Health insurer Aetna's 4Q profit jumps 94 percent

[unhappycamper]

http://www.adn.com/2014/02/06/3309681/health-insurer-aetnas-4q-profit.html

Health insurer Aetna's 4Q profit jumps 94 percent
The Associated Press
February 6, 2014 Updated 1 minute ago

Aetna Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit nearly doubled, thanks in part to a $6.9 billion acquisition, but the nation's third largest health insurer missed Wall Street's earnings expectations.

The Hartford, Conn., company also reaffirmed a 2014 forecast for earnings that could fall below analyst predictions.

Aetna completed a deal to buy Medicare and Medicaid coverage provider Coventry Health Care in May. The biggest acquisition in the company's history helped boost both its enrollment and premiums in the final quarter of 2013. The acquisition builds Aetna's presence in the state- and federally-funded Medicaid program that covers poor and disabled people and in the federally backed Medicare program for the elderly.

The insurer's enrollment climbed about 22 percent to 22.2 million people in the fourth quarter compared to the final quarter of 2012. That total puts it behind only UnitedHealth Group Inc. and WellPoint Inc. in terms of size. Health insurance is Aetna's main product, but it also sells dental, group life and disability coverage.

[rurallib]

1. hate Aetna - signed up with Coventry with the ACA

took a month and some real screaming to get signed on - they totally fucked up my app.

FIL had lots of trouble with them during his life. Had I known Coventry was being acquired by Aetna, i would have taken the 1 other choice I had.