Operating revenue for the year ended December 31, 2016 was $84,194.0, an increase of $5,789.2, or 7.4%, from the year ended December 31, 2015. The increase in operating revenue was primarily a result of higher premium revenue in both our Government Business and Commercial and Specialty Business segments, and, to a lesser extent, increased administrative fees in our Commercial and Specialty Business segment. These increases were partially offset by lower administrative fees in our Government Business segment.
Medicare membership increased 35, or 2.5%, primarily due to membership acquired through the acquisition of Simply Healthcare and growth in our MMPs primarily due to commencement of operations in new dual eligible markets.
Selling, general and administrative expense was $12,557.9 and $12,534.8 in 2016 and 2015, respectively. Our selling, general and administrative expense ratio decreased 110 basis points to 14.9% in 2016. The decrease in the ratio was primarily a result of lower costs related to expense efficiency initiatives and the increase in operating revenue, including the impact of Medicaid membership growth in our Government Business segment, which has a lower selling, general and administrative expense ratio than our consolidated average.
Operating revenue increased $7,016.6, or 20.8%, to $40,813 in 2015. The increase in operating revenue was primarily due to increased premiums in our Medicaid business as a result of membership growth through commencement of operations in new markets including membership obtained through the acquisition of Simply Healthcare, membership growth through Health Care Reform expansions and membership growth in existing markets. The increase in Medicaid premiums was further due to rate increases designed to cover overall cost trends and the increase in the HIP Fee. The increase in operating revenue was further attributable to premium increases in our Medicare business as a result of rate increases designed to cover overall cost trends, the acquisition of Simply Healthcare and refinement of estimates associated with Medicare risk score revenue in the prior year. Finally, increased premiums in our FEP business primarily due to increased benefit utilization contributed to the increase in operating revenue.
We calculate the percentage of prior years’ redundancies in the current period as a percent of prior years’ net incurred medical claims to indicate the percentage of redundancy included in the preceding year calculation of current year net incurred medical claims. We believe this calculation supports the reasonableness of our prior year estimate of incurred medical claims and the consistency in our methodology. For the year ended December 31, 2016, this metric was 1.4%, which was calculated using the redundancy of $850.4. This metric was 1.4% for 2015 and 1.0% for 2014.
The following table shows the variance between total net incurred medical claims as reported in Note 11, “Medical Claims Payable,” to our audited consolidated financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, for each of 2015 and 2014 and the incurred claims for such years had it been determined retrospectively (computed as the difference between “net incurred medical claims - current year” for the year shown and “net incurred medical claims - prior years redundancies” for the immediately following year):
Other Receivables: Other receivables include pharmacy rebates, provider advances, claims recoveries, reinsurance, proceeds due from brokers on investment trades, other government receivables and other miscellaneous amounts due to us. These receivables are reported net of an allowance for doubtful accounts of $197.6 and $301.2 at December 31, 2016 and 2015, respectively, which is based on historical collection trends and our judgment regarding the ability to collect specific accounts.
We have entered into various interest rate swap contracts to convert a portion of our interest rate exposure on our long-term debt from fixed rates to floating rates. The floating rates payable on all of our fair value hedges are benchmarked to LIBOR. A summary of our outstanding fair value hedges at December 31, 2016 and 2015 is as follows:
During the year ended December 31, 2015, we recognized income tax expense of $422.6, or $1.55 per diluted share, as a result of the non-tax deductibility of the HIP Fee payments. We also recognized income tax expense of $42.3, or $0.16 per diluted share, as a result of an adverse California franchise tax ruling. This expense is allocated between the "State and local income taxes net of federal tax benefit" and the "Other, net" line items in the table above.
A reconciliation of the beginning and ending balances for medical claims payable, by segment, for the year ended December 31, 2014 is as follows:
On September 10, 2015, we repaid, upon maturity, the $625.0 outstanding principal balance of our 1.25% Notes due 2015. Additionally, during the year ended December 31, 2015, we repurchased $13.0 of outstanding principal balance of
the bridge facility and term loan facility, to April 30, 2017. In connection with the extension of the bridge facility, we paid $97.5 in fees, which will be amortized through April 30, 2017. The commitment of the lenders to provide the bridge facility and term loan facility is subject to several conditions, including the completion of the Cigna acquisition. For additional information, see the “Pending Acquisition of Cigna Corporation” section of Note 3, “Business Acquisitions and Divestiture.”
We are a defendant in multiple lawsuits that were initially filed in 2012 against the BCBSA as well as Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield licensees across the country. The cases were consolidated into a single multi-district lawsuit called In re Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation that is pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Generally, the suits allege that the BCBSA and the Blue plans have engaged in a conspiracy to horizontally allocate geographic markets through license agreements, best efforts rules (which limit the percentage of non-Blue revenue of each plan), restrictions on acquisitions and other arrangements in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act and related state laws. The cases were brought by two putative nationwide classes of plaintiffs, health plan subscribers and providers. Subscriber and provider plaintiffs each filed consolidated amended complaints in July 2013. The consolidated amended subscriber complaint was also brought on behalf of putative state classes of health plan subscribers in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. Defendants filed motions to dismiss in September 2013. In June 2014, the court denied the majority of the motions, ruling that plaintiffs had alleged sufficient facts at this stage of the litigation to avoid dismissal of their claims. Following the subsequent filing of amended complaints by each of the subscriber and provider plaintiffs, we filed our answer and asserted our affirmative defenses in December 2014. No date has been set for either the pretrial conference or trials in these actions. Since January 2016, subscribers have filed additional actions asserting damage claims in Indiana, Kansas, Kansas City, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, and Virginia, all of which have been consolidated into the multi-district lawsuit. In November 2016, subscriber plaintiffs and provider plaintiffs filed new consolidated amended complaints adding new named plaintiffs and new factual allegations. We intend to vigorously defend these suits; however, their ultimate outcome cannot be presently determined.