U.S. Healthcare Facilities & Managed Care: Weighing in on Key Debates

Research evidence excerpt

U.S. Healthcare Facilities & Managed Care: Weighing in on Key Debates

Equity Research

26 May 2026

U.S. Healthcare Facilities & Managed Care

Weighing in on Key Debates

We believe MCO stock moves are durable and we continue to

prefer managed care over facilities. We see inflation and

commercial mix as increasing drivers of provider earnings U.S. Healthcare Facilities & Managed Care NEUTRAL

Unchangedrisk.

U.S. Healthcare Facilities & Managed

Care

Andrew Mok, CFA

+1 212 526 5496

andrew.mok@barclays.com

THE 2026 EXTEL SURVEY IS NOW OPEN BCI, US

Support our industry-leading Tiffany Yuan +1 212 526 5568

tiffany.yuan@barclays.com analysts with 5-Star votes in

BCI, US

this year’s Extel All-America Thomas Walsh

Research Survey +1 212 526 5096 thomas.walsh@barclays.com

Vote Now View Analysts Mingchuan Song

+1 212 526 9787

mingchuan.song@barclays.com

The II/Extel survey is important to me and Barclays. We would greatly appreciate your 5-star

vote in the Health Care Facilities and Managed Care Sector.

Weighing in on Key Debates: Following solid 1Q managed care results, extended stock

reactions for both MCOs (+29%) and hospitals (-13%) have led to several investor debates

regarding utilization, embedded earnings, commercial mix, and valuation, all of which we

address in detail. Simply put, we believe MCO stock moves are durable and consistent with our

2026 outlook, and we continue to prefer managed care over facilities. While our embedded

earnings analysis suggests HUM and MOH are under-earning the most today, we believe CNC,

ELV, and CVS offer the most attractive combination of underappreciated yet visible earnings

upside. Among our EW-rated stocks, we see the most near-term upside risk for OSCR and most

near-term downside risk for ALHC.