Humana Inc. plans so as to add as much as 70 clinics to its CenterWell Main Care community for seniors this yr and will develop that quantity by way of an acquisition, executives mentioned Feb. 11.
The anticipated progress for CenterWell Main Care comes after a 2025 during which the enterprise grew its affected person base by greater than 1 / 4 to about 500,000. (That included roughly 32,000 folks introduced on by way of the acquisition of The Villages Well being.) President and CEO Jim Rechtin and his workforce are concentrating on the addition of between 120,000 and 140,000 sufferers this yr and shall be helped by what CFO Celese Mellet known as “a big tailwind” from robust progress in Humana’s core Medicare Benefit enterprise.
“All of that progress throughout CenterWell (which additionally consists of pharmacy and residential well being providers) may be very optimistic from a margin perspective,” Mellet mentioned on a convention name discussing Humana’s fourth-quarter earnings and 2026 outlook.
Including about 70 clinics will develop Centerwell Main Care’s community to greater than 400. A lot of that footprint is concentrated in Florida nevertheless it additionally has a big presence in Texas and Louisiana, amongst others. That clinic rely might quickly develop considerably: Rechtin mentioned on the convention name that he hopes to “quickly announce a strategic acquisition within the major care area.”
Additionally on the decision, Rechtin and Mellet reiterated their confidence in Humana’s progress—particular person Medicare Benefit membership is predicted to leap by 1 / 4 this yr to roughly 6.5 million—at the same time as a number of different insurers have been content material to shrink enrollment whereas specializing in margins. Rechtin mentioned delivering “a secure and compelling margin” is simply as essential to the Humana workforce and added that his groups aren’t choosing up different carriers’ undesirable clients.
“Seventy p.c of recent gross sales had been in contracts with 4 stars or higher and practically 30 p.c of our new gross sales had been bounce-back members. So these are members that we have now seen earlier than,” he mentioned. “We acknowledge them and we’re happy with the combination. Over 75 p.c of our new gross sales had been from higher-lifetime-value channels (…) They’re from higher gross sales channels.”
Within the fourth quarter, Humana posted a internet lack of $776 million on revenues of greater than $32.5 billion. The loss included $221 million of impairment prices linked to belongings in some states in addition to a joint-venture funding. For the yr, the corporate booked a internet revenue of $1.2 billion, which was flat from 2024, on practically $130 billion in revenues.
Traders didn’t fairly purchase Rechtin’s technique explainer: Shares of Humana (Ticker: HUM) fell greater than 3% to $175.40. Over the previous six months, they’re now down about 34 p.c, a slide (due largely to a plunge on phrase that Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies leaders are planning a tiny enhance to MA charges in 2027) that has lower the corporate’s market capitalization to about $21 billion.
