By Diana Novak Jones
(Reuters) -A U.S. judge on Tuesday rejected Humana’s bid to challenge the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 2025 ratings for its Medicare Advantage plans, which could cost the health insurance company millions of dollars in bonus payments from the government.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, sided with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Humana’s lawsuit over a reduction in the so-called star ratings for its Medicare Advantage plans, saying CMS properly evaluated the plans.
Representatives for Humana and HHS, which oversees CMS, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Humana is one of the largest providers of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S., which are funded by the Medicare health insurance program for seniors and some disabled people but administered by private insurers.
Humana filed the challenge to the 2025 star ratings after it said a lower rating could cause it to lose customers and potentially billions of dollars in bonus payments from the government, which it said would have been used to reduce premiums and increase benefits for its members.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Mark Porter, Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)
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