Surging COVID-19 cases are blurring the view for health insurers of how 2021 will play out.
Medicare Advantage coverage specialist Humana said Wednesday that it was maintaining its 2021 earnings forecast, citing “heightened uncertainty” about the ongoing pandemic.
That came a day after another insurer,
The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in
COVID-19 cases had been falling for weeks, while insurers saw care use return to more normal levels as patients came back to surgery centers and doctor’s offices for care not related to the coronavirus. But a more contagious variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 has started to change that in the past week or so, spreading largely among people who have not received COVID-19 vaccines.
“It’s not business as usual as everybody had hoped,”
Nationally, 60% of the adult
Health insurers reaped huge profits early in the pandemic as patients cancelled or put off medical care and stayed home to avoid being exposed to the virus. That break in claims was countered a bit by increased costs for COVID-19 testing and treatment.
Humana executives told analysts Wednesday that they’ve started seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases in the last couple of weeks. It was too early to say whether that will be balanced again by a drop in care not related to the virus.
Humana CEO
Shares of several health insurers fell Wednesday in midday trading, led by a 6% drop from
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