Is using a big insurance company the best decision? Depends. In fact, it depends on what’s best for your business. With the advent of the Accountable Care Act, it is projected that more than 100 small health plans disappeared across America. Someone actually wanted me to find one for them to buy and I couldn’t find any that survived. Left standing were the big five, which I’ve learned recently are called BUCAH by insurance brokers– Blue, United, Cigna, Aetna and Humana.
Sure, they have lots of positives, including the heft to influence markets, hospital pricing and doctor reimbursement. But like any large company, they are bogged down in bureaucracy and are slow to move and innovate. Sometimes to keep up with the changing markets they’ll just buy something versus building it internally since it’s a lot easier to integrate technology or services that you’ve bought versus asking your staff to invent and build it.
Then there are the innovators who stand outside the mainstream. For the past 25 years I have created and founded seven new healthcare companies because I am always looking for something new to drive market change and help consumers. I even founded my own health plan in Florida and ran it for eight years.
Today I am CEO of a company called BeneBay. We are creating innovative health plans for small, mid-size and large employers with the help of smart insurance brokers who want to have flexibility in plan design and find better ways to cut employer healthcare costs.
Don’t just settle for the BUCAH and the BUCAH brokers. Challenge your representative to find alternative companies like BeneBay so that you can improve your healthcare spend.
