The Dayton region’s largest hospital network is launching a new venture into the insurance business.
Premier Health looks to break into the health insurance world and sell commercial insurance products and Medicare advantage plans. The company’s products will be sold through Ohio’s Health Insurance Exchange and through private brokers. The Premier Health Plan, which already exists as the company’s internal insurance division for its employees, will be expanded to accommodate the new product lines.
With the move, Premier will become a new insurance provider. It may mean the company becomes less reliant on other insurance providers, with which it frequently must negotiate payment agreements. The venture also will lead to more jobs for Premier, but it’s officials wouldn’t say how many it could add.
“It’s part of our strategic plan to manage the health of the population in the region, and in order to do that across the spectrum, we’re launching this,” said Mike Maiberger, senior vice president for Value Based Services at Premier Health, which has 13,500 workers. “We started out offering insurance to our employees and now we plan to take it external.”
It’s a new avenue for growth for Premier, one of the largest employers in the region.
Premier Health Plan is a part of a services division of Premier Health, which also includes its physician group practice, Premier Health Group. Maiberger said the move will allow Premier’s headquarters to expand but couldn’t say how much because the plans are still being drawn up over the long term.
In order to spin up the operation, Premier worked with Arlington, Va.-based consulting firm Evolent Health.
Aaron Molitor, president of Premier HealthPlan, said Evolent’s feedback helped Premier establish a business model for Premier Health Plan’s commercial lines.
Jerry Clark, chief medical officer at Premier Health Group, said the physician group practice will be the provider network for Premier Health Group.
“The whole concept of a (Physician-Hospital Organization) like us is to practice population health,” Clark said.
Molitor said the products will be effective Jan. 1, 2015. However, Premier will be able to start advertising the Medicare advantage plans Oct. 1 and start enrolling Oct. 15. Federal policies prohibit Premier from disclosing the definite details of its plans but those will be clarified further in October.
It will work with several Field Marketing Organizations, or FMOs, to pick up agencies to market the insurance. Molitor said agencies looking to get involved should contact Premier Health Plan.
Ronald Todd II, CEO of Dayton-based insurance brokerage agency SEEP LLC, is a general agent for Premier, working through Gateway Strategies National Insurance out of Pittsburgh as its FMO.
“This is huge for us; a game changer,” Todd said, noting his business is a minority-owned enterprise and one of its supplier diversity vendors. “We have the same model with Premier, to educate people about the different health options out there.”
The move will allow independent insurance agencies like his to expand business and give agents something new to offer.
“This is an awesome strategic partnership we have with them, this initiative will help us grow,” Todd said.
Date: August 27, 2014