare, tight MLR management |
Report dates shift year to year, so the template treats the window as approximate. Confirm each date against the company investor relations page before you trade around it. What does not change is the order of operations: UnitedHealth reports first and frames expectations, and the smaller government-plan names close out the season.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: Why Medical Loss Ratio Is the Number
Most earnings trackers lead with revenue growth or an EPS surprise. For a bank you watch net interest margin. For a health insurer, the single most important line is the medical loss ratio, often written MLR or medical care ratio.
The medical loss ratio is simple in concept:
“Medical Loss Ratio = medical claims paid / premiums earned
If a payer collects 100 dollars of premium and pays out 85 dollars in medical claims, its MLR is 85 percent. The 15 dollars left over has to cover administrative costs, taxes and profit. Because the Affordable Care Act requires most plans to spend a minimum share of premium on care (generally 80 to 85 percent depending on the market) and rebate the difference, payers operate MLR inside a narrow band. That is exactly why it matters so much: when the band is tight, small moves are enormous.
A 100 basis point rise in MLR, from 85.0 percent to 86.0 percent, does not sound dramatic. But on a premium base of hundreds of billions of dollars it can wipe out a meaningful chunk of underwriting profit, because underwriting margin is what is left after both MLR and the operating expense ratio. That leverage is the whole reason managed care stocks can gap double digits on an earnings call where revenue was perfectly in line. The market is reacting to MLR and to management commentary about cost trend for the rest of the year.
Here is how the current snapshot looks across the group. These MLR figures are illustrative reference points for the template, not live estimates, and the valuation metrics update live in the formula version.
| Ticker | MLR % (illustrative) | Op Margin % | Trailing P/E | Forward P/E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNH | 85.4 | 5.9 | 14.1 | 11.8 |
| ELV | 88.1 | 4.7 | 13.2 | 10.6 |
| CI | 83.2 | 4.1 | 12.4 | 9.9 |
| HUM | 90.3 | 3.2 | 18.6 | 13.7 |
| CVS | 89.1 | 3.8 | 11.3 | 9.4 |
| CNC | 89.4 | 2.4 | 8.7 | 7.1 |
| MOH | 89.7 | 3.5 | 14.3 | 11.5 |
The pattern to notice: the Medicare Advantage and government-plan heavy names (HUM, CNC, MOH) tend to carry the highest MLRs, because those populations use more care and the premium is set by regulators and bid processes rather than freely priced. Commercial-heavy Cigna sits lower. None of this is a buy or sell signal. It is context for reading each print in the right frame.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: The Metrics That Decide the Reaction
When a payer reports, the stock move is usually driven by four things in this order.
1. Reported MLR versus the guided range. If a company guided to a full-year MLR of 87 percent and prints 88 in the quarter, the market assumes cost trend is running hot and marks the stock down, even if EPS beat. The tracker keeps MLR front and center for exactly this reason.
2. EPS versus consensus, and the full-year guide. Managed care earnings are back-half weighted and seasonal, so a single-quarter EPS beat means little if management cuts the full-year outlook. The template pulls the current-quarter and current-year consensus EPS so you can see the bar the company has to clear.
3. Membership and premium growth. Medicaid redeterminations reshaped enrollment through 2024 and 2025, and Medicare Advantage plan exits shifted members between carriers. Revenue growth is the read on whether a payer is gaining or shedding lives.
4. Valuation going in. A stock trading at a depressed forward P/E has a lower bar to clear than one priced for a clean recovery. Forward P/E and price to sales frame how much good news is already in the price.
The tracker scores each payer on a simple, transparent formula that rewards a lower MLR, a cheaper forward multiple and a fatter operating margin:
“Score = (95 - MLR) x 4 + (20 - Forward P/E) x 1.5 + Operating Margin x 2
Higher is better on this model. It is deliberately simple and fully visible in the cell, so you can change the weights to match your own thesis. It is a way to rank the group consistently, not a recommendation engine.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: Building It With MarketXLS
The value of doing this in Excel is that every number can be a live formula instead of a figure you copy from a website and that goes stale the next day. With the MarketXLS add-in, you type a ticker once and the price, valuation, margins and consensus estimates all pull in and refresh. Here are the exact functions the template uses, each verified against the MarketXLS function library.
