- Humana will expand on its relationship with Walmart, which already has Humana sales people in its stores selling Medicare drug plans and Advantage plans.
- Medicare Advantage plans contract with the federal government to provide extra benefits and services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines, with some even providing vision and dental care and wellness programs.
Humana said its enrollment of seniors in increasingly popular Medicare Advantage plans surged to more than 3 million in the first quarter, boosting total revenue and profits.
Humana, which is amid efforts to buy more doctor practices, clinics and related outpatient medical care provider operations, has long made Medicare Advantage a focus of its insurance business, exiting the individual business last year under the Affordable Care Act. Humana’s individual Medicare Advantage membership rose 6%, or 178,800 seniors, to 3.02 million, the company’s first quarter earnings report said.
The surge in Medicare Advantage membership helped total revenue rise 3.8% to $14.3 billion. Net income was $491 million, or $3.53, compared to $1.1 billion in the first quarter of last year.
Humana is in a competitive battle with Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, UnitedHealth Group and the nation’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to capture bigger shares of a fast-growing market of aging baby boomers turning 65 years old and becoming eligible for Medicare coverage. Medicare Advantage plans contract with the federal government to provide extra benefits and services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines, with some even providing vision and dental care and wellness programs.
Humana is also working with private equity firms to build out its medical care provider networks to compliment its growth in seniors buying its Medicare Advantage plans. Humana last month said it was buying a 40% stake in hospice provider Curo Health Services with private equity firms TPG and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
There are also reports Humana will expand on its relationship with Walmart, which already has Humana sales people in its stores selling Medicare drug plans and Advantage plans.
Medicare Advantage enrollment will rise to 38 million, or 50% market penetration by the end of 2025, according to a report last year from L.E.K. Consulting. Currently, just under 35% of Medicare beneficiaries, or about 20 million Americans, are enrolled in MA plans.
But the Trump administration is proposing new rules to allow Medicare Advantage plans to provide seniors more supplemental benefits, which is expected to attract even more people to such coverage.
Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said it was “reinterpreting the standards for health-related supplemental benefits in the Medicare Advantage program to include additional services that increase health and improve quality of life.”
“We are beginning to see a more favorable regulatory environment,” Humana CEO Bruce Broussard said of Medicare Advantage during a call Wednesday morning with analysts.
Date: May 02, 2018