Alignment Healthcare Losses Narrow As Medicare Advantage Enrollment Rises

Alignment Healthcare reported an $11.5 million loss in its second quarter as the startup provider of privatized Medicare Advantage coverage continues to grow.

Alignment’s loss of $11.58 million, or 6 cents a share, compared to $44.7 million, or 25 cents in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, total revenue was up nearly 19% to $366.5 million in the second quarter ended June 30 compared to $308.9 million a year ago as the company continues to grow in the competitive business of providing health benefits to U.S. seniors.

“Alignment Healthcare’s strong performance in the second quarter showcases the replicability of our model and resulted in one of our best quarters since taking the company public,” Alignment Healthcare founder and chief executive John Kao said. “The quarter marks our lowest medical benefits ratio since the IPO, where we once again beat guidance on four key performance indicators: membership, revenue, adjusted gross profit and adjusted EBITDA.”

The earnings report comes less than two months after Alignment announced plans to expand into two new markets for 2023, launching Medicare Advantage in Florida and Texas.

Alignment, which became publicly-traded company last year in the popular and competitive Medicare Advantage business, in June said its expansion to Florida and Texas will also include launching plans “into additional counties within the four states where it currently operates.” Alignment already sells Medicare Advantage in four states: Arizona, California, Nevada and North Carolina.

Medicare Advantage plans – which are owned by some of the biggest names in health insurance including UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health’s Aetna, Humana, Cigna and Elevance Health – contract with the federal government to provide extra benefits and services to seniors, such as disease management and nurse help hotlines with some also offering vision, dental care and wellness programs. And in recent years, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has allowed Medicare Advantage plans to cover more supplemental benefits, adding to their popularity among seniors and drawing investments and capital to an array of companies including startups like Alignment.

Alignment ended the second quarter with health plan enrollment of 95,900, which was up 13% compared to the year-ago period.