Washington State Health Plans Report Strong Financials Through Third Quarter
By David Peel
Publisher and Editor
Washington Healthcare News
Read PDF of this article See all this Month's Articles
Original Publish Date: December 3, 2013
Fourteen of the largest domestic health plans in Washington State recently filed financial reports for the nine months ended September 30, 2013 and the results were strong with eight reporting higher net income than the same period in 2012 and only two reporting a net loss.
These figures demonstrate the stability of Washington State health insurers as health care reform is implemented.
The first page of our report shown here, highlights financial results and shows member months (the combined total of month ending membership for each nine month period), total revenues, net underwriting gain (loss), investment gain (loss), net income (loss) and statutory capital.
The second page of our report shown here, presents key financial statistics. When the financial figures on the first page are divided by member months, a monthly average is obtained that is valuable in comparing one plan to another. These “per member per month” averages are presented in the middle section of the page.Finally, we present statutory capital per average member in the right hand section of the second page of our report. This is essentially the amount of “cushion” on a per member basis a company has available to cover inadequate cost estimates. Alternatively, this is the liquidating value of the company per average insured person.
As you review the numbers, keep in mind there are differences in the type of membership each plan serves.
All information in this report was obtained through publicly available reports filed with the Washington State Office of Insurance Commissioner (OIC). Information not required to be filed with the OIC (self-insured and some insured business from smaller, non-domestic carriers) is not included in this report nor is it referenced in this article.
Our next financial report will cover the twelve months ended December 31, 2013 compared to the twelve months ended December 31, 2012.
David Peel can be reached at 425-577-1334 or dpeel@healthcarenewssite.com.