Managed Health Care stocks rose on Wednesday. UnitedHealth up nearly 4%; Elevance Health up 2.8%; Oscar Health up 2%.

UnitedHealth Group Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt offered additional color on the company's turnaround efforts at an investor conference Tuesday.

DeVeydt spoke at the UBS Global Healthcare Conference, where he reaffirmed the company's broader expectations that its performance will improve in 2026 before its new strategic approach really pays off in 2027, particularly changes at Optum Health and Optum Insight. 

DeVeydt took the CFO chair early September, succeeding John Rex. He said part of what lured him to take the role was CEO Stephen Hemsley's confidence that the company can make real progress in short order. He said the team is still early in the journey to recapture "the swagger the company once had."

"Having competed against this organization for years both as the CFO of Elevance and then on the board of Centene, the one thing that's very clear to me is the assets are as good as I thought they were," DeVeydt said. "The management team actually is quite deep, albeit we've made a number of changes along the way.

"And I do think Steve has got this company focused on all the right areas right now," he said.