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Excellus Ends The Year With A Small Profit

Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, a major health insurer in Rochester and other parts of Upstate NY, says it posted net profits of .4 percent or $24 million last year on revenues of $5.9 billion.

The company says stronger than expected investment income produced positive net income despite an operating loss of $55 million.  The local Blues blame most of the losses due to its safety net lines of business such as Medicaid. Last year, Excellus dropped some of its Medicaid business in areas where it said it was losing too much money. 

Excellus says new in these numbers was $137 million in added federal taxes from the Affordable Care Act. Overall, the company paid out $488 million in state and federal taxes last year. Officials say that excluding taxes, administrative costs to run the business declined from the prior year. Administrative expenses include executive compensation.

Compensation paid to the top three officers in 2014, which is set by the company’s board of directors on the basis of market-based data and performance, was:
· Christopher Booth, chief executive officer: $1,847,147;
· Dorothy Coleman, chief financial officer: $852,255; and
· Stephen Sloan, chief administrative officer and general counsel: $781,421.    

Excellus says that net income goes into the health plan's reserves to protect its members from higher than expected claims expenses or lower than anticipated revenues.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.