Yes. Each industry has developed accounting standards that reflect the nature of their business. You couldn't run a bank or a payments company with a simple sales - COGS = gross profit model, it just wouldn't make sense.

In health insurance specifically, profitability is somewhat regulated and this gets at the accounting issue here. Insurance companies should maintain a medical loss ratio of 80-85% meaning that fraction of the premiums should be paid to providers. The remaining 15-20% is split between administrative costs and profit. Most of the article's forensic arguments around this are weak and circular and represent a misunderstanding of the accounting itself.