Humana Stock Jumps After Insurer Gets High Medicare Ratings -- WSJ
Dow Jones2026/10/09 15:08By Anna Wilde Mathews Humana shares surged 12%, poised to close at their highest level in more than two years, after the insurer won sharply improved scores on bonus-generating Medicare quality measures. Late Thursday, the agency that oversees Medicare unveiled its annual quality ratings, which rank Medicare insurers on a scale of one to five stars. Insurers that do well get bonuses that can make a huge difference in their financial performance. The newly revealed scores will affect payments in 2028. Analysts estimated that roughly 95% of Humana's enrollment would be in plans ranked with four stars or more, up from around 41%. J.P. Morgan analysts said the jump was significantly better than expected, and "a clear win" for the company. Humana said the result will translate into around $160 extra in revenue per member each month, well above its goal and also the performance of peer companies. The company said it planned to use the benefit for "one-time investments and return to shareholders." In other scores: -- Medicare giant UnitedHealth saw its performance worsen. The company said the result was in line with its expectations, and its shares rose 1%. -- CVS Health's Aetna also saw a decline, which Evercore analysts suggested was "slightly worse than expectations." The company said Aetna was one of the highest-performing among big publicly-traded Medicare plans. CVS shares were down 1.6%. -- The biggest quality-ratings dropoff was at the smaller company Alignment Healthcare, which said it planned a legal challenge to the results. Its shares dropped 16%. This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage). (END) Dow Jones Newswires October 09, 2026 11:08 ET (15:08 GMT)
By Anna Wilde Mathews
Humana shares surged 12%, poised to close at their highest level in more than two years, after the insurer won sharply improved scores on bonus-generating Medicare quality measures.
Late Thursday, the agency that oversees Medicare unveiled its annual quality ratings, which rank Medicare insurers on a scale of one to five stars. Insurers that do well get bonuses that can make a huge difference in their financial performance. The newly revealed scores will affect payments in 2028.
Analysts estimated that roughly 95% of Humana's enrollment would be in plans ranked with four stars or more, up from around 41%. J.P. Morgan analysts said the jump was significantly better than expected, and "a clear win" for the company.
Humana said the result will translate into around $160 extra in revenue per member each month, well above its goal and also the performance of peer companies. The company said it planned to use the benefit for "one-time investments and return to shareholders."
In other scores:
-- Medicare giant UnitedHealth saw its performance worsen. The company said the result was in line with its expectations, and its shares rose 1%.
-- CVS Health's Aetna also saw a decline, which Evercore analysts suggested was "slightly worse than expectations." The company said Aetna was one of the highest-performing among big publicly-traded Medicare plans. CVS shares were down 1.6%.
-- The biggest quality-ratings dropoff was at the smaller company Alignment Healthcare, which said it planned a legal challenge to the results. Its shares dropped 16%.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 09, 2026 11:08 ET (15:08 GMT)
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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