So far the only one who’s profits in the major insurance
business that keep rising are United as Blue Cross also experienced a drop in profits. United has so many subsidiaries in their daisy chain that they get a cut of money it seems in almost every area today. As a matter of fact it’s almost scary when you sit down and look at all the United subsidiaries as there are many and most have no clue and don’t even know they have a bank with a billion ore more on deposit. Back with Aetna with what’s the news of late, they seem to be having some IT issues with client relations as well. They did cut loose a number of doctors upcoming in Texas and yet in California sent out letters to patients stating doctors were no longer in network by error and had to fix that.
Aetna States Letters Mailed to Thousands of California Customers Were A Mistake–Their Doctors Are Still In Network–”Rogue Algorithms and Flawed Data”–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 25
If you read often enough then you kind of know I dig a little deeper with looking at what’s in the news as far as the “data” side of how insurers operate. Aetna has tried some different things to include selling their software at Best Buy and now in several states they are going to begin selling insurance at Costco. Below is the post from a short while back relating to the situation in Texas and mind you Aetna is not broke, just earnings are down.
Aetna Notifies 130 Texas Doctors That It Will Terminate Their Contracts on July 1 – E & M Codes Primary Levels 4 and 5 Billing Analytics For Peer Comparison Used To Substantiate the Decision – Video
Again today we have to be aware of all the massive amounts of data out there and frankly as a country we are trying to run our economy on algorithms and it’s kind of starting to bottom out a bit as we still need companies who “make” products and not just collect and sell consumers as products. Maybe we are finally reaching that tipping point to where we need to step back and stop commoditizing humans as the algorithms and parameters are getting harder to meet as corporate USA keeps drilling them down. BD
Aetna Inc.'s first-quarter profit fell 13 percent as expenses rose and the health insurer faced a tough comparison to year-ago earnings that included a one-time gain.
The Hartford, Conn., company's adjusted earnings missed Wall Street expectations, and its shares tumbled more than 7 percent in premarket trading.
The amount Aetna paid in medical claims, its largest expense, climbed more than 9 percent to $5.86 billion in the first quarter. An Aetna spokeswoman said the big jump was partially due to the relatively low total from last year's quarter.
http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=340001&type=lifehealth
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