WellPoint has seen major fall in first-quarter profits, with further membership declines projected in coming times as the economy continues to suffer.
WellPoint lost $228.4 million in investments for the first quarter ending March 31, compared with $45.6 million loss one year ago. Profits, correspondingly, fell 1.3 percent to $580 million. Operating revenue was $15.3 billion for the first quarter, dropping 0.4 percent over the same quarter last year.
WellPoint has lost 814,000 medical members compared with the previous year, though it added about 400,000 medical members in its large national accounts, an increase of 3.6 percent.
WellPoint is the nation's largest insurer by membership, with 34.6 million members, but execs expect to see a drop to 33.9 percent by year-end.
To learn more about WellPoint's results:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1]
Related Articles:
WellPoint added to AMA's class-action lawsuit [2]
UnitedHealth will pay $350M to settle AMA class-action over Ingenix data [3]
Aetna to pay $5M over underpaid out-of-network charges [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20090422/REG/304229985
[2] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/wellpoint-added-amas-class-action-lawsuit/2009-03-26
[3] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/unitedhealth-will-pay-350m-settle-ama-class-action-over-ingenix-data/2009-01-15
[4] http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/story/aetna-pay-5m-over-underpaid-out-network-charges/2009-02-03