STAT+: Humana slashes profit predictions amid soaring Medicare Advantage costs

Humana’s Medicare Advantage enrollees got care in the hospital and physician clinics way more often than the company predicted at the end of 2023, forcing the health insurance giant on Thursday to drastically slash its profit projections for both 2023 and 2024.

Those higher medical costs will wipe away more than $775 million of profit that Humana had expected to bank for 2023. Humana also is “currently assessing the expected impact of emerging utilization trends on its 2024 outlook, which is anticipated to be material if current trends continue,” according to the company’s update to investors.

Humana’s bad news for Wall Street didn’t end there: The company said it appears it only added just 100,000 new Medicare Advantage members from the most recent enrollment period that ended last month — down from estimates that it would enroll anywhere from 325,000 to 435,000 people.

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