Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Health Insurers Report Rising Premium

3 min read

2013 was another good year for nearly all of the companies on Arkansas Business’ list of the largest health insurance companies that write premium in the state.

Eight of the 10 carriers on the list, which is ranked by premium written in Arkansas, saw their premium rise last year over 2012 numbers.

All the companies on the list remained in the exact same position as they did last year. The list, though, might see a slight shake-up next year as three of the companies on the list have recently changed owners.

Still, the No. 1 company on the list was Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield. It wrote Arkansas premium of $1.3 billion in 2013, up 6.5 percent from the previous year, based on information filed with the Arkansas Insurance Department.

United HealthCare of Arkansas remained a distant second with $638.4 million in premium written in the state in 2013, an increase of 4.9 percent.

Only two companies on the list saw a decline in premium:

  • Humana Insurance Co. of Louisville, Kentucky, reported its premium dropped 4.5 percent in 2013 to $404.9 million.
  • QualChoice Holdings Inc. of Little Rock’s premium also fell 3.9 percent to $148.9 million in 2013. The premium numbers include QualChoice’s subsidiary, QualChoice Life & Health Insurance Co.

QualChoice was one of the companies that have had corporate ownership changes.

Changes

In May, Prominence Health, a wholly owned subsidiary of Catholic Health Initiatives of Englewood, Colorado, bought QualChoice Holdings for a price that wasn’t disclosed. In a news release that announced the transaction, CHI said it didn’t expect any immediate changes for QualChoice’s operations, and no changes would occur in provider network participation by any QualChoice provider investors.

In May 2013, Aetna Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut, completed the previously announced purchase of Coventry Health Care Inc. of Bethesda, Maryland. Health insurance plans in Arkansas are still being sold under the Coventry name, Walt Cherniak, an Aetna spokesman told Arkansas Business last week.

But the days are numbered for the Coventry brand.

“Probably sometime in the next two years, you’ll see the Coventry name go away,” Cherniak said.

In January, WellCare Health Plans Inc. of Tampa, Florida, completed its purchase of Windsor Health Group Inc. of Atlanta. The price for the transaction wasn’t disclosed.

“Windsor is an excellent fit with WellCare’s Medicare and broader government health care programs strategy,” Dave Gallitano, WellCare’s chairman of the board and CEO, said in a January news release. “More specifically, the acquisition brings three important Medicare-related growth opportunities to our company.”

Windsor Health Plan was No. 6 on the list with $138 million in premium in 2013, up 19.4 percent from the previous year. WellCare of Kentucky wrote $15.5 million in premium in 2013.

Changes also occurred in the executive offices. In March, Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield promoted David Bridges to executive vice president and chief administrative officer.

For 17 years, Bridges had been the president and CEO of HMO Partners Inc. of Little Rock, which does business as Health Advantage and is co-owned by ABCBS and Baptist Health of Little Rock. He was replaced in that role by John Glassford, who joined ABCBS as an internal business consultant in 2007.

Send this to a friend