Tufts Health Plan posts a $17M profit

PBN Staff

08/13/2010

WATERTOWN, Mass. – Tufts Health Plan posted a $17 million profit for last year, a decrease of 19 percent from 2008, the insurer said in its annual report.
The not-for-profit health care insurer blamed a combination of the poor economic climate and rising health care costs for eating away at profits that totaled $110 million in 2007.
“It is no secret that medical costs continued to rise in 2009,” James Roosevelt Jr., president and CEO of Tufts Health Plan, wrote in the annual report released July 30. “Not surprisingly, the rates we set for the year were somewhat lower than those costs.”
According to the annual report, Tufts experienced increased medical costs from H1N1 and other flu-related illnesses, as well as an increase in the number of members seeking to continue their coverage after being laid off. A federal law allows many such workers to continue their plans at the same rates for a limited time.
But in a bright spot for the insurer, the company’s net worth rose 15 percent to $656 million from $570 million a year earlier. Membership rolls increased 5.6 percent to 737,000. The insurer operates in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Tufts Health Plan returned to the Ocean State in 2009 after leaving the market a decade earlier after experiencing financial difficulties. In 2009, the insurer’s HMO/POS plan has been ranked third among commercial plans in the United States in a list published by U.S. News & World Report and the National Committee on Quality Assurance in November.
Last month, R.I. Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller granted rate increases slightly less than those sought by Tufts. Koller allowed rates for large group plans to increase 10.2 percent (Tufts wanted 11.6 percent) and small group rates to rise 11 percent (12.4 percent was requested). The state’s other insurers – Blue Cross & Blue Shied of Rhode Island and UnitedHealth Care of New England – were also granted increases.

Additional information, including the Tufts Health Plan 2009 Annual Report and 2009 year-end financials, is available at www.tuftshealthplan.com.

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