Mark Farrah Associates Reports on Top Health Plans’ Performance

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Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) reported in its latest Healthcare Business Strategy report that most of the top health plans experienced enrollment gains coupled with favorable financial results for first quarter 2014.

In a release MFA said that assessed enrollment changes and profitability for Aetna, Cigna, Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint. Membership data, financial statistics and observations were gleaned from the July 2014 Health Insurer Insights series, a Mark Farrah Associates publication.

MFA reported six of the seven leading health plans in the United States realized net gains in the total number enrolled in Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid plans from 1st quarter 2013 to 1st quarter 2014. Aetna, Cigna, Health Care Service Corp. (HCSC), Humana, UnitedHealth and WellPoint all reported aggregate membership gains.

Membership trends of the leading health plans continue to reflect increases in both risk and ASO enrollment.

As of March 2014, UnitedHealthcare enrolled more than 40 million medical members (excluding international business), a 7 percent year- over-year gain. WellPoint reported total membership of 37 million as of 1st quarter 2014, a 3 percent increase year-over-year.

UnitedHealth saw a decline in total ASO membership while WellPoint experienced a decline in total risk enrollment. Profit margins were positive for six of the seven leading companies in early 2014.

Collectively, these companies insure or administer health coverage for approximately 56 percent of the insured population in the United States.

HCSC experienced an underwriting gain of $109 million, but due to a sizeable federal tax payment it was the only leader with a negative profit margin (-0.9 percent).

Kaiser's 1Q14 profit margin was 8 percent as the company reported a significant uptick in operating income while containing costs. Aetna's 1Q14 profit margin was 5.4 percent, UnitedHealth's results show 4.8 percent and WellPoint's margin was 3.9 percent.

Mark Farrah Associates (MFA) is a data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry.

More information:

www.markfarrah.com.

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