The Medicare Shared Savings Program is relatively new and therefore has limited historical experience. This impacts our ability to accurately accumulate and interpret the data available for calculating the ACOs' shared savings. Therefore, we were not able to recognize revenue for the year ended December 31, 2013. We expect that any revenue for the initial program periods ending December 31, 2013 will be reported in 2014. Based on the ACO operating agreements, we bear nearly all of the costs of the ACO operations until revenue is recognized. At that point, we share in 100% of the revenue up to our costs incurred. Any remaining profit is generally shared equally with our ACO provider partners.
Our Healthy Collaboration® strategy sets out a model of improving the quality of care to our members on a cost-efficient basis through an active partnership with our providers. We believe we can improve medical outcomes through a series of collaborative initiatives with our health care providers including clinically sound benefit design (where applicable), medical management, care coordination, population health management, long term supportive services and integrated care management systems. Our goal is to create mutually beneficial and interdependent collaborative arrangements with our providers. We believe provider compensation arrangements should not only help providers to be paid for complex care coordination, but also help align their interests with our objective of improving clinical outcomes and controlling unnecessary cost.
On August 1, 2013, the Board of Directors approved the payment of a special cash dividend of $1.60 per share, payable on August 19, 2013 to shareholders of record as of August 12, 2013. The total dividend payment was $142.1 million of which $139.9 million was paid on August 19, 2013.
Our business segments are based on product offerings and consist of
Our Senior Managed Care-Medicare Advantage segment generated income before income taxes of $53.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2013, a decrease of $39.3 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2012. The decrease in earnings was driven by the medical benefit ratio increasing to 83.4% for the full year 2013 compared to 80.6% for 2012 partially offset by a decrease in our administrative expense ratio from 15.0% in 2012 to 14.3% in 2013. For the year ended December 31, 2013, there was $23.3 million of net favorable prior year items compared to $27.4 million for the year ended December 31, 2012.
Medical expenses. Medical expenses decreased by $303.6 million compared to the year ended December 31, 2011, as a result of the decrease in member months from 2011 and an improvement in the medical expense levels for retained members, improving the medical expense ratio to 80.6% for 2012 from 82.0% for 2011. During 2012, medical expenses included $7.0 million of net unfavorable prior year items compared to $4.1 million in 2011. Adjusting for the prior year items, our medical expense ratio was 81.9% for 2012.
Restructuring costs. These costs represent charges for severance and other benefits related to a workforce reduction plan that we took in connection with several initiatives to realign our organization and consolidate certain functions to increase efficiency and responsiveness to customers and reduce costs.
On November 4, 2013, we entered into an amendment to our 2012 Credit Facility. The amendment, which is effective beginning with the quarter ending September 30, 2013, suspends certain financial covenants, including the consolidated leverage and debt service ratios, replacing them with total debt to capitalization and minimum liquidity ratios. These new financial covenants will remain in effect through December 31, 2014. Effective January 1, 2015, the original financial covenants will be reinstated. In connection with the amendment, we prepaid all scheduled 2013 and 2014 principal payments, including the final 2013 payment due December 31, 2013 of $3.6 million and all 2014 scheduled payments totaling $14.3 million. We also paid fees and expenses of approximately $0.5 million. We are required to ratably apply any future prepayments through the remaining scheduled repayments.
Reserves and other policy liabilities-life represents the gross amount of liabilities on our life insurance business, including policyholder account balances on our investment and universal life-type policies, future policy benefit reserves on our traditional life insurance policies and policy and contract claims on our life policies. We reinsure substantially all of our in force life insurance and annuity business under a 100% coinsurance treaty. A portion of our traditional business was not included in that reinsurance transaction, however much of that business is partially reinsured under separate treaties.
For the members of our HMO and PPO Plans with Part D benefits, CMS reimburses Plans for 80% of the drug costs after a member reaches his or her out of pocket catastrophic threshold through