Health Plan Weekly

As has been the case in previous quarters, all four of the newly public health insurance startups — Oscar Health, Inc., Bright Health Group, Inc., Clover Health Investments Corp. and Alignment Healthcare, Inc. — reported losses for the final three months of 2021. However, a look at both the fourth quarter and full year reveals that there were considerable differences among those companies in terms of the severity of their losses and the trajectory of their businesses.

“The four public startup health insurers lost $2.5 billion in 2021,” observes Ari Gottlieb, a principal at the consulting firm A2 Strategy Group, who calls that a “staggering amount of money.” Bright Health — which has Medicare Advantage, Affordable Care Act exchange and health care provider assets — was responsible for roughly half of that total loss among the quartet of insurers, losing just under $1.2 billion for the full year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, payers and federal and local governments are taking steps to improve health outcomes in rural, non-metropolitan communities, where case and mortality rates are significantly higher than in metropolitan areas.

Some of those initiatives include offering grants to health care providers, expanding access to telehealth and hosting events and campaigns to increase vaccinations, according to three speakers who discussed the pandemic and rural health during a Feb. 28 webinar hosted by the National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM) Foundation.

Here’s how major health insurers’ stock performed in February 2022. UnitedHealth Group had the highest closing stock price among major commercial insurers as of Feb. 28, 2022, at $475.87. Molina Healthcare, Inc. had the highest closing stock price among major Medicaid insurers at $306.87.

Centene Corp. on Feb. 24 revealed that CEO and Chairman Michael Neidorff took immediate medical leave. That means Neidorff may have served his last day at the helm of the company he built into a Medicaid managed care powerhouse, given the fact that he has already announced plans to retire later this year after 26 years on the job.

Effective immediately, an “expanded office of the chairman” will handle day-to-day management of Centene. That group includes Vice Chairman of the Board Sarah London, President and Chief Operating Officer Brent Layton, Chief Financial Officer Drew Asher and Chief Administrative Officer Shannon Bagley.