The current healthcare bill debate primarily impacts the individual market, but uncertainty remains for insurers and carriers. Ron Goldstein, chief executive of Choice Administrators in Orange, said the company and its partners strive to remain competitive and provide plans that balance coverage and cost.
Choice Administrators is the parent organization of CaliforniaChoice, the largest private multicarrier small-group health exchange in the U.S. It employs more than 230 and serves over 18,000 employers and more than 320,000 members.
Insurance broker Word & Brown is the parent company of Choice.
CalChoice’s 2018 product portfolio will introduce rate and benefit parity with Kaiser Permanente—consumers will get the same rate and benefit, whether they purchase Kaiser through CalChoice or directly through Kaiser.
“The ‘no wrong door’ system allows us to be more competitive with our products. It is critical for us to have rate compression … so when [consumers] go to CalChoice, it’s the same [among] carriers,” said Goldstein, adding that the other exchange that offers rate and benefit parity with Kaiser is Covered California.
New plans will include offerings from Health Net, Anthem Blue Cross, Sharp Health Plan, Sutter Health Plus, UnitedHealthcare and Western Health Advantage. Goldstein said about 50% of its products carry rate and benefit parity.
It will also offer members a new Member Value Program, which offers access to discounts of up to 40% on active health and lifestyle products, such as heart rate monitors and activity trackers like Fitbit, Garmin and Jawbone.
Goldstein said he’s concerned about association health plans. President Donald Trump signed an executive order this month to allow consumers to buy health insurance through association health plans across state lines.
Association plans already exist, but the new rules, if they go forward, would allow them to be larger and sell plans across state lines—those plans won’t have the same minimum coverage requirements.
The Oct. 12 executive order directed the Department of Labor to consider within 60 days either proposing new regulations or revised guidance that would permit small employers to band together to access large-group coverage.
Cancer Treatment
University of California-Irvine’s School of Biological Sciences featured Richard Van Etten, professor and director of the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, to speak on the war on cancer. UC Davis, UCI, UCLA, UC San Diego and UCSF have formed a consortium bringing together five academic cancer centers to