Health Net Inc., awaiting the $510 million sale of its Connecticut and other Northeast operations to UnitedHealth Group, reported a quarterly net loss on Wednesday on charges and slightly lower revenue.
Fourth-quarter net loss was $45.2 million, or 43 cents per share, compared with net income of $35.5 million, or 34 cents per share, a year earlier when the company also took severance and other charges.
Excluding charges, the company had a profit of 69 cents per share.
On that basis, analysts on average expected 67 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters.
Connecticut’s biggest physician lobby is appealing the state Insurance Department’s clearance for Health Net to sell its Northeast operations and access to 578,000 members in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. UnitedHealth also agreed to pay Health Net $60 million for its Medicare and Medicaid businesses.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also is investigating the transaction.
