HMOs' Q1 profits soar

The Insurance Commission (IC) reported that the health maintenance organization (HMO) industry’s total net income surged by 84.4 times—or by over half a billion pesos—in the first quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year, driven by a sharp increase in membership fee income.

- By DERCO ROSAL

The latest data from the IC, the HMO industry’s regulator, showed that the sector’s end-March net income jumped from P6.8 million to P579.4 million.

Insurance Commissioner Reynaldo A. Regalado attributed this massive increase to the industry’s “sustained recovery from the impact of the pandemic.”

Regalado said in a statement released on Thursday, May 15, that the sharp increase was mainly due to a 26.2-percent rise in membership fee collections, which accounted for 97.5 percent of the industry’s total revenues. The increase in membership fees was driven by the ₱7,000 medical allowance provided to eligible government employees for HMO coverage.

The IC data was based on unaudited financial statements from 28 HMOs, up from 24 in the same period last year.