Dive Brief:
- Oscar will sell plans in the small group insurance market beginning next month, Backchannel reported.
- In addition, the company recently partnered with Mount Sinai Health System to open a full-service primary care center in Brooklyn, NY.
- Oscar suffered a net loss of $128 million in the first three quarters of 2016, New York Post reported last month.
Dive Insight:
Oscar, which operates in New York, Texas and California, has been looking to change the paradigm of a conservative health insurance industry via a customer-focused, technologically savvy approach.
Oscar claims to be adaptable and able to cope with the loss of the ACA, with or without a replacement. “We’re in this for the long haul,” co-founders Mario Schlosser and Josh Kushner wrote a November 2016 blog post. However, even if key aspects of the ACA were to survive, any cut to subsidies will no doubt have an impact on the bottom line.
In addition to the Brooklyn clinic, the company may open a chain of clinics across the U.S., possibly worksite clinics, an approach that will align them with employers instead of the ACA marketplace. Meanwhile, Oscar has taken action to tighten up its provider networks in New York, Los Angeles and San Antonio and is pulling out of the Dallas and New Jersey markets in 2017. It will expand into the San Francisco area this year, Bloomberg reported.