Company: HUM
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000049071-25-000007
Chunk: 121

Company: HUMANA INC
Filing Date: 2025-02-20
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1A
Chunk 121
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ITEM 1A.  RISK FACTORS

Risks Relating to Our Business

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, if we are unable to implement clinical initiatives to provide a better health care experience for our members, lower costs and appropriately document the risk profile of our members, or if our estimates of benefits expense are inadequate, our profitability may be materially adversely affected. We estimate the costs of our benefits 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 involve extensive judgment, and have considerable inherent variability because they are extremely sensitive to changes in claim payment patterns and medical cost trends.  Accordingly, our reserves may be insufficient.

We use a substantial portion of our revenues to pay the costs of health care services delivered to our members, including claims payments, capitation payments to providers (predetermined amounts paid to cover services), estimates of future payments to hospitals and others for medical care provided to our members, and various other costs. 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, including premium deficiency reserves where appropriate. However, these estimates involve extensive judgment, and have considerable inherent variability that is sensitive to claim 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, and the increased cost of such services;

•increased use or cost of prescription drugs, including specialty prescription drugs;

•the introduction of new or costly treatments, prescription drugs, or new technologies; 

•our membership mix;

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