Largest contract clears the bonus line again
CEO credits a year of work by employees
"We're extremely proud of these Star Ratings," Chief Executive Jim Rechtin said, attributing the improvement to employees' efforts to provide members with high-quality care and coordinated support. Humana also reported gains in preventive care: 663,000 more care opportunities were met and 534,000 additional members completed annual preventive visits compared with the prior year. Evercore ISI analyst Elizabeth Anderson said Humana improved on measures of drug-plan quality, health-plan quality and readmissions, adding that the improvement "reflects the importance management has placed on fixing this metric over the past year."
Analysts see billions in new revenue
Rivals slide: UnitedHealth and CVS lose ground
The ratings feed payments in 2028
The ratings published Thursday do not change this year's results — they feed payments in 2028. CMS scores each contract from one to five stars on measures such as clinical outcomes, member experience and how the plan is run. The four-star mark is the cutoff that matters to investors: crossing it unlocks bonus payments that raise the federal money an insurer receives per member, while dropping below it takes that bonus away. A single half-star move on a large contract can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars — which is why markets react so sharply to half-star moves.
