Humana executives are disappointed in the current enrollment number of 202,000 from the state and federal insurance exchanges, according to an article in Modern Healthcare. That’s less than half of what competitor WellPoint has recorded. This figure accounts for less than 7% of those registered in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act since January 2014.
Related Post: Federal and State Healthcare Exchanges Performing Poorly
Those 40 and younger are making up 35% of membership, which is a 2% increase. Humana is attributing the younger enrollee numbers to options for lower deductibles.
Executives expect the low enrollment numbers to greatly affect their bottom line, and staff cuts to possibly follow. Humana’s Chief Operating Officer, James Murray said, “When we don’t get the revenue that we anticipated and we’ve built the administrative infrastructure to support that, we have a scale issue.”
Related Post: Supreme Court To Hear Challenge to Obamacare – What You Need To Know
Humana watched and benefited as competitors, WellPoint and UnitedHealthcare, were hit hard by the decision to opt out of the Medicare market. Because of the decision, competitors were forced to lower benefits and decrease their provider networks. Due to the low enrollee numbers, Humana may soon have to follow suit and make these same changes.
You can read the entire article by Virgil Dickson here.