Humana said on its July 29, 2026 earnings call that 2027 plan exits will affect “approximately 600,000 members” and that “the majority of the plan exits were in plans with three and a half or lower ratings.” CFO Celeste Mellet described the strategy as cutting off “the lower tail of profitability.”
So, instead of trying to fix whatever it was that got dinged and caused Humana to lose Stars ratings from CMS, instead Humana just simply drips those plans where they were failing, so their overall ratings go up and then take their ball in go home. Sounds like a quitter mentality. And besides, who does it hurt? Oh wait, that’s right! It hurts our members!
I wonder if next our school system will allow kids to simply throw out any failing or bad test scores or bad grades, so as to raise up their overall grade.