The Ledger

1.84 dollars: that is how much Humana just cut its full year profit guidance floor, even after beating Wall Street’s second quarter estimates, and the stock sold off anyway. Humana Inc. reported second quarter 2026 net income of 694 million dollars, up from 545 million dollars a year earlier, with GAAP earnings per share of 5.73 dollars and adjusted earnings per share of 7.61 dollars, ahead of the 7.23 dollars Wall Street expected, on revenue of 40.9 billion dollars, up from 32.4 billion dollars a year ago. The company affirmed its full year adjusted earnings per share guidance of at least 9.00 dollars but cut its GAAP earnings per share guidance floor to at least 6.52 dollars from at least 8.36 dollars, attributing the wider gap between the two measures to larger than previously modeled per share impacts from put and call option valuation adjustments, value creation initiative costs, and impairments. Investors read the results as a warning about the second half of the year: Humana’s insurance segment benefit ratio, the share of premium dollars spent on medical care, rose to 91.2 percent from 89.9 percent a year earlier on Medicare Advantage Star Ratings pressure, higher cost new members and weaker prior period reserve development, and first half adjusted earnings per share of 17.91 dollars already exceeds the full year floor. Confidence: High on the reported results and guidance figures, since they come directly from Humana’s own SEC filing. Low on the precise premarket share price move, since real time market reports diverged widely, from roughly 2 percent to roughly 9 percent. Sources: Humana (NYSE: HUM) grows Q2 profit but cuts 2026 GAAP EPS outlook, StockTitan, Humana Profits Hit $694 Million As Medicare Costs Fall In Line, Forbes.

5.442 billion dollars: that is what Boston Scientific brought in last quarter, and Wall Street still was not fully satisfied with what comes next. Boston Scientific Corporation reported July 29, 2026 second quarter net sales of 5.442 billion dollars, up 7.5 percent on a reported basis and 7.0 percent organically, with adjusted earnings per share of 0.86 dollars beating the company’s own 0.82 to 0.84 dollar guidance range and up from 0.75 dollars a year earlier; GAAP earnings per share rose to 0.61 dollars from 0.53 dollars. Cardiovascular products, the company’s largest segment, grew sales 8.3 percent and MedSurg grew 5.9 percent, and shares rose more than 3 percent in early trading, but the company’s full year guidance of 3.28 to 3.32 dollars in adjusted earnings per share sits just under Wall Street’s 3.36 dollar consensus even as it reaffirmed organic sales growth of 5 to 6 percent for the year. Confidence: High, since the reported and guidance figures come directly from the company’s own release. Source: Boston Scientific announces results for second quarter 2026, PR Newswire.

2 days: that is all the runway left for Miami’s academic health system and the nation’s largest insurer before hundreds of thousands of patients go out of network. As of July 29, 2026, UHealth, the University of Miami’s health system, and UnitedHealthcare remain without a new contract, with the July 31 deadline this issue has tracked since July 22 unchanged; UHealth’s negotiation page, last updated July 22, says “UnitedHealthcare has not yet agreed to terms that protect patients’ care,” while UnitedHealthcare says its offer would bring UHealth’s rates in line with what it pays peer South Florida hospitals. Miss the deadline, and UHealth’s hospitals, clinics and physicians, anchored by the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, go out of network August 1 for UnitedHealthcare’s commercial, Affordable Care Act exchange and Medicaid plans; a separate carve out keeps UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare Advantage Preferred Care Network members in network through August 31 regardless of the outcome. Confidence: High on the deadline and each side’s public position, since both come from the parties’ own pages. Low on whether a deal is struck in time. Sources: UHealth and UnitedHealthcare Negotiation, University of Miami Health System, Network Negotiations with Miami Health System (UHealth), UnitedHealthcare.

65 million dollars: that is how much an AI doctor startup has raised in less than a year, capital it is now using to buy its way into pediatric care. Doctronic, an AI assisted telehealth startup whose chatbot triages symptoms before handing patients to human clinicians, announced July 29, 2026 that it acquired Summer Health, a text based pediatric telehealth service backed by investors including Sequoia Capital’s Alfred Lin and Chelsea Clinton since its 2022 seed round; financial terms were not disclosed. Doctronic, which says it has supported more than 30 million health encounters in two years and charges 39 dollars per encounter, raised 40 million dollars in a March 2026 Series B led by Abstract and Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing its total funding to 65 million dollars across three rounds in under a year; the companies said the deal builds “a single, trusted front door to healthcare” spanning adult and pediatric care. Confidence: High on the deal’s existence and Doctronic’s funding history, since both come from the companies’ own statements and contemporaneous funding reporting. Low on the acquisition price, since it was not disclosed. Sources: AI doctor startup Doctronic acquires Summer Health to move into pediatric care, Fierce Healthcare, Doctronic raises $40 million as race to apply AI in clinical care heats up, STAT News.

FRONTIER SCAN. 220 billion dollars: that is the medical debt load carried by an estimated 20 million Americans, a burden now spawning its own buy now, pay later industry that investors are treating as a business opportunity rather than a problem to fix. Roughly 20 million adults owe medical debt, and about 6 percent of U.S. adults, some 14 million people, owe more than 1,000 dollars each, according to Census Bureau data compiled by the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF; market researchers project the buy now, pay later segment of healthcare financing will grow from 6.14 billion dollars in 2026 to 17.89 billion dollars by 2034, a 14.2 percent annual growth rate, while the broader medical debt financing and settlement market is projected to more than double over the same stretch, from 8.65 billion dollars to 18.94 billion dollars. Specialty lenders including PayZen, AccessOne, Cherry Technologies, Sunbit, Scratch Pay and Synchrony’s CareCredit are competing for a market where, as PayZen’s own co-founder has put it, self-pay balances now make up more than 30 percent of healthcare revenue but hospitals collect only 20 to 30 percent of what patients owe; PayZen itself raised 32 million dollars in equity plus a 200 million dollar credit line in 2024 to offer three-year payment plans as an alternative to the 12-month terms hospitals typically extend. Confidence: High on the underlying debt burden, since it traces to Census Bureau data. Medium on the market size projections, since they are private market research estimates rather than audited figures. This scan adds Healthcare Dive and Payments Dive’s recurring buy now, pay later and patient financing coverage to our source stack. Source: For medical debt, ‘care now, pay later’ models abound, Healthcare Dive.

THE DEAL SHEET

Target	Acquirer/Investor	Vertical	Value	Source
Numantec	Goldman Sachs Alternatives	Medical devices, drug-delivery and infusion devices	Approximately €700 million (about $791 million); expected to close Q4 2026	Goldman Sachs Alternatives buys control of Italian medtech firm Numantec, KSL/Reuters
Summer Health	Doctronic	Digital health, AI-assisted telehealth and pediatric care	Undisclosed	AI doctor startup Doctronic acquires Summer Health to move into pediatric care, Fierce Healthcare

Humana, Boston Scientific and Teladoc Health all report today; Teladoc’s results land after the market close and are not yet available at this issue’s deadline. Cigna reports tomorrow, July 30, and Privia Health, agilon health, Oscar Health and Clover Health cluster in early August.