LTCI Carrier Reports 2011 Results

The MedAmerica Companies, a group of companies that specializes in selling long-term care insurance (LTCI) and related chronic-care products, is reporting $2.8 million in net income for 2011 on $226 million in revenue, compared with $4.6 million in net income on $221 million in revenue for 2010.

MedAmerica, Pittsburgh, is a unit of the Lifetime Healthcare Companies Inc., Rochester, N.Y., the parents of Excellus Health Plan Inc. Excellus is a nonprofit company that runs Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in New York state.

William Jones Jr., president of MedAmerica, notes in a letter introducing MedAmerica’s 2011 annual report that the company’s results reflect the performance of LTCI products.

“MedAmerica remains committed to the LTCI industry,” Jones says in the letter. “We are stable. We are responsible. We are growing. And we are fully transparent.”

The Federal Reserve Board has hurt investment earnings on the assets backing LTCI policies, long-term disability insurance policies, and other insurance products that depend in part on the performance of long-term bond portfolios by pushing interest rates on U.S. government bonds to unusually low levels over the past few years.

MedAmerica says the yield on its investment portfolio fell to 5.7% in 2011, from 6.4% in 2010.