Mark Farrah Associates Assessed First Quarter 2015 Performance of Leading Health Plans

KENNEBUNK, Maine, Sept. 3, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), www.markfarrah.com, assessed first quarter 2015 enrollment and profitability for Aetna, Cigna, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), Humana, Kaiser Permanente, UnitedHealth Group and Anthem.  MFA reported in its latest Healthcare Business Strategy brief that all of the seven U.S. leading health plans realized net gains in the total number enrolled in Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid plans from first quarter 2014 to first quarter 2015.  Total medical membership increased by nearly 4.6% from 141.1 million in 1Q14 to 147.5 million in 1Q15 however, profitability was down slightly for most plans.  Membership data, financial statistics and observations were gleaned from the July 2015 Health Insurer Insights™ series, a Mark Farrah Associates™ publication.

Overall performance for the seven leading companies continues to reflect the influences of ACA changes to the U.S health care system.  Top health insurers reported organic growth in select segments with many top plans continuing to experience increases in both risk and ASO enrollment.  As of March 31, 2015, Anthem enrolled nearly 38.5 million total medical members, an increase of 4.3% year-over-year.  Anthem includes 5.4 million BlueCard members as well as Medicare Supplement lives in their individual segment reporting.  UnitedHealth reported 37.7 million medical members in first quarter 2015, a 1.3 million increase from 36.4 million in first quarter 2014.  UnitedHealth attributed the increase to strong participation in its individual public exchange products and favorable annual renewal activity as well as new business in the employer group segment.  It's important to note, UnitedHealth's Medicare Supplement membership, about 3.9 million, is not included in their medical membership total.

Aetna, the third largest U.S. Health plan, reported total membership of 23.2 million as of March 31, 2015, a 4% increase since March 31, 2014.  Humana saw the most growth in risk-based enrollment with a 19.5% increase but experienced a decline in ASO membership primarily due to a loss of certain large group ASO accounts.  HCSC also experienced a substantial increase in risk-based enrollment of 17.6% from 1Q14 to 1Q15. HCSC reported over 14.7 million enrollees as of March 31, 2015.

Profit margins for the majority of the seven health plans were slightly down overall for first quarter 2015 as compared to first quarter 2014.  Aetna reported a 1Q15 profit margin of 5.33%, down from 5.45% the prior year.  Anthem's margin was 4.5%, up from 3.9% in 1Q14 primarily due to higher operating revenues in the company's Government Business segment.

UnitedHealth's profit margin increased 5.8% from 4.8% year-over-year.  The company partly attributed the increase to a combination of strong growth across the business along with improved medical cost management and increased productivity.  Though Kaiser Permanente's first quarter 2015 profit margin was 6.5%, down from 8% as of first quarter 2014, the company outperformed other top plans.

To read the full text of "First Quarter 2015 Enrollment Growth of 6.4 Million for Seven Health Insurance Leaders", visit the Analysis Briefs library on Mark Farrah Associates' website www.markfarrah.com.

About Mark Farrah Associates (MFA)

MFA is a leading data aggregator and publisher providing health plan market data and analysis tools for the healthcare industry.  Committed to simplifying analysis of health insurance business, our products include Medicare Business Online™, Medicare Benefits Analyzer™ Health Coverage Portal™, County Health Coverage™, Health Insurer Insights™, and Health Plans USA™.

Contacts:
Mark Farrah Associates
Ann Marie Wolfe, 412-944-2417

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SOURCE Mark Farrah Associates