THE health maintenance organizations (HMOs) suffered a net loss last year due to a large increase in expenses, the Insurance Commission (IC) reported on Wednesday.

Data from the Commission showed that HMOs incurred a net loss of P4.27 billion in 2023, 197 percent higher than the P1.43 billion recorded in 2022.

The loss was attributed to "the big increase in expenses, including income tax, foremost of which are health care benefits released to the insuring public."

Increases were also reported in administrative and commission expenses by 19.72 percent and 10.27 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, health care benefits released last year reached P55.46 billion, 26.23 percent higher than P43.93 billion in 2022.

Total assets also experienced an uptick by 8.98 percent to P60.66 billion from P55.66 billion, while total liabilities increased by 13.38 percent to P50.42 billion from P44.46 billion.

The Commission primarily attributed the upsurge to the increase in Other Reserves, Claims Reserve, and Taxes Payable, in which all accelerated to P6.92 billion, P1.29 billion, and P1.17 billion, respectively.

HMOs' total equity, on the other hand, slipped to P10.25 billion due to the decrease in retained earnings of the industry at P4.66 billion while the share capital increased to P3.66 billion.

The IC said that total invested assets recorded a downtick of 1.12 percent last year to P16.64 billion from P16.82 billion as financial assets, investments in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures, and investment property all plunged.

Insurance industry net income rises

Life and non-life insurance companies and mutual benefit associations (MBAs) grew net income to P48.46 billion last year, up 3.8 percent from P46.69 billion in 2022.

"The increase in net income is attributed to the 30.07 [percent] increase in the net income of non-life insurance companies, which registered a net income of P9.11 billion in 2023," the IC said.

Meanwhile, life insurance companies recorded a lower net income of P33.63 billion last year from P33.87 billion in 2022.

The total net surplus of MBAs, on the other hand, declined to P5.73 billion from P5.82 billion in 2022.

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