Chris Otts Nov 3,
2020 Updated Nov 3, 2020
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) –
People still aren’t visiting the doctor as frequently or having as many
surgeries as normal because of the coronavirus pandemic, a phenomenon that
continues to help the bottom line of Louisville-based health insurer Humana
Inc.
The company said Tuesday
that its members’ usage of medical care, excluding coronavirus testing and
treatment, remained about 5% below normal in the July-September quarter, after
falling off a cliff in late March and April as the pandemic took hold.
Humana’s pre-tax income
doubled, to $1.8 billion, from a year earlier, according results released
Tuesday. Much of the quarterly boost in profitability had to do with one-time
items, without which the company’s income would have declined from a year
earlier.
Still, the quarterly
profits announced Tuesday were about 10% higher than the Wall Street consensus
mainly because of lower medical costs, according to a research note from
Jefferies LLC.
Even excluding one-time
items, Humana has earned about $4 billion so far this year, up from $2.7 billion
during the same period in 2019. In fact, nine months into 2020, Humana has
already exceeded the per-share profits it told Wall Street to expect for the
full year by 68%.
But executives said the
eye-popping results from the first half of the 2020 will be “entirely offset”
by an expected loss in the final three months of the year. Medical care
continues to rebound and the company is incurring costs by waiving co-pays for
in-network primary care, outpatient behavioral health and telehealth visits for
seniors enrolled in Humana’s main business, Medicare Advantage.
Humana Chief Financial
Officer Brian Kane told investment analysts that the company expects to incur
nearly $1 billion in coronavirus testing and treatment costs in 2020. That’s
about 1.5% of the company’s total revenue last year.
Reach reporter Chris Otts
at 502-585-0822, cotts@wdrb.com,
on Twitter or
on Facebook. Copyright
2020 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
Chris
Otts reports for WDRB.com about business and economic topics, higher education
and local / state government. He joined WDRB News in 2013 after seven years
with The Courier-Journal. Got a tip? Chris is at 502-585-0822 and
cotts@wdrb.com.
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