Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the state's largest health insurance company, reported $22 million in net income the first nine months of this year -- more than eight times its income at the same point last year.

The big bulge in earnings comes on the heels of a year when Blue Cross increased health-insurance premiums for customers by an average of 13 percent.

But a spokeswoman for the company said Thursday the earnings bump doesn't mean the nonprofit company is taking in more money than it should.

Health insurance income and claims payments run in cycles that are hard to predict, said Linda McGillen. So far this year medical claims are lower than expected and investment income higher than expected, leading to the unexpectedly high returns through September, she said.

Net income very well could decline by the end of the year, because medical claims typically increase during the year's final three months, she added.

Blue Cross had $2.7 million in net returns through September of last year, and ended up with $6.7 million net income for all of 2006.

If the company ends with a strong year financially for 2007, it's good for customers, because higher reserves mean Blue Cross is more likely to hold rate increases to a minimum, McGillen said.

"What we want to do is maintain our reserves so we can help our members through premium (prices)," she said.

McGillen pointed out that since 1946, the company has averaged an annual gain on health insurance of only 0.5 percent of premium income.

Blue Cross, which controls about 50 percent of the private health-insurance market in Montana, sells or administers health insurance covering 320,000 people in Montana.

Its third-quarter report, filed with the state auditor's office, contains the following information:

n "Underwriting gains," which are the profit made from health insurance, were $13 million through the first nine months of 2007, compared to a loss at this point last year of $3.7 million. This year's gains are about 3.5 percent of premium income.

n Investment income stood at $11 million, compared to about $4 million at this point last year.

McGillen said $6 million of that income is profit from the company's for-profit subsidiaries, including some one-time events. The company also had losses on investments in October, occurring after the third-quarter report, she said.

n Payments in hospital and medical claims stood at $214 million, or some $8 million less than at this point last year. If that trend persists, total claims for this year could end up lower than in 2006.

n The company's premium income for this year, $377 million, is about 6 percent ahead of premium dollars collected last year.

McGillen said the $22.2 million in 2007 net revenue through September also includes about $4 million in "over-reserves" that carried forward from last year, so this year's actual earnings are a bit less.

The two other health-insurance companies headquartered in Montana also have filed third-quarter reports with the state.

New West Health Services, which has about 7 percent of the market, reported net income of $4.5 million through September, or about $900,000 less than it had at that point last year.

Tanya Ask, vice president of external and provider relations for New West, said Thursday the company may have slightly lower net income this year, but that it's also been paying off back interest owed from previous years.

Allegiance Life & Health Insurance of Missoula just began selling insurance this summer, and has only $17,000 of net income through September.