Form 10-K
Table of Contents

 

 

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

 

FORM 10-K

 

þ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009

OR

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15 (d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from                      to                     

Commission file number 1-5975

 

 

HUMANA INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

Delaware   61-0647538
(State of incorporation)   (I.R.S. Employer Identification Number)

500 West Main Street

Louisville, Kentucky

  40202
(Address of principal executive offices)   (Zip Code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (502) 580-1000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class

 

Name of exchange on which registered

Common stock, $0.16 2/3 par value   New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

 

 

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  þ    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ¨    No  þ

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  þ    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  þ    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ¨

Indicate by checkmark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

Large accelerated filer  þ    Accelerated filer  ¨    Non-accelerated filer  ¨    Smaller reporting company  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  þ

The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the Registrant as of June 30, 2009 was $5,356,684,733 calculated using the average price on such date of $31.85.

The number of shares outstanding of the Registrant’s Common Stock as of January 31, 2010 was 170,225,097.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Parts II and III incorporate herein by reference portions of the Registrant’s Proxy Statement to be filed pursuant to Regulation 14A with respect to the Annual Meeting of Stockholders scheduled to be held April 20, 2010.

 

 

 


Table of Contents

HUMANA INC.

INDEX TO ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

For the Year Ended December 31, 2009

 

          Page
   Part I   

Item 1.

   Business    3

Item 1A.

   Risk Factors    16

Item 1B.

   Unresolved Staff Comments    29

Item 2.

   Properties    30

Item 3.

   Legal Proceedings    30

Item 4.

   Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders    30
   Part II   

Item 5.

   Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities    31

Item 6.

   Selected Financial Data    33

Item 7.

   Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations    34

Item 7A.

   Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk    66

Item 8.

   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data    68

Item 9.

   Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure    109

Item 9A.

   Controls and Procedures    109

Item 9B.

   Other Information    111
   Part III   

Item 10.

   Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance    111

Item 11.

   Executive Compensation    114

Item 12.

   Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters    114

Item 13.

   Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence    114

Item 14.

   Principal Accounting Fees and Services    114
   Part IV   

Item 15.

   Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules    115
   Signatures and Certifications    126


Table of Contents

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the statements under “Business,” “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” and elsewhere in this report may contain forward-looking statements which reflect our current views with respect to future events and financial performance. These forward-looking statements are made within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or the Exchange Act. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and we are including this statement for purposes of complying with these safe harbor provisions. We have based these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events, trends and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including the information discussed under the section entitled “Risk Factors” in this report. In making these statements, we are not undertaking to address or update them in future filings or communications regarding our business or results. Our business is highly complicated, regulated and competitive with many different factors affecting results.

PART I

 

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

General

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Humana Inc. and its subsidiaries, referred to throughout this document as “we,” “us,” “our,” the “Company” or “Humana,” is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health and supplemental benefits companies, based on our 2009 revenues of approximately $31.0 billion. We are a full-service benefits solutions company, offering a wide array of health and supplemental benefit products for employer groups, government benefit programs, and individuals. As of December 31, 2009, we had approximately 10.3 million members in our medical benefit plans, as well as approximately 7.2 million members in our specialty products. During 2009, 73% of our premiums and administrative services fees were derived from contracts with the federal government, including 17% related to our Medicare Advantage contracts in Florida with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, and 12% related to our military services contracts. Under our Medicare Advantage CMS contracts in Florida, we provide health insurance coverage to approximately 377,900 members as of December 31, 2009.

Humana Inc. was organized as a Delaware corporation in 1964. Our principal executive offices are located at 500 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202, the telephone number at that address is (502) 580-1000, and our website address is www.humana.com. We have made available free of charge through the Investor Relations section of our web site our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy statements, and, if applicable, amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains both historical and forward-looking information. See Item 1A.—Risk Factors for a description of a number of factors that may adversely affect our results or business.

Business Segments

We manage our business with two segments: Government and Commercial. The Government segment consists of beneficiaries of government benefit programs, and includes three lines of business: Medicare, Military, and Medicaid. The Commercial segment consists of members enrolled in our medical and specialty products marketed to employer groups and individuals. When identifying our segments, we aggregated products

 

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with similar economic characteristics. These characteristics include the nature of customer groups as well as pricing, benefits, and underwriting requirements. These segment groupings are consistent with information used by our Chief Executive Officer.

The results of each segment are measured by income before income taxes. We allocate all selling, general and administrative expenses, investment and other revenue, interest expense, and goodwill, but no other assets or liabilities, to our segments. Members served by our two segments often utilize the same provider networks, in some instances enabling us to obtain more favorable contract terms with providers. Our segments also share indirect overhead costs and assets. As a result, the profitability of each segment is interdependent.

Our Products

As more fully described in the products discussion that follows, we provide health insurance benefits under health maintenance organization, or HMO, Private Fee-For-Service, or PFFS, and preferred provider organization, or PPO, plans. In addition, we provide other benefits with our specialty products including dental, vision, and other supplementary benefits. The following table presents our segment membership at December 31, 2009, and premiums and administrative services only, or ASO, fees by product for the year ended December 31, 2009:

 

    Medical
Membership
  Specialty
Membership
  Premiums   ASO Fees   Total
Premiums and
ASO Fees
  Percent of
Total
Premiums
and ASO
Fees
 
    (dollars in thousands)  

Government:

           

Medicare Advantage:

           

HMO

  591,900   —     $ 7,633,764   $ —     $ 7,633,764   25.1

PFFS

  564,200   —       5,630,690     —       5,630,690   18.5

PPO

  352,400   —       3,148,847     —       3,148,847   10.4
                               

Total Medicare Advantage

  1,508,500   —       16,413,301     —       16,413,301   54.0
                               

Medicare stand-alone PDP

  1,927,900   —       2,327,418     —       2,327,418   7.6
                               

Total Medicare

  3,436,400   —       18,740,719     —       18,740,719   61.6
                               

Medicaid insured

  401,700   —       646,195     —       646,195   2.1
                               

Military services insured

  1,756,000   —       3,426,739     —       3,426,739   11.3

Military services ASO

  1,278,400   —       —       108,442     108,442   0.3
                               

Total military services

  3,034,400   —       3,426,739     108,442     3,535,181   11.6
                               

Total Government

  6,872,500   —       22,813,653     108,442     22,922,095   75.3
                               

Commercial:

           

Fully-insured:

           

PPO

  1,053,200   —       3,188,598     —       3,188,598   10.5

HMO

  786,300   —       2,996,560     —       2,996,560   9.9
                               

Total fully-insured

  1,839,500   —       6,185,158     —       6,185,158   20.4
                               

ASO

  1,571,300   —       —       373,376     373,376   1.2

Specialty

  —     7,200,100     927,940     14,317     942,257   3.1
                               

Total Commercial

  3,410,800   7,200,100     7,113,098     387,693     7,500,791   24.7
                               

Total

  10,283,300   7,200,100   $ 29,926,751   $ 496,135   $ 30,422,886   100.0
                               

 

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Our Products Marketed to Government Segment Members and Beneficiaries

Medicare

We have participated in the Medicare program for private health plans for over 20 years and have established a national presence, offering at least one type of Medicare plan in all 50 states. The resulting growing membership base provides us with greater ability to expand our network of PPO and HMO providers. We employ strategies including health assessments and clinical guidance programs such as lifestyle and fitness programs for seniors to guide Medicare beneficiaries in making cost-effective decisions with respect to their health care, including cost savings that occur from making positive behavior changes that result in living healthier.

Medicare is a federal program that provides persons age 65 and over and some disabled persons under the age of 65 certain hospital and medical insurance benefits. Hospitalization benefits are provided under Part A, without the payment of any premium, for up to 90 days per incident of illness plus a lifetime reserve aggregating 60 days. Eligible beneficiaries are required to pay an annually adjusted premium to the federal government to be eligible for physician care and other services under Part B. Beneficiaries eligible for Part A and Part B coverage under traditional Medicare are still required to pay out-of-pocket deductibles and coinsurance. Prescription drug benefits are provided under Part D. CMS, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, administers the Medicare program.

Medicare Advantage Products

We contract with CMS under the Medicare Advantage program to provide a comprehensive array of health insurance benefits, including wellness programs, to Medicare eligible persons under HMO, PPO, and PFFS plans in exchange for contractual payments received from CMS, usually a fixed payment per member per month. With each of these products, the beneficiary receives benefits in excess of original Medicare, typically including reduced cost sharing, enhanced prescription drug benefits, care coordination, data analysis techniques to help identify member needs, complex case management, tools to guide members in their health care decisions, disease management programs, wellness and prevention programs and, in some instances, a reduced monthly Part B premium. Since 2006, Medicare beneficiaries have had more health plan options, including a prescription drug benefit option. Most Medicare Advantage plans offer the prescription drug benefit under Part D as part of the basic plan, subject to cost sharing and other limitations. Accordingly, all of the provisions of the Medicare Part D program described in connection with our stand-alone prescription drug plans in the following section also are applicable to most of our Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare Advantage plans may charge beneficiaries monthly premiums and other copayments for Medicare-covered services or for certain extra benefits.

Our Medicare HMO and PPO plans, which cover Medicare-eligible individuals residing in certain counties, may eliminate or reduce coinsurance or the level of deductibles on many other medical services while seeking care from participating in-network providers or in emergency situations. Except in emergency situations, HMO plans provide no out-of-network benefits. PPO plans carry an out-of network benefit that is subject to higher member cost-sharing. In most cases, these beneficiaries are required to pay a monthly premium to the HMO or PPO plan in addition to the monthly Part B premium they are required to pay the Medicare program.

Our Medicare PFFS plans generally have no preferred network. Individuals in these plans pay us a monthly premium to receive typical Medicare Advantage benefits along with the freedom to choose any health care provider that accepts individuals at rates equivalent to traditional Medicare payment rates.

CMS uses monthly rates per person for each county to determine the fixed monthly payments per member to pay to health benefit plans. These rates are adjusted under CMS’s risk-adjustment model which uses health status indicators, or risk scores, to improve the adequacy of payment. The risk-adjustment model, which CMS implemented pursuant to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA) and the Benefits and Improvement Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA), generally pays more for members with predictably higher costs and uses principal hospital

 

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inpatient diagnoses as well as diagnosis data from ambulatory treatment settings (hospital outpatient department and physician visits). CMS transitioned to this risk-based payment model while the old payment model based on demographic data including gender, age, and disability status was phased out. The phase-in of risk adjusted payment was completed in 2007. Under the risk-adjustment methodology, all health benefit organizations must collect and submit the necessary diagnosis code information to CMS within prescribed deadlines.

Commensurate with the phase-in of the risk-adjustment methodology, payments to Medicare Advantage plans were increased by a “budget neutrality” factor. The budget neutrality factor was implemented to prevent overall health plan payments from being reduced during the transition from the previous payment model, based upon average original Medicare fee-for-service spending, to the risk-adjustment payment model. The budget neutrality adjustment began phasing out in 2007 and will be fully eliminated by 2011.

At December 31, 2009, we provided health insurance coverage under CMS contracts to approximately 1,508,500 Medicare Advantage members for which we received premium revenues of approximately $16.4 billion, or 54.0%, of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009. Under our Medicare Advantage contracts with CMS in Florida, we provided health insurance coverage to approximately 377,900 members. These contracts accounted for premium revenues of approximately $5.2 billion, which represented approximately 31.8% of our Medicare Advantage premium revenues, or 17.1% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Our HMO, PFFS, and PPO products covered under Medicare Advantage contracts with CMS are renewed generally for a one-year term each December 31 unless CMS notifies us of its decision not to renew by August 1 of the year in which the contract would end, or we notify CMS of our decision not to renew by the first Monday in June of the year in which the contract would end. All material contracts between Humana and CMS relating to our Medicare Advantage business have been renewed for 2010.

Medicare Stand-Alone Prescription Drug Products

We offer stand-alone prescription drug plans, or PDPs, under Medicare Part D. Generally, Medicare-eligible individuals enroll in one of our plan choices between November 15 and December 31 for coverage that begins January 1. Our stand-alone PDP offerings consist of plans offering basic coverage with benefits mandated by Congress, as well as plans providing enhanced coverage with varying degrees of out-of-pocket costs for premiums, deductibles and co-insurance. Our revenues from CMS and the beneficiary are determined from our bids submitted annually to CMS. These revenues also reflect the health status of the beneficiary and risk sharing provisions as more fully described beginning on page 60. Our stand-alone PDP contracts with CMS are renewed generally for a one-year term each December 31 unless CMS notifies us of its decision not to renew by August 1 of the year in which the contract would end, or we notify CMS of our decision not to renew by the first Monday in June of the year in which the contract would end. All material contracts between Humana and CMS relating to our Medicare stand-alone PDP business have been renewed for 2010.

Medicare stand-alone PDP premium revenues were approximately $2.3 billion, or 7.6% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Medicaid Product

Medicaid is a federal program that is state-operated to facilitate the delivery of health care services primarily to low-income residents. Each electing state develops, through a state-specific regulatory agency, a Medicaid managed care initiative that must be approved by CMS. CMS requires that Medicaid managed care plans meet federal standards and cost no more than the amount that would have been spent on a comparable fee-for-service basis. States currently either use a formal proposal process in which they review many bidders before selecting one or award individual contracts to qualified bidders who apply for entry to the program. In either case, the contractual relationship with a state generally is for a one-year period. Under these contracts, we

 

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receive a fixed monthly payment from a government agency for which we are required to provide health insurance coverage to enrolled members. Due to the increased emphasis on state health care reform and budgetary constraints, more states are utilizing a managed care product in their Medicaid programs.

Our Medicaid business, which accounted for premium revenues of approximately $646.2 million, or 2.1%, of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009, consists of contracts in Puerto Rico and Florida, with the vast majority in Puerto Rico.

Military Services

Under our TRICARE South Region contract with the United States Department of Defense, or DoD, we provide health insurance coverage to the dependents of active duty military personnel and to retired military personnel and their dependents. Currently, three health benefit options are available to TRICARE beneficiaries. In addition to a traditional indemnity option, participants may enroll in a HMO-like plan with a point-of-service option or take advantage of reduced copayments by using a network of preferred providers, similar to a PPO.

We have participated in the TRICARE program since 1996 under contracts with the Department of Defense. Our current TRICARE South Region contract, which we were awarded in 2003, covers approximately 3.0 million eligible beneficiaries as of December 31, 2009 in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The South Region is one of the three regions in the United States as defined by the Department of Defense. Of these eligible beneficiaries, 1.3 million were TRICARE ASO members representing active duty beneficiaries, seniors over the age of 65 and beneficiaries in Puerto Rico for which the Department of Defense retains all of the risk of financing the cost of their health benefit. We have subcontracted with third parties to provide selected administration and specialty services under the contract. The original 5-year South Region contract expired March 31, 2009. Through an Amendment of Solicitation/Modification of Contract to the TRICARE South Region contract, an additional one-year option period, the sixth option period, which runs from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, was exercised by the government. The Amendment also provides for two additional six-month option periods: the seventh option period runs from April 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010 and the eighth option period runs from October 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. Exercise of each of the seventh and eighth option periods is at the government’s option. On December 16, 2009, we were notified by Department of Defense TRICARE Management Activity, or TMA, that it intends to exercise its options to extend the TRICARE South Region contract for Option Period VII and Option Period VIII. The exercise of these option periods would effectively extend the TRICARE South Region contract through March 31, 2011. The contract’s transition provisions require the continuation of certain activities, primarily claims processing, during a wind-down period lasting approximately six months following the expiration date. Claims incurred on or prior to the expiration date would continue to be processed during the wind-down period under the terms existing prior to the expiration date.

The TRICARE South Region contract contains provisions that require us to negotiate a target health care cost amount annually with the federal government. Any variance from the target health care cost is shared with the federal government. Accordingly, events and circumstances not contemplated in the negotiated target health care cost amount may have a material adverse effect on us. These changes may include an increase or reduction in the number of persons enrolled or eligible to enroll due to the federal government’s decision to increase or decrease U.S. military deployments.

In July 2009, we were notified by the Department of Defense that we were not awarded the third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region which had been subject to competing bids. We filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, in connection with the award to another contractor citing discrepancies between the award criteria and procedures prescribed in the request for proposals issued by the DoD and those that appear to have been used by the DoD in making its contractor selection. In October 2009, we learned that the GAO had upheld our protest, determining that the TMA evaluation of our proposal had unreasonably failed to fully recognize and reasonably account for the likely cost savings associated with our

 

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record of obtaining network provider discounts from our established network in the South Region. On December 22, 2009, we were advised that TMA notified the GAO of its intent to implement corrective action consistent with the discussion contained within the GAO’s decision with respect to our protest. At this time, we are not able to determine what actions TMA will take in response to recommendations by the GAO, nor can we determine whether or not the protest decision by the GAO will have any effect upon the ultimate disposition of the contract award.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, military services premium revenues were approximately $3.4 billion, or 11.3% of our total premiums and ASO fees, and military services ASO fees totaled $108.4 million, or 0.3% of our total premiums and ASO fees. The TRICARE South Region contract represents approximately 97% of total military services premiums and ASO fees.

International Operations

In August 2006, we established our subsidiary Humana Europe in the United Kingdom to provide commissioning support to Primary Care Trusts, or PCTs, in England. Under the contracts we are awarded, we work in partnership with local PCTs, health care providers, and patients to strengthen health-service delivery and to implement strategies at a local level to help the National Health Service enhance patient experience, improve clinical outcomes, and reduce costs. For the year ended December 31, 2009, revenues under these contracts were approximately $9.0 million, or less than 0.1% of our total premium and ASO fees.

Our Products Marketed to Commercial Segment Employers and Members

We offer medical and specialty benefits to employer groups and individuals in the commercial market. Our commercial medical products offered as HMO, PPO or ASO, more fully described in the following sections, include offerings designed to provide additional options to the consumer. For example, our “Smart” products give more cost control and predictability to employers and more choice and control over healthcare decision-making to employees. Online tools and resources deliver information, convenience, and easy access for members enrolled in our Smart products. Our other consumer offerings include products with a high deductible offering in conjunction with a spending account.

HMO

Our commercial HMO products provide prepaid health insurance coverage to our members through a network of independent primary care physicians, specialty physicians, and other health care providers who contract with the HMO to furnish such services. Primary care physicians generally include internists, family practitioners, and pediatricians. Generally, the member’s primary care physician must approve access to certain specialty physicians and other health care providers. These other health care providers include hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, pharmacies, mental health and substance abuse centers, diagnostic centers, optometrists, outpatient surgery centers, dentists, urgent care centers, and durable medical equipment suppliers. Because the primary care physician generally must approve access to many of these other health care providers, the HMO product is considered the most restrictive form of a health benefit plan.

An HMO member, typically through the member’s employer, pays a monthly fee, which generally covers, together with some copayments, health care services received from, or approved by, the member’s primary care physician. We participate in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, or FEHBP, primarily with our HMO offering in certain markets. FEHBP is the government’s health insurance program for Federal employees, retirees, former employees, family members, and spouses. For the year ended December 31, 2009, commercial HMO premium revenues totaled approximately $3.0 billion, or 9.9% of our total premiums and ASO fees.

PPO

Our commercial PPO products, which are marketed primarily to employer groups and individuals, include some types of wellness and utilization management programs. However, they typically include more cost-sharing

 

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with the member through copayments and annual deductibles. PPOs also are similar to traditional health insurance because they provide a member with more freedom to choose a physician or other health care provider. In a PPO, the member is encouraged, through financial incentives, to use participating health care providers, which have contracted with the PPO to provide services at favorable rates. In the event a member chooses not to use a participating health care provider, the member may be required to pay a greater portion of the provider’s fees.

As part of our PPO products, we offer HumanaOne, a major medical product marketed directly to individuals. We offer this product in select markets where we can generally underwrite risk and utilize our existing networks and distribution channels. This individual product includes provisions mandated by law to guarantee renewal of coverage for as long as the individual chooses.

For the year ended December 31, 2009, employer and individual commercial PPO premium revenues totaled approximately $3.2 billion, or 10.5% of our total premiums and ASO fees.

ASO

We also offer ASO products to employers who self-insure their employee health plans. We receive fees to provide administrative services which generally include the processing of claims, offering access to our provider networks and clinical programs, and responding to customer service inquiries from members of self-funded employers. These products may include all of the same benefit and product design characteristics of our fully-insured PPO or HMO products described previously. Under ASO contracts, self-funded employers retain the risk of financing substantially all of the cost of health benefits. However, most ASO customers purchase stop loss insurance coverage from us to cover catastrophic claims or to limit aggregate annual costs. For the year ended December 31, 2009, commercial ASO fees totaled $373.4 million, or 1.2% of our total premiums and ASO fees.

Specialty

We also offer various specialty products, including dental, vision, and other supplemental products as well as disease management services under Corphealth, Inc. (d/b/a LifeSynch) and mail-order pharmacy benefit administration services for our members under Humana Pharmacy, Inc. (d/b/a RightSourceRxSM). During 2007, we made investments which significantly expanded our specialty product offerings with the acquisitions of CompBenefits Corporation and KMG America Corporation. These acquisitions significantly increased our dental membership and added new product offerings, including vision and other supplemental health and life products. The supplemental health plans cover, for example, some of the costs associated with cancer and critical illness. Other supplemental health products also include a closed block of approximately 36,000 long-term care policies acquired in connection with the KMG acquisition. No new policies have been written since 2005 under this closed block. At December 31, 2009, we had approximately 7.2 million specialty members, including 3.8 million dental members and 2.5 million vision members. For the year ended December 31, 2009, specialty product premiums and ASO fees were approximately $942.3 million, or 3.1% of our total premiums and ASO fees.

 

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Membership

The following table summarizes our total medical membership at December 31, 2009, by market and product:

 

    Government   Commercial          
    Medicare
Advantage
  Medicare
stand-alone
PDP
  Medicaid   Military
services
  PPO   HMO   ASO   Total   Percent of
Total
 
    (in thousands)  

Florida

  377.9   82.0   51.8   —     104.4   160.0   81.3   857.4   8.3

Kentucky

  59.3   41.1   —     —     116.3   41.7   525.8   784.2   7.6

Texas

  96.2   172.5   —     —     165.6   152.0   125.9   712.2   6.9

Puerto Rico

  14.8   0.3   349.9   —     39.0   15.6   36.1   455.7   4.4

Illinois

  72.1   54.0   —     —     137.1   70.0   94.8   428.0   4.2

Ohio

  51.2   64.0   —     —     12.7   89.0   170.4   387.3   3.8

Wisconsin

  50.5   40.4   —     —     63.6   52.9   170.8   378.2   3.7

Louisiana

  79.6   28.3   —     —     39.6   30.4   133.8   311.7   3.0

Tennessee

  68.7   54.3   —     —     62.8   18.7   65.5   270.0   2.6

Missouri/Kansas

  63.3   105.6   —     —     63.1   13.1   7.0   252.1   2.5

Georgia

  41.9   51.6   —     —     8.3   91.2   36.2   229.2   2.2

Indiana

  31.8   61.0   —     —     32.0   2.9   50.5   178.2   1.7

Michigan

  34.8   62.5   —     —     40.0   —     5.9   143.2   1.4

North Carolina

  63.5   69.6   —     —     8.0   —     —     141.1   1.4

Arizona

  31.4   25.6   —     —     30.5   25.1   12.2   124.8   1.2

Virginia

  51.5   63.5   —     —     3.3   —     —     118.3   1.2

Colorado

  19.5   22.6   —     —     40.2   23.7   —     106.0   1.0

California

  7.3   95.8   —     —     1.2   —     —     104.3   1.0

Military services

  —     —     —     1,756.0   —     —     —     1,756.0   17.1

Military services ASO

  —     —     —     1,278.4   —     —     —     1,278.4   12.5

Others

  293.2   833.2   —     —     85.5   —     55.1   1,267.0   12.3
                                     

Totals

  1,508.5   1,927.9   401.7   3,034.4   1,053.2   786.3   1,571.3   10,283.3   100.0
                                     

Provider Arrangements

We provide our members with access to health care services through our networks of health care providers with whom we have contracted, including hospitals and other independent facilities such as outpatient surgery centers, primary care physicians, specialist physicians, dentists and providers of ancillary health care services and facilities. These ancillary services and facilities include ambulance services, medical equipment services, home health agencies, mental health providers, rehabilitation facilities, nursing homes, optical services, and pharmacies. Our membership base and the ability to influence where our members seek care generally enable us to obtain contractual discounts with providers.

