Health insurer Humana beats profit estimates on Medicare Advantage strength

[April 28, 2021]   (Reuters) -Humana Inc on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit, benefiting from higher sales of its Medicare advantage plans for the elderly and people with disabilities.

Humana in February said it expected a positive impact of $1.32 billion to $2.04 billion from depressed non-COVID utilization in its Medicare Advantage health plans.

Sales from the company's retail unit, which includes its Medicare plans, rose 11% to $18.65 billion in the quarter ended March, as it added more members to its individual Medicare Advantage plans and on higher premium rates.

Its consolidated benefit ratio, the percentage of premiums spent on claims, worsened to 85.9% from 85.1% a year earlier.

The company said on Tuesday it would acquire the 60% stake it did not own in home health and hospice provider Kindred at Home for $5.7 billion, to strengthen its patient care business.

Excluding items, the company earned $7.67 per share in the first quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of $7.06 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Amruta Khandekar and Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)

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