Medical Costs Payable (Notes)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Insurance [Abstract]

Short-Duration Insurance and Deposit Contracts

Medical Costs Payable

The following table shows the components of the change in medical costs payable for the nine months ended September 30:

(in millions)	2020		2019
Medical costs payable, beginning of period	$	21,690	$	19,891
Acquisitions	186		868
Reported medical costs:
Current year	118,114		117,624
Prior years	(800)		(460)
Total reported medical costs	117,314		117,164
Medical payments:
Payments for current year	(98,548)		(99,487)
Payments for prior years	(19,475)		(17,497)
Total medical payments	(118,023)		(116,984)
Medical costs payable, end of period	$	21,167	$	20,939

For the nine months ended September 30, 2020, prior years medical cost reserve development was primarily driven by lower than expected health system utilization. For the nine months ended September 30, 2019, the prior years medical cost reserve development included no individual factors that were significant. Medical costs payable included reserves for claims incurred by insured customers but not yet reported to the Company of $14.7 billion and $13.8 billion at September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively.