Universal American, a Medicare managed-care and accountable care operator, ended last year with smaller losses on its overall business and its accountable care organizations than those of the prior year.
Universal American's net loss was $29.5 million on revenue of $2.04 billion in 2014 compared with a net loss of $192.3 million on 2013 revenue of $2.16 billion.
Universal American is the single biggest operator of Medicare ACOs. The company is the majority owner in numerous limited liability companies formed with medical groups and physicians across the country to launch Medicare ACOs.
The company's chief executive has voiced support for Medicare accountable care despite Universal American's decision last year to exit nine of its 34 Medicare ACOs. The company was also among the organizations to call for greater potential financial rewards for Medicare ACOs as the CMS drafts new rules for the 3-year-old initiative. HHS has announced plans to aggressively expand use of ACOs with a goal of moving half its spending that's not for managed care into accountable care, bundled payments and other alternative models by 2018.
The company's accountable care expenses decreased in 2014 and Universal American received $13.4 million in revenue under its first ACO performance payout. In 2014, the company lost $30.8 million on its ACOs compared with $41.6 million the prior year.
Richard A. Barasch, Universal American's chairman and CEO, said in a statement the company's officials were “optimistic” about the Medicare ACOs “both under the existing rules and especially if the current rulemaking process removes some of the weaknesses that now exist and offers ACOs more options to expand their risk taking.”
During the fourth quarter, the company reported a net loss of $12.5 million on revenue of $500.3 million compared with a net loss of $101.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2013 on revenue of $539.2 million.
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