We use a variety of techniques to provide access to effective and efficient use of health care services for our members. These techniques include the coordination of care for our members, product and benefit designs, hospital inpatient management systems and enrolling members into various disease management programs. The focal point for health care services in many of our HMO networks is the primary care physician who, under contract with us, provides services to our members, and may control utilization of appropriate services by directing or approving hospitalization and referrals to specialists and other providers. Some physicians may have arrangements under which they can earn bonuses when certain target goals relating to the provision of quality patient care are met. Our hospitalist programs use specially-trained physicians to effectively manage the entire range of an HMO member’s medical care during a hospital admission and to effectively coordinate the member’s discharge and post-discharge care. We have available a variety of disease management programs related to specific medical conditions such as congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, prenatal and premature infant care, asthma related illness, end stage renal disease, diabetes, cancer, and certain other conditions.

 

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We typically contract with hospitals on either (1) a per diem rate, which is an all-inclusive rate per day, (2) a case rate or diagnosis-related groups (DRG), which is an all-inclusive rate per admission, or (3) a discounted charge for inpatient hospital services. Outpatient hospital services generally are contracted at a flat rate by type of service, ambulatory payment classifications, or APCs, or at a discounted charge. APCs are similar to flat rates except multiple services and procedures may be aggregated into one fixed payment. These contracts are often multi-year agreements, with rates that are adjusted for inflation annually based on the consumer price index or other nationally recognized inflation indexes. Outpatient surgery centers and other ancillary providers typically are contracted at flat rates per service provided or are reimbursed based upon a nationally recognized fee schedule such as the Medicare allowable fee schedule.

Our contracts with physicians typically are renewed automatically each year, unless either party gives written notice, generally ranging from 90 to 120 days, to the other party of its intent to terminate the arrangement. Most of the physicians in our PPO networks and some of our physicians in our HMO networks are reimbursed based upon a fixed fee schedule, which typically provides for reimbursement based upon a percentage of the standard Medicare allowable fee schedule.

Capitation

For approximately 2.4% of our medical membership at December 31, 2009, we contract with hospitals and physicians to accept financial risk for a defined set of HMO membership. In transferring this risk, we prepay these providers a monthly fixed-fee per member, known as a capitation (per capita) payment, to coordinate substantially all of the medical care for their capitated HMO membership, including some health benefit administrative functions and claims processing. For these capitated HMO arrangements, we generally agree to reimbursement rates that target a benefit ratio. The benefit ratio measures underwriting profitability and is computed by taking total benefit expenses as a percentage of premium revenues. Providers participating in hospital-based capitated HMO arrangements generally receive a monthly payment for all of the services within their system for their HMO membership. Providers participating in physician-based capitated HMO arrangements generally have subcontracted directly with hospitals and specialist physicians, and are responsible for reimbursing such hospitals and physicians for services rendered to their HMO membership.

For approximately 5.7% of our medical membership at December 31, 2009, we contract with physicians under risk-sharing arrangements whereby physicians have assumed some level of risk for all or a portion of the medical costs of their HMO membership. Although these arrangements do include physician capitation payments for services rendered, we share hospital and other benefit expenses and process substantially all of the claims under these arrangements.

Physicians under capitation arrangements typically have stop loss coverage so that a physician’s financial risk for any single member is limited to a maximum amount on an annual basis. We monitor the financial performance and solvency of our capitated providers. However, we remain financially responsible for health care services to our members in the event our providers fail to provide such services.

 

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Medical membership under these various arrangements was as follows at December 31, 2009 and 2008:

 

    Government Segment     Commercial Segment        
    Medicare
Advantage
    Medicare
stand-alone
PDP
    Military
services
    Military
Services
ASO
    Medicaid     Total
Segment
    Fully-
Insured
    ASO     Total
Segment
    Total
Medical
 

Medical Membership:

  

               

December 31, 2009

  

                 

Capitated HMO hospital system based

  31,000      —        —        —        —        31,000      22,200      —        22,200      53,200   

Capitated HMO physician group based

  50,200      —        —        —        117,600      167,800      26,300      —        26,300      194,100   

Risk-sharing

  285,100      —        —        —        279,200      564,300      22,400      —        22,400      586,700   

Other

  1,142,200      1,927,900      1,756,000      1,278,400      4,900      6,109,400      1,768,600      1,571,300      3,339,900      9,449,300   
                                                           

Total

  1,508,500      1,927,900      1,756,000      1,278,400      401,700      6,872,500      1,839,500      1,571,300      3,410,800      10,283,300   
                                                           

December 31, 2008

  

                 

Capitated HMO hospital system based

  25,600      —        —        —        —        25,600      24,000      —        24,000      49,600   

Capitated HMO physician group based

  48,400      —        —        —        146,500      194,900      27,500      —        27,500      222,400   

Risk-sharing

  274,100      —        —        —        235,600      509,700      25,000      —        25,000      534,700   

Other

  1,087,800      3,066,600      1,736,400      1,228,300      89,000      7,208,100      1,902,300      1,642,000      3,544,300      10,752,400   
                                                           

Total

  1,435,900      3,066,600      1,736,400      1,228,300      471,100      7,938,300      1,978,800      1,642,000      3,620,800      11,559,100   
                                                           

Medical Membership Distribution:

  

December 31, 2009

  

                 

Capitated HMO hospital system based

  2.1   —        —        —        —        0.5   1.2   —        0.6   0.5

Capitated HMO physician group based

  3.3   —        —        —        29.3   2.4   1.5   —        0.8   1.9

Risk-sharing

  18.9   —        —        —        69.5   8.2   1.2   —        0.7   5.7

All other membership

  75.7   100.0   100.0   100.0   1.2   88.9   96.1   100.0   97.9   91.9
                                                           

Total

  100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0
                                                           

December 31, 2008

  

                 

Capitated HMO hospital system based

  1.8   —        —        —        —        0.3   1.2   —        0.7   0.4

Capitated HMO physician group based

  3.4   —        —        —        31.1   2.5   1.4   —        0.8   1.9

Risk-sharing

  19.1   —        —        —        50.0   6.4   1.3   —        0.7   4.7

All other membership

  75.7   100.0   100.0   100.0   18.9   90.8   96.1   100.0   97.8   93.0
                                                           

Total

  100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0   100.0
                                                           

Capitation expense as a percentage of total benefit expense was as follows for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008, and 2007:

 

     2009     2008     2007  
     (dollars in thousands)  

Benefit Expenses:

               

Capitated HMO expense

   $ 560,914    2.3   $ 510,606    2.2   $ 366,075    1.8

Other benefit expense

     24,214,088    97.7     23,197,627    97.8     19,904,456    98.2
                                       

Consolidated benefit expense

   $ 24,775,002    100.0   $ 23,708,233    100.0   $ 20,270,531    100.0
                                       

 

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Accreditation Assessment

Our accreditation assessment program consists of several internal programs, including those that credential providers and those designed to meet the audit standards of federal and state agencies, as well as external accreditation standards. We also offer quality and outcome measurement and improvement programs such as the Health Care Effectiveness Data and Information Sets, or HEDIS, which is used by employers, government purchasers and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, or NCQA, to evaluate health plans based on various criteria, including effectiveness of care and member satisfaction.

Physicians participating in our networks must satisfy specific criteria, including licensing, patient access, office standards, after-hours coverage, and other factors. Most participating hospitals also meet accreditation criteria established by CMS and/or the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Recredentialing of participating providers occurs every two to three years, depending on applicable state laws. Recredentialing of participating physicians includes verification of their medical licenses; review of their malpractice liability claims histories; review of their board certifications, if applicable; and review of applicable quality information. Committees, composed of a peer group of physicians, review the applications of physicians being considered for credentialing and recredentialing.

We request accreditation for certain of our health plans from NCQA, the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, and the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission, or URAC. URAC performs reviews for utilization management standards and for health plan and health network standards in quality management, credentialing, rights and responsibilities, and network management. Accreditation or external review by an approved organization is mandatory in the states of Florida and Kansas for licensure as an HMO. Certain commercial businesses, like those impacted by a third-party labor agreement or those where a request is made by the employer, may require or prefer accredited health plans.

NCQA performs reviews of our compliance with standards for quality improvement, credentialing, utilization management, member connections, and member rights and responsibilities. We have achieved and maintained NCQA accreditation in all of our commercial HMO/POS markets except Puerto Rico, in all of our Medicare HMO markets with the exception of Illinois which will be surveyed in 2010, and for nearly all our PPO markets.

Sales and Marketing

We use various methods to market our Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial products, including television, radio, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct mailings.

At December 31, 2009, we employed approximately 1,700 sales representatives, as well as approximately 900 telemarketing representatives who assisted in the marketing of Medicare products by making appointments for sales representatives with prospective members. We also market our Medicare products via a strategic alliance with Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., or Wal-Mart. This alliance includes stationing Humana representatives in certain Wal-Mart stores, SAM’S CLUB locations, and Neighborhood Markets across the country providing an opportunity to enroll Medicare eligible individuals in person. In addition, we market our Medicare products through licensed independent brokers and agents including strategic alliances with State Farm® and United Services Automobile Association, or USAA. Commissions paid to employed sales representatives and independent brokers and agents are based on a per unit commission structure approved by CMS.

Individuals become members of our commercial HMOs and PPOs through their employers or other groups which typically offer employees or members a selection of health insurance products, pay for all or part of the premiums, and make payroll deductions for any premiums payable by the employees. We attempt to become an employer’s or group’s exclusive source of health insurance benefits by offering a variety of HMO, PPO, and

 

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specialty products that provide cost-effective quality health care coverage consistent with the needs and expectations of their employees or members. We also offer commercial health insurance and specialty products directly to individuals.

At December 31, 2009, we used licensed independent brokers and agents and approximately 1,200 licensed employees to sell our commercial products. Many of our employer group customers are represented by insurance brokers and consultants who assist these groups in the design and purchase of health care products. We generally pay brokers a commission based on premiums, with commissions varying by market and premium volume. In addition to a commission based directly on premium volume for sales to particular customers, we also have programs that pay brokers and agents based on other metrics including certain other incentives for our commercial brokers. These include commission bonuses based on sales that attain certain levels or involve particular products. We also pay additional commissions based on aggregate volumes of sales involving multiple customers.

Underwriting

Through the use of internally developed underwriting criteria, we determine the risk we are willing to assume and the amount of premium to charge for our commercial products. In most instances, employer and other groups must meet our underwriting standards in order to qualify to contract with us for coverage. Small group laws in some states have imposed regulations which provide for guaranteed issue of certain health insurance products and prescribe certain limitations on the variation in rates charged based upon assessment of health conditions.

Underwriting techniques are not employed in connection with our Medicare, military services, or Medicaid products because government regulations require us to accept all eligible applicants regardless of their health or prior medical history.

Competition

The health benefits industry is highly competitive. Our competitors vary by local market and include other managed care companies, national insurance companies, and other HMOs and PPOs, including HMOs and PPOs owned by Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans. Many of our competitors have larger memberships and/or greater financial resources than our health plans in the markets in which we compete. Our ability to sell our products and to retain customers may be influenced by such factors as those described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in this report.

Government Regulation

Diverse legislative and regulatory initiatives at both the federal and state levels continue to affect aspects of the nation’s health care system.

Our management works proactively to ensure compliance with all governmental laws and regulations affecting our business. We are unable to predict how existing federal or state laws and regulations may be changed or interpreted, what additional laws or regulations affecting our businesses may be enacted or proposed, when and which of the proposed laws will be adopted or what effect any such new laws and regulations will have on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows.

For a description of all of the material current activities in the federal and state legislative areas, see the section entitled “Risk Factors” in this report.

 

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Other

Captive Insurance Company

We bear general business risks associated with operating our Company such as professional and general liability, employee workers’ compensation, and officer and director errors and omissions risks. Professional and general liability risks may include, for example, medical malpractice claims and disputes with members regarding benefit coverage. We retain certain of these risks through our wholly-owned, captive insurance subsidiary. We reduce exposure to these risks by insuring levels of coverage for losses in excess of our retained limits with a number of third-party insurance companies. We remain liable in the event these insurance companies are unable to pay their portion of the losses.

Centralized Management Services

We provide centralized management services to each of our health plans and both of our business segments from our headquarters and service centers. These services include management information systems, product development and administration, finance, human resources, accounting, law, public relations, marketing, insurance, purchasing, risk management, internal audit, actuarial, underwriting, claims processing, and customer service.

Employees

As of December 31, 2009, we had approximately 28,100 employees, including 31 employees covered by collective bargaining agreements. We believe we have good relations with our employees and have not experienced any work stoppages.

 

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

If we do not design and price our products properly and competitively, if the premiums we charge are insufficient to cover the cost of health care services delivered to our members, or if our estimates of benefit expenses are inadequate, our profitability may be materially adversely affected. We estimate the costs of our benefit expense payments, and design and price our products accordingly, using actuarial methods and assumptions based upon, among other relevant factors, claim payment patterns, medical cost inflation, and historical developments such as claim inventory levels and claim receipt patterns. These estimates, however involve extensive judgment, and have considerable inherent variability because they are extremely sensitive to changes in payment patterns and medical cost trends.

We use a substantial portion of our revenues to pay the costs of health care services delivered to our members. These costs include claims payments, capitation payments to providers (predetermined amounts paid to cover services), and various other costs incurred to provide health insurance coverage to our members. These costs also include estimates of future payments to hospitals and others for medical care provided to our members. Generally, premiums in the health care business are fixed for one-year periods. Accordingly, costs we incur in excess of our benefit cost projections generally are not recovered in the contract year through higher premiums. We estimate the costs of our future benefit claims and other expenses using actuarial methods and assumptions based upon claim payment patterns, medical inflation, historical developments, including claim inventory levels and claim receipt patterns, and other relevant factors. We also record benefits payable for future payments. We continually review estimates of future payments relating to benefit claims costs for services incurred in the current and prior periods and make necessary adjustments to our reserves. However, these estimates involve extensive judgment, and have considerable inherent variability that is sensitive to payment patterns and medical cost trends. Many factors may and often do cause actual health care costs to exceed what was estimated and used to set our premiums. These factors may include:

 

   

increased use of medical facilities and services, including prescription drugs;

 

   

increased cost of such services;

 

   

our membership mix;

 

   

variances in actual versus estimated levels of cost associated with new products, benefits or lines of business, product changes or benefit level changes;

 

   

changes in the demographic characteristics of an account or market;

 

   

changes or reductions of our utilization management functions such as preauthorization of services, concurrent review or requirements for physician referrals;

 

   

possible changes in our pharmacy volume rebates received from drug manufacturers;

 

   

catastrophes, including acts of terrorism, public health epidemics, or severe weather (e.g. hurricanes and earthquakes);

 

   

the introduction of new or costly treatments, including new technologies;

 

   

medical cost inflation; and

 

   

government mandated benefits or other regulatory changes, including any that result from CMS Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D risk adjustment regulatory changes.

In addition, we also estimate costs associated with long-duration insurance policies including life insurance, annuities, health, and long-term care policies sold to individuals for which some of the premium received in the earlier years is intended to pay anticipated benefits to be incurred in future years. These future policy benefit reserves are recognized on a net level premium method based on interest rates, mortality, morbidity, withdrawal and maintenance expense assumptions from published actuarial tables, as modified based upon actual experience. The basis for the liability for future policy benefits is established at the time each contract is acquired and would

 

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only change if our experience deteriorates to the point the level of the liability is not adequate to provide for future policy benefits. Future policy benefits payable include $571.9 million at December 31, 2009 associated with a closed block of long-term care policies acquired in connection with the November 30, 2007 KMG acquisition. Long-term care policies provide for long-duration coverage and, therefore, our actual claims experience will emerge many years after assumptions have been established. The risk of a deviation of the actual morbidity and mortality rates from those assumed in our reserves are particularly significant to our closed block of long-term care policies. We monitor the loss experience of these long-term care policies, and, when necessary, apply for premium rate increases through a regulatory filing and approval process in the jurisdictions in which such products were sold. We filed and received approval for certain state premium rate increases in 2009 and continue to expect to file for premium rate increases for additional states in 2010. However, to the extent premium rate increases or loss experience vary from our acquisition date assumptions, future adjustments to reserves could be required.

Failure to adequately price our products or estimate sufficient benefits payable or future policy benefits payable may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

We are in a highly competitive industry. Some of our competitors are more established in the health care industry in terms of a larger market share and have greater financial resources than we do in some markets. In addition, other companies may enter our markets in the future, including emerging competitors in the Medicare program as well as in Smart products and other consumer health plans, such as high deductible health plans with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). We believe that barriers to entry in our markets are not substantial, so the addition of new competitors can occur relatively easily, and customers enjoy significant flexibility in moving between competitors. Contracts for the sale of commercial products are generally bid upon or renewed annually. While health plans compete on the basis of many factors, including service and the quality and depth of provider networks, we expect that price will continue to be a significant basis of competition. In addition to the challenge of controlling health care costs, we face intense competitive pressure to contain premium prices. Factors such as business consolidations, strategic alliances, legislative reform and marketing practices create pressure to contain premium price increases, despite being faced with increasing medical costs.

Premium increases, introduction of new product designs, and our relationships with our providers in various markets, among other issues, could also affect our membership levels. Other actions that could affect membership levels include our possible exit from or entrance into Medicare or Commercial markets, or the termination of a large contract, including the possible termination of our TRICARE contract.

If we do not compete effectively in our markets, if we set rates too high or too low in highly competitive markets to keep or increase our market share, if membership does not increase as we expect, if membership declines, or if we lose accounts with favorable medical cost experience while retaining or increasing membership in accounts with unfavorable medical cost experience, our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows may be materially adversely affected.

If we fail to effectively implement our operational and strategic initiatives, including our Medicare initiatives, our business may be materially adversely affected, which is of particular importance given the concentration of our revenues in the Medicare business.

Our future performance depends in large part upon our management team’s ability to execute our strategy to position us for the future. This strategy includes opportunities created by the expansion of our Medicare programs, including our HMO and PPO, as well as our stand-alone PDP products. We have made substantial investments in the Medicare program to enhance our ability to participate in these programs. The expansion of our provider networks and our success in attracting members to our network-based products positions us well for changes in the Medicare program that will effectively eliminate the non-network PFFS plan option in 2011, although there can be no assurances that our PFFS members will choose to move to our network-based products. We are continuing to implement various operational and strategic initiatives, including further developing our

 

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networks and building network-based plan offerings to address the adequate network requirement. We anticipate these initiatives, together with certain counties’ exemption from the network requirement, to result in more than 95% of our PFFS members having the choice of remaining in a Humana plan in 2011. Over the last few years we have increased the size of our Medicare geographic reach through expanded Medicare product offerings. We are offering both the stand-alone Medicare prescription drug coverage and Medicare Advantage health plan with prescription drug coverage in addition to our other product offerings. We offer the Medicare prescription drug plan in 50 states as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.

The growth of our Medicare business is an important part of our business strategy. Any failure to achieve this growth may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. In addition, the expansion of our Medicare business in relation to our other businesses may intensify the risks to us inherent in the Medicare business. There is significant concentration of our revenues in the Medicare business, with approximately 62% of our total premiums and ASO fees in 2009 generated from our Medicare business. These expansion efforts may result in less diversification of our revenue stream and increased risks associated with operating in a highly regulated industry, as discussed further below.

Additionally, our strategy includes the growth of our Commercial segment business, with emphasis on our ASO and individual products, introduction of new products and benefit designs, including our Smart products and other consumer offerings such as HSAs, and our specialty products such as dental, vision and other supplemental products, as well as the adoption of new technologies and the integration of acquired businesses and contracts.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully implement our operational and strategic initiatives, including outsourcing certain business functions, that are intended to position us for future growth or that the products we design will be accepted or adopted in the time periods assumed. Failure to implement this strategy may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

If we fail to properly maintain the integrity of our data, to strategically implement new information systems, or to protect our proprietary rights to our systems, our business may be materially adversely affected.

Our business depends significantly on effective information systems and the integrity and timeliness of the data we use to run our business. Our business strategy involves providing members and providers with easy to use products that leverage our information to meet their needs. Our ability to adequately price our products and services, provide effective and efficient service to our customers, and to timely and accurately report our financial results depends significantly on the integrity of the data in our information systems. As a result of our past and on-going acquisition activities, we have acquired additional information systems. We have been taking steps to reduce the number of systems we operate, have upgraded and expanded our information systems capabilities, and are gradually migrating existing business to fewer systems. Our information systems require an ongoing commitment of significant resources to maintain, protect and enhance existing systems and develop new systems to keep pace with continuing changes in information processing technology, evolving industry and regulatory standards, and changing customer preferences. If the information we rely upon to run our businesses was found to be inaccurate or unreliable or if we fail to maintain effectively our information systems and data integrity, we could have operational disruptions, have problems in determining medical cost estimates and establishing appropriate pricing, have customer and physician and other health care provider disputes, have regulatory or other legal problems, have increases in operating expenses, lose existing customers, have difficulty in attracting new customers, or suffer other adverse consequences.

We depend on independent third parties for significant portions of our systems-related support, equipment, facilities, and certain data, including data center operations, data network, voice communication services and pharmacy data processing. This dependence makes our operations vulnerable to such third parties’ failure to perform adequately under the contract, due to internal or external factors. A change in service providers could result in a decline in service quality and effectiveness or less favorable contract terms which may adversely affect our operating results.

 

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We rely on our agreements with customers, confidentiality agreements with employees, and our trade secrets and copyrights to protect our proprietary rights. These legal protections and precautions may not prevent misappropriation of our proprietary information. In addition, substantial litigation regarding intellectual property rights exists in the software industry, including litigation involving end users of software products. We expect software products to be increasingly subject to third-party infringement claims as the number of products and competitors in this area grows.

Our business plans also include becoming a quality e-business organization by enhancing interactions with customers, brokers, agents, providers and other stakeholders through web-enabled technology. Our strategy includes sales and distribution of health benefit products through the Internet, and implementation of advanced self-service capabilities, for internal and external stakeholders.

There can be no assurance that our process of improving existing systems, developing new systems to support our expanding operations, integrating new systems, protecting our proprietary information, and improving service levels will not be delayed or that additional systems issues will not arise in the future. Failure to adequately protect and maintain the integrity of our information systems and data may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

We are involved in various legal actions, which, if resolved unfavorably to us, could result in substantial monetary damages. Increased litigation and negative publicity could increase our cost of doing business.

We are a party to a variety of legal actions that affect our business, including employment and employment discrimination-related suits, employee benefit claims, breach of contract actions, securities laws claims, and tort claims.

In addition, because of the nature of the health care business, we are subject to a variety of legal actions relating to our business operations, including the design, management and offering of products and services. These include and could include in the future:

 

   

claims relating to the methodologies for calculating premiums;

 

   

claims relating to the denial of health care benefit payments;

 

   

claims relating to the denial or rescission of insurance coverage;

 

   

challenges to the use of some software products used in administering claims;

 

   

claims relating to our administration of our Medicare Part D offerings;

 

   

medical malpractice actions based on our medical necessity decisions or brought against us on the theory that we are liable for providers’ alleged malpractice;

 

   

allegations of anti-competitive and unfair business activities;

 

   

provider disputes over compensation and termination of provider contracts;

 

   

disputes related to ASO business, including actions alleging claim administration errors;

 

   

claims related to the failure to disclose some business practices;

 

   

claims relating to customer audits and contract performance; and

 

   

claims relating to dispensing of drugs associated with our in-house mail-order pharmacy.

In some cases, substantial non-economic or punitive damages as well as treble damages under the federal False Claims Act, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and other statutes may be sought.

While we currently have insurance coverage for some of these potential liabilities, other potential liabilities may not be covered by insurance, insurers may dispute coverage or the amount of our insurance may not be

 

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enough to cover the damages awarded. Additionally, the cost of business insurance coverage has increased significantly. As a result, we have increased the amount of risk that we self-insure, particularly with respect to matters incidental to our business. In addition, some types of damages, like punitive damages, may not be covered by insurance. In some jurisdictions, coverage of punitive damages is prohibited. Insurance coverage for all or some forms of liability may become unavailable or prohibitively expensive in the future.