Pricing and identity:
=Name("UNH") -> Company name from ticker
=QM_Last("UNH") -> Live last price
=QM_ChangePercent("UNH") -> Intraday percent change
=MarketCapitalization("UNH") -> Market capitalization in USD
=Sector("UNH") -> GICS sector
=Industry("UNH") -> Industry classification
Valuation and estimates:
=PERatio("UNH") -> Trailing P/E ratio
=forwardPE("UNH") -> Forward P/E on consensus EPS
=PriceToSales("UNH") -> Price-to-sales ratio
=EarningsPerShare("UNH") -> Trailing twelve-month EPS
=CurrentYearEPSEstimate("UNH") -> Consensus current fiscal-year EPS
=CurrentQuarterEPSEstimate("UNH") -> Consensus current-quarter EPS
Profitability and growth:
=OperatingMargin("UNH") -> Operating margin %
=GrossMargin("UNH") -> Gross margin %
=PreTaxProfitMargin("UNH") -> Pre-tax profit margin %
=ReturnOnEquity("UNH") -> Return on equity %
=RevenueGrowth("UNH") -> Revenue growth %
=QuarterlyRevenueGrowthYOY("UNH") -> Quarterly revenue growth year over year %
Risk and income:
=Beta("UNH") -> Beta versus the market
=DividendYield("UNH") -> Annual dividend yield %
=FiftyTwoWeekHigh("UNH") -> 52-week high
=FiftyTwoWeekLow("UNH") -> 52-week low
One important note on MLR itself. The medical loss ratio is a health-insurance-specific ratio derived from the income statement, and it is not a standard financial-data function, so in the template the MLR field is an input cell you fill in from the company release or your own model. Everything around it, the price, the multiple, the margins and the consensus estimates, is live. That is the right division of labor: let the data feed handle the market and fundamental data, and reserve your own judgment for the one number the whole call turns on.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: What Is Inside the Template
The workbook is built as a six-sheet dashboard so you can go from a top-level scan to a single-name scenario in a few clicks.
How To Use. A plain-language guide to every sheet, an explanation of how MLR works, and the list of MarketXLS functions used, so a first-time user is not guessing.
Main Dashboard. The payer scorecard. Every insurer on one screen with live price, change, market cap, trailing and forward P/E, MLR and operating margin, plus the composite score. An MLR alert threshold input (yellow cell) flags any payer running above the level you care about, and the MLR column is color-coded green, amber and red so pressure jumps out.
MLR Scenario Analysis. This is the heart of the workbook. You enter a payer premium base, base MLR, operating expense ratio, share count and tax rate, and the sheet shows how underwriting margin, pretax income, net income and EPS move as MLR shifts from minus 200 basis points to plus 200 basis points. It makes the earnings leverage concrete: you can see, in dollars and cents of EPS, why 100 basis points of cost trend is such a big deal.
Valuation and Estimates. Forward multiples and price to sales next to the current-quarter and current-year consensus EPS, so you can see the exact bar each name has to clear and how expensive the group is going into the prints.
Portfolio Allocation. A conviction-weighted sizing framework. You set a portfolio size and a maximum single-position cap, enter your own conviction score per name (or start from the model score), and the sheet allocates dollars and share counts proportionally. It is a sizing tool, not a recommendation to hold any of these names.
Correlation and Comparison. A side-by-side comparison of MLR, operating margin, gross margin, ROE, revenue growth, beta and dividend yield across all seven payers, with the MLR row color-mapped so the cheapest-to-run and most-pressured names are obvious at a glance.
Every sheet has input cells highlighted yellow so you can plug in your own assumptions, MarketXLS blue headers, frozen panes and proper currency and percentage formatting. Each sheet also lists the exact MarketXLS functions it uses at the bottom.
