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COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES AND CONTINGENCIES | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2022
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES AND CONTINGENCIES | COMMITMENTS, GUARANTEES AND CONTINGENCIES Government Contracts Our Medicare products, which accounted for approximately 81% of our total premiums and services revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2022, primarily consisted of products covered under the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Plan contracts with the federal government. These contracts are renewed generally for a calendar year term unless CMS notifies us of its decision not to renew by May 1 of the calendar year in which the contract would end, or we notify CMS of our decision not to renew by the first Monday in June of the calendar year in which the contract would end. All material contracts between Humana and CMS relating to our Medicare products have been renewed for 2023. Our product offerings under those contracts are subject to approval by CMS in the third quarter of 2022. CMS uses a risk-adjustment model which adjusts premiums paid to Medicare Advantage, or MA, plans according to health status of covered members. The risk-adjustment model, which CMS implemented pursuant to the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, or BBA, and the Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, or BIPA, generally pays more where a plan's membership has higher expected costs. Under this model, rates paid to MA plans are based on actuarially determined bids, which include a process whereby our prospective payments are based on our estimated cost of providing standard Medicare-covered benefits to an enrollee with a "national average risk profile." That baseline payment amount is adjusted to reflect the health status of our enrolled membership. Under the risk-adjustment methodology, all MA plans must collect from providers and submit the necessary diagnosis code information to CMS within prescribed deadlines. The CMS risk-adjustment model uses the diagnosis data to calculate the risk-adjusted premium payment to MA plans, which CMS adjusts for coding pattern differences between the health plans and the government fee-for-service program. We generally rely on providers, including certain providers in our network who are our employees, to code their claim submissions with appropriate diagnoses, which we send to CMS as the basis for our payment received from CMS under the actuarial risk-adjustment model. We also rely on these providers to document appropriately all medical data, including the diagnosis data submitted with claims. In addition, we conduct medical record reviews as part of our data and payment accuracy compliance efforts, to more accurately reflect diagnosis conditions under the risk adjustment model. These compliance efforts include the internal contract level audits described in more detail below, as well as ordinary course reviews of our internal business processes. CMS and the Office of the Inspector General of Health and Human Services, or HHS-OIG, are continuing to perform audits of various companies’ selected MA contracts related to this risk adjustment diagnosis data. We refer to these audits as Risk-Adjustment Data Validation Audits, or RADV audits. RADV audits review medical records in an attempt to validate provider medical record documentation and coding practices which influence the calculation of premium payments to MA plans. In 2012, CMS released a “Notice of Final Payment Error Calculation Methodology for Part C Medicare Advantage Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) Contract-Level Audits.” The payment error calculation methodology provided that, in calculating the economic impact of audit results for an MA contract, if any, the results of the RADV audit sample would be extrapolated to the entire MA contract after a comparison of the audit results to a similar audit of the government’s traditional fee-for-service Medicare program, or Medicare FFS. We refer to the process of accounting for errors in FFS claims as the "FFS Adjuster". This comparison of RADV audit results to the FFS error rate is necessary to determine the economic impact, if any, of RADV audit results because the government used the Medicare FFS program data set, including any attendant errors that are present in that data set, to estimate the costs of various health status conditions and to set the resulting adjustments to MA plans’ payment rates in order to establish actuarial equivalence in payment rates as required under the Medicare statute. CMS already makes other adjustments to payment rates based on a comparison of coding pattern differences between MA plans and Medicare FFS data (such as for frequency of coding for certain diagnoses in MA plan data versus the Medicare FFS program dataset). The final RADV extrapolation methodology, including the first application of extrapolated audit results to determine audit settlements, is expected to be applied to CMS RADV contract level audits conducted for contract year 2011 and subsequent years. CMS is currently conducting RADV contract level audits for certain of our Medicare Advantage plans. Estimated audit settlements are recorded as a reduction of premiums revenue in our consolidated statements of income, based upon available information. We perform internal contract level audits based on the RADV audit methodology prescribed by CMS. Included in these internal contract level audits is an audit of our Private Fee-For Service business which we