The health benefits industry continues to receive significant negative publicity reflecting the public perception of the industry. This publicity and perception have been accompanied by increased litigation, including some large jury awards, legislative activity, regulation, and governmental review of industry practices. These factors may adversely affect our ability to market our products or services, may require us to change our products or services, may increase the regulatory burdens under which we operate, and may require us to pay large judgments or fines. Any combination of these factors could further increase our cost of doing business and adversely affect our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

See “Legal Proceedings” in Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8. – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. We cannot predict the outcome of these suits with certainty.

Our business activities are subject to substantial government regulation. New laws or regulations, or changes in existing laws or regulations or their manner of application, could increase our cost of doing business and may adversely affect our business, profitability and financial condition. In addition, as a government contractor, we are exposed to additional risks that may adversely affect our business or our willingness to participate in government health care programs.

A significant portion of our revenues relates to federal and state government health care coverage programs, including the Medicare, Military, and Medicaid programs. Our Government segment accounted for approximately 75% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009. These programs involve various risks, as described further below.

 

   

At December 31, 2009, under our contracts with CMS we provided health insurance coverage to approximately 377,900 Medicare Advantage members in Florida. These contracts accounted for approximately 17% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009. The loss of these and other CMS contracts or significant changes in the Medicare program as a result of legislative or regulatory action, including reductions in premium payments to us, or increases in member benefits without corresponding increases in premium payments to us, may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

 

   

At December 31, 2009, our military services business, which accounted for approximately 12% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009, primarily consisted of the TRICARE South Region contract which covers approximately 3.0 million beneficiaries. The original 5-year South Region contract expired March 31, 2009. Through an Amendment of Solicitation/Modification of Contract to the TRICARE South Region contract, an additional one-year option period, the sixth option period, which runs from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, was exercised by the government. The Amendment also provides for two additional six-month option periods: the seventh option period runs from April 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010 and the eighth option period runs from October 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. Exercise of each of the seventh and eighth option periods is at the government’s option. On December 16, 2009, we were notified by TMA that it intends to exercise its options to extend the TRICARE South Region contract for Option Period VII and Option Period VIII. The exercise of these option periods would effectively extend the TRICARE South Region contract through March 31, 2011. As required under the current contract, the target underwritten health care cost and underwriting fee amounts for each option period are negotiated. Any variance from the target health care cost is shared with the federal government. Accordingly, events and circumstances not contemplated in the negotiated target health care cost amount may have a material adverse effect on us. These changes may include an increase or reduction in the number of persons enrolled or eligible to

 

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enroll due to the federal government’s decision to increase or decrease U.S. military deployments. In the event government reimbursements were to decline from projected amounts, our failure to reduce the health care costs associated with these programs may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

In July 2009, we were notified by the DoD that we were not awarded the third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region which had been subject to competing bids. We filed a protest with the GAO in connection with the award to another contractor citing discrepancies between the award criteria and procedures prescribed in the request for proposals issued by the DoD and those that appear to have been used by the DoD in making its contractor selection. In October 2009, we learned that the GAO had upheld our protest, determining that the TMA evaluation of our proposal had unreasonably failed to fully recognize and reasonably account for the likely cost savings associated with our record of obtaining network provider discounts from our established network in the South Region. On December 22, 2009, we were advised that TMA notified the GAO of its intent to implement corrective action consistent with the discussion contained within the GAO’s decision with respect to our protest. At this time, we are not able to determine what actions TMA will take in response to recommendations by the GAO, nor can we determine whether or not the protest decision by the GAO will have any effect upon the ultimate disposition of the contract award. For 2009, premiums and ASO fees associated with the TRICARE South Region contract were $3.4 billion, or 11.2% of our total premiums and ASO fees. We are continuing to evaluate issues associated with our military services businesses such as potential impairment of certain assets primarily consisting of goodwill, which had a carrying value of $49.8 million at December 31, 2009, potential exit costs, possible asset sales, and a strategic assessment of ancillary businesses. Goodwill was not impaired at December 31, 2009.

 

   

At December 31, 2009, under our contracts with the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration, or PRHIA, we provided health insurance coverage to approximately 349,900 Medicaid members in Puerto Rico. These contracts accounted for approximately 2% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Our Medicaid contracts with the PRHIA for the East and Southeast regions were extended through December 31, 2009 with no change in terms. The PRHIA has confirmed its intention to extend the current contracts until June 30, 2010, with no changes in terms and is in the process of executing such extensions. The loss of these contracts or significant changes in the Puerto Rico Medicaid program as a result of legislative action, including reductions in premium payments to us, or increases in member benefits without corresponding increases in premium payments to us, may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

 

   

There is a possibility of temporary or permanent suspension from participating in government health care programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, if we are convicted of fraud or other criminal conduct in the performance of a health care program or if there is an adverse decision against us under the federal False Claims Act.

 

   

CMS utilizes a risk-adjustment model which apportions premiums paid to Medicare Advantage plans according to health severity. A risk-adjustment model pays more for enrollees with predictably higher costs. Under the risk-adjustment methodology, all Medicare Advantage plans must collect and submit the necessary diagnosis code information from hospital inpatient, hospital outpatient, and physician providers to CMS within prescribed deadlines. The CMS risk-adjustment model uses this diagnosis data to calculate the risk adjusted premium payment to Medicare Advantage plans.

CMS is continuing to perform audits of selected Medicare Advantage plans of various companies to validate the provider coding practices and resulting economics under the actuarial risk-adjustment model used to calculate the individual member capitation paid to Medicare Advantage plans. Several Humana contracts have been selected by CMS for audit and we expect that CMS will continue conducting audits for the 2007 contract year and beyond. We are unable to estimate the financial impact of any audits that may be conducted related to 2007 revenue and beyond and whether any findings

 

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would cause a change to our method of estimating future premium revenue in bid submissions made to CMS for future contract years, or compromise premium rate assumptions made in our bids for prior contract years. At this time, we do not know whether CMS will require payment adjustments to be made using an audit methodology without comparison to original Medicare coding, and using its method of extrapolating findings to the entire contract. However, if CMS requires payment adjustments to be made using an audit methodology without comparison to original Medicare coding, and using a method of extrapolating findings to the entire contract, and if we are unable to obtain any relief preventing the payment adjustments from being implemented, we believe that such adjustments would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

 

   

The President of the United States and members of the U.S. Congress have proposed significant reforms to the U.S. health care system. In November 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act and in December 2009 the U.S. Senate passed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which we refer to collectively as the “Acts”. While there are significant differences between the two Acts, they include, for example, limiting Medicare Advantage payment rates, mandatory issuance of insurance coverage, requirements that would limit the ability of health plans and insurers to vary premiums based on assessments of underlying risk, stipulating annual rebates to enrollees if the amount of premium revenues expended on medical costs falls below prescribed ratios for group and individual health insurance coverage, and imposing new non-deductible taxes on health insurers increasing in the aggregate from $2 billion to $10 billion annually over ten years. In addition, certain members of Congress have proposed a single-payer health care system, a government health insurance option to compete with private plans, and other expanded public health care measures. Various health insurance reform proposals are also emerging at the state level.

Because of the unsettled nature of these initiatives and the numerous steps required to implement them, we cannot predict what health insurance initiatives, if any, will be implemented at the federal or state level, or the effect any future legislation or regulation will have on our business. However, legislative changes, if enacted, may have a material adverse affect on our results of operations, including lowering our Medicare payment rates and increasing our expenses associated with the non-deductible excise tax, financial position, including goodwill recoverability, and cash flows.

 

   

Our CMS contracts which cover members’ prescription drugs under Medicare Part D contain provisions for risk sharing and payments for prescription drug costs for which we are not at risk. These provisions, certain of which are described below, affect our ultimate payments from CMS.

The premiums from CMS are subject to risk corridor provisions which compare costs targeted in our annual bids to actual prescription drug costs, limited to actual costs that would have been incurred under the standard coverage as defined by CMS. Variances exceeding certain thresholds may result in CMS making additional payments to us or require us to refund to CMS a portion of the premiums we received (known as a “risk corridor”). We estimate and recognize an adjustment to premium revenues related to the risk corridor payment settlement based upon pharmacy claims experience. The estimate of the settlement associated with these risk corridor provisions requires us to consider factors that may not be certain, including member eligibility differences with CMS. Beginning in 2008, the risk corridor thresholds increased which means we bear more risk. Our estimate of the settlement associated with the Medicare Part D risk corridor provisions was a net payable of $144.6 million at December 31, 2009.

Reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies represent payments from CMS in connection with the Medicare Part D program for which we assume no risk. Reinsurance subsidies represent payments for CMS’s portion of claims costs which exceed the member’s out-of-pocket threshold, or the catastrophic coverage level. Low-income cost subsidies represent payments from CMS for all or a portion of the deductible, the coinsurance and co-payment amounts above the out-of-pocket threshold for low-income beneficiaries. Monthly prospective payments from CMS for reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies are based on assumptions submitted with our annual bid. A reconciliation and settlement of CMS’s prospective subsidies against actual prescription drug costs we paid is made after the end of the year.

 

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Settlement of the reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies as well as the risk corridor payment is based on a reconciliation made approximately 9 months after the close of each calendar year. This reconciliation process requires us to submit claims data necessary for CMS to administer the program. Our claims data may not pass CMS’s claims edit processes due to various reasons, including discrepancies in eligibility or classification of low-income members. To the extent our data does not pass CMS’s claim edit processes, we may bear the risk for all or a portion of the claim which otherwise may have been subject to the risk corridor provision or payment as a low-income or reinsurance claim. In addition, in the event the settlement represents an amount CMS owes us, there is a negative impact on our cash flows and financial condition as a result of financing CMS’s share of the risk. The opposite is true in the event the settlement represents an amount we owe CMS.

In addition, the health care industry in general and health insurance, particularly HMOs and PPOs, are subject to substantial federal and state government regulation:

Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

The enactment of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, or MIPPA, in July 2008 could affect our Medicare operations. Principally, beginning in 2011 sponsors of Medicare Advantage PFFS plans will be required to contract with providers to establish adequate networks, except in geographic areas that CMS determines have fewer than two network-based Medicare Advantage plans. Additionally, MIPPA prohibits several different kinds of marketing activities by Medicare plan sponsors and their brokers, and will phase out indirect medical education, or IME, costs beginning in 2010. We are continuing to implement various operational and strategic initiatives that are intended to answer the challenges presented by MIPPA. In addition, most of our PFFS enrollees reside in geographies where we have developed a provider network and offer a networked plan. We will continue to develop our networks and build network-based plan offerings to address the adequate network requirement. We anticipate these initiatives, together with certain counties’ exemption from the network requirement, to result in more than 95% of our PFFS members having the choice of remaining in a Humana plan in 2011. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully implement those initiatives. Failure to implement this strategy may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

The use of individually identifiable health data by our business is regulated at federal and state levels. These laws and rules are changed frequently by legislation or administrative interpretation. Various state laws address the use and maintenance of individually identifiable health data. Most are derived from the privacy provisions in the federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA. HIPAA includes administrative provisions directed at simplifying electronic data interchange through standardizing transactions, establishing uniform health care provider, payer, and employer identifiers and seeking protections for confidentiality and security of patient data. The rules do not provide for complete federal preemption of state laws, but rather preempt all inconsistent state laws unless the state law is more stringent.

These regulations set standards for the security of electronic health information. Violations of these rules could subject us to significant criminal and civil penalties, including significant monetary penalties. Compliance with HIPAA regulations requires significant systems enhancements, training and administrative effort. HIPAA can also expose us to additional liability for violations by our business associates (e.g., entities that provide services to health plans).

On February 17, 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, was enacted into law. In addition to including a temporary subsidy for health care continuation coverage issued pursuant to the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, the ARRA also expands and strengthens the privacy and security provisions of HIPAA and imposes additional limits on the use and disclosure of protected health information, or PHI. Among other things, ARRA requires us and other covered entities to report any unauthorized release or use of or access to PHI to any impacted individuals and to the U.S. Department of Health

 

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and Human Services in those instances where the unauthorized activity poses a significant risk of financial, reputational or other harm to the individuals, and to notify the media in any states where 500 or more people are impacted by any unauthorized release or use of or access to PHI. ARRA also requires business associates to comply with certain HIPAA provisions. ARRA also establishes higher civil and criminal penalties for covered entities and business associates who fail to comply with HIPAA’s provisions and requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue regulations implementing its privacy and security enhancements. We will continue to assess the impact of these regulations on us as they are issued.

State Regulation

Laws in each of the states (and Puerto Rico) in which we operate our HMOs, PPOs and other health insurance-related services regulate our operations including: licensing requirements, policy language describing benefits, mandated benefits and processes, entry, withdrawal or re-entry into a state or market, rate formulas, delivery systems, utilization review procedures, quality assurance, complaint systems, enrollment requirements, claim payments, marketing, and advertising. The HMO, PPO, and other health insurance-related products we offer are sold under licenses issued by the applicable insurance regulators.

Our licensed subsidiaries are also subject to regulation under state insurance holding company and Puerto Rico regulations. These regulations generally require, among other things, prior approval and/or notice of new products, rates, benefit changes, and certain material transactions, including dividend payments, purchases or sales of assets, intercompany agreements, and the filing of various financial and operational reports.

Certain of our subsidiaries operate in states that regulate the payment of dividends, loans, or other cash transfers to Humana Inc., our parent company, and require minimum levels of equity as well as limit investments to approved securities. The amount of dividends that may be paid to Humana Inc. by these subsidiaries, without prior approval by state regulatory authorities, is limited based on the entity’s level of statutory income and statutory capital and surplus. In most states, prior notification is provided before paying a dividend even if approval is not required.

Although minimum required levels of equity are largely based on premium volume, product mix, and the quality of assets held, minimum requirements can vary significantly at the state level. Based on the statutory financial statements as of December 31, 2009, we maintained aggregate statutory capital and surplus of $3.6 billion in our state regulated subsidiaries, $1.2 billion above the aggregate $2.4 billion in applicable statutory requirements which would trigger any regulatory action by the respective states.

Other Investigations

We are also subject to various governmental audits and investigations. Under state laws, our HMOs and health insurance companies are audited by state departments of insurance for financial and contractual compliance. Our HMOs are audited for compliance with health services by state departments of health. Audits and investigations are also conducted by state attorneys general, CMS, the Office of the Inspector General of Health and Human Services, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, and the Defense Contract Audit Agency. All of these activities could result in the loss of licensure or the right to participate in various programs, including a limitation on our ability to market or sell products, the imposition of fines, penalties and other civil and criminal sanctions, or changes in our business practices. In addition, disclosure of any adverse investigation or audit results or sanctions could negatively affect our industry or our reputation in various markets and make it more difficult for us to sell our products and services.

Any failure to manage administrative costs could hamper profitability.

The level of our administrative expenses impacts our profitability. While we proactively attempt to effectively manage such expenses, increases or decreases in staff-related expenses, additional investment in new

 

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products (including our opportunities in the Medicare programs), greater emphasis on small group and individual health insurance products, acquisitions, and implementation of regulatory requirements may occur from time to time.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully contain our administrative expenses in line with our membership and this may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Any failure by us to manage acquisitions and other significant transactions successfully may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

As part of our business strategy, we frequently engage in discussions with third parties regarding possible investments, acquisitions, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and outsourcing transactions and often enter into agreements relating to such transactions in order to further our business objectives. In order to pursue this strategy successfully, we must identify suitable candidates for and successfully complete transactions, some of which may be large and complex, and manage post-closing issues such as the integration of acquired companies or employees. Integration and other risks can be more pronounced for larger and more complicated transactions, or if multiple transactions are pursued simultaneously. In 2008, we acquired UnitedHealth Group’s Las Vegas, Nevada individual SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage HMO business, OSF Health Plans, Inc., Metcare Health Plans, Inc., and PHP Companies, Inc. (d/b/a Cariten Healthcare), and in late 2007, we acquired KMG America Corporation and CompBenefits Corporation. The failure to successfully integrate these entities and businesses or failure to produce results consistent with the financial model used in the analysis of the acquisition may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows. If we fail to identify and complete successfully transactions that further our strategic objectives, we may be required to expend resources to develop products and technology internally. We may also be at a competitive disadvantage or we may be adversely affected by negative market perceptions, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

If we fail to develop and maintain satisfactory relationships with the providers of care to our members, our business may be adversely affected.

We contract with physicians, hospitals and other providers to deliver health care to our members. Our products encourage or require our customers to use these contracted providers. These providers may share medical cost risk with us or have financial incentives to deliver quality medical services in a cost-effective manner.

In any particular market, providers could refuse to contract with us, demand to contract with us, demand higher payments, or take other actions that could result in higher health care costs for us, less desirable products for customers and members or difficulty meeting regulatory or accreditation requirements. In some markets, some providers, particularly hospitals, physician specialty groups, physician/hospital organizations or multi-specialty physician groups, may have significant market positions and negotiating power. In addition, physician or practice management companies, which aggregate physician practices for administrative efficiency and marketing leverage, may compete directly with us. If these providers refuse to contract with us, use their market position to negotiate favorable contracts or place us at a competitive disadvantage, our ability to market products or to be profitable in those areas may be adversely affected.

In some situations, we have contracts with individual or groups of primary care physicians for an actuarially determined, fixed, per-member-per-month fee under which physicians are paid an amount to provide all required medical services to our members. This type of contract is referred to as a “capitation” contract. The inability of providers to properly manage costs under these capitation arrangements can result in the financial instability of these providers and the termination of their relationship with us. In addition, payment or other disputes between a

 

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primary care provider and specialists with whom the primary care provider contracts can result in a disruption in the provision of services to our members or a reduction in the services available to our members. The financial instability or failure of a primary care provider to pay other providers for services rendered could lead those other providers to demand payment from us even though we have made our regular fixed payments to the primary provider. There can be no assurance that providers with whom we contract will properly manage the costs of services, maintain financial solvency or avoid disputes with other providers. Any of these events may have a material adverse effect on the provision of services to our members and our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Our pharmacy business is highly competitive and subjects us to regulations in addition to those we face with our core health benefits businesses.

Our pharmacy business, opened in 2006, competes with locally owned drugstores, retail drugstore chains, supermarkets, discount retailers, membership clubs, and Internet companies as well as other mail-order and long-term care pharmacies. Our pharmacy business also subjects us to extensive federal, state and local regulation. The practice of pharmacy is generally regulated at the state level by state boards of pharmacy. Many of the states where we deliver pharmaceuticals, including controlled substances, have laws and regulations that require out-of-state mail-order pharmacies to register with that state’s board of pharmacy. In addition, some states have proposed laws to regulate online pharmacies, and we may be subject to this legislation if it is passed. Federal agencies further regulate our pharmacy operations. Pharmacies must register with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and individual state controlled substance authorities in order to dispense controlled substances. In addition, the FDA inspects facilities in connection with procedures to effect recalls of prescription drugs. The Federal Trade Commission also has requirements for mail-order sellers of goods. The U.S. Postal Service, or USPS, has statutory authority to restrict the transmission of drugs and medicines through the mail to a degree that may have an adverse effect on our mail-order operations. The USPS historically has exercised this statutory authority only with respect to controlled substances. If the USPS restricts our ability to deliver drugs through the mail, alternative means of delivery are available to us. However, alternative means of delivery could be significantly more expensive. The Department of Transportation has regulatory authority to impose restrictions on drugs inserted in the stream of commerce. These regulations generally do not apply to the USPS and its operations. In addition, we are subject to CMS rules regarding the administration of our PDP plans and intercompany pricing between our PDP plans and our pharmacy business.

We are also subject to risks inherent in the packaging and distribution of pharmaceuticals and other health care products, and the application of state laws related to the operation of internet and mail-services pharmacies. The failure to adhere to these laws and regulations may expose our pharmacy subsidiary to civil and criminal penalties.

Changes in the prescription drug industry pricing benchmarks may adversely affect our financial performance.

Contracts in the prescription drug industry generally use certain published benchmarks to establish pricing for prescription drugs. These benchmarks include average wholesale price, which is referred to as “AWP,” average selling price, which is referred to as “ASP,” and wholesale acquisition cost. Recent events have raised uncertainties as to whether payors, pharmacy providers, pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, and others in the prescription drug industry will continue to utilize AWP as it has previously been calculated, or whether other pricing benchmarks will be adopted for establishing prices within the industry. Legislation may lead to changes in the pricing for Medicare and Medicaid programs. The DOJ is currently conducting, and the U.S. House of Representatives Commerce Committee has conducted, an investigation into the use of AWP for federal program payment, and whether the use of AWP has inflated drug expenditures by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Federal and state proposals have sought to change the basis for calculating payment of certain drugs by the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Adoption of ASP in lieu of AWP as the measure for determining payment by Medicare or Medicaid programs for the drugs sold in our mail-order pharmacy business may reduce the revenues and gross margins of this business which may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

 

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If we do not continue to earn and retain purchase discounts and volume rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers at current levels, our gross margins may decline.

We have contractual relationships with pharmaceutical manufacturers or wholesalers that provide us with purchase discounts and volume rebates on certain prescription drugs dispensed through our mail-order and specialty pharmacies. These discounts and volume rebates are generally passed on to clients in the form of steeper price discounts. Changes in existing federal or state laws or regulations or in their interpretation by courts and agencies or the adoption of new laws or regulations relating to patent term extensions, and purchase discount and volume rebate arrangements with pharmaceutical manufacturers, may reduce the discounts or volume rebates we receive and materially adversely impact our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Our ability to obtain funds from our subsidiaries is restricted.

Because we operate as a holding company, we are dependent upon dividends and administrative expense reimbursements from our subsidiaries to fund the obligations of Humana Inc., our parent company. These subsidiaries generally are regulated by states’ Departments of Insurance. We are also required by law to maintain specific prescribed minimum amounts of capital in these subsidiaries. The levels of capitalization required depend primarily upon the volume of premium generated. A significant increase in premium volume will require additional capitalization from our parent company. In most states, we are required to seek prior approval by these state regulatory authorities before we transfer money or pay dividends from these subsidiaries that exceed specified amounts, or, in some states, any amount. In addition, we normally notify the state Departments of Insurance prior to making payments that do not require approval. In the event that we are unable to provide sufficient capital to fund the obligations of Humana Inc., our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows may be materially adversely affected.

Downgrades in our debt ratings, should they occur, may adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Claims paying ability, financial strength, and debt ratings by recognized rating organizations are an increasingly important factor in establishing the competitive position of insurance companies. Ratings information is broadly disseminated and generally used throughout the industry. We believe our claims paying ability and financial strength ratings are an important factor in marketing our products to certain of our customers. Our 7.20% and 8.15% senior notes are subject to an interest rate adjustment if the debt ratings assigned to the notes are downgraded (or subsequently upgraded) and contain a change of control provision that may require us to purchase the notes under certain circumstances. In addition, our debt ratings impact both the cost and availability of future borrowings. Each of the rating agencies reviews its ratings periodically and there can be no assurance that current ratings will be maintained in the future. Our ratings reflect each rating agency’s opinion of our financial strength, operating performance, and ability to meet our debt obligations or obligations to policyholders, but are not evaluations directed toward the protection of investors in our common stock and should not be relied upon as such.

Historically, rating agencies take action to lower ratings due to, among other things, perceived concerns about liquidity or solvency, the competitive environment in the insurance industry, the inherent uncertainty in determining reserves for future claims, the outcome of pending litigation and regulatory investigations, and possible changes in the methodology or criteria applied by the rating agencies. In addition, rating agencies have come under recent regulatory and public scrutiny over the ratings assigned to various fixed-income products. As a result, rating agencies may (i) become more conservative in their methodology and criteria, (ii) increase the frequency or scope of their credit reviews, (iii) request additional information from the companies that they rate, or (iv) adjust upward the capital and other requirements employed in the rating agency models for maintenance of certain ratings levels.

 

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We believe that some of our customers place importance on our credit ratings, and we may lose customers and compete less successfully if our ratings were to be downgraded. In addition, our credit ratings affect our ability to obtain investment capital on favorable terms. If our credit ratings were to be lowered, our cost of borrowing likely would increase, our sales and earnings could decrease and our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows may be materially adversely affected.