Managed Care Earnings Tracker Excel: How to Use It During Earnings Week
The workflow the template is designed for looks like this. Before UnitedHealth reports, open the Valuation and Estimates sheet and note the consensus EPS bar and where forward multiples sit for the group. As each company prints, drop the reported MLR into the Main Dashboard input and watch the color coding and score update. If a name reports an MLR above its guided range, jump to the MLR Scenario Analysis sheet, set the base MLR to the reported figure, and model what a continued cost trend would do to full-year EPS. Finally, use the Comparison sheet to see whether one payer is an outlier or whether the whole group is seeing the same pressure, which is usually the more important signal.
Because the market and fundamental data are live, the same workbook is useful the day before earnings, the minute after, and a week later when you are reviewing how the sector repriced. You are not rebuilding it each quarter. You update the MLR inputs and the estimates refresh themselves.
Download the templates:
- - Pre-filled with an illustrative snapshot so you can see the layout instantly
- - Live-updating formulas that refresh with the MarketXLS add-in
To go deeper on the individual functions, see the MarketXLS stock fundamental data tools and the earnings and estimates functions walkthrough.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a medical loss ratio and why does it matter for health insurers? The medical loss ratio is medical claims paid divided by premiums earned. It measures how much of every premium dollar a health insurer spends on care versus keeps for administration and profit. Because payers operate it inside a narrow regulated band, small changes in MLR translate into large swings in underwriting profit, which is why it is the number that most often drives the stock reaction on a managed care earnings call.
Which managed care companies report earnings in Q2 2026? The largest US health insurers reporting Q2 2026 results include UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Elevance Health (ELV), The Cigna Group (CI), Humana (HUM), CVS Health (CVS), Centene (CNC) and Molina Healthcare (MOH). UnitedHealth typically reports first in mid-July and frames expectations, with the government-plan names closing out the season in late July and early August. Always confirm exact dates on each company investor relations page.
Can I track medical loss ratio automatically in Excel? Market and fundamental data such as price, valuation, margins and consensus EPS can be pulled automatically with MarketXLS functions. The medical loss ratio itself is a health-insurance-specific figure disclosed in each earnings release, so in this template the MLR field is an input cell you populate from the company report, while everything around it updates live.
What MarketXLS formulas does the managed care tracker use? The template uses functions including =QM_Last for live price, =forwardPE and =PERatio for valuation, =CurrentYearEPSEstimate and =CurrentQuarterEPSEstimate for consensus estimates, =OperatingMargin and =PreTaxProfitMargin for profitability, =RevenueGrowth and =QuarterlyRevenueGrowthYOY for growth, and =DividendYield and =Beta for income and risk. Each is verified against the MarketXLS function library.
Is this managed care earnings tracker investment advice? No. The tracker is an educational and analytical tool. The tickers are used only to demonstrate how the formulas and the scoring model work. It does not recommend buying or selling any security, and the scoring formula is a transparent ranking method you can adjust, not a signal.
How is underwriting margin different from operating margin for a payer? Underwriting margin is roughly what is left of premium after both the medical loss ratio and the operating expense ratio, so it isolates the profitability of the insurance itself. Operating margin, which the template pulls live, is a broader income-statement measure across the whole company including non-premium businesses like pharmacy services. The scenario sheet lets you model underwriting margin directly from your MLR and expense assumptions.
The Bottom Line
Managed care earnings season is one of the few stretches where a single ratio, the medical loss ratio, can move a large-cap stock double digits in a session. A tracker that keeps MLR, underwriting leverage, valuation and the consensus EPS bar in one place is the difference between reacting to a headline and understanding why the sector moved. Build it once with live MarketXLS formulas, update the MLR inputs as each payer reports, and you have a durable dashboard you reuse every quarter rather than rebuild.
Explore what you can do with live financial data in Excel at MarketXLS, or book a demo to see the earnings, estimates and fundamental functions used in this template in action.
