Oscar Reports Big Enrollment Gains: Earnings

Oscar Health — a health insurer that went public in March — attracted more health plan members in the second quarter but also faced a big increase in costs.

The New York-based company is reporting a $73 million net loss for the quarter on $529 million in revenue, compared with a net loss of $39 million on $115 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2020.

Oscar makes heavy use of reinsurance. The company’s total premium revenue, before reinsurance premiums ceded, increased to $724 million, from $394 million.

The company noted in a conference call slide deck that it’s working to reduce the amount of premiums it shares with reinsurers. The company now cedes 33% of premiums to reinsurers, down from 77% in 2020.

The company said it was also affected by a big increase in spending on health care between the second quarter of 2020 and the latest quarter. In the year-earlier quarter, COVID-19 upheaval slashed Oscar enrollees’ use of health care.

The company was helping 563,114 million people get covered in the second quarter, up from 417,480 people a year earlier.

Here’s what happened to three types of health plan enrollment between the year-earlier quarter and the latest quarter:

Individual and Small Group: 554,748 (up from 415,753) Medicare Advantage: 3,749 (up from 1,727) Oscar’s Alliance With Cigna: 4,617 (up from 0)

Mario Schlosser, the company’s CEO, said in comments on the results, included in the earnings announcement, that the company is on track to become profitable and is planning to expand into three more states in 2022.

The company now operates in 19 states.

Next year, Oscar will begin selling coverage in Arkansas, Illinois and Nebraska.

GoHealth

GoHealth — a Chicago-based insurance broker that recently went public, and says its earnings for the second quarter are not comparable to its earnings for the second quarter of 2020 — has reported a $12 million net loss for the quarter on $197 million in revenue.

About $148 million of the revenue came from sales commissions.

Here’s what happened to the number of commissionable submitted policies for three types of products the company sells between the year-earlier quarter and the latest quarter:

Medicare Advantage: 153,163 (up from 99,078) Medicare Supplement: 1,022 (down from 2,248) Medicare Prescription Drug Plans: 2,374 (up from 1,969)

Independence Holding Co.

IHC is reporting $76 million in net income for the second quarter on $49 million in revenue, compared with $82 million in net income on $56 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2020.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company has been shifting toward selling individual major medical policies, Medicare plans and other products from other companies, rather than writing and selling its supplemental health products.

Roy T.K. Thung, IHC’s chief executive officer, said in a comment included in the earnings release that IHC will center its agency operations around INSXcloud.com, a new web-based insurance shop.

(Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)