Not all managed-care plans prospered equally for the first quarter.
Increased medical costs and a $15 million repayment to the federal government slashed first-quarter profits at Humana to $33 million, or 20 cents a share, from $50 million, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. First-quarter revenues were $2.28 billion compared with $2.35 billion last year.
The Louisville, Ky.-based managed-care company said last week that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department and HHS over Medicare overpayments to the plan dating back to the early 1990s.
At Las Vegas-based Sierra Health Services, charges related to the closure of a small hospital in Mohave County, Ariz., and Sierra's exit from the Medicare-risk market in that county resulted in a net loss for the quarter of $706,000, or 3 cents a share, compared with net income of $12.2 million, or 44 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues rose 51% to $318 million from $210.4 million during the same period.