Changes in economic conditions may adversely affect our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

The U.S. economy continues to experience a period of recession and increased unemployment. We have closely monitored the impact that this volatile economy is having on our Commercial segment operations. Workforce reductions have caused corresponding membership losses in our fully-insured group business. Continued weakness in the U.S. economy, and any resulting increases in unemployment, may materially adversely affect our Commercial medical membership, results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Additionally, the continued weakness of the U.S. economy may adversely affect the budget of individual states and of the federal government. That could result in attempts to reduce payments in our federal and state government health care coverage programs, including the Medicare, military services, and Medicaid programs, and could result in an increase in taxes and assessments on our activities. Although we could attempt to mitigate or cover our exposure from such increased costs through, among other things, increases in premiums, there can be no assurance that we will be able to mitigate or cover all of such costs which may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

In addition, general inflationary pressures may affect the costs of medical and other care, increasing the costs of claims expenses submitted to us.

The securities and credit markets may experience volatility and disruption, which may adversely affect our business.

Volatility or disruption in the securities and credit markets could impact our investment portfolio. We evaluate our investment securities for impairment on a quarterly basis. This review is subjective and requires a high degree of judgment. For the purpose of determining gross realized gains and losses, the cost of investment securities sold is based upon specific identification. For debt securities held, we recognize an impairment loss in income when the fair value of the debt security is less than the carrying value and we have the intent to sell the debt security or it is more likely than not that we will be required to sell the debt security before recovery of our amortized cost basis, or if a credit loss has occurred. When we do not intend to sell a security in an unrealized loss position, potential other-than-temporary impairments are considered using variety of factors, including the length of time and extent to which the fair value has been less than cost; adverse conditions specifically related to the industry, geographic area or financial condition of the issuer or underlying collateral of a security; payment structure of the security; changes in credit rating of the security by the rating agencies; the volatility of the fair value changes; and changes in fair value of the security after the balance sheet date. For debt securities, we take into account expectations of relevant market and economic data. We continuously review our investment portfolios and there is a continuing risk that further declines in fair value may occur and additional material realized losses from sales or other-than- temporary impairments may be recorded in future periods.

We believe our cash balances, investment securities, operating cash flows, and funds available under our credit agreement or from other public or private financing sources, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating and regulatory requirements, future expansion opportunities, and capital expenditures in the foreseeable future, and to refinance or repay debt. However, continuing adverse securities and credit market conditions may significantly affect the availability of credit. While there is no assurance in the current economic environment, we have no reason to believe the lenders participating in our credit agreement will not be willing and able to provide financing in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

 

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Our access to additional credit will depend on a variety of factors such as market conditions, the general availability of credit, both to the overall market and our industry, our credit ratings and debt capacity, as well as the possibility that customers or lenders could develop a negative perception of our long or short-term financial prospects. Similarly, our access to funds could be limited if regulatory authorities or rating agencies were to take negative actions against us. If a combination of these factors were to occur, we may not be able to successfully obtain additional financing on favorable terms or at all.

Given the current economic climate, our stock and the stocks of other companies in the insurance industry may be increasingly subject to stock price and trading volume volatility.

Over the past two years, the stock markets have experienced significant price and trading volume volatility. Company-specific issues and market developments generally in the insurance industry and in the regulatory environment may have caused this volatility. Our stock price has fluctuated and may continue to materially fluctuate in response to a number of events and factors, including:

 

   

the potential for health care reform;

 

   

general economic conditions;

 

   

quarterly variations in operating results;

 

   

natural disasters, terrorist attacks and epidemics;

 

   

changes in financial estimates and recommendations by securities analysts;

 

   

operating and stock price performance of other companies that investors may deem comparable;

 

   

press releases or negative publicity relating to our competitors or us or relating to trends in our markets;

 

   

regulatory changes and adverse outcomes from litigation and government or regulatory investigations;

 

   

sales of stock by insiders;

 

   

changes in our credit ratings;

 

   

limitations on premium levels or the ability to raise premiums on existing policies;

 

   

increases in minimum capital, reserves, and other financial strength requirements; and

 

   

limitations on our ability to repurchase our common stock.

These factors could materially reduce our stock price. In addition, broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the trading price of our common stock, regardless of our actual operating performance.

 

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

 

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

Our principal executive office is located in the Humana Building, 500 West Main Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202. In addition to this property, our other principal operating facilities are located in Louisville, Kentucky; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Tampa Bay, Florida; Cincinnati, Ohio; and San Juan, Puerto Rico, all of which are used for customer service, enrollment, and claims processing. Our Louisville and Green Bay facilities also house other corporate functions.

We own or lease these principal operating facilities in addition to other administrative market offices and medical centers. We no longer operate most of these medical centers but, rather lease or sublease them to their provider operators. The following table lists the location of properties we owned or leased, including our principal operating facilities, at December 31, 2009:

 

     Medical Centers    Administrative
Offices
   Total
   Owned    Leased    Owned    Leased   

Florida

   11    58    —      64    133

Texas

   —      —      2    34    36

Tennessee

   —      —      —      24    24

Kentucky

   —      —      9    9    18

Georgia

   —      —      —      14    14

Ohio

   —      —      —      13    13

South Carolina

   —      —      8    5    13

Puerto Rico

   —      —      —      12    12

Louisiana

   —      —      —      10    10

Illinois

   1    —      —      8    9

Wisconsin

   —      —      1    8    9

Others

   —      —      —      107    107
                        

Total

   12    58    20    308    398
                        

 

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

We are party to a variety of legal actions in the ordinary course of business, including employment litigation, claims of medical malpractice, bad faith, nonacceptance or termination of providers, anticompetitive practices, improper rate setting, failure to disclose network discounts and various other provider arrangements, general contractual matters, intellectual property matters, and challenges to subrogation practices. See “Legal Proceedings” in Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. We cannot predict the outcome of these suits with certainty.

 

ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

Not applicable.

 

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PART II

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

 

a) Market Information

Our common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol HUM. The following table shows the range of high and low closing sales prices as reported on the New York Stock Exchange Composite Price for each quarter in the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008:

 

     High    Low

Year Ended December 31, 2009

     

First quarter

   $ 45.80    $ 18.77

Second quarter

   $ 32.62    $ 25.46

Third quarter

   $ 40.67    $ 28.28

Fourth quarter

   $ 45.75    $ 35.91

Year Ended December 31, 2008

     

First quarter

   $ 86.98    $ 40.88

Second quarter

   $ 51.11    $ 39.77

Third quarter

   $ 50.03    $ 37.27

Fourth quarter

   $ 41.26    $ 24.56

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

We maintain the Humana Retirement and Savings Plan and the Humana Puerto Rico 1165(e) Retirement Plan (which we refer to collectively as the Plans), each a qualified, combined retirement plan and 401(k) plan, for the benefit of our employees, through which participants can elect, among other investment choices, to purchase our common stock at market prices. Although none of the shares purchased by the Plans are purchased from us, but are purchased by a third party administrator on the open market, it is the position of the SEC that, because we sponsor the Plans, all of the securities offered pursuant to the Plans must be registered under the Securities Act of 1933. Based upon this interpretation, we recently determined that the number of shares of our common stock purchased by participants under the Humana Retirement and Savings Plan may have exceeded the number of shares registered under the registration statement covering the Plan, and shares purchased under the Humana Puerto Rico 1165(e) Retirement Plan may not have been registered. Since these purchases were made by a third party administrator on the open market, and not from us, we did not receive any proceeds from the sale of the shares pursuant to the Plans. We have filed registration statements on Form S-8 to register future sales of our common stock to participants in the Plans. We are in the process of determining any action we intend to take in light of this situation. These shares have always been treated as outstanding for financial reporting purposes, and we do not expect that the overall effect of this issuance of unregistered shares, including the exercise of any applicable rescission rights by participants in the Plans, will have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows. We may also be subject to monetary fines or other regulatory sanctions as provided under applicable securities laws.

 

b) Holders of our Capital Stock

As of January 31, 2010, there were approximately 4,700 holders of record of our common stock and approximately 78,800 beneficial holders of our common stock.

 

c) Dividends

Since February 1993, we have not declared or paid any cash dividends on our common stock. We do not presently intend to pay dividends, and we currently plan to retain our earnings for future operations and growth of our businesses.

 

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d) Equity Compensation Plan

The information required by this part of Item 5 is incorporated herein by reference from our Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Stockholders scheduled to be held on April 20, 2010 appearing under the caption “Equity Compensation Plan Information” of such Proxy Statement.

 

e) Stock Performance

The following graph compares the performance of our common stock to the Standard & Poor’s Composite 500 Index (“S&P 500”) and the Morgan Stanley Health Care Payer Index (“Peer Group”) for the five years ended December 31, 2009. The graph assumes an investment of $100 in each of our common stock, the S&P 500, and the Peer Group on December 31, 2004.

LOGO

 

     12/31/04    12/31/05    12/31/06    12/31/07    12/31/08    12/31/09

HUM

   $ 100    $ 183    $ 186    $ 254    $ 126    $ 148

S&P 500

   $ 100    $ 103    $ 117    $ 121    $ 75    $ 92

Peer Group

   $ 100    $ 137    $ 146    $ 170    $ 77    $ 118

 

f) Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

On February 22, 2008, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of our common shares exclusive of shares repurchased in connection with employee stock plans. During the year ended December 31, 2008, we repurchased 2.1 million shares in open market transactions for $92.8 million at an average price of $44.19. On July 28, 2008 (announced August 4, 2008), the Board of Directors increased the authorized amount to $250 million, excluding the $92.8 million used prior to that time in connection with the initial February 2008 authorization. No shares were repurchased in 2008 or 2009 under the July 2008 authorization. The July authorization was set to expire on December 31, 2009. On December 10, 2009 (announced December 11, 2009), the Board of Directors renewed its $250 million authorization through December 31, 2011. Under this authorized share repurchase program, shares may be purchased from time to time at prevailing prices in the open market, by block purchases, or in privately-negotiated transactions, subject to certain restrictions on volume, pricing and timing. We have not yet repurchased any shares under the December 2009 authorization.

In connection with employee stock plans, we acquired 0.6 million common shares for $22.8 million and 0.2 million common shares for $13.3 million during the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively.

 

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA

 

     2009     2008 (a)     2007 (b)     2006 (c)     2005 (d)  
     (in thousands, except per common share results, membership and ratios)  

Summary of Operations:

          

Revenues:

          

Premiums

   $ 29,926,751      $ 28,064,844      $ 24,434,347      $ 20,729,182      $ 14,001,591   

Administrative services fees

     496,135        451,879        391,515        341,211        259,437   

Investment income

     296,317        220,215        314,239        291,880        142,976   

Other revenue

     241,211        209,434        149,888        54,264        14,123   
                                        

Total revenues

     30,960,414        28,946,372        25,289,989        21,416,537        14,418,127   
                                        

Operating expenses:

          

Benefits

     24,775,002        23,708,233        20,270,531        17,421,204        11,651,470   

Selling, general and administrative

     4,227,535        3,944,652        3,476,468        3,021,509        2,195,604   

Depreciation and amortization

     250,274        220,350        184,812        148,598        128,858   
                                        

Total operating expenses

     29,252,811        27,873,235        23,931,811        20,591,311        13,975,932   
                                        

Income from operations

     1,707,603        1,073,137        1,358,178        825,226        442,195   

Interest expense

     105,843        80,289        68,878        63,141        39,315   
                                        

Income before income taxes

     1,601,760        992,848        1,289,300        762,085        402,880   

Provision for income taxes

     562,085        345,694        455,616        274,662        106,150   
                                        

Net income

   $ 1,039,675      $ 647,154      $ 833,684      $ 487,423      $ 296,730   
                                        

Basic earnings per common share

   $ 6.21      $ 3.87      $ 5.00      $ 2.97      $ 1.83   
                                        

Diluted earnings per common share

   $ 6.15      $ 3.83      $ 4.91      $ 2.90      $ 1.79   
                                        

Financial Position:

          

Cash and investments

   $ 9,110,738      $ 7,185,865      $ 6,690,820      $ 5,347,454      $ 3,477,955   

Total assets

     14,153,494        13,041,760        12,879,074        10,098,486        6,846,851   

Benefits payable

     3,222,574        3,205,579        2,696,833        2,410,407        1,849,142   

Debt

     1,678,166        1,937,032        1,687,823        1,269,100        815,044   

Stockholders’ equity

     5,776,003        4,457,190        4,028,937        3,053,886        2,508,874   

Key Financial Indicators:

          

Benefit ratio

     82.8     84.5     83.0     84.0     83.2

SG&A expense ratio

     13.8     13.7     13.9     14.3     15.4

Medical Membership by Segment:

          

Government:

          

Medicare Advantage

     1,508,500        1,435,900        1,143,000        1,002,600        557,800   

Medicare stand-alone PDP

     1,927,900        3,066,600        3,442,000        3,536,600        —     
                                        

Total Medicare

     3,436,400        4,502,500        4,585,000        4,539,200        557,800   
                                        

Military services insured

     1,756,000        1,736,400        1,719,100        1,716,400        1,750,900   

Military services ASO

     1,278,400        1,228,300        1,146,800        1,163,600        1,138,200   
                                        

Total military services

     3,034,400        2,964,700        2,865,900        2,880,000        2,889,100   
                                        

Medicaid insured

     401,700        385,400        384,400        390,700        457,900   

Medicaid ASO

     —          85,700        180,600        178,400        —     
                                        

Total Medicaid

     401,700        471,100        565,000        569,100        457,900   
                                        

Total Government

     6,872,500        7,938,300        8,015,900        7,988,300        3,904,800   
                                        

Commercial:

          

Fully-insured

     1,839,500        1,978,800        1,808,600        1,754,200        1,999,800   

ASO

     1,571,300        1,642,000        1,643,000        1,529,600        1,171,000   
                                        

Total Commercial

     3,410,800        3,620,800        3,451,600        3,283,800        3,170,800   
                                        

Total medical membership

     10,283,300        11,559,100        11,467,500        11,272,100        7,075,600   
                                        

Specialty Membership:

          

Dental

     3,832,900        3,633,400        3,639,800        1,452,000        1,456,500   

Vision

     2,459,600        2,233,000        2,272,800        —          —     

Other supplemental benefits

     907,600        846,800        731,200        450,800        445,600   
                                        

Total specialty membership

     7,200,100        6,713,200        6,643,800        1,902,800        1,902,100   
                                        

 

(a) Includes the acquired operations of United Health Group’s Las Vegas, Nevada individual SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage HMO business from April 30, 2008, the acquired operations of OSF Health Plans, Inc. from May 22, 2008, the acquired operations of Metcare Health Plans, Inc. from August 29, 2008, and the acquired operations of PHP Companies, Inc. (d/b/a Cariten Healthcare) from October 31, 2008.
(b) Includes the acquired operations of DefenseWeb Technologies, Inc. from March 1, 2007, the acquired operations of CompBenefits Corporation from October 1, 2007, and the acquired operations of KMG America Corporation from November 30, 2007. Also includes the benefit of $68.9 million ($43.0 million after tax, or $0.25 per diluted share) related to our 2006 Medicare Part D reconciliation with CMS and the settlement of some TRICARE contractual provisions related to prior years.
(c) Includes the acquired operations of CHA Service Company from May 1, 2006.
(d) Includes the acquired operations of CarePlus Health Plans of Florida from February 16, 2005, and the acquired operations of Corphealth, Inc. from December 20, 2005. Also includes expenses of $71.9 million ($44.8 million after tax, or $0.27 per diluted common share) for a class action litigation settlement, as well as expenses of $27.0 million ($16.9 million after tax, or $0.10 per diluted common share) related to Hurricane Katrina. These expenses were partially offset by the realization of a tax gain contingency of $22.8 million, or $0.14 per diluted share.

 

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

Overview

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Humana is one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health and supplemental benefits companies, based on our 2009 revenues of approximately $31.0 billion. We are a full-service benefits solutions company, offering a wide array of health and supplemental benefit products for employer groups, government benefit programs, and individuals. As of December 31, 2009, we had approximately 10.3 million members in our medical benefit plans, as well as approximately 7.2 million members in our specialty products.

We manage our business with two segments: Government and Commercial. The Government segment consists of beneficiaries of government benefit programs, and includes three lines of business: Medicare, Military, and Medicaid. The Commercial segment consists of members enrolled in our medical and specialty products marketed to employer groups and individuals. When identifying our segments, we aggregated products with similar economic characteristics. These characteristics include the nature of customer groups as well as pricing, benefits, and underwriting requirements. These segment groupings are consistent with information used by our Chief Executive Officer.

The results of each segment are measured by income before income taxes. We allocate all selling, general and administrative expenses, investment and other revenue, interest expense, and goodwill, but no other assets or liabilities, to our segments. Members served by our two segments often utilize the same provider networks, in some instances enabling us to obtain more favorable contract terms with providers. Our segments also share indirect overhead costs and assets. As a result, the profitability of each segment is interdependent.

Our results are impacted by many factors, but most notably are influenced by our ability to establish and maintain a competitive and efficient cost structure and to accurately and consistently establish competitive premium, ASO fee, and plan benefit levels that are commensurate with our benefit and administrative costs. Benefit costs are subject to a high rate of inflation due to many forces, including new higher priced technologies and medical procedures, new prescription drugs and therapies, an aging population, lifestyle challenges including diet and smoking, the tort liability system, and government regulation.

Our industry relies on two key statistics to measure performance. The benefit ratio, which is computed by taking total benefit expenses as a percentage of premium revenues, represents a statistic used to measure underwriting profitability. The selling, general, and administrative expense ratio, or SG&A expense ratio, which is computed by taking total selling, general and administrative expenses as a percentage of premium revenues, administrative services fees and other revenues, represents a statistic used to measure administrative spending efficiency.

Proposed Health Insurance Initiatives

The President of the United States and members of the U.S. Congress have proposed significant reforms to the U.S. health care system. In November 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act and in December 2009 the U.S. Senate passed The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which we refer to collectively as the “Acts”. While there are significant differences between the two Acts, they include, for example, limiting Medicare Advantage payment rates, mandatory issuance of insurance coverage, requirements that would limit the ability of health plans and insurers to vary premiums based on assessments of underlying risk, stipulating annual rebates to enrollees if the amount of premium revenues expended on medical costs falls below prescribed ratios for group and individual health insurance coverage, and imposing new non-deductible taxes on health insurers increasing in the aggregate from $2 billion to $10 billion annually over ten years. In addition, certain members of Congress have proposed a single-payer health care system, a government health insurance option to compete with private plans, and other expanded public health care measures. Various health insurance reform proposals are also emerging at the state level. Because of the

 

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unsettled nature of these initiatives and the numerous steps required to implement them, we cannot predict what health insurance initiatives, if any, will be implemented at the federal or state level, or the effect any future legislation or regulation will have on our business. However, legislative changes, if enacted, may have a material adverse affect on our results of operations, including lowering our Medicare payment rates and increasing our expenses associated with the non-deductible excise tax, financial position, including goodwill recoverability, and cash flows.

Government Segment

Our strategy and commitment to the Medicare programs has led to significant growth. Medicare Advantage membership increased to 1,508,500 members at December 31, 2009, up 72,600 members, or 5.1% from 1,435,900 members at December 31, 2008, primarily due to sales of preferred provider organization, or PPO products. Average Medicare Advantage membership increased 11.5% in 2009 compared to 2008, including the impact from the 2008 acquisitions of Cariten, Metcare, OSF, and SecureHorizons, discussed below. Likewise, Medicare Advantage premium revenues have increased 19.1% to $16.4 billion for 2009 from $13.8 billion for 2008. Recently the mix of sales has shifted increasingly to our network-based PPO offerings, which is particularly important given the enactment of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, or the Act, discussed more fully below. Medicare Advantage members enrolled in network-based products was approximately 63% at December 31, 2009 compared to 51% at December 31, 2008, with our PPO membership increasing 94.6% from December 31, 2008 to December 31, 2009. Medicare Advantage members enrolled in network-based products increased to approximately 71% in January 2010. We expect Medicare Advantage membership to increase by 240,000 to 260,000 members, or approximately 16% to 17%, in 2010.

Due to the enactment of the Act in July 2008, beginning in 2011, sponsors of Medicare Advantage Private Fee-For-Service, or PFFS, plans will be required to contract with providers to establish adequate networks, except in geographic areas that CMS determines have fewer than two network-based Medicare Advantage plans. We have 564,200 PFFS members, or approximately 37% of our total Medicare Advantage membership at December 31, 2009, down from 49% at December 31, 2008. Approximately 87% of our PFFS members at December 31, 2009 resided in geographies where we have developed a provider network and offer a networked plan. We are continuing to implement various operational and strategic initiatives, including further developing our networks and building network-based plan offerings to address the adequate network requirement. We anticipate these initiatives, together with certain counties’ exemption from the network requirement, to result in more than 95% of our PFFS members having the choice of remaining in a Humana plan in 2011.

Final 2010 Medicare Advantage rates were announced by CMS on April 6, 2009, with an effective rate decrease for the industry of 4% to 5%. Based on information available at the time we filed our 2010 bids in June 2009, we believe we have effectively designed Medicare Advantage products that address the lower rates while continuing to remain competitive compared to both the combination of original Medicare with a supplement policy as well as other Medicare Advantage competitors within our industry. In addition, we will continue to pursue our cost-reduction and outcome-enhancing strategies, including care coordination and disease management, to mitigate the adverse effects of this rate reduction on our Medicare Advantage members. Nonetheless, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully execute operational and strategic initiatives with respect to changes in the Medicare Advantage program. Failure to execute these strategies may result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

We also offer Medicare stand-alone prescription drug plans, or PDPs, under the Medicare Part D program. These plans provide varying degrees of coverage. In order to offer these plans in a given year, in June of the preceding year we must submit bids to CMS for approval. During 2008, we experienced prescription drug claim expenses for our Medicare stand-alone PDPs that were higher than we had originally assumed in the bid that we submitted to CMS in June 2007. These higher claim levels for our Medicare stand-alone PDPs reflected a combination of several variances between our actuarial bid assumptions versus our experience. These variances resulted from, among other things, differences between the actuarial utilization assumptions (which are our attempts to predict members’ future utilization of drugs) in the bids for one of our plans versus our actual claims

 

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experience in 2008, as well as an increase in the percentage of higher cost members. These issues were addressed for 2009 based on enhancements made to our bid development and review processes. Our Medicare stand-alone PDP membership declined to 1,927,900 members at December 31, 2009, down 1,138,700 members, or 37.1%, from December 31, 2008, resulting primarily from our competitive positioning as we realigned stand-alone PDP premium and benefit designs to correspond with our historical prescription drug claims experience. These actions also resulted in a substantial decline in our stand-alone PDP benefit ratio for 2009 compared to 2008. We expect Medicare stand-alone PDP membership to decrease by 50,000 to 100,000 members, or approximately 3% to 5%, in 2010 as we continue to price and design benefits to correspond with our historical experience.

Our quarterly Government segment earnings and operating cash flows are impacted by the Medicare Part D benefit design and changes in the composition of our membership. The Medicare Part D benefit design results in coverage that varies as a member’s cumulative out-of-pocket costs pass through successive stages of a member’s plan period which begins annually on January 1 for renewals. These plan designs generally result in us sharing a greater portion of the responsibility for total prescription drug costs in the early stages and less in the latter stages. As a result, the Government segment’s benefit ratio generally improves as the year progresses. In addition, the number of low-income senior members as well as year-over-year changes in the mix of membership in our stand-alone PDP products affect the quarterly benefit ratio pattern.

