Humana reported a 22 percent decline in first quarter profits Monday, blaming startup costs for the Medicare drug benefit. The company said its Medicare revenues climbed to $1.25 billion, or 127 percent. Humana has signed up the second most customers to its Medicare Part D plans among insurers, trailing only UnitedHealth group. Humana says it has signed up 1.96 million customers to its stand-alone drug plan. It predicts that it will be able to sign up 2.7 million customers by the end of the year.
- read this article from The Washington Post
PLUS: More details are now available on Part D sign-ups based on last weeks data. United Health group leads with 3.8 million Plan D members and 1.18 million Medicare Advantage customers. In second place, Humana has 1.96 million Part D members. Trailing the pack are CIGNA and Aetna, both with around one percent of the market. Article (WSJ sub. req.)