Magellan Health's Unit Enhances Services To Fight Coronavirus

Magellan Health, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGLN) recently announced that its behavioral and specialty healthcare segment, Magellan Healthcare, has enhanced telehealth services and other initiatives to help clients amid the coronavirus outbreak. This global pandemic, as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO), infected 334,981 to date across 189 territories.

In this time of crisis, Magellan Heath took steps to support its people with a package of updated behavioral health services. With the guidelines set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on Tuesday, the company was reassessing its operations to permit all trusted and contract-bound behavioral health providers to conduct telehealth video sessions for all routine check-ups and certain psychological testing, applied behavior analysis (ABA), intensive outpatient programs (IOP) and partial hospitalization program (PHP) services.

With this upgrade in services, providers are now being able to get assistance from HHS OCR-approved platforms for their telehealth video calls.

Magellan Health is also allowing telephone-only sessions to those members without an access to a video platform. All these measures undertaken abide by the company’s commitment to aid it members whenever the need be.

Coronavirus outbreak brought telehealth services to the limelight. Despite the U.S. government’s measures to make telemedicine mainstream for the past few years, primarily to minimize healthcare cost and increase access of care, the sector is yet to receive mass acceptance. Nevertheless, post the COVID-19 outbreak, the situation looks drastically changed.

Per a TIME report, “If extreme measures like mass quarantines come to pass, telehealth could finally have its bittersweet moment in the spotlight, potentially generating momentum that proponents hope will continue once life returns to normal.”

Mental illness is a very common syndrome across the United States. Per National Institute of Mental Health, every one in five U.S. adults suffered mental illness (46.6 million in 2017). Amid the coronavirus spread, people who may require mental health solutions will find support in Magellan Health’s services.

Companies in the same space, such as Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) and Anthem, Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) also adopted certain preventive measures to help patients fight the coronavirus outbreak.

Price Performance

Shares of this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) company have lost 44.6% in a year’s time, wider than its industry’s decline of 20.8%. However, its solid fundamentals like strategic buyouts and a low-debt level will likely enable the stock to bounce back going forward.

Stock to Consider

Investors interested in the same space might take a look at a better-ranked stock, which is UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (NYSE:UNH) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and a trailing four-quarter positive surprise of 3.6%, on average. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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