White House surprises insurance industry with cuts sooner than expected.

The federal government in April cut 2010 payments for private Medicare plans, sooner than the industry originally expected.

Reimbursements to private insurers that administer socalled Medicare Advantage plans would fall by as much as 4 percent to 4.5 percent next year, the Wall Street Journal reported. The cuts, announced April 6 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, raise concerns about what has been a profit center for insurers.

Insurers that invested heavily in Medicare Advantage will feel the worst pain. Medicare Advantage makes up about half of Humana’s revenue, the WSJ said. With more than 1.4 million Medicare Advantage members, Humana is the second-biggest provider of private Medicare plans.

Medicare Advantage plans wrap physician and hospital services in one, often with vision and drug coverage. The government pays insurers to manage care. President Barack Obama has argued that insurers are overpaid to administer the plans, and he wants to finance part of his healthcare overhaul by paring their subsidies.

CMS said it would raise the baseline rate for the private plans by 0.81 percent, less than the roughly 4 percent insurers have seen in recent years. But the payment rates include a 3.41 percent cut as a result of a change in how the government uses a scale pegged to enrollees’ health.