Our military services business primarily consists of the TRICARE South Region contract which covers benefits for healthcare services provided to beneficiaries through March 31, 2010. On December 16, 2009, we were notified by Department of Defense TRICARE Management Activity, or TMA, that it intends to exercise its options to extend the TRICARE South Region contract for Option Period VII and Option Period VIII. The exercise of these option periods would effectively extend the TRICARE South Region contract through March 31, 2011. In July 2009, we were notified by the Department of Defense that we were not awarded the third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region which had been subject to competing bids. We filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office, or GAO, in connection with the award to another contractor citing discrepancies between the award criteria and procedures prescribed in the request for proposals issued by the DoD and those that appear to have been used by the DoD in making its contractor selection. In October 2009, we learned that the GAO had upheld our protest, determining that the TMA evaluation of our proposal had unreasonably failed to fully recognize and reasonably account for the likely cost savings associated with our record of obtaining network provider discounts from our established network in the South Region. On December 22, 2009, we were advised that TMA notified the GAO of its intent to implement corrective action consistent with the discussion contained within the GAO’s decision with respect to our protest. At this time, we are not able to determine what actions TMA will take in response to recommendations by the GAO, nor can we determine whether or not the protest decision by the GAO will have any effect upon the ultimate disposition of the contract award. For 2009, premiums and ASO fees associated with the TRICARE South Region contract were $3.4 billion, or 11.2% of our total premiums and ASO fees. We are continuing to evaluate issues associated with our military services businesses such as potential impairment of certain assets primarily consisting of goodwill, which had a carrying value of $49.8 million at December 31, 2009, potential exit costs, possible asset sales, and a strategic assessment of ancillary businesses. Goodwill was not impaired at December 31, 2009.

Commercial Segment

Commercial segment pretax earnings, impacted by the economic recession and the highly competitive environment partially offset by higher investment income, decreased by $103.5 million, or 49.8%, for 2009 compared to 2008. Commercial segment medical membership at December 31, 2009 of 3,410,800 decreased 210,000 members, or 5.8% from December 31, 2008. The decline in membership primarily was a result of the impact of the economic recession, including the loss of two larger ASO accounts. The economic recession has led to increased in-group member attrition as employers reduce their workforce levels primarily through reductions of less experienced workers. As a result, we experienced higher utilization of benefits, mainly in our fully-insured group accounts, primarily due to the shift in the mix of members to an older workforce having more health care needs, as well as members utilizing more benefits ahead of actual or perceived layoffs, members

 

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seeking to maximize their benefits once their deductibles are met, and increased COBRA participation. The membership declines were partially offset by enrollment gains in our individual product, a strategic area of commercial growth. Individual membership at December 31, 2009 increased 13.0% from December 31, 2008. This increase in individual membership, together with administrative costs associated with increased business for our mail-order pharmacy, led to a higher Commercial segment SG&A expense ratio. We expect Commercial segment medical membership to decline by 160,000 to 180,000 members in 2010.

Financial Position

At December 31, 2009, cash, cash equivalents and our investment securities totaled $9.1 billion, or 64.4% of total assets, with 17.7% of the $9.1 billion invested in cash and cash equivalents. Investment securities consist of debt securities of investment-grade quality with an average credit rating by S&P of AA+ at December 31, 2009 and an average duration of approximately 4.5 years. Including cash and cash equivalents, the average duration of our investment portfolio was approximately 3.8 years. We had $5.5 million of mortgage-backed securities associated with Alt-A or subprime loans at December 31, 2009 and no collateralized debt obligations.

Our net unrealized position improved $301.3 million from a net unrealized loss position of $229.9 million at December 31, 2008 to a net unrealized gain position of $71.4 million at December 31, 2009. Gross unrealized losses were $78.4 million at December 31, 2009 compared to $313.0 million at December 31, 2008. Gross unrealized gains were $149.8 million at December 31, 2009 compared to $83.2 million at December 31, 2008. All issuers of securities we own trading at an unrealized loss remain current on all contractual payments. We believe these unrealized losses primarily were caused by an increase in market interest rates and tighter liquidity conditions in the current markets than when the securities were purchased. As of December 31, 2009, we do not intend to sell the securities with an unrealized loss position in accumulated other comprehensive income and it is not likely that we will be required to sell these securities before recovery of their amortized costs basis, and as a result, we believe that the securities with an unrealized loss are not other-than-temporarily impaired as of December 31, 2009.

During 2008, we recognized other-than-temporary impairments of $103.1 million of which $68.7 million resulted from investments in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., or Lehman, or its subsidiaries. Lehman and certain of its subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008. The other impairments primarily relate to declines in values of securities, primarily associated with the financial services industry. Of the $103.1 million, $48.5 million was allocated to the Government segment and $54.6 million was allocated to the Commercial segment. There were no material other-than-temporary impairments in 2009.

We continuously review our investment portfolios. There is a continuing risk that further declines in fair value may occur and additional material realized losses from sales or other-than-temporary impairments may be recorded in future periods.

In addition, in the fall of 2008 we terminated all fixed to variable interest-rate swap agreements outstanding associated with our senior notes based on recent changes in the credit market environment. In exchange for terminating these interest-rate swap agreements, we received cash of $93.0 million representing the fair value of the swap assets. This transaction also fixed the interest rate on our senior notes to a weighted-average rate of 6.08%. We may re-enter into swap agreements in the future depending on market conditions and other factors.

We believe our cash balances, investment securities, operating cash flows, and funds available under our credit agreement or from other public or private financing sources, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating and regulatory requirements, future expansion opportunities, and capital expenditures in the foreseeable future, as well as to refinance or repay debt. Our long-term debt, consisting primarily of senior notes, of $1,678.2 million represented 22.5% of total capitalization at December 31, 2009, declining from 30.3% at December 31, 2008. The earliest maturity of our senior notes is in June 2016. We have available a 5-year, $1.0 billion unsecured revolving credit agreement which expires in July 2011. As of December 31, 2009, there were no borrowings outstanding under this credit agreement.

 

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Certain of our subsidiaries operate in states that regulate the payment of dividends, loans, or other cash transfers to Humana Inc., our parent company, and require minimum levels of equity as well as limit investments to approved securities. The amount of dividends that may be paid to Humana Inc. by these subsidiaries, without prior approval by state regulatory authorities, is limited based on the entity’s level of statutory income and statutory capital and surplus. In most states, prior notification is provided before paying a dividend even if approval is not required. In 2009, our subsidiaries paid dividends of $774.1 million to the parent compared to $296.0 million in 2008. In addition, the parent made capital contributions to our subsidiaries of $132.3 million in 2009 compared to $242.8 million in 2008.

Based on the statutory financial statements as of December 31, 2009, we maintained aggregate statutory capital and surplus of $3.6 billion in our state regulated subsidiaries, $1.2 billion above the aggregate $2.4 billion in applicable statutory requirements which would trigger any regulatory action by the respective states.

Other Highlights

 

   

Earnings increased 60.6% to $6.15 per diluted common share in 2009 from $3.83 per diluted common share in 2008, primarily reflecting substantially lower stand-alone PDP claims expenses.

 

   

Cash flows from operations increased $439.3 million to $1,421.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2009 compared to $982.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2008. The increase primarily resulted from increased earnings associated with lower stand-alone PDP prescription drug claims.

We intend for the discussion of our financial condition and results of operations that follows to assist in the understanding of our financial statements and related changes in certain key items in those financial statements from year to year, including the primary factors that accounted for those changes.

Recent Acquisitions

On October 31, 2008 we acquired PHP Companies, Inc. (d/b/a Cariten Healthcare), or Cariten, for cash consideration of approximately $256.1 million. The Cariten acquisition increased our presence in eastern Tennessee, adding approximately 49,700 commercial fully-insured members, 21,600 commercial ASO members, and 46,900 Medicare HMO members. This acquisition also added approximately 85,700 Medicaid ASO members under a contract which expired on December 31, 2008 and was not renewed.

On August 29, 2008, we acquired Metcare Health Plans, Inc., or Metcare, for cash consideration of approximately $14.9 million. The acquisition expanded our Medicare HMO membership in central Florida, adding approximately 7,300 members.

On May 22, 2008, we acquired OSF Health Plans, Inc., or OSF, a managed care company serving both Medicare and commercial members in central Illinois, for cash consideration of approximately $87.3 million. This acquisition expanded our presence in Illinois, broadening our ability to serve multi-location employers with a wider range of products, including our specialty offerings. The acquisition added approximately 33,400 commercial fully-insured members, 29,700 commercial ASO members, and 14,000 Medicare HMO and PPO members.

On April 30, 2008, we acquired UnitedHealth Group’s Las Vegas, Nevada individual SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage HMO business, or SecureHorizons, for cash consideration of approximately $185.3 million, plus subsidiary capital and surplus requirements of $40 million. The acquisition expanded our presence in the Las Vegas market, adding approximately 26,700 Medicare HMO members.

On November 30, 2007, we acquired KMG America Corporation, or KMG, for cash consideration of $155.2 million plus the assumption of $36.1 million of long-term debt. KMG provides long-duration insurance benefits

 

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including supplemental health and life products. This acquisition added approximately 95,900 members, primarily commercial ASO. On October 1, 2007, we acquired CompBenefits Corporation, or CompBenefits, for cash consideration of $369.6 million. CompBenefits provides dental and vision insurance benefits and added approximately 4.4 million specialty members. These acquisitions expanded our commercial product offerings allowing for significant cross-selling opportunities with our medical insurance products.

On March 1, 2007, we acquired DefenseWeb Technologies, Inc., or DefenseWeb, a company responsible for delivering customized software solutions for the Department of Defense, for cash consideration of $27.5 million.

Certain of these transactions are more fully described in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

Comparison of Results of Operations for 2009 and 2008

Certain financial data for our two segments was as follows for the years ended December 31, 2009 and 2008:

 

     2009     2008     Change  
       Dollars     Percentage  
     (dollars in thousands)        

Premium revenues:

        

Medicare Advantage

   $ 16,413,301      $ 13,777,999      $ 2,635,302      19.1

Medicare stand-alone PDP

     2,327,418        3,380,400        (1,052,982   (31.1 )% 
                              

Total Medicare

     18,740,719        17,158,399        1,582,320      9.2

Military services

     3,426,739        3,218,270        208,469      6.5

Medicaid

     646,195        591,535        54,660      9.2
                              

Total Government

     22,813,653        20,968,204        1,845,449      8.8
                              

Fully-insured

     6,185,158        6,169,403        15,755      0.3

Specialty

     927,940        927,237        703      0.1
                              

Total Commercial

     7,113,098        7,096,640        16,458      0.2
                              

Total

   $ 29,926,751      $ 28,064,844      $ 1,861,907      6.6
                              

Administrative services fees:

        

Government

   $ 108,442      $ 85,868      $ 22,574      26.3

Commercial

     387,693        366,011        21,682      5.9
                              

Total

   $ 496,135      $ 451,879      $ 44,256      9.8
                              

Income before income taxes:

        

Government

   $ 1,497,606      $ 785,240      $ 712,366      90.7

Commercial

     104,154        207,608        (103,454   (49.8 )% 
                              

Total

   $ 1,601,760      $ 992,848      $ 608,912      61.3
                              

Benefit ratios(a):

        

Government

     83.5     85.9     (2.4 )% 

Commercial

     80.6     80.3     0.3
                        

Total

     82.8     84.5     (1.7 )% 
                        

SG&A expense ratios(b):

        

Government

     10.3     10.6     (0.3 )% 

Commercial

     24.1     22.4     1.7
                        

Total

     13.8     13.7     0.1
                        

 

(a) Represents total benefit expenses as a percentage of premium revenues. Also known as the benefit ratio.
(b) Represents total selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) as a percentage of premium revenues, administrative services fees, and other revenues. Also known as the SG&A expense ratio.

 

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Ending membership was as follows at December 31, 2009 and 2008:

 

     2009    2008    Change  
         Members     Percentage  

Medical Membership:

          

Government segment:

          

Medicare Advantage

   1,508,500    1,435,900    72,600      5.1

Medicare stand-alone PDP

   1,927,900    3,066,600    (1,138,700   (37.1 )% 
                      

Total Medicare

   3,436,400    4,502,500    (1,066,100   (23.7 )% 
                      

Military services

   1,756,000    1,736,400    19,600      1.1

Military services ASO

   1,278,400    1,228,300    50,100      4.1
                      

Total military services

   3,034,400    2,964,700    69,700      2.4
                      

Medicaid

   401,700    385,400    16,300      4.2

Medicaid ASO

   —      85,700    (85,700   (100.0 )% 
                      

Total Medicaid

   401,700    471,100    (69,400   (14.7 )% 
                      

Total Government

   6,872,500    7,938,300    (1,065,800   (13.4 )% 
                      

Commercial segment:

          

Fully-insured

   1,839,500    1,978,800    (139,300   (7.0 )% 

ASO

   1,571,300    1,642,000    (70,700   (4.3 )% 
                      

Total Commercial

   3,410,800    3,620,800    (210,000   (5.8 )% 
                      

Total medical membership

   10,283,300    11,559,100    (1,275,800   (11.0 )% 
                      

Specialty Membership:

          

Commercial segment(a)

   7,200,100    6,713,200    486,900      7.3
                      

 

(a) The Commercial segment provides a full range of insured specialty products including dental, vision, and other supplemental products. Members included in these products may not be unique to each product since members have the ability to enroll in multiple products.

These tables of financial data should be reviewed in connection with the discussion that follows.

Summary

Net income was $1,039.7 million, or $6.15 per diluted common share, in 2009 compared to $647.2 million, or $3.83 per diluted common share, in 2008. The year-over-year increase primarily reflects higher operating earnings in our Government segment as a result of significantly lower prescription drug claims expenses associated with our Medicare stand-alone PDP products.

Premium Revenues and Medical Membership

Premium revenues increased $1.8 billion, or 6.6%, to $29.9 billion for 2009, compared to $28.1 billion for 2008 primarily due to higher premium revenues in the Government segment. Premium revenues reflect changes in membership and increases in average per member premiums. Items impacting average per member premiums include changes in premium rates as well as changes in the geographic mix of membership, the mix of product offerings, and the mix of benefit plans selected by our membership.

Government segment premium revenues increased $1.8 billion, or 8.8%, to $22.8 billion for 2009 compared to $21.0 billion for 2008 primarily attributable to higher average Medicare Advantage membership and an increase in per member premiums partially offset by a decrease in our Medicare stand-alone PDP membership.

 

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Average membership is calculated by summing the ending membership for each month in a period and dividing the result by the number of months in a period. Average Medicare Advantage membership increased 11.5% in 2009 compared to 2008, including the impact from the 2008 acquisitions of Cariten, Metcare, OSF, and SecureHorizons, discussed previously. Sales of our PPO products drove the majority of the 72,600 increase in Medicare Advantage members since December 31, 2008. Medicare Advantage per member premiums increased 6.8% during 2009 compared to 2008 reflecting the effect of introducing member premiums for most of our Medicare Advantage products. Medicare stand-alone PDP premium revenues decreased $1.1 billion, or 31.1%, during 2009 compared to 2008 primarily due to a 1,138,700, or 37.1%, decrease in PDP membership since December 31, 2008, principally resulting from our competitive positioning as we realigned stand-alone PDP premium and benefit designs to correspond with our historical prescription drug claims experience.

Commercial segment premium revenues increased $16.5 million, or 0.2%, to $7.1 billion for 2009 primarily due to the acquisitions of OSF and Cariten in the second and fourth quarters of 2008, respectively, and an increase in per member premiums, substantially offset by a decline in fully-insured membership. Per member premiums for fully-insured group accounts increased 5.0% during 2009 compared to 2008. Fully-insured membership decreased 7.0%, or 139,300 members, to 1,839,500 at December 31, 2009 compared to 1,978,800 at December 31, 2008 primarily due to the impact of the economic recession which has led to increased in-group member attrition as employers reduce their workforce levels.

Administrative Services Fees

Our administrative services fees were $496.1 million for 2009, an increase of $44.2 million, or 9.8%, from $451.9 million for 2008, primarily due to an increase in per member fees, partially offset by a decline in Commercial ASO membership, primarily isolated to the loss of two larger ASO accounts.

Investment Income

Investment income totaled $296.3 million for 2009, an increase of $76.1 million from $220.2 million for 2008 primarily reflecting net realized losses in 2008 of $79.4 million compared to net realized gains of $19.5 million in 2009. Net realized losses in 2008 primarily resulted from other-than-temporary impairments in our investment and securities lending portfolios of $103.1 million. Excluding the change associated with net realized gains/losses, investment income decreased primarily due to lower interest rates, partially offset by higher average invested balances as a result of the reinvestment of operating cash flow.

Other Revenue

Other revenue totaled $241.2 million for 2009, an increase of $31.8 million from $209.4 million for 2008. The increase primarily was attributable to increased revenue from growth related to RightSourceRxSM, our mail-order pharmacy.

Benefit Expenses

Consolidated benefit expense was $24.8 billion for 2009, an increase of $1.1 billion, or 4.5%, from $23.7 billion for 2008. The increase primarily was driven by an increase in Government segment benefit expense, as described below.

The consolidated benefit ratio for 2009 was 82.8%, a 170 basis point decrease from 84.5% for 2008. The decrease primarily was attributable to a decrease in the Government segment benefit ratio as described below.

The Government segment’s benefit expenses increased $1.0 billion, or 5.7%, during 2009 compared to 2008 primarily due to an increase in the average number of Medicare Advantage members and the impact from the acquisitions of Cariten, Metcare, OSF, and SecureHorizons. The Government segment’s benefit ratio for 2009

 

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was 83.5%, a 240 basis point decrease from 2008 of 85.9%, primarily driven by a 320 basis point decline in the Medicare benefit ratio. The decline in the Medicare benefit ratio primarily resulted from a substantial decline in Medicare stand-alone PDP benefit expenses as a result of our competitive positioning as we realigned stand-alone PDP premium and benefit designs to correspond with our historical prescription drug claims experience.

The Commercial segment’s benefit expenses increased $36.3 million, or 0.6%, during 2009 compared to 2008 primarily due to the OSF and Cariten acquisitions in the second and fourth quarters of 2008, respectively. The benefit ratio for the Commercial segment of 80.6% for 2009 increased 30 basis points from the 2008 benefit ratio of 80.3%, primarily reflecting higher utilization associated with the general economy and the highly competitive environment, as well as the impact of the H1N1 virus, partially offset by an increase in per member premiums. We experienced higher utilization of benefits in our fully-insured group accounts as in-group attrition, primarily as a result of reductions of less experienced workers, has led to a shift in the mix of members to an older workforce having more health care needs, as well as members utilizing more benefits ahead of actual or perceived layoffs, members seeking to maximize their benefits once their deductibles are met, and increased COBRA participation.

SG&A Expense

Consolidated SG&A expenses increased $282.9 million, or 7.2%, during 2009 compared to 2008. The increase primarily resulted from an increase in the average number of our employees due to the Medicare growth and higher average individual product membership. The average number of our employees increased 1,600 to 28,500 for 2009 from 26,900 for 2008, or 5.9%.

The consolidated SG&A expense ratio for 2009 was 13.8%, increasing 10 basis points from 13.7% for 2008 primarily due to an increase in the Commercial segment SG&A expense ratio as discussed below. The consolidated SG&A expense ratio is expected to decrease to a range of 13.0% to 13.5% for 2010 from efforts to realign our cost structure.

Our Government and Commercial segments incur both direct and shared indirect overhead SG&A expenses. We allocate the indirect overhead expenses shared by the two segments primarily as a function of revenues. As a result, the profitability of each segment is interdependent.

SG&A expenses in the Government segment increased $137.0 million, or 6.2%, during 2009 compared to 2008. The Government segment SG&A expense ratio decreased 30 basis points from 10.6% for 2008 to 10.3% for 2009. The decrease primarily resulted from efficiency gains associated with servicing higher average Medicare Advantage membership. For example, during 2009 we transitioned the recently acquired OSF and Metcare members into our primary Medicare service platform and eliminated the cost of having duplicate platforms.

Commercial segment SG&A expenses increased $145.9 million, or 8.5%, during 2009 compared to 2008. The Commercial segment SG&A expense ratio increased 170 basis points from 22.4% for 2008 to 24.1% for 2009. The increase primarily was due to administrative costs associated with increased business for our mail-order pharmacy and higher average individual product membership. Average individual product membership increased 17.6% during 2009 compared to 2008. Individual accounts bear a higher SG&A expense ratio due to higher distribution costs as compared to larger accounts.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization for 2009 totaled $250.3 million compared to $220.4 million for 2008, an increase of $29.9 million, or 13.6%, primarily reflecting depreciation expense associated with capital expenditures since December 31, 2008.

 

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Interest Expense

Interest expense was $105.8 million for 2009, compared to $80.3 million for 2008, an increase of $25.5 million, primarily due to higher interest rates and higher average outstanding debt. In the second quarter of 2008, we issued $500 million of 7.20% senior notes due June 15, 2018 and $250 million of 8.15% senior notes due June 15, 2038, the proceeds of which were used for the repayment of the outstanding balance under our credit agreement. The weighted average effective interest rate for all of our long-term debt was 5.97% for 2009 and 4.73% for 2008.

Income Taxes

Our effective tax rate for 2009 of 35.1% compared to the effective tax rate of 34.8% for 2008. The increase was due to a lower proportion of tax exempt investment income to pretax income substantially offset by the reduction of the $16.8 million liability for unrecognized tax benefits in the first quarter of 2009 as a result of audit settlements. See Note 10 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for a complete reconciliation of the federal statutory rate to the effective tax rate. We expect the 2010 effective tax rate to be approximately 36.0%.

Comparison of Results of Operations for 2008 and 2007

Certain financial data for our two segments was as follows for the years ended December 31, 2008 and 2007:

 

     2008     2007     Change  
       Dollars     Percentage  
     (dollars in thousands)        

Premium revenues:

        

Medicare Advantage

   $ 13,777,999      $ 11,173,417      $ 2,604,582      23.3

Medicare stand-alone PDP

     3,380,400        3,668,425        (288,025   (7.9 )% 
                              

Total Medicare

     17,158,399        14,841,842        2,316,557      15.6

Military services

     3,218,270        2,839,790        378,480      13.3

Medicaid

     591,535        555,594        35,941      6.5
                              

Total Government

     20,968,204        18,237,226        2,730,978      15.0
                              

Fully-insured

     6,169,403        5,663,000        506,403      8.9

Specialty

     927,237        534,121        393,116      73.6
                              

Total Commercial

     7,096,640        6,197,121        899,519      14.5
                              

Total

   $ 28,064,844      $ 24,434,347      $ 3,630,497      14.9
                              

Administrative services fees:

        

Government

   $ 85,868      $ 73,659      $ 12,209      16.6

Commercial

     366,011        317,856        48,155      15.1
                              

Total

   $ 451,879      $ 391,515      $ 60,364      15.4
                              

Income before income taxes:

        

Government

   $ 785,240      $ 1,027,531      $ (242,291   (23.6 )% 

Commercial

     207,608        261,769        (54,161   (20.7 )% 
                              

Total

   $ 992,848      $ 1,289,300      $ (296,452   (23.0 )% 
                              

Benefit ratios(a):

        

Government

     85.9     83.8     2.1

Commercial

     80.3     80.5     (0.2 )% 
                        

Total

     84.5     83.0     1.5
                        

SG&A expense ratios(b):

        

Government

     10.6     11.2     (0.6 )% 

Commercial

     22.4     21.5     0.9
                        

Total

     13.7     13.9     (0.2 )% 
                        

 

(a) Represents total benefit expenses as a percentage of premium revenues. Also known as the benefit ratio.
(b) Represents total selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) as a percentage of premium revenues, administrative services fees, and other revenues. Also known as the SG&A expense ratio.

 

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Ending membership was as follows at December 31, 2008 and 2007:

 

     2008    2007    Change  
         Members     Percentage  

Medical Membership:

          

Government segment:

          

Medicare Advantage

   1,435,900    1,143,000    292,900      25.6

Medicare stand-alone PDP

   3,066,600    3,442,000    (375,400   (10.9 )% 
                      

Total Medicare

   4,502,500    4,585,000    (82,500   (1.8 )% 
                      

Military services

   1,736,400    1,719,100    17,300      1.0

Military services ASO

   1,228,300    1,146,800    81,500      7.1
                      

Total military services

   2,964,700    2,865,900    98,800      3.4
                      

Medicaid

   385,400    384,400    1,000      0.3

Medicaid ASO

   85,700    180,600    (94,900   (52.5 )% 
                      

Total Medicaid

   471,100    565,000    (93,900   (16.6 )% 
                      

Total Government

   7,938,300    8,015,900    (77,600   (1.0 )% 
                      

Commercial segment:

          

Fully-insured

   1,978,800    1,808,600    170,200      9.4

ASO

   1,642,000    1,643,000    (1,000   (0.1 )% 
                      

Total Commercial

   3,620,800    3,451,600    169,200      4.9
                      

Total medical membership

   11,559,100    11,467,500    91,600      0.8
                      

Specialty Membership:

          

Commercial segment(a)

   6,713,200    6,643,800    69,400      1.0
                      

 

(a) The Commercial segment provides a full range of insured specialty products including dental, vision, and other supplemental products. Members included in these products may not be unique to each product since members have the ability to enroll in multiple products.

