Excellus BlueCross Blue Shield is reporting what the health insurer says was a solid financial performance in 2019.
According to its annual report which has just been released, the health plan saw total membership grow by more than 8,400 last year. CEO Christopher Booth says this is the third consecutive year that membership has grown. Total membership is more than 1.5 million.
The health plan received $6 billion in premium revenue, paid about $5.3 billion in medical benefits and earned net profits of 2.9 percent last year.
Excellus says that access to health coverage among upstate New Yorkers has never been more favorable, with more than 96% of the population having some form of health coverage through private insurance or government sponsored programs.
Excellus also says for the past three years, its rate changes in the individual and group markets were far below the state average requests by other health plans.
Excellus chief financial officer Christopher Gorecki says that the stock market’s strong performance in 2019 produced gains that should allow the company to seek smaller rate hikes in 2021.
Excellus says that compensation paid to its top three officers last year, which is set by the company’s board of director’s based on comparable market data and performance was:
-Christopher Booth, chief executive officer: $3,213,896
-Dorothy Coleman, chief financial officer: $1,920,584
-Stephen Sloan, chief administrative officer and general counsel: $1,152,287
Chairman of the Excellus board of directors, Thomas Rattman, says that in 2019, the company continued to offer competitive coverage and was recognized for high quality health care scores.
