Excellus posts net income of $150M in 2018, down 18 percent

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Central New York’s largest health insurer, reported net income of $150 million, on $5.7 billion in premium revenue, in 2018.

The figures were disclosed in an annual financial report that the Rochester–based health insurer filed with the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Excellus’ net income fell about 18 percent last year from the $182.3 million it reported in 2017.

Investment income, which is a part of net income, amounted to $96.4 million before taxes, “so not all income is produced by premium revenues,” Excellus noted. Health plan reserves totaled $1.1 billion at the end of 2018.

“We grew across all lines of business, adding nearly 40,000 new members during 2018,” Chris Booth, CEO of Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield, said.

This includes commercial business members, Medicare members, and those in safety net programs such as Medicaid. Excellus now has more than 1.5 million total members.

Administrative costs that are within Excellus’ control fell by $5 million in 2018 from the prior year, the health insurer said. However, total administrative costs increased because a $112 million federal health-care tax was imposed on the health plan last year that was not in place in 2017.

Even with the tax included, Excellus reported that its administrative expense per member per month was about 18 percent lower than the average of its four major upstate nonprofit health-insurance competitors, based upon comparable 2018 third-quarter spending reports.

Claims breakdown

Excellus in 2018 reported paying out $5 billion in benefits on behalf of its members. It also produced a “top 10” list of medical and prescription-drug payments by condition among its insured members last year, representing more than $1.8 billion in benefit expenses. They include the following:

$468 million – cancer

$259 million – diabetes

$241 million – joint disorders

$219 million – prevention care

$162 million – injuries, poisonings, adverse events

$132 million – back disorders

$102 million – heart attacks, angina, coronary artery disease

$100 million – pregnancy and childbirth

$95 million – substance abuse

$89 million – depression and bipolar disorder

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com