Health insurers are fighting a Medicare payment change proposed by the Biden administration, but one of the biggest companies in the space says the policy won’t harm its business, and may even spur growth.
(Bloomberg) — Health insurers are fighting a Medicare payment change proposed by the Biden administration, but one of the biggest companies in the space says the policy won’t harm its business, and may even spur growth.
Humana Inc. is the second-largest Medicare Advantage insurer, with more than 5 million members in the private version of the US health program for the elderly and disabled. The industry is lobbying federal authorities to change course on a proposed 2.3% average rate cut that sent managed care stocks tumbling last month.
The Better Medicare Alliance, an industry group, asked the Biden administration to backtrack on some of the changes, which are expected to be finalized in April, and warned that they would harm Medicare beneficiaries and providers who serve vulnerable patients.
But Humana Chief Executive Officer Bruce Broussard said the company’s positioning sets it up “for a strong 2024, irrelevant of the rate notice” and reiterated Humana’s 2025 outlook for $37 in adjusted earnings per share.
Speaking to investors Tuesday at the TD Cowen Health Care Conference in Boston, Broussard dismissed concerns about how the changes would affect Humana. The company has prospered in other years when the government tightened payments, he said.
“What we’ve found in those years is that actually we do better,” he said. “We usually grow greater than the market.”
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