NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Link to Fitch Ratings' Report: Medicare/Medicaid Health Insurers Dashboard http://www.fitchratings.com/creditdesk/reports/report_frame.cfm?rpt_id=753096
Fitch Ratings has published a special report that discusses the impact of market profiles and size/scale, capitalization and financial performance characteristics on Medicare/Medicaid health insurers' Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ratings.
Fitch views the potential and probable rating range for Medicare/Medicaid insurers as lower than the rating range for companies that compete primarily in the commercial health insurance market. Relative to commercial health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid markets reflect more limited pricing power, narrower profit margins and greater volatility in revenues.
A group of five (Centene Corp.; Molina Healthcare, Inc.; WellCare Health Plans, Inc.; and Health Net, Inc.) Medicare/Medicaid companies followed by Fitch have generated lower profitability metrics than national competitors while also employing higher operating leverage and lower RBC ratios than other subsectors in the health and managed care insurance space.
Medicare/Medicaid companies have aggressively pursued membership and revenue growth opportunities related to the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid provisions. Potential credit issues associated with high growth include rate inadequacy, adverse utilization trends, claim processing delays and operational problems.
The 'Medicare/Medicaid Health Insurers Dashboard' is available at 'www.fitchratings.com' or by clicking on the above link.
Additional information is available at 'www.fitchratings.com'.
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