used to represent a proxy of the FFS Adjuster which has not yet been finalized. We based our accrual of estimated audit settlements for each contract year on the results of these internal contract level audits and update our estimates as each audit is completed. Estimates derived from these results were not material to our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. We report the results of these internal contract level audits to CMS, including identified overpayments, if any. On October 26, 2018, CMS issued a proposed rule and accompanying materials, which we refer to as the “Proposed Rule”, related to, among other things, the RADV audit methodology described above. If implemented, the Proposed Rule would use extrapolation in RADV audits applicable to payment year 2011 contract-level audits and all subsequent audits, without the application of a FFS Adjuster to audit findings. We believe that the Proposed Rule fails to address adequately the statutory requirement of actuarial equivalence, and have provided substantive comments to CMS on the Proposed Rule as part of the notice-and-comment rulemaking process. Whether, and to what extent, CMS finalizes the Proposed Rule, and any related regulatory, industry or company reactions, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. In addition, as part of our internal compliance efforts, we routinely perform ordinary course reviews of our internal business processes related to, among other things, our risk coding and data submissions in connection with the risk adjustment model. These reviews may also result in the identification of errors and the submission of corrections to CMS, that may, either individually or in the aggregate, be material. As such, the result of these reviews may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. We will continue to work with CMS to ensure that MA plans are paid accurately and that payment model principles are in accordance with the requirements of the Social Security Act, which, if not implemented correctly could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, or cash flows. Our state-based Medicaid business, which accounted for approximately 6% of our total premiums and services revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2022 primarily consisted of serving members enrolled in Medicaid, and in certain circumstances members who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare, under contracts with various states. At June 30, 2022, our military services business, which accounted for approximately 1% of our total premiums and services revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2022, primarily consisted of the TRICARE T2017 East Region contract. The T2017 East Region contract comprising 32 states and approximately 6 million TRICARE beneficiaries, under which delivery of health care services commenced on January 1, 2018. The T2017 East Region contract is a 5-year contract set to expire on December 31, 2022 and is subject to renewals on January 1 of each year during its term at the government's option. The loss of any of the contracts above or significant changes in these programs as a result of legislative or regulatory action, including reductions in premium payments to us, regulatory restrictions on profitability, including reviews by regulatory bodies that may compare our Medicare Advantage profitability to our non-Medicare Advantage business profitability, or compare the profitability of various products within our Medicare Advantage business, and require that they remain within certain ranges of each other, or increases in member benefits or member eligibility criteria without corresponding increases in premium payments to us, may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows. Legal Proceedings and Certain Regulatory Matters As previously disclosed, the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice provided us with an information request in December 2014, concerning our Medicare Part C risk adjustment practices. The request relates to our oversight and submission of risk adjustment data generated by providers in our Medicare Advantage network, as well as to our business and compliance practices related to risk adjustment data generated by our providers and by us, including medical record reviews conducted as part of our data and payment accuracy compliance efforts, the use of health and well-being assessments, and our fraud detection efforts. We believe that this request for information is in connection with a wider review of Medicare Risk Adjustment generally that includes a number of Medicare Advantage plans, providers and vendors. We continue to cooperate with the Department of Justice. These matters are expected to result in additional qui tam litigation. As previously disclosed, on January 19, 2016, an individual filed a qui tam suit captioned United States of America ex rel. Steven Scott v. Humana, Inc., in United States District Court, Central District of California, Western Division. The complaint alleges certain civil violations by us in connection with the actuarial equivalence of the plan benefits under Humana’s Basic PDP plan, a prescription drug plan offered by us under Medicare Part D. The action seeks damages and penalties on behalf of the United States under the False Claims Act. The court ordered the qui tam action unsealed on September 13, 2017, so that the relator could proceed, following notice from the U.S. Government that it was not intervening at that time. On January 29, 2018, the suit was transferred to the United States District Court, Western District of Kentucky, Louisville