Health Net To Epand Medicare Effort

Health Net Inc. is yet another major health carrier that used its second-quarter earnings conference to emphasize that it is looking for opportunities in the newly revamped Medicare managed care program.[@@]

Health Net, Los Angeles, is reporting $54 million in net income for the latest quarter on $3 billion in revenue, up from $41 million in net income on $2.9 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2004.

The managed care company, which has big operations in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York as well as on the West Coast, ended the quarter providing or administering health coverage for 6.5 million people, up from 5.3 million people a year earlier.

Health Net is “clearly emerging from a turnaround mode” and there are “promising signs for the future,” says Health Net President Jay Gellert.

Membership swelled partly because of a big increase in the number of people in Health Net’s TriCare plan, which provides health coverage for many military dependents, military retirees and civilian Defense Department employees.

Enrollment in the company’s commercial health plans fell 11%, to 2.5 million people, but an 11% increase in the average amount of premium per insured member, to $705, compensated for the decline in the number of people insured.