These tables of financial data should be reviewed in connection with the discussion that follows.

Summary

Net income was $647.2 million, or $3.83 per diluted common share, in 2008 compared to $833.7 million, or $4.91 per diluted common share, in 2007. The year-over-year decline primarily reflects lower operating earnings in our Government segment as a result of higher expenses associated with our Medicare stand-alone PDP products and lower net investment income primarily due to other-than-temporary impairments in our investment portfolios of $65.3 million, or $0.39 per diluted common share.

Premium Revenues and Medical Membership

Premium revenues increased $3.7 billion, or 14.9%, to $28.1 billion for 2008, compared to $24.4 billion for 2007 primarily due to higher premium revenues in both the Government and Commercial segments. Premium revenues reflect changes in membership and increases in average per member premiums. Items impacting average per member premiums include changes in premium rates as well as changes in the geographic mix of membership, the mix of product offerings, and the mix of benefit plans selected by our membership.

Government segment premium revenues increased $2.8 billion, or 15.0%, to $21.0 billion for 2008 compared to $18.2 billion for 2007 primarily attributable to higher average Medicare Advantage membership and

 

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an increase in per member premiums partially offset by a decrease in our Medicare stand-alone PDP membership. Average Medicare Advantage membership increased 18.7% in 2008 compared to 2007. Sales of our PPO and PFFS products drove the majority of the 292,900 increase in Medicare Advantage members since December 31, 2007. The Cariten, OSF, SecureHorizons, and Metcare acquisitions also added 94,900 Medicare HMO and PPO members. Medicare Advantage per member premiums increased 3.9% during 2008 compared to 2007. Medicare stand-alone PDP premium revenues decreased 7.9% during the 2008 period compared to the 2007 period, primarily due to a 375,400, or 10.9%, decrease in PDP membership since December 31, 2007.

Commercial segment premium revenues increased $0.9 billion, or 14.5%, to $7.1 billion for 2008 primarily due to our specialty product offerings, including dental, vision, and other supplemental health and life products, as a result of the CompBenefits and KMG acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2007, as well as strategic line-of-business organic growth. Our fully-insured membership increased 9.4%, or 170,200 members, to 1,978,800 at December 31, 2008 compared to 1,808,600 at December 31, 2007. Excluding 83,100 fully-insured members added with the acquisitions of Cariten and OSF, the increase primarily was due to membership gains in Smart products and other consumer offerings, individual, and small group product lines.

Administrative Services Fees

Our administrative services fees were $451.9 million for 2008, an increase of $60.4 million, or 15.4%, from $391.5 million for 2007, primarily due to higher rates, a shift in the mix of Commercial segment membership towards higher rate groups, and the impact from acquisitions.

Investment Income

Investment income totaled $220.2 million for 2008, a decrease of $94.0 million from $314.2 million for 2007, primarily reflecting other-than-temporary impairments in our investment and securities lending portfolios of $103.1 million recorded during 2008. Of the $103.1 million, $48.5 million was allocated to the Government segment and $54.6 million was allocated to the Commercial segment. Excluding these realized losses, investment income increased primarily due to higher average invested balances and net realized capital gains, partially offset by lower interest rates. Higher average invested balances primarily resulted from the reinvestment of operating cash flow and the acquired investment portfolio related to the KMG acquisition.

Other Revenue

Other revenue totaled $209.4 million for 2008, an increase of $59.5 million from $149.9 million for 2007. The increase primarily was attributable to increased revenue from growth related to RightSourceRxSM, our mail-order pharmacy.

Benefit Expenses

Consolidated benefit expense was $23.7 billion for 2008, an increase of $3.4 billion, or 17.0%, from $20.3 billion for 2007. The increase primarily was driven by an increase in Government segment benefit expense.

The consolidated benefit ratio for 2008 was 84.5%, a 150 basis point increase from 83.0% for 2007. The increase primarily was attributable to a higher Government segment benefit ratio.

The Government segment’s benefit expenses increased $2.7 billion, or 17.9%, during 2008 compared to 2007 primarily due to an increase in the average number of Medicare Advantage members. The Government segment’s benefit ratio for 2008 was 85.9%, a 210 basis point increase from 2007 of 83.8% primarily due to a higher Medicare stand-alone PDP benefit ratio from higher prescription drug utilization and an increase in the percentage of higher cost members in our Medicare stand-alone prescription drug plans.

 

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The Commercial segment’s benefit expense increased $709.4 million, or 14.2%, from 2008 to 2007. This increase primarily resulted from the CompBenefits and KMG acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase in fully-insured membership and an increase in average per member claim costs primarily from the effects of health care inflation. The benefit ratio for the Commercial segment of 80.3% for 2008 decreased 20 basis points from the 2007 benefit ratio of 80.5% primarily reflecting an increase in average members in our specialty products from the acquisition of CompBenefits in the fourth quarter of 2007 and organic growth in our individual line of business. Individual and specialty, primarily dental and vision, accounts generally carry a lower benefit ratio and a higher SG&A expense ratio compared to larger accounts due to higher distribution costs. See related SG&A expense ratio discussion in the following section.

SG&A Expense

Consolidated SG&A expenses increased $468.2 million, or 13.5%, during 2008 compared to 2007. The increases primarily resulted from an increase in the number of employees due to the Medicare growth, and the CompBenefits and KMG acquisitions. The number of employees increased by 3,900 to 28,900 at December 31, 2008 from 25,000 at December 31, 2007, or 15.6%.

The consolidated SG&A expense ratio for 2008 was 13.7%, decreasing 20 basis points from 13.9% for 2007 primarily due to improving administrative cost efficiency associated with servicing higher average Medicare Advantage and Commercial medical membership, partially offset by growth in certain of our businesses which carry a higher administrative expense load such as mail-order pharmacy, specialty products, and individual medical products.

Our Government and Commercial segments bear both direct and shared indirect overhead SG&A expenses. We allocate the indirect overhead expenses shared by the two segments primarily as a function of revenues. As a result, the profitability of each segment is interdependent.

SG&A expenses in the Government segment increased $180.9 million, or 8.9%, during 2008 compared to 2007. The Government segment SG&A expense ratio decreased 60 basis points from 11.2% for 2007 to 10.6% for 2008. The decrease primarily resulted from efficiency gains associated with servicing higher average Medicare Advantage membership.

The Commercial segment SG&A expenses increased $287.3 million, or 20.0%, during 2008 compared to 2007. The Commercial segment SG&A expense ratio increased 90 basis points from 21.5% for 2007 to 22.4% for 2008. The increases primarily were due to an increase in specialty business, including the acquisition of CompBenefits and KMG in the fourth quarter of 2007, together with higher average individual product membership and increased mail-order pharmacy business. Average individual product membership increased 40.5% during 2008 compared to 2007. Specialty and individual accounts bear a higher SG&A expense ratio due to higher distribution costs as compared to larger accounts.

Depreciation and Amortization

Depreciation and amortization for 2008 totaled $220.4 million compared to $184.8 million for 2007, an increase of $35.6 million, or 19.3%, reflecting higher intangible amortization expense due to acquisitions and increased capital expenditures.

Interest Expense

Interest expense was $80.3 million for 2008, compared to $68.9 million for 2007, an increase of $11.4 million, primarily due to higher average outstanding debt, partially offset by lower rates.

 

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Income Taxes

Our effective tax rate for 2008 of 34.8% compared to the effective tax rate of 35.3% for 2007. The decrease primarily was due to a lower combined state income tax rate and a greater proportion of tax-exempt investment income to total pretax income in 2008. See Note 10 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.— Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for a complete reconciliation of the federal statutory rate to the effective tax rate.

Liquidity

Our primary sources of cash include receipts of premiums, ASO fees, and investment income, as well as proceeds from the sale or maturity of our investment securities and from borrowings. Our primary uses of cash include disbursements for claims payments, SG&A expenses, interest on borrowings, taxes, purchases of investment securities, acquisitions, capital expenditures, and repayments on borrowings. Because premiums generally are collected in advance of claim payments by a period of up to several months, our business normally should produce positive cash flows during periods of increasing premiums and enrollment. Conversely, cash flows would be negatively impacted during periods of decreasing premiums and enrollment. The use of operating cash flows may be limited by regulatory requirements which require, among other items, that our regulated subsidiaries maintain minimum levels of capital.

Cash and cash equivalents decreased to $1,613.6 million at December 31, 2009 from $1,970.4 million at December 31, 2008. The change in cash and cash equivalents for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007 is summarized as follows:

 

     2009     2008     2007  
     (in thousands)  

Net cash provided by operating activities

   $ 1,421,582      $ 982,310      $ 1,224,262   

Net cash used in investing activities

     (1,859,261     (498,324     (1,845,391

Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities

     80,844        (554,016     921,278   
                        

(Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents

   $ (356,835   $ (70,030   $ 300,149   
                        

Cash Flow from Operating Activities

The change in operating cash flows over the three year period primarily results from the corresponding change in earnings. Our 2008 operating cash flows and earnings were impacted by significantly higher prescription drug claim payments for our Medicare stand-alone PDPs as discussed previously.

Comparisons of our operating cash flows also are impacted by other changes in our working capital. The most significant drivers of changes in our working capital are typically the timing of receipts for premiums and ASO fees and payments of benefit expenses. We illustrate these changes with the following summaries of receivables and benefits payable.

 

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The detail of total net receivables was as follows at December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007:

 

     2009     2008     2007     Change  
         2009      2008  
     (in thousands)  

Military services:

           

Base receivable

   $ 451,248      $ 436,009      $ 404,570      $ 15,239       $ 31,439   

Change orders

     2,024        6,190        5,168        (4,166      1,022   
                                         

Military services subtotal

     453,272        442,199        409,738        11,073         32,461   

Medicare

     238,056        232,608        137,345        5,448         95,263   

Commercial and other

     183,124        164,035        126,718        19,089         37,317   

Allowance for doubtful accounts

     (50,832     (49,160     (68,260     (1,672      19,100   
                                         

Total net receivables

   $ 823,620      $ 789,682      $ 605,541        33,938         184,141   
                             

Reconciliation to cash flow statement:

           

Provision for doubtful accounts

           19,054         5,398   

Receivables from acquisition

           6,974         (36,646
                       

Change in receivables per cash flow statement resulting in cash from operations

         $ 59,966       $ 152,893   
                       

Military services base receivables consist of estimated claims owed from the federal government for health care services provided to beneficiaries and underwriting fees. The claim reimbursement component of military services base receivables is generally collected over a three to four month period. The timing of claim reimbursements resulted in the $15.2 million and $31.4 million increase in base receivables for 2009 as compared to 2008 and 2008 as compared to 2007, respectively, and the $47.9 million decrease in base receivables for 2007 as compared to 2006.

Medicare receivables increased $5.4 million in 2009 as compared to 2008 and $95.3 million for 2008 as compared to 2007, and decreased $6.5 million for 2007 as compared to 2006. Medicare receivables are impacted by the timing of accruals and related collections associated with the CMS risk-adjustment model.

The detail of benefits payable was as follows at December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007:

 

     2009    2008    2007    Change  
            2009      2008  
     (in thousands)  

IBNR(1)

   $ 1,902,700    $ 1,851,047    $ 1,695,088    $ 51,653       $ 155,959   

Military services benefits payable(2)

     279,195      306,797      341,372      (27,602      (34,575

Reported claims in process(3)

     357,718      486,514      253,054      (128,796      233,460   

Other benefits payable(4)

     682,961      561,221      407,319      121,740         153,902   
                                      

Total benefits payable

   $ 3,222,574    $ 3,205,579    $ 2,696,833      16,995         508,746   
                          

Reconciliation to cash flow statement:

              

Benefits payable from acquisition

              —           (96,021
                          

Change in benefits payable in cash flow statement resulting in cash from operations

            $ 16,995       $ 412,725   
                          

 

(1) IBNR represents an estimate of benefits payable for claims incurred but not reported (IBNR) at the balance sheet date. The level of IBNR is primarily impacted by membership levels, medical claim trends and the receipt cycle time, which represents the length of time between when a claim is initially incurred and when the claim form is received (i.e. a shorter time span results in a lower IBNR).

 

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(2) Military services benefits payable primarily results from the timing of the cost of providing health care services to beneficiaries and the payment to the provider. A corresponding receivable for reimbursement by the federal government is included in the base receivable in the previous receivables table.
(3) Reported claims in process represents the estimated valuation of processed claims that are in the post claim adjudication process, which consists of administrative functions such as audit and check batching and handling, as well as amounts owed to our pharmacy benefit administrator which fluctuate due to bi-weekly payments and the month-end cutoff.
(4) Other benefits payable include amounts owed to providers under capitated and risk sharing arrangements.

The increase in benefits payable in 2009 primarily was due to an increase in amounts owed to providers under capitated and risk sharing arrangements as well as an increase in IBNR, both primarily as a result of Medicare Advantage membership growth, partially offset by a decrease in the amount of processed but unpaid claims, including pharmacy claims, which fluctuate due to month-end cutoff. The increase in benefits payable in 2008 and 2007 primarily was due to the increase in IBNR from growth in Medicare Advantage members and, to a lesser extent, benefit claims inflation, an increase in the amount of processed but unpaid claims, including pharmacy claims, which fluctuate due to month-end cutoff, and an increase in amounts owed to providers under capitated and risk sharing arrangements from Medicare Advantage membership growth.

In addition to the timing of receipts for premiums and ASO fees and payments of benefit expenses, other working capital items impacting operating cash flows over the past three years primarily resulted from changes in the timing of collections of pharmacy rebates as well as the Medicare Part D risk corridor provisions of our contracts with CMS.

Cash Flow from Investing Activities

We reinvested a portion of our operating cash flows in investment securities, primarily fixed income securities, totaling $1,975.2 million in 2009, $685.5 million in 2008, and $430.1 million in 2007. Our ongoing capital expenditures primarily relate to our information technology initiatives and administrative facilities necessary for activities such as claims processing, billing and collections, medical utilization review, and customer service. Total capital expenditures, excluding acquisitions, were $185.5 million in 2009, $261.6 million in 2008, and $239.2 million in 2007. Increased capital spending in 2008 included expenditures associated with constructing a new data center building and mail-order pharmacy warehouse and capital spending in 2007 included the purchase of three medical centers which were previously leased in South Florida. Excluding acquisitions, we expect total capital expenditures in 2010 of approximately $200 million. Cash consideration paid for acquisitions, net of cash acquired, of $422.9 million in 2008 and $493.5 million in 2007 primarily related to the SecureHorizons, OSF, and Cariten acquisitions in 2008 and the CompBenefits and KMG acquisitions in 2007.

Cash Flow from Financing Activities

In 2009, net borrowings under our credit agreement decreased $250.0 million primarily from the repayment of amounts borrowed to fund the acquisition of Cariten. During 2008, the net repayment of $550 million under our credit agreement primarily related to amounts repaid from the issuance of $750 million in senior notes offset by the $250 million financing of the Cariten acquisition. Net borrowings of $350 million under our credit agreement during 2007 primarily related to the financing of the CompBenefits and KMG acquisitions.

In June 2008, we issued $500 million of 7.20% senior notes due June 15, 2018 and $250 million of 8.15% senior notes due June 15, 2038. Our net proceeds, reduced for the original issue discount and cost of the offering, were $742.6 million. We used the net proceeds from the offering for the repayment of the outstanding balance under our credit agreement.

 

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Receipts from CMS associated with Medicare Part D claim subsidies for which we do not assume risk were $493.5 million higher than claims payments during 2009, $188.7 million higher than claim payments during 2008, and $185.1 million less than claims payments during 2007. See Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.-Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for further description.

In exchange for terminating interest-rate swap agreements in 2008, we received cash of $93.0 million.

The remainder of the cash used in or provided by financing activities in 2009, 2008, and 2007 primarily resulted from the change in the securities lending payable, common stock repurchases, proceeds from stock option exercises, and the excess tax benefit from stock compensation. The decrease in securities lending since 2007 resulted from lower margins earned under the program. During 2009, there were no repurchases of common shares under the stock repurchase plan authorized by the Board of Directors. During 2008, we repurchased 2.1 million common shares for $92.8 million under the stock repurchase plan authorized by the Board of Directors. We also acquired common shares in connection with employee stock plans for an aggregate cost of $22.8 million in 2009, $13.3 million in 2008, and $27.4 million in 2007.

Future Sources and Uses of Liquidity

Stock Repurchase Plan

On February 22, 2008, the Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to $150 million of our common shares exclusive of shares repurchased in connection with employee stock plans. During the year ended December 31, 2008, we repurchased 2.1 million shares in open market transactions for $92.8 million at an average price of $44.19. On July 28, 2008 (announced August 4, 2008), the Board of Directors increased the authorized amount to $250 million, excluding the $92.8 million used prior to that time in connection with the initial February 2008 authorization. No shares were repurchased in 2008 or 2009 under the July 2008 authorization. The July authorization was set to expire on December 31, 2009. On December 10, 2009 (announced December 11, 2009), the Board of Directors renewed its $250 million authorization through December 31, 2011. Under this authorized share repurchase program, shares may be purchased from time to time at prevailing prices in the open market, by block purchases, or in privately-negotiated transactions, subject to certain restrictions on volume, pricing and timing. We have not yet repurchased any shares under the December 2009 authorization.

Senior Notes

During 2008, we issued $500 million of 7.20% senior notes due June 15, 2018 and $250 million of 8.15% senior notes due June 15, 2038. The 7.20% and 8.15% senior notes are subject to an interest rate adjustment if the debt ratings assigned to the notes are downgraded (or subsequently upgraded) and contain a change of control provision that may require us to purchase the notes under certain circumstances. We also previously issued $300 million of 6.30% senior notes due August 1, 2018 and $500 million of 6.45% senior notes due June 1, 2016. All four series of our senior notes, which are unsecured, may be redeemed at our option at any time at 100% of the principal amount plus accrued interest and a specified make-whole amount. Concurrent with the senior notes issuances, we entered into interest-rate swap agreements to exchange the fixed interest rate under these senior notes for a variable interest rate based on LIBOR. During 2008, we terminated all of our swap agreements. We may re-enter into swap agreements in the future depending on market conditions and other factors. Our senior notes and related swap agreements are more fully discussed in Notes 11 and 12 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

Credit Agreement

Our 5-year $1.0 billion unsecured revolving credit agreement expires in July 2011. Under the credit agreement, at our option, we can borrow on either a revolving credit basis or a competitive advance basis. The revolving credit portion bears interest at either a fixed rate or floating rate based on LIBOR plus a spread. The

 

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spread, currently 50 basis points, varies depending on our credit ratings ranging from 27 to 80 basis points. We also pay an annual facility fee regardless of utilization. This facility fee, currently 12.5 basis points, may fluctuate between 8 and 20 basis points, depending upon our credit ratings. In addition, a utilization fee of 10 basis points is payable for each day in which borrowings under the facility exceed 50% of the total $1.0 billion commitment. The competitive advance portion of any borrowings will bear interest at market rates prevailing at the time of borrowing on either a fixed rate or a floating rate based on LIBOR, at our option.

The terms of the credit agreement include standard provisions related to conditions of borrowing, including a customary material adverse event clause which could limit our ability to borrow additional funds. In addition, the credit agreement contains customary restrictive and financial covenants as well as customary events of default, including financial covenants regarding the maintenance of a minimum level of net worth of $3,387.9 million at December 31, 2009 and a maximum leverage ratio of 3.0:1. We are in compliance with the financial covenants, with actual net worth of $5,776.0 million and a leverage ratio of 0.8:1, as measured in accordance with the credit agreement as of December 31, 2009.

At December 31, 2009, we had no borrowings outstanding under the credit agreement. We have outstanding letters of credit of $3.5 million secured under the credit agreement. No amounts have ever been drawn on these letters of credit. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2009, we had $996.5 million of remaining borrowing capacity under the credit agreement, none of which would be restricted by our financial covenant compliance requirement. We have other customary, arms-length relationships, including financial advisory and banking, with some parties to the credit agreement.

Other Long-Term Borrowings

Other long-term borrowings of $37.5 million at December 31, 2009 represent junior subordinated debt assumed in the 2007 KMG acquisition of $36.1 million and financing for the renovation of a building of $1.4 million. The junior subordinated debt, which is due in 2037, may be called by us in 2012 and bears a fixed annual interest rate of 8.02% payable quarterly until 2012, and then payable at a floating rate based on LIBOR plus 310 basis points. The debt associated with the building renovation bears interest at 2.00%, is collateralized by the building, and is payable in various installments through 2014.

Liquidity Requirements

We believe our cash balances, investment securities, operating cash flows, and funds available under our credit agreement or from other public or private financing sources, taken together, provide adequate resources to fund ongoing operating and regulatory requirements, future expansion opportunities, and capital expenditures in the foreseeable future, and to refinance or repay debt. See the section entitled “Risk Factors” in this report.

Adverse changes in our credit rating may increase the rate of interest we pay and may impact the amount of credit available to us in the future. Our investment-grade credit rating at December 31, 2009 was BBB- according to Standard & Poor’s Rating Services, or S&P, and Baa3 according to Moody’s Investors Services, Inc., or Moody’s. A downgrade by S&P to BB+ or by Moody’s to Ba1 triggers an interest rate increase of 25 basis points with respect to $750 million of our senior notes. Successive one notch downgrades increase the interest rate an additional 25 basis points, or annual interest expense by $1.9 million, up to a maximum 100 basis points, or annual interest expense by $7.5 million.

In addition, we operate as a holding company in a highly regulated industry. The parent company is dependent upon dividends and administrative expense reimbursements from our subsidiaries, most of which are subject to regulatory restrictions. Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at the parent company increased $415.1 million to $665.6 million at December 31, 2009 compared to $250.5 million at December 31, 2008. We continue to maintain significant levels of aggregate excess statutory capital and surplus in our state-regulated operating subsidiaries. During 2009, our subsidiaries paid dividends of $774.1 million to the parent compared to $296.0 million in 2008 and $377.0 million in 2007. In addition, the parent made capital contributions to our subsidiaries of $132.3 million in 2009 compared to $242.8 million in 2008 and $307.3 million in 2007.

 

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Regulatory Requirements

Certain of our subsidiaries operate in states that regulate the payment of dividends, loans, or other cash transfers to Humana Inc., the parent company, and require minimum levels of equity as well as limit investments to approved securities. The amount of dividends that may be paid to Humana Inc. by these subsidiaries, without prior approval by state regulatory authorities, is limited based on the entity’s level of statutory income and statutory capital and surplus. In most states, prior notification is provided before paying a dividend even if approval is not required.

Although minimum required levels of equity are largely based on premium volume, product mix, and the quality of assets held, minimum requirements can vary significantly at the state level. Based on the statutory financial statements as of December 31, 2009, we maintained aggregate statutory capital and surplus of $3.6 billion in our state regulated subsidiaries, $1.2 billion above the aggregate $2.4 billion in applicable statutory requirements which would trigger any regulatory action by the respective states.

