Health Plan Weekly

✦ Recognizing that many people — especially seniors — haven’t been comfortable leaving home for routine health care services, Humana Inc. said on July 23 that it’s planning to mail more than 1 million in-home preventive care screening tests to members. The initiative, which will run from June to September and triple the number of in-home screening tests Humana sends to members, will focus “particularly on members in need of colorectal cancer screening and diabetic condition management,” the insurer said. Medicare Advantage members will receive the tests for free, while eligible Medicaid members will receive the diabetic management test kits only. Read more at https://huma.na/2DhhzsU.

✦ Reversing previous trends of flat or negative enrollment growth, the number of people covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) rose by 1.2 million between December 2019 and April 2020. That’s according to a new analysis of CMS data conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which also found that Medicaid and CHIP enrollment increased by 800,000 people between March and April of this year, coinciding with rising income and job loss tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adults accounted for the vast majority of the enrollment increase. Visit https://bit.ly/3hL7bZb to learn more.

While Anthem, Inc. has seen less of an enrollment dip in its commercial business than it originally feared when the COVID-19 pandemic and economic recession first took hold, the insurer’s executives said during a July 29 earnings conference call that they expect that attrition to accelerate in the coming months as some furloughs become permanent job losses.

From March 31 to June 30, Anthem saw enrollment in its commercial and specialty business line drop by 290,000. “But as you think about unemployment, that was fairly muted,” especially when it comes to Anthem’s risk-based business, President and CEO Gail Boudreaux said during the question-and-answer portion of the earnings call. She and other Anthem executives attributed that effect to the fact that many companies have thus far furloughed rather than laid off workers, thanks in part to federal stimulus funding.

Centene Corp. reported second-quarter earnings in line with its own projections and Wall Street consensus, but also enrolled fewer members than executives had expected. The firm touted revenue growth from its acquisition of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. and attributed strong revenues to decreased utilization related to COVID-19 shutdowns, though Centene said claims rebounded in June to more normal levels.

Centene’s adjusted earnings per share (EPS) was $2.40, which came close to what SVB Leerink analyst Stephen Tanal described as the Wall Street consensus of $2.42. The firm’s non-adjusted EPS increased by 79.5% compared with the second quarter of 2019, which is mainly attributable to the WellCare acquisition.

Cigna Corp. handily beat analysts’ expectations for its second quarter earnings and posted a record low medical loss ratio of 70.5% as members continued to defer non-emergency medical visits and procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The insurer, which reported earnings July 30, posted only a 1% quarter-over-quarter decline in commercial enrollment and strong growth in its Express Scripts PBM business. But CEO David Cordani warned in Cigna’s earnings conference call that the company expects to see “lower levels of employment across our book” through the second half of the year, with a slow economic recovery in 2021.