Requiem for an Earnings Reporting Season

By James Gutman - May 11, 2012

For those of us crazy enough to listen to all the quarterly earnings calls of publicly held Medicare Advantage and Part D plan sponsors, there always are a few "rewards" in the form of especially quotable remarks of company executives. And the just-completed first-quarter 2012 round of calls was no exception. Beyond the corporate-speak of being "pleased" with their results, as most of the companies said, there were some examples of picturesque speech and candor that seem worthy of special mention.

In the category of imagery use in financial-results comments, consider first Humana Chairman and CEO Michael McCallister's response to a question about companies repositioning themselves to gear up for expected business managing Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles. "There are a lot of chairs moving around," observed McCallister. On the overall climate facing health plans in 2012, UnitedHealth Group President and CEO Stephen Hemsley said, "We greatly respect the headwinds facing us this year." And in a comment that would make Yogi Berra proud, Health Net, Inc. CEO Jay Gellert, answering a question about the pricing climate in its California market, said, "We're comfortable that we've been able to figure out what's going on with us."

In the candor category, Universal American Corp.'s Greg Scott, CEO of APS Healthcare, which Universal just acquired, gets an honorable mention for "Exchanges are still a 'TBD' for us." Another honorable mention goes to WellPoint, Inc. Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt for acknowledging that "the senior business is really a long-term turnaround focus." For pure humility, it's hard to top Gellert of loss-reporting Health Net, Inc., who said that "we're deeply disappointed in the first-quarter results and know we'll have to execute for the rest of the year to regain your trust."

But probably the winner and still champion in both categories is the always colorful Coventry Health Care, Inc. Chairman and CEO Allen Wise, who, when speaking of the company's results so far in the Kentucky Medicaid market, said, "Actually, we're getting our tails kicked" and "It's ugly, but it's going to get better." Do you have any other nominees that can top this?