Contractual Obligations

We are contractually obligated to make payments for years subsequent to December 31, 2009 as follows:

 

     Payments Due by Period
     Total    Less than
1 Year
   1-3 Years    3-5 Years    More than
5 Years
     (in thousands)

Debt

   $ 1,587,528    $ 540    $ 614    $ 291    $ 1,586,083

Interest(1)

     1,311,551      111,734      222,109      220,073      757,635

Operating leases(2)

     598,913      133,634      218,684      136,415      110,180

Purchase obligations(3)

     139,369      65,879      57,808      15,682      —  

Future policy benefits payable and other long-term liabilities(4)

     1,484,989      45,656      219,446      133,645      1,086,242
                                  

Total

   $ 5,122,350    $ 357,443    $ 718,661    $ 506,106    $ 3,540,140
                                  

 

(1) Interest includes the estimated contractual interest payments under our debt agreements.
(2) We lease facilities, computer hardware, and other equipment under long-term operating leases that are noncancelable and expire on various dates through 2019. We sublease facilities or partial facilities to third party tenants for space not used in our operations which partially mitigates our operating lease commitments. An operating lease is a type of off-balance sheet arrangement. Assuming we acquired the asset, rather than leased such asset, we would have recognized a liability for the financing of these assets. See also Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.
(3) Purchase obligations include agreements to purchase services, primarily information technology related services, or to make improvements to real estate, in each case that are enforceable and legally binding on us and that specify all significant terms, including: fixed or minimum levels of service to be purchased; fixed, minimum or variable price provisions; and the appropriate timing of the transaction. Purchase obligations exclude agreements that are cancelable without penalty.
(4) Includes future policy benefits payable ceded to third parties through 100% coinsurance agreements as more fully described in Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. We expect the assuming reinsurance carriers to fund these obligations and reflected these amounts as reinsurance recoverables included in other long-term assets on our consolidated balance sheet. Amounts payable in less than one year are included in trade accounts payable and accrued expenses in the consolidated balance sheet.

 

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Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

As part of our ongoing business, we do not participate or knowingly seek to participate in transactions that generate relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance or special purpose entities (SPEs), which would have been established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. As of December 31, 2009, we are not involved in any SPE transactions.

Guarantees and Indemnifications

Through indemnity agreements approved by the state regulatory authorities, certain of our regulated subsidiaries generally are guaranteed by Humana Inc., our parent company, in the event of insolvency for (1) member coverage for which premium payment has been made prior to insolvency; (2) benefits for members then hospitalized until discharged; and (3) payment to providers for services rendered prior to insolvency. Our parent also has guaranteed the obligations of our military services subsidiaries.

In the ordinary course of business, we enter into contractual arrangements under which we may agree to indemnify a third party to such arrangement from any losses incurred relating to the services they perform on behalf of us, or for losses arising from certain events as defined within the particular contract, which may include, for example, litigation or claims relating to past performance. Such indemnification obligations may not be subject to maximum loss clauses. Historically, payments made related to these indemnifications have been immaterial.

Related Parties

No related party transactions had a material effect on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. Certain related party transactions not having a material effect are discussed in our Proxy Statement for the meeting to be held April 20, 2010—see “Certain Transactions with Management and Others.”

Government Contracts

Our Medicare business, which accounted for approximately 62% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009, primarily consisted of products covered under the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan contracts with the federal government. These contracts are renewed generally for a one-year term each December 31 unless CMS notifies us of its decision not to renew by August 1 of the calendar year in which the contract would end, or we notify CMS of our decision not to renew by the first Monday in June of the calendar year in which the contract would end. All material contracts between Humana and CMS relating to our Medicare business have been renewed for 2010.

CMS is continuing to perform audits of selected Medicare Advantage plans of various companies to validate the provider coding practices and resulting economics under the actuarial risk-adjustment model used to calculate the individual member capitation paid to Medicare Advantage plans. Several Humana contracts have been selected by CMS for audit and we expect that CMS will continue conducting audits for the 2007 contract year and beyond.

We generally rely on providers to appropriately document all medical data including risk-adjustment data in their medical records and appropriately code their claim submissions, which we generally send to CMS as the basis for our payment received from CMS under the actuarial risk-adjustment model. The CMS audits involve a review of a sample of provider medical records for the contracts being audited. Rates paid to Medicare Advantage plans are established under a bid model, the actuarial process whereby our premium is based on a comparison of our beneficiaries’ risk scores, derived from medical diagnoses, to those enrolled in the government’s original Medicare program. As a result, we believe that an actuarially sound adjustment of payments from these audits would need to take into account the level of coding accuracy and provider medical

 

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record documentation completeness under the government’s original Medicare program, since the risk adjustment system, bids, benefit structures and payment rates were premised on that data. This would help to ensure that the audit methodology applied to Medicare Advantage plans accurately calculates the economic impact of the audit findings. Additionally, our payment received from CMS, as well as benefits offered and premiums charged to members, is based on bids that did not, by CMS design, include any assumption of retroactive audit payment adjustments. We believe that applying a retroactive audit adjustment after CMS acceptance of bids would improperly alter this process of establishing member benefits and premiums.

CMS has not formally announced its audit payment adjustment methodology, nor has CMS formally indicated whether the audit payment adjustment methodology will be based on a comparison to original Medicare coding accuracy. CMS has further indicated that it may make retroactive contract-level payment adjustments. Any such payment adjustments could occur as early as 2010, and could be effected prior to our, or other Medicare Advantage plans, having the opportunity to appeal audit findings or the underlying payment adjustment methodology. We continue to work with CMS and our industry group to submit comments to CMS regarding its proposed audit and appeals process, which CMS has published in a proposed rule and has referenced in informal guidance documents. We are unable to estimate the financial impact of any audits that may be conducted related to 2007 revenue and beyond or whether any findings would cause a change to our method of estimating future premium revenue in bid submissions made to CMS for future contract years, or compromise premium rate assumptions made in our bids for prior contract years. At this time, we do not know whether CMS will require payment adjustments to be made using an audit methodology without comparison to original Medicare coding, and using its method of extrapolating findings to the entire contract. However, if CMS requires payment adjustments to be made using an audit methodology without comparison to original Medicare coding, and using a method of extrapolating findings to the entire contract, and if we are unable to obtain any relief preventing the payment adjustments from being implemented, we believe that such adjustments would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Our Medicaid business, which accounted for approximately 2% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009, consists of contracts in Puerto Rico and Florida, with the vast majority in Puerto Rico. Our Medicaid contracts with the Puerto Rico Health Insurance Administration, or PRHIA, for the East and Southeast regions were extended through December 31, 2009 with no change in terms. The PRHIA has confirmed its intention to extend the current contracts until June 30, 2010, with no changes in terms, and is in the process of executing such extensions.

The loss of any of the contracts above or significant changes in these programs as a result of legislative action, including reductions in premium payments to us, or increases in member benefits without corresponding increases in premium payments to us, may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

Our military services business, which accounted for approximately 12% of our total premiums and ASO fees for the year ended December 31, 2009, primarily consists of the TRICARE South Region contract. The original 5-year South Region contract expired March 31, 2009. Through an Amendment of Solicitation/Modification of Contract to the TRICARE South Region contract, an additional one-year option period, the sixth option period, which runs from April 1, 2009 through March 31, 2010, was exercised by the government. The Amendment also provides for two additional six-month option periods: the seventh option period runs from April 1, 2010 through September 30, 2010 and the eighth option period runs from October 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011. Exercise of each of the seventh and eighth option periods is at the government’s option. On December 16, 2009, we were notified by TMA that it intends to exercise its options to extend the TRICARE South Region contract for Option Period VII and Option Period VIII. The exercise of these option periods would effectively extend the TRICARE South Region contract through March 31, 2011. The contract’s transition provisions require the continuation of certain activities, primarily claims processing, during a wind-down period lasting approximately six months following the expiration date. Claims incurred on or prior to the expiration date would continue to be processed during the wind-down period under the terms existing prior to the expiration date.

 

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As required under the current contract, the target underwritten health care cost and underwriting fee amounts for each option period are negotiated. Any variance from the target health care cost is shared with the federal government. Accordingly, events and circumstances not contemplated in the negotiated target health care cost amount may have a material adverse effect on us. These changes may include an increase or reduction in the number of persons enrolled or eligible to enroll due to the federal government’s decision to increase or decrease U.S. military deployments. In the event government reimbursements were to decline from projected amounts, our failure to reduce the health care costs associated with these programs may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows.

In July 2009, we were notified by the Department of Defense that we were not awarded the third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region which had been subject to competing bids. We filed a protest with the GAO in connection with the award to another contractor citing discrepancies between the award criteria and procedures prescribed in the request for proposals issued by the DoD and those that appear to have been used by the DoD in making its contractor selection. In October 2009, we learned that the GAO had upheld our protest, determining that the TMA evaluation of our proposal had unreasonably failed to fully recognize and reasonably account for the likely cost savings associated with our record of obtaining network provider discounts from our established network in the South Region. On December 22, 2009, we were advised that TMA notified the GAO of its intent to implement corrective action consistent with the discussion contained within the GAO’s decision with respect to our protest. At this time, we are not able to determine what actions TMA will take in response to recommendations by the GAO, nor can we determine whether or not the protest decision by the GAO will have any effect upon the ultimate disposition of the contract award.

Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates

The discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations is based upon our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes, which have been prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The preparation of these financial statements and accompanying notes requires us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported in the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. We continuously evaluate our estimates and those critical accounting policies related primarily to benefit expenses and revenue recognition as well as accounting for impairments related to our investment securities, goodwill, and long-lived assets. These estimates are based on knowledge of current events and anticipated future events and, accordingly, actual results ultimately may differ from those estimates. We believe the following critical accounting policies involve the most significant judgments and estimates used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements.

Benefit Expense Recognition

Benefit expenses are recognized in the period in which services are provided and include an estimate of the cost of services which have been incurred but not yet reported, or IBNR. IBNR represents a substantial portion of our benefits payable as follows:

 

     December 31,
2009
   Percentage
of Total
    December 31,
2008
   Percentage
of Total
 
     (dollars in thousands)  

IBNR

   $ 1,902,700    59.0   $ 1,851,047    57.7

Reported claims in process

     357,718    11.1     486,514    15.2

Other benefits payable

     682,961    21.2     561,221    17.5
                          

Benefits payable, excluding military services

     2,943,379    91.3     2,898,782    90.4

Military services benefits payable

     279,195    8.7     306,797    9.6
                          

Total benefits payable

   $ 3,222,574    100.0   $ 3,205,579    100.0
                          

 

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Military services benefits payable primarily consists of our estimate of incurred healthcare services provided to beneficiaries which are in turn reimbursed by the federal government as more fully described in Note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data. This amount is generally offset by a corresponding receivable due from the federal government, as more fully-described on page 48.

Estimating IBNR is complex and involves a significant amount of judgment. Changes in this estimate can materially affect, either favorably or unfavorably, our results of operations and overall financial position. Accordingly, it represents a critical accounting estimate. Most benefit claims are paid within a few months of the member receiving service from a physician or other health care provider. As a result, these liabilities generally are described as having a “short-tail”. As such, we expect that substantially all of the December 31, 2009 estimate of benefits payable will be known and paid during 2010.

Our reserving practice is to consistently recognize the actuarial best point estimate within a level of confidence required by actuarial standards. Actuarial standards of practice generally require a level of confidence such that the liabilities established for IBNR have a greater probability of being adequate versus being insufficient, or such that the liabilities established for IBNR are sufficient to cover obligations under an assumption of moderately adverse conditions. Adverse conditions are situations in which the actual claims are expected to be higher than the otherwise estimated value of such claims at the time of the estimate. Therefore, in many situations, the claim amounts ultimately settled will be less than the estimate that satisfies the actuarial standards of practice.

We develop our estimate for IBNR using actuarial methodologies and assumptions, primarily based upon historical claim experience. Depending on the period for which incurred claims are estimated, we apply a different method in determining our estimate. For periods prior to the most recent three months, the key assumption used in estimating our IBNR is that the completion factor pattern remains consistent over a rolling 12-month period after adjusting for known changes in claim inventory levels and known changes in claim payment processes. Completion factors result from the calculation of the percentage of claims incurred during a given period that have historically been adjudicated as of the reporting period. For the most recent three months, the incurred claims are estimated primarily from a trend analysis based upon per member per month claims trends developed from our historical experience in the preceding months, adjusted for known changes in estimates of recent hospital and drug utilization data, provider contracting changes, changes in benefit levels, changes in member cost sharing, changes in medical management processes, product mix, and weekday seasonality.

The completion factor method is used for the months of incurred claims prior to the most recent three months because the historical percentage of claims processed for those months is at a level sufficient to produce a consistently reliable result. Conversely, for the most recent three months of incurred claims, the volume of claims processed historically is not at a level sufficient to produce a reliable result, which therefore requires us to examine historical trend patterns as the primary method of evaluation. Changes in claim processes, including receipt cycle times, claim inventory levels, recoveries of overpayments, outsourcing, system conversions, and processing disruptions due to weather or other events affect views regarding the reasonable choice of completion factors. The receipt cycle time measures the average length of time between when a medical claim was initially incurred and when the claim form was received. Increased electronic claim submissions from providers have decreased the receipt cycle time over the last few years. For example, the average receipt cycle time has decreased from 15.6 days in 2007 to 14.0 days in 2009 which represents a 10.3% reduction in cycle time over the three year period. If claims are submitted or processed on a faster (slower) pace than prior periods, the actual claim may be more (less) complete than originally estimated using our completion factors, which may result in reserves that are higher (lower) than required.

Medical cost trends potentially are more volatile than other segments of the economy. The drivers of medical cost trends include increases in the utilization of hospital facilities, physician services, prescription drugs, and new medical technologies, as well as the inflationary effect on the cost per unit of each of these

 

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expense components. Other external factors such as government-mandated benefits or other regulatory changes, increases in medical services capacity, direct to consumer advertising for prescription drugs and medical services, an aging population, catastrophes, and epidemics also may impact medical cost trends. Internal factors such as system conversions, claims processing cycle times, changes in medical management practices and changes in provider contracts also may impact our ability to accurately predict estimates of historical completion factors or medical cost trends. All of these factors are considered in estimating IBNR and in estimating the per member per month claims trend for purposes of determining the reserve for the most recent three months. Additionally, we continually prepare and review follow-up studies to assess the reasonableness of the estimates generated by our process and methods over time. The results of these studies are also considered in determining the reserve for the most recent three months. Each of these factors requires significant judgment by management.

The completion and claims per member per month trend factors are the most significant factors impacting the IBNR estimate. The portion of IBNR estimated using completion factors for claims incurred prior to the most recent three months is less variable than the portion of IBNR estimated using trend factors. The following table illustrates the sensitivity of these factors assuming moderate adverse experience and the estimated potential impact on our operating results caused by reasonably likely changes in these factors based on December 31, 2009 data:

 

Completion Factor (a):

    Claims Trend Factor (b):  

Factor

Change (c)

   Decrease in
Benefits Payable
    Factor
Change (c)
    Decrease in
Benefits Payable
 
(dollars in thousands)  

1.10%

   $ (147,656   (5.50 )%    $ (250,189

1.00%

   $ (134,232   (4.25 )%    $ (193,328

0.90%

   $ (120,809   (3.50 )%    $ (159,211

0.80%

   $ (107,386   (2.75 )%    $ (125,095

0.70%

   $ (93,963   (2.00 )%    $ (90,978

0.60%

   $ (80,539   (1.25 )%    $ (58,861

0.50%

   $ (67,116     0.00   $ —     

 

(a) Reflects estimated potential changes in benefits payable at December 31, 2009 caused by changes in completion factors for incurred months prior to the most recent three months.
(b) Reflects estimated potential changes in benefits payable at December 31, 2009 caused by changes in annualized claims trend used for the estimation of per member per month incurred claims for the most recent three months.
(c) The factor change indicated represents the percentage point change.

The following table provides a historical perspective regarding the accrual and payment of our benefits payable, excluding military services. Components of the total incurred claims for each year include amounts accrued for current year estimated benefit expenses as well as adjustments to prior year estimated accruals.

 

     2009     2008     2007  
     (in thousands)  

Balances at January 1

   $ 2,898,782      $ 2,355,461      $ 1,979,733   

Acquisitions

     —          96,021        41,029   

Incurred related to:

      

Current year

     21,934,973        21,092,135        18,015,247   

Prior years

     (252,756     (268,027     (242,922
                        

Total incurred

     21,682,217        20,824,108        17,772,325   
                        

Paid related to:

      

Current year

     (19,572,740     (18,579,247     (15,847,574

Prior years

     (2,064,880     (1,797,561     (1,590,052
                        

Total paid

     (21,637,620     (20,376,808     (17,437,626
                        

Balances at December 31

   $ 2,943,379      $ 2,898,782      $ 2,355,461   
                        

 

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The following table summarizes the changes in estimate for incurred claims related to prior years attributable to our key assumptions. As previously described, our key assumptions consist of trend and completion factors estimated using an assumption of moderately adverse conditions. The amounts below represent the difference between our original estimates and the actual benefit expenses ultimately incurred as determined from subsequent claim payments.

 

     Favorable Development by Changes in Key Assumptions  
     2009     2008     2007  
     Amount     Factor
Change (a)
    Amount     Factor
Change (a)
    Amount     Factor
Change (a)
 
     (dollars in thousands)  

Trend factors

   $ (151,171   (3.5 )%    $ (175,268   (5.2 )%    $ (124,957   (4.3 )% 

Completion factors

     (101,585   0.8     (92,759   1.0     (63,985   0.8

Medicare Part D reconciliation

     —        n/a        —        n/a        (53,980   n/a   
                              

Total

   $ (252,756     $ (268,027     $ (242,922  
                              

 

(a) The factor change indicated represents the percentage point change.

As summarized in the table above, the majority of the favorable development resulted from trend factors for the most recent three months ultimately being lower than originally estimated for each of the years presented. Some of the more significant factors that drove the actual trend factors lower than the originally estimated trends over the last three years include lower than originally estimated utilization of hospital and physician services for both our Commercial and Medicare lines of business, as well as rapid growth in our Medicare Advantage and Commercial high deductible products in new geographic areas which resulted in more limited historical information from which to base trend rate estimates.

Additionally, actual completion factors ultimately were higher than our original completion factors used to establish reserves at December 31, 2008, 2007, and 2006, which were based upon historical patterns. This increase in completion factor percentage primarily resulted from a shortening of the cycle time associated with provider claim submissions and improved claim recovery patterns associated with system and process changes.

Finally, first-year Medicare Part D enrollment and eligibility issues during 2006 led to actual claim settlements with other health plans and various state governments during 2007 for amounts less than originally estimated. Similar adjustments in 2009 and 2008 were not significant due to a lower volume of new enrollees and subsequent improvements in the program’s enrollment process.

We continually adjust our historical trend and completion factor experience with our knowledge of recent events that may impact current trends and completion factors when establishing our reserves. Because our reserving practice is to consistently recognize the actuarial best point estimate using an assumption of moderately adverse conditions as required by actuarial standards, there is a reasonable possibility that variances between actual trend and completion factors and those assumed in our December 31, 2009 estimates would fall towards the middle of the ranges previously presented in our sensitivity table, as has occurred in previous years.

Benefit expenses associated with military services and provisions associated with future policy benefits excluded from the previous table were as follows for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007:

 

     2009    2008    2007
     (in thousands)

Military services

   $ 3,019,655    $ 2,819,787    $ 2,481,814

Future policy benefits

     73,130      64,338      16,392
                    

Total

   $ 3,092,785    $ 2,884,125    $ 2,498,206
                    

 

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Our TRICARE contract contains provisions whereby the federal government bears a substantial portion of the risk of financing health benefits. The federal government both reimburses us for our cost of providing health benefits and bears responsibility for 80% of any variance from the annual target health care cost and actual health care cost as more fully described beginning on page 61. Therefore, the impact on our income from operations from changes in estimate for TRICARE benefits payable is reduced substantially by corresponding adjustments to revenues. The net decrease to income from operations as determined retrospectively, after giving consideration to claim development occurring in the current period, was approximately $7.8 million for 2008 and $13.7 million for 2007. The impact from changes in estimates for 2009 is not yet determinable as the amount of prior period development recorded in 2010 will change as our December 31, 2009 benefits payable estimate develops throughout 2010.

Future policy benefits payable of $1,193.0 million and $1,164.8 million at December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively, represent liabilities for long-duration insurance policies including long-term care, health, and life insurance policies and annuities sold to individuals for which some of the premium received in the earlier years is intended to pay anticipated benefits to be incurred in future years. These reserves are recognized on a net level premium method based on interest rates, mortality, morbidity, withdrawal and maintenance expense assumptions from published actuarial tables, modified based upon actual experience. The basis for the liability for future policy benefits is established at the time each contract is acquired and would only change if our experience deteriorates to the point the level of the liability is not adequate to provide for future policy benefits. Future policy benefits payable include $571.9 million at December 31, 2009 and $503.2 million at December 31, 2008 associated with a closed block of long-term care policies acquired in connection with the November 30, 2007 KMG acquisition. Long-term care policies provide for long-duration coverage and, therefore, our actual claims experience will emerge many years after assumptions have been established. The risk of a deviation of the actual morbidity and mortality rates from those assumed in our reserves are particularly significant to our closed block of long-term care policies. We monitor the loss experience of these long-term care policies and, when necessary, apply for premium rate increases through a regulatory filing and approval process in the jurisdictions in which such products were sold. We filed and received approval for certain state premium rate increases in 2009 and continue to expect to file for premium rate increases for additional states in 2010. To the extent premium rate increases and/or loss experience vary from our acquisition date assumptions, future adjustments to reserves could be required. In addition, future policy benefits payable include amounts of $225.0 million at December 31, 2009 and $232.0 million at December 31, 2008 which are subject to 100% coinsurance agreements as more fully described in Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, and as such are offset by a related reinsurance recoverable included in other long-term assets.

As previously discussed, our reserving practice is to consistently recognize the actuarial best estimate of our ultimate liability for claims. Actuarial standards require the use of assumptions based on moderately adverse experience, which generally results in favorable reserve development, or reserves that are considered redundant. The amount of redundancy over the last three years primarily has been impacted by the growth in our Medicare business, coupled with the application of consistent reserving practices. When we recognize a release of the redundancy, we disclose the amount that is not in the ordinary course of business, if material. We believe we have consistently applied our methodology in determining our best estimate for benefits payable.

Revenue Recognition

We generally establish one-year commercial membership contracts with employer groups, subject to cancellation by the employer group on 30-day written notice. Our Medicare contracts with CMS renew annually. Our military services contracts with the federal government and our contracts with various state Medicaid programs generally are multi-year contracts subject to annual renewal provisions.

Our commercial contracts establish rates on a per member basis for each month of coverage. Our Medicare and Medicaid contracts also establish monthly rates per member. However, our Medicare contracts also have additional provisions as outlined in the following separate section.

 

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Premium revenues and ASO fees are estimated by multiplying the membership covered under the various contracts by the contractual rates. In addition, we adjust revenues for estimated changes in an employer’s enrollment and individuals that ultimately may fail to pay. Enrollment changes not yet processed or not yet reported by an employer group or the government, also known as retroactive membership adjustments, are estimated based on available data and historical trends. We routinely monitor the collectibility of specific accounts, the aging of receivables, historical retroactivity trends, as well as prevailing and anticipated economic conditions, and reflect any required adjustments in the current period’s revenue.

We bill and collect premium and administrative fee remittances from employer groups and members in our Medicare and individual products monthly. We receive monthly premiums and administrative fees from the federal government and various states according to government specified payment rates and various contractual terms. Changes in revenues from CMS for our Medicare products resulting from the periodic changes in risk-adjustment scores for our membership are recognized when the amounts become determinable and the collectibility is reasonably assured.

Medicare Part D Provisions

We cover prescription drug benefits in accordance with Medicare Part D under multiple contracts with CMS. The payments we receive monthly from CMS and members, which are determined from our annual bid, represent amounts for providing prescription drug insurance coverage. We recognize premium revenues for providing this insurance coverage ratably over the term of our annual contract. Our CMS payment is subject to risk sharing through the Medicare Part D risk corridor provisions. In addition, we receive and disburse amounts for portions of prescription drug costs for which we are not at risk, as described more fully below.

The risk corridor provisions compare costs targeted in our bids to actual prescription drug costs, limited to actual costs that would have been incurred under the standard coverage as defined by CMS. Variances exceeding certain thresholds may result in CMS making additional payments to us or require us to refund to CMS a portion of the premiums we received. We estimate and recognize an adjustment to premium revenues related to these risk corridor provisions based upon pharmacy claims experience to date as if the annual contract were to terminate at the end of the reporting period. Accordingly, this estimate provides no consideration to future pharmacy claims experience. We record a receivable or payable at the contract level and classify the amount as current or long-term in the consolidated balance sheets based on the expected settlement.