Division. We have substantially completed discovery with the relator who has pursued the matter on behalf of the united States following unsealing. On March 31, 2022, the Court denied the parties' Motions for Summary Judgement. We take seriously our obligations to comply with applicable CMS requirements and actuarial standards of practice, and continue to vigorously defend against these allegations. Other Lawsuits and Regulatory Matters Our current and past business practices are subject to review or other investigations by various state insurance and health care regulatory authorities and other state and federal regulatory authorities. These authorities regularly scrutinize the business practices of health insurance, health care delivery and benefits companies. These reviews focus on numerous facets of our business, including claims payment practices, statutory capital requirements, provider contracting, risk adjustment, competitive practices, commission payments, privacy issues, utilization management practices, pharmacy benefits, access to care, and sales practices, among others. Some of these reviews have historically resulted in fines imposed on us and some have required changes to some of our practices. We continue to be subject to these reviews, which could result in additional fines or other sanctions being imposed on us or additional changes in some of our practices. We also are involved in various other lawsuits that arise, for the most part, in the ordinary course of our business operations, certain of which may be styled as class-action lawsuits. Among other matters, this litigation may include employment matters, claims of medical malpractice, bad faith, nonacceptance or termination of providers, anticompetitive practices, improper rate setting, provider contract rate and payment disputes, including disputes over reimbursement rates required by statute, disputes arising from competitive procurement process, general contractual matters, intellectual property matters, and challenges to subrogation practices. Under state guaranty assessment laws, including those related to state cooperative failures in the industry, we may be assessed (up to prescribed limits) for certain obligations to the policyholders and claimants of insolvent insurance companies that write the same line or lines of business as we do. As a government contractor, we may also be subject to false claims litigation, such as qui tam lawsuits brought by individuals who seek to sue on behalf of the government, alleging that the government contractor submitted false claims to the government or related overpayments from the government, including, among other allegations, those resulting from coding and review practices under the Medicare risk adjustment model. Qui tam litigation is filed under seal to allow the government an opportunity to investigate and to decide if it wishes to intervene and assume control of the litigation. If the government does not intervene, the individual may continue to prosecute the action on his or her own, on behalf of the government. We also are subject to other allegations of nonperformance of contractual obligations to providers, members, and others, including failure to properly pay claims, improper policy terminations, challenges to our implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and other litigation. A limited number of the claims asserted against us are subject to insurance coverage. Personal injury claims, claims for extra contractual damages, care delivery malpractice, and claims arising from medical benefit denials are covered by insurance from our wholly owned captive insurance subsidiary and excess carriers, except to the extent that claimants seek punitive damages, which may not be covered by insurance in certain states in which insurance coverage for punitive damages is not permitted. In addition, insurance coverage for all or certain forms of liability has become increasingly costly and may become unavailable or prohibitively expensive in the future. We record accruals for the contingencies discussed in the sections above to the extent that we conclude it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. No estimate of the possible loss or range of loss in excess of amounts accrued, if any, can be made at this time regarding the matters specifically described above because of the inherently unpredictable nature of legal proceedings, which also may be exacerbated by various factors, including: (i) the damages sought in the proceedings are unsubstantiated or indeterminate; (ii) discovery is not complete; (iii) the proceeding is in its early stages; (iv) the matters present legal uncertainties; (v) there are significant facts in dispute; (vi) there are a large number of parties (including where it is uncertain how liability, if any, will be shared among multiple defendants); or (vii) there is a wide range of potential outcomes. The outcome of any current or future litigation or governmental or internal investigations, including the matters described above, cannot be accurately predicted, nor can we predict any resulting judgments, penalties, fines or other sanctions that may be imposed at the discretion of federal or state regulatory authorities or as a result of actions by third parties. Nevertheless, it is reasonably possible that any such outcome of litigation, judgments, penalties, fines or other sanctions could be substantial, and the outcome of these matters may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial position, and cash flows, and may also affect our reputation.

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