Cigna's income plummets 85% as Humana's income almost doubles

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Both Cigna and Humana released their first-quarter earnings report last week, but the insurers told very different tales of financial performance.

Cigna's first-quarter net income fell to $57 million from $371 million a year earlier, primarily because of a $507 million charge for a deal it made with Berkshire Hathaway to reinsure two of its closed annuity reinsurance businesses and remove risk from its balance sheet, according to its earnings report.

But Cigna also reported its revenue increased 21 percent to $8.18 billion from $6.75 billion a year ago. The insurer benefited from its acquisition of Medicare specialist HealthSpring, plus lower medical usage and costs.

Meanwhile, Humana announced its first-quarter earnings, reporting that its income almost doubled to $473 million from $248 million, and its revenue rose to $10.49 billion from $10.22 billion a year ago, according to its earnings report.

"Our better-than-expected earnings this quarter are a testament to the benefits of our focus on further developing our new member and chronic care clinical programs--key elements of our integrated care delivery model," Humana CEO Bruce Broussard said in the report.

To learn more:
- check out the Cigna earnings report
- here's the Humana earnings report

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