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As many medical centers postponed elective procedures and routine examinations during the early days of the pandemic, there was one group of patients who mostly kept seeing their doctors as usual: those who are members of concierge practices.
Concierge medicine where patients pay what amounts to a retainer fee for direct access to a doctor or doctors has boomed during the pandemic. According to Kona Medical Consulting, which manages concierge practices, such doctors saw a 21% increase in new patient volumes nationally during 2020, adjusting for normal fluctuations.
“There was a marked increase for a number of reasons: People couldn’t get a hold of their own doctors, who were diverted to treating Covid patients. Tele-health is great, but it’s hard to get a Covid test that way,” says Thomas LaGrelius, a concierge doctor specializing in family and geriatric medicine in Torrance, Calif.
Anthem could benefit as the labor market recovers, says Jefferies. Dreamstime
Managed care stocks that focus on the government-funded insurance market have jumped in the week since Democrats secure control of the Senate, as investors have begun to anticipate an expansion of Obamacare, and even a public option.
Shares of Centene Corporation (CNC) are up 6.5% since the market closed on January 5, while shares of
Molina Healthcare (MOH) are up 3.6%. The
S&P 500, which is up 1.8% over the same period.
But in a note out Friday morning, Jefferies analyst David Windley argues that investors are too optimistic that the Biden administration will drive up managed care stocks in the near term by significantly expanding government-funded coverage.
Cogent Communications Holdings (CCOI) should be some of the primary Covid-recovery beneficiaries in the sector. Each of their earnings declined in 2020, and all saw some multiple contraction. The result was stocks that badly lagged the market.
AT&T likely has the most cyclical profile of the telecom companies, given its large WarnerMedia entertainment subsidiary. Movie theater closures, canceled or delayed sports events, and cost-conscious advertisers hurt results there in 2020. Verizon has a smaller advertising-reliant segment: Verizon Media, which includes Yahoo and other brands.
“In 2021, we expect the media space to broadly recover, although it could be somewhat choppy and back-half weighted in 2021 (particularly with a still uncertain economic outlook and many movie theaters closed to the public),” wrote Luebchow. “We broadly believe that we will reach (or even eclipse) 2019 media revenues at [AT&T and Verizon] by FY2022, which should be boosted in AT&T’s case
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Telefónica will reduce its debt following the $9.4 billion sale of its mobile phone masts to Boston-based American Towers. Getty Images
Shares in Telefónica soared almost 10% on Wednesday, after the Spanish telecom company struck a deal to sell its mobile phone masts in Europe and Latin America to U.S.-based telecom infrastructure operator
American Tower for $9.4 billion in cash.
The back story. European telecom companies have stepped up the sale of their valuable tower estates in recent years, as they look to cut their debt and raise cash to invest in the costly rollout of 5G networks to keep pace with the surge of data for applications such as fixed wireless and autonomous vehicles.