Daily newsletter · Sat 10 Oct 2026
Humana's Medicare plans won back their stars, and the shares jumped 11.56%
Humana rose 11.56% to US$431.87 on Friday. It opened at US$450.49 and was up almost 18% at its high before giving some of that back.
The stars are a government scorecard. Medicare Advantage plans are private health plans that cover Americans aged 65 and over in place of the government's own Medicare. Washington rates them from one to five stars every year, and plans with four or more earn bonus payments worth billions.
The ratings for 2027 are now out. Humana said 95% of its Medicare Advantage members are in plans rated four stars or higher, up from 20% this year. JPMorgan's analysts had expected between 60% and 70%.
Its rivals did worse. Across the industry about 71% of members will be in four-star plans, Reuters reported, and UnitedHealth is expected to fall to about 67% from 81%. CVS Health lost 1.87%.
Evercore ISI's Elizabeth Anderson said the jump shows how much weight Humana's management put on fixing the ratings over the past year.
the bonus money tied to these ratings is paid in 2028. The plans are scored again next October, so the bonus for 2029 is still to be won.
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