Kaiser Permanente Hawaii earned $1 million in the second quarter after gaining more than 3,000 members in the first six months of the year.
That reverses a year-earlier loss of $800,000 in the quarter ended June 30.
The state’s largest health-maintenance organization collected $295.2 million in premium revenue, a 3.4 percent increase from the $285.6 million it generated in the year-ago period. It spent $294.4 million on health care benefits, up 2.4 percent from $287.6 million.
The HMO posted $800,000 in operating income, turning around a $2 million loss in the year-earlier period. Investment income of $200,000 boosted Kaiser’s earnings to $1 million, or 0.3 percent of revenue.
"Our second-quarter performance is in line with our overall expectations," said Kaiser spokeswoman Laura Lott.
The insurer and health provider has seen growth across all customer segments — more than 7,000 over the second quarter of 2013, bringing total membership to nearly 230,000, or approximately one in five Hawaii residents.
Kaiser said it gained a new segment of the market through the state’s health insurance exchange created by President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
"New members are also coming to us via the Connector because of our favorable rate position and the coordinated care model," Lott said, though she didn’t know how many members came through the online marketplace designed to match qualified residents with subsidized coverage.
"It gives people options. There’s thousands of businesses that have tax credits available and that can only help our small-business community," Lott added. "We hope people have the opportunity to try our health plan and we think they’ll like us."
Kaiser will be the only insurance carrier participating on the business portion of the Connector next year, gaining a monopoly on the exchange for small groups.
The Hawaii Medical Service Association, the state’s dominant insurer, announced Friday that it is withdrawing from the Connector’s small-business program because of the time and money spent dealing with the exchange that has been plagued with computer problems since its rollout in October.
This year, Kaiser hiked rates an average 9.2 percent for individual plans with 11,000 enrollees and by 5 percent for 26,300 small-business policyholders at their contract renewal dates.
At the time the company said rate adjustments were necessary to cover higher projected medical expenses and taxes and fees related to Obama’s signature health care law.
