HMOs post P1.38 B income in six months, Medicard leads

MANILA, Philippines — Health maintenance organizations (HMO) in the country reported a total net income of P1.38 billion in the first six months, the Insurance Commission (IC) said over the weekend.

The HMO industry registered P20.91 billion in revenues as compared to P19.53 billion in expenditures, according to the interim financial statements submitted by 28 HMO companies in the Philippines.

Medicard Philippines Inc. took the top spot in the local HMO industry, with net earnings of P554.36 million.

Insurance Commissioner Dennis Funa said this was the first quarterly statistics gathered by the IC for the HMO industry, which means there is no existing data available for comparison yet.

However, 2017 data showed the HMO industry’s net income grew 47 percent from January to June.

The HMO industry also registered total assets of P36 billion as of the end of the first halft, of which 40.66 percent or P14.64 billion were loans and receivables.

This is 9.4 percent up from the P32.905 billion recorded by the end of 2017.

Maxicare Healthcare Corp., a member of the Equicom Group, took the lead in terms of assets, accounting for P8.55 billion.   

The HMO industry also posted a total equity of P6.01 billion as of the end of June, which includes P2.69 billion of capital stock. This is eight percent higher than the P5.56 billion recorded as of end-December last year.

Medicard Philippines reported the highest equity during the period, taking up P1.75 billion.

Going forward, Funa expressed confidence that the local HMO industry would continue its positive growth, citing the industry’s performance as well as the entry of two new HMO players last year.

“Looking at the growth of the HMO as of the end of 2017 and for the first half of this year, we are optimistic the industry will continue its growth trajectory,” Funa said.

“In fact, there are two new HMO companies in the market last year— Health Care & Development Corp. of the Philippines and Ultima Health Systems, Inc,” he added.

The Insurance Commission (IC) assumed oversight of the HMO industry in 2015 pursuant to Executive Order 192.

 Since then, the IC has issued a number of regulatory frameworks, including rules on licensing, minimum capitalization and financial capacity requirements, product approval and manual of examination, among others.