The estimate of the settlement associated with risk corridor provisions requires us to consider factors that may not be certain, including member eligibility differences with CMS. In 2009, we received net proceeds of $59.6 million related to our reconciliation with CMS regarding the 2008 Medicare Part D risk corridor provisions compared to our estimate of $55.4 million at December 31, 2008. In 2008, we paid $78.7 million related to our reconciliation with CMS regarding the 2007 Medicare Part D risk corridor provisions compared to our estimate of $102.6 million at December 31, 2007. The net liability associated with the 2009 risk corridor estimate, which will be settled in 2010, was $144.6 million at December 31, 2009.

Reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies represent funding from CMS in connection with the Medicare Part D program for which we assume no risk. Reinsurance subsidies represent funding from CMS for its portion of prescription drug costs which exceed the member’s out-of-pocket threshold, or the catastrophic coverage level. Low-income cost subsidies represent funding from CMS for all or a portion of the deductible, the coinsurance and co-payment amounts above the out-of-pocket threshold for low-income beneficiaries. Monthly prospective payments from CMS for reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies are based on assumptions submitted with our annual bid. A reconciliation and related settlement of CMS’s prospective subsidies against actual prescription drug costs we paid is made after the end of the year. We account for these subsidies as a deposit in our consolidated balance sheets and as a financing activity in our consolidated statements of cash flows. We do not recognize premium revenues or benefit expense for these subsidies. Receipt and payment activity is accumulated at the contract level and recorded in our consolidated balance sheets in other current assets or trade accounts

 

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payable and accrued expenses depending on the contract balance at the end of the reporting period. Gross financing receipts were $2,354.2 million and gross financing withdrawals were $1,860.7 million during 2009. CMS subsidy activity recorded to the consolidated balance sheets at December 31, 2009 was $11.7 million to other current assets and $402.9 million to trade accounts payable and accrued expenses.

In order to allow plans offering enhanced benefits the maximum flexibility in designing alternative prescription drug coverage, CMS provided a demonstration payment option in lieu of the reinsurance subsidy for plans offering enhanced coverage, or coverage beyond CMS’s defined standard benefits. The demonstration payment option is an arrangement in which CMS pays a capitation amount to a plan for assuming the government’s portion of prescription drug costs in the catastrophic layer of coverage. The capitation amount represents a fixed monthly amount per member to provide prescription drug coverage in the catastrophic layer. We chose the demonstration payment option for some of our plans that offer enhanced coverage over the last three years and in 2010. This capitation amount, derived from our annual bid submissions, is recorded as premium revenue. The variance between the capitation amount and actual drug costs in the catastrophic layer is subject to risk sharing as part of the risk corridor settlement.

Settlement of the reinsurance and low-income cost subsidies as well as the risk corridor payment is based on a reconciliation made approximately 9 months after the close of each calendar year. This reconciliation process requires us to submit claims data necessary for CMS to administer the program.

Medicare Risk-Adjustment Provisions

CMS has implemented a risk-adjustment model which apportions premiums paid to all health plans according to health severity. The CMS risk-adjustment model pays more for members with predictably higher costs, as described in Item 1.—Business beginning on page 5. Under this risk-adjustment methodology, diagnosis data from inpatient and ambulatory treatment settings are used to calculate the risk adjusted premium payment to us. We generally rely on providers to appropriately document all medical data including risk-adjustment data in their medical records and appropriately code their claim submissions, which we generally send to CMS within prescribed deadlines. We estimate risk-adjustment revenues based upon the diagnosis data submitted to CMS and ultimately accepted by CMS.

Military services

In 2009, military services revenues represented approximately 12% of total premiums and administrative services fees. Military services revenue primarily is derived from our TRICARE South Region contract with the Department of Defense. The single TRICARE contract for the South Region includes multiple revenue generating activities. We allocate the consideration to the various components of the contract based on the relative fair value of the components. TRICARE revenues consist generally of (1) an insurance premium for assuming underwriting risk for the cost of civilian health care services delivered to eligible beneficiaries; (2) health care services provided to beneficiaries which are in turn reimbursed by the federal government; and (3) administrative services fees related to claim processing, customer service, enrollment, disease management and other services. We recognize the insurance premium as revenue ratably over the period coverage is provided. Health care services reimbursements are recognized as revenue in the period health services are provided. Administrative services fees are recognized as revenue in the period services are performed.

The TRICARE South Region contract contains provisions whereby the federal government bears a substantial portion of the risk associated with financing the cost of health benefits. Annually, we negotiate a target health care cost amount, or target cost, with the federal government and determine an underwriting fee. Any variance from the target cost is shared. We earn more revenue or incur additional costs based on the variance of actual health care costs versus the negotiated target cost. We receive 20% for any cost underrun, subject to a ceiling that limits the underwriting profit to 10% of the target cost. We pay 20% for any cost overrun, subject to a floor that limits the underwriting loss to negative 4% of the target cost. A final settlement occurs 12

 

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to 18 months after the end of each contract year to which it applies. We defer the recognition of any revenues for favorable contingent underwriting fee adjustments related to cost underruns until the amount is determinable and the collectibility is reasonably assured. We estimate and recognize unfavorable contingent underwriting fee adjustments related to cost overruns currently in operations as an increase in benefit expenses. We continually review these benefit expense estimates of future payments to the government for cost overruns and make necessary adjustments to our reserves.

The military services contracts contain provisions to negotiate change orders. Change orders occur when we perform services or incur costs under the directive of the federal government that were not originally specified in our contract. Under federal regulations we may be entitled to an equitable adjustment to the contract price in these situations. Change orders may be negotiated and settled at any time throughout the year. We record revenue applicable to change orders when services are performed and these amounts are determinable and the collectibility is reasonably assured.

Investment Securities

Investment securities totaled $7,497.2 million, or 53% of total assets at December 31, 2009, and $5,215.4 million, or 40% of total assets at December 31, 2008. Debt securities, detailed below, comprised this entire investment portfolio at December 31, 2009 and over 99% of this investment portfolio at December 31, 2008. The fair value of debt securities were as follows at December 31, 2009 and 2008:

 

     December 31,
2009
   Percentage
of Total
    December 31,
2008
   Percentage
of Total
 
     (dollars in thousands)  

U.S. Treasury and other U.S. government corporations and agencies:

          

U.S. Treasury and agency obligations

   $ 1,009,352    13.5   $ 599,898    11.5

Mortgage-backed securities

     1,688,663    22.5     1,297,705    24.9

Tax-exempt municipal securities

     2,224,041    29.7     1,689,462    32.5

Mortgage-backed securities:

          

Residential

     95,412    1.3     347,308    6.7

Commercial

     279,626    3.7     260,299    5.0

Asset-backed securities

     107,188    1.4     144,370    2.8

Corporate debt securities

     2,079,568    27.7     855,827    16.4

Redeemable preferred stock

     13,300    0.2     10,050    0.2
                          

Total debt securities

   $ 7,497,150    100.0   $ 5,204,919    100.0
                          

Approximately 99% of our debt securities were investment-grade quality, with an average credit rating of AA+ by S&P at December 31, 2009. Most of the debt securities that are below investment-grade are rated BB or better, the higher end of the below investment-grade rating scale. Our investment policy limits investments in a single issuer and requires diversification among various asset types.

Tax exempt municipal securities included pre-refunded bonds of $346.9 million at December 31, 2009 and $694.8 million at December 31, 2008. These pre-refunded bonds are secured by an escrow fund consisting of U.S. government obligations sufficient to pay off all amounts outstanding at maturity. The ratings of these pre-refunded bonds generally assume the rating of the government obligations (AAA by S&P) at the time the fund is established. In addition, certain monoline insurers guarantee the timely repayment of bond principal and interest when a bond issuer defaults and generally provide credit enhancement for bond issues related to our tax exempt municipal securities. We have no direct exposure to these monoline insurers. We owned $587.2 million and $452.4 million at December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively, of tax exempt securities guaranteed by monoline insurers. The equivalent S&P credit rating of these tax-exempt securities without the guarantee from the monoline insurer was AA-.

 

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Our direct exposure to subprime mortgage lending is limited to investment in residential mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities backed by home equity loans. The fair value of securities backed by Alt-A and subprime loans was $5.5 million at December 31, 2009 and $7.6 million at December 31, 2008. There are no collateralized debt obligations or structured investment vehicles in our investment portfolio.

The percentage of corporate securities associated with the financial services industry was 37.3% at December 31, 2009 and 41.7% at December 31, 2008.

Duration is indicative of the relationship between changes in market value and changes in interest rates, providing a general indication of the sensitivity of the fair values of our debt securities to changes in interest rates. However, actual market values may differ significantly from estimates based on duration. The average duration of our debt securities was approximately 4.5 years at December 31, 2009. Including cash equivalents, the average duration was approximately 3.8 years. Based on the duration including cash equivalents, a 1% increase in interest rates would generally decrease the fair value of our securities by approximately $340 million.

Gross unrealized losses and fair values aggregated by investment category and length of time that individual securities have been in a continuous unrealized loss position were as follows at December 31, 2009 and 2008, respectively:

 

    Less than 12 months     12 months or more     Total  
    Fair Value   Gross
Unrealized
Losses
    Fair Value   Gross
Unrealized
Losses
    Fair Value   Gross
Unrealized
Losses
 
    (in thousands)  

December 31, 2009

           

U.S. Treasury and other U.S. government corporations and agencies:

           

U.S. Treasury and agency obligations

  $ 301,843   $ (2,425   $ 2,970   $ (109   $ 304,813   $ (2,534

Mortgage-backed securities

    823,365     (11,005     6,834     (323     830,199     (11,328

Tax-exempt municipal securities

    598,520     (14,286     198,327     (9,131     796,847     (23,417

Mortgage-backed securities:

           

Residential

    1,771     (5     73,178     (10,994     74,949     (10,999

Commercial

    31,941     (359     142,944     (8,281     174,885     (8,640

Asset-backed securities

    1,930     (19     2,179     (88     4,109     (107

Corporate debt securities

    636,833     (9,354     99,830     (11,972     736,663     (21,326
                                         

Total debt securities

  $ 2,396,203   $ (37,453   $ 526,262   $ (40,898   $ 2,922,465   $ (78,351
                                         

In April 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, or the FASB, issued new guidance to address concerns about (1) measuring the fair value of financial instruments when the markets become inactive and quoted prices may reflect distressed transactions and (2) recording impairment charges on investments in debt securities. The new guidance highlights and expands on the factors that should be considered in estimating fair value when the volume and level of activity for a financial asset or liability has significantly decreased and requires new disclosures relating to fair value measurement inputs and valuation techniques (including changes in inputs and valuation techniques). In addition, new guidance regarding recognition and presentation of other-than-temporary impairments changed (1) the trigger for determining whether an other-than-temporary impairment exists and (2) the amount of an impairment charge to be recorded in earnings. We adopted the provisions of the new guidance for the quarter ended June 30, 2009. Refer to Note 4 and Note 5 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for disclosures related to the implementation of the new guidance.

 

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Under the new other-than-temporary impairment model for debt securities held, we recognize an impairment loss in income in an amount equal to the full difference between the amortized cost basis and the fair value when we have the intent to sell the debt security or it is more likely than not we will be required to sell the debt security before recovery of our amortized cost basis. However, if we do not intend to sell the debt security, we evaluate the expected cash flows to be received as compared to amortized cost and determine if a credit loss has occurred. In the event of a credit loss, only the amount of the impairment associated with the credit loss is recognized currently in income with the remainder of the loss recognized in other comprehensive income.

When we do not intend to sell a security in an unrealized loss position, potential OTTI is considered using a variety of factors, including the length of time and extent to which the fair value has been less than cost; adverse conditions specifically related to the industry, geographic area or financial condition of the issuer or underlying collateral of a security; payment structure of the security; changes in credit rating of the security by the rating agencies; the volatility of the fair value changes; and changes in fair value of the security after the balance sheet date. For debt securities, we take into account expectations of relevant market and economic data. For example, with respect to mortgage and asset-backed securities, such data includes underlying loan level data and structural features such as seniority and other forms of credit enhancements. A decline in fair value is considered other-than-temporary when we do not expect to recover the entire amortized cost basis of the security. We estimate the amount of the credit loss component of a debt security as the difference between the amortized cost and the present value of the expected cash flows of the security. The present value is determined using the best estimate of future cash flows discounted at the implicit interest rate at the date of purchase. The risks inherent in assessing the impairment of an investment include the risk that market factors may differ from our expectations, facts and circumstances factored into our assessment may change with the passage of time, or we may decide to subsequently sell the investment. The determination of whether a decline in the value of an investment is other than temporary requires us to exercise significant diligence and judgment. The discovery of new information and the passage of time can significantly change these judgments. The status of the general economic environment and significant changes in the national securities markets influence the determination of fair value and the assessment of investment impairment. There is a continuing risk that further declines in fair value may occur and additional material realized losses from sales or other-than-temporary impairments may be recorded in future periods.

Approximately $19.6 million of our unrealized losses at December 31, 2009 relate to our residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities. Factors such as seniority, underlying collateral characteristics and credit enhancements support the recoverability of these securities. Residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities are primarily composed of senior tranches having high credit support, with 99% of the collateral consisting of prime loans. All commercial mortgage-backed securities are rated AAA at December 31, 2009.

All issuers of securities we own trading at an unrealized loss remain current on all contractual payments. After taking into account these and other factors previously described, we believe these unrealized losses primarily were caused by an increase in market interest rates and tighter liquidity conditions in the current markets than when the securities were purchased. As of December 31, 2009, we do not intend to sell the securities with an unrealized loss position in accumulated other comprehensive income and it is not likely that we will be required to sell these securities before recovery of their amortized cost basis, and as a result, we believe that the securities with an unrealized loss are not other-than-temporarily impaired as of December 31, 2009.

There were no material other-than-temporary impairments in 2009 or 2007. Gross realized losses in 2008 included other-than-temporary impairments of $103.1 million, primarily due to investments in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2008, as well as declines in the values of securities primarily associated with the financial services industry.

Goodwill and Long-lived Assets

At December 31, 2009, goodwill and other long-lived assets represented 21% of total assets and 50% of total stockholders’ equity, compared to 23% and 67%, respectively, at December 31, 2008.

 

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We are required to test at least annually for impairment at a level of reporting referred to as the reporting unit, and more frequently if adverse events or changes in circumstances indicate that the asset may be impaired. A reporting unit either is our operating segments or one level below the operating segments, referred to as a component, which comprise our reportable Commercial and Government segments. A component is considered a reporting unit if the component constitutes a business for which discrete financial information is available that is regularly reviewed by management. We are required to aggregate the components of an operating segment into one reporting unit if they have similar economic characteristics. Goodwill is assigned to the reporting unit that is expected to benefit from a specific acquisition.

Our strategy, long-range business plan, and annual planning process support our goodwill impairment tests. These tests are performed, at a minimum, annually in the fourth quarter, and are based on an evaluation of future discounted cash flows. We rely on this discounted cash flow analysis to determine fair value. However outcomes from the discounted cash flow analysis are compared to other market approach valuation methodologies for reasonableness. We use discount rates that correspond to a market-based weighted-average cost of capital and terminal growth rates that correspond to long-term growth prospects, consistent with the long-term inflation rate. Key assumptions in our cash flow projections, including changes in membership, premium yields, medical and administrative cost trends, and certain government contract extensions, are consistent with those utilized in our long-range business plan and annual planning process. If these assumptions differ from actual, including the impact of the ultimate outcome of health care reform legislation, if any, the estimates underlying our goodwill impairment tests could be adversely affected. Goodwill impairment tests completed in each of the last three years did not result in an impairment loss. The fair value of our reporting units with significant goodwill exceeded carrying amounts by a margin ranging from approximately 33% to 83%. A 100 basis point increase in the discount rate would decrease this margin to a range of approximately 15% to 63%.

The ultimate loss of the TRICARE South Region contract would adversely affect $49.8 million of the military services reporting unit’s goodwill. In July 2009, we were notified by the DoD that we were not awarded the third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region which had been subject to competing bids. We filed a protest with the GAO in connection with the award to another contractor and in October 2009 we learned that the GAO had upheld our protest, determining that the TMA evaluation of our proposal had unreasonably failed to fully recognize and reasonably account for the likely cost savings associated with our record of obtaining network provider discounts from our established network in the South Region. On December 22, 2009, we were advised that TMA notified the GAO of its intent to implement corrective action consistent with the discussion contained within the GAO’s decision with respect to our protest. At this time, we are not able to determine what actions TMA will take in response to recommendations by the GAO, nor can we determine whether or not the protest decision by the GAO will have any effect upon the ultimate disposition of the contract award.

Our current TRICARE South Region contract covers benefits for healthcare services provided to beneficiaries through March 31, 2010. On December 16, 2009, we were notified by TMA that it intends to exercise its options to extend the TRICARE South Region contract for Option Period VII and Option Period VIII. The exercise of these option periods would effectively extend the TRICARE South Region contract through March 31, 2011. We will continue to assess the fair value of our military services reporting unit each reporting period based on our estimate of future discounted cash flows associated with the reporting unit, primarily derived from cash flows associated with the TRICARE South Region contract. We will recognize a goodwill impairment if and when our impairment test indicates that the carrying value of goodwill exceeds the implied fair value. We expect that as the ultimate March 31, 2011 contract end date nears, if our current contract is not extended further and we are not awarded the new third generation TRICARE program contract for the South Region, future cash flows will not be sufficient to warrant recoverability of all or a portion of the TRICARE goodwill. Given these facts, we would expect a goodwill impairment during the second half of 2010. Refer to Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements included in Item 8.—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for further discussion of the TRICARE South Region contract.

 

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Long-lived assets consist of property and equipment and other finite-lived intangible assets. These assets are depreciated or amortized over their estimated useful life, and are subject to impairment reviews. We periodically review long-lived assets whenever adverse events or changes in circumstances indicate the carrying value of the asset may not be recoverable. In assessing recoverability, we must make assumptions regarding estimated future cash flows and other factors to determine if an impairment loss may exist, and, if so, estimate fair value. We also must estimate and make assumptions regarding the useful life we assign to our long-lived assets. If these estimates or their related assumptions change in the future, we may be required to record impairment losses or change the useful life, including accelerating depreciation or amortization for these assets. There were no impairment losses in the last three years. Long-lived assets associated with our military services business are not material.

Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements

Financial Instruments

In January 2010, the FASB issued new guidance that expands and clarifies existing disclosures about fair value measurements. Under the new guidance, we will be required to disclose information about movements of assets among Levels 1 and 2 of the three-tier fair value hierarchy and present separately (that is on a gross basis) information about purchases, sales, issuances, and settlements of financial instruments in the reconciliation of fair value measurements using significant unobservable inputs (Level 3). In addition, the new guidance clarified that we are required to provide fair value measurement disclosures for each class of financial assets and liabilities and provide disclosures about inputs and valuation techniques for fair value measurements in either Level 2 or Level 3. These new disclosures and clarifications are effective for us beginning with the filing of our Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2010, except for the gross disclosures regarding purchases, sales, issuances and settlements in the roll forward of activity in Level 3 fair value measurements. Those disclosures are effective for us beginning with the filing of our Form 10-Q for the three months ended March 31, 2011.

 

ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK

Our earnings and financial position are exposed to financial market risk, including those resulting from changes in interest rates.

The level of our pretax earnings is subject to market risk due to changes in interest rates and the resulting impact on investment income and interest expense. Until October 7, 2008, we exchanged the fixed interest rate under all of our senior notes for a variable interest rate based on LIBOR using interest rate swap agreements. As a result, changes in interest rates generally resulted in an increase or decrease to investment income partially offset by a corresponding decrease or increase to interest expense, partially hedging our exposure to interest rate risk. However, due to extreme volatility in the securities and credit markets, LIBOR increased while the interest rate we would earn on invested assets like cash and cash equivalents decreased. As a result, we terminated all of our interest rate swap agreements, fixing the average interest rate under our senior notes at 6.08%. In exchange for terminating our rights under the interest rate swap agreements, we received $93.0 million in cash from the counterparties representing the fair value of the swap assets. We may re-enter into interest rate swap agreements in the future depending on market conditions and other factors. Amounts borrowed under the revolving credit portion of our $1.0 billion unsecured revolving credit agreement bear interest at either a fixed rate or floating rate based on LIBOR plus a spread. There were no borrowings outstanding under our credit agreement at December 31, 2009 and $250.0 million in borrowings outstanding at December 31, 2008.

Interest rate risk also represents a market risk factor affecting our consolidated financial position due to our significant investment portfolio, consisting primarily of fixed maturity securities of investment-grade quality with an average S&P credit rating of AA+ at December 31, 2009. Our net unrealized position improved $301.3 million from a net unrealized loss position of $229.9 million at December 31, 2008 to a net unrealized gain position of $71.4 million at December 31, 2009. As of December 31, 2009, we had gross unrealized losses of $78.4 million on our investment portfolio primarily due to an increase in market interest rates and tighter

 

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liquidity conditions in the current markets than when the securities were purchased, and as such, there were no material other-than-temporary impairments during 2009. While we believe that these impairments are temporary and we currently do not have the intent to sell such securities, given the current market conditions and the significant judgments involved, there is a continuing risk that further declines in fair value may occur and additional material realized losses from sales or other-than-temporary impairments may be recorded in future periods.

Duration is the time-weighted average of the present value of the bond portfolio’s cash flow. Duration is indicative of the relationship between changes in fair value and changes in interest rates, providing a general indication of the sensitivity of the fair values of our fixed maturity securities to changes in interest rates. However, actual fair values may differ significantly from estimates based on duration. The average duration of our investment portfolio, including cash and cash equivalents, was approximately 3.8 years as of December 31, 2009. Based on the duration including cash equivalents, a 1% increase in interest rates would generally decrease the fair value of our securities by approximately $340 million.

We have also evaluated the impact on our investment income and interest expense resulting from a hypothetical change in interest rates of 100, 200 and 300 basis points over the next twelve-month period, as reflected in the following table. The evaluation was based on our investment portfolio and our outstanding indebtedness as of December 31, 2009 and 2008. Our investment portfolio consists of cash, cash equivalents and investment securities. The modeling technique used to calculate the pro forma net change in pretax earnings considered the cash flows related to fixed income investments and debt, which are subject to interest rate changes during a prospective twelve-month period. This evaluation measures parallel shifts in interest rates and may not account for certain unpredictable events that may effect interest income, including unexpected changes of cash flows into and out of the portfolio, changes in the asset allocation, including shifts between taxable and tax-exempt securities, and spread changes specific to various investment categories. In the past ten years, changes in 3 month LIBOR rates during the year have exceeded 300 basis points twice, have not changed between 200 and 300 basis points, have changed between 100 and 200 basis points four times and have changed by less than 100 basis points four times.

 

     Increase (decrease) in
pretax earnings given an
interest rate decrease of
X basis points
    Increase (decrease) in
pretax earnings given an
interest rate increase of
X basis points
 
     (300)     (200)     (100)     100     200     300  
     (in thousands)  

As of December 31, 2009

            

Investment income

   $ (24,993   $ (17,443   $ (15,075   $ 36,729      $ 68,447      $ 101,142   

Interest expense(a)

     —          —          —          —          —          —     
                                                

Pretax

   $ (24,993   $ (17,443   $ (15,075   $ 36,729      $ 68,447      $ 101,142   
                                                

As of December 31, 2008

            

Investment income

   $ (23,748   $ (17,588   $ (15,483   $ 25,773      $ 47,625      $ 70,225   

Interest expense

     2,128        2,128        2,128        (2,128     (4,256     (6,384
                                                

Pretax

   $ (21,620   $ (15,460   $ (13,355   $ 23,645      $ 43,369      $ 63,841   
                                                

 

(a) There were no borrowings outstanding under the credit agreement at December 31, 2009.

 

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA

Humana Inc.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

 

     December 31,  
     2009     2008  
    

(in thousands, except

share amounts)

 
ASSETS     

Current assets:

    

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 1,613,588      $ 1,970,423   

Investment securities

     6,190,062        4,203,538   

Receivables, less allowance for doubtful accounts of $50,832 in 2009 and $49,160 in 2008:

    

Premiums

     811,800        777,672   

Administrative services fees

     11,820        12,010   

Securities lending invested collateral

     119,586        402,399   

Other current assets

     505,960        1,030,000   
                

Total current assets

     9,252,816        8,396,042   
                

Property and equipment, net

     679,142        711,492   

Other assets:

<