Humana may slash individual health operations

The company as a whole is reporting $314 million in net income for the quarter on $13 billion in revenue, compared with $290 million in net income on $12 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2014.

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The company’s retail segment, which includes individual medical coverage sold outside of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange system and through the PPACA exchange system, is reporting $325 million in pretax income for the latest quarter, down from $346 million in the year-earlier quarter.

The company ended the quarter providing or administering medical coverage for 14 million people, 3.1 percent more than it was covering a year earlier.

Enrollment in the company’s individual Medicare Advantage plans increased 14 percent, to 2.7 million, and the number of people using the company’s Medicare supplement insurance coverage jumped 22 percent, to 157,100.

Enrollment in fully insured in group plans fell 3.7 percent, to 1.2 million, and the number of people covered by the company’s individual commercial medical plans shrank 11 percent, to 963,700.

The number of people covered by Humana plans sold through the PPACA exchange system increased 1.4 percent, to 609,600. The number with Humana individual coverage purchased off-exchange rose 62 percent, to 204,800.

But Humana saw use of older, “grandfathered” or “grandmothered” individual policies, which do not have to comply with all of the new PPACA underwriting and benefits mandate rules, fall 58 percent, to 149,300. The increase in use of PPACA compliant policies was not big enough to offset the drop in use of the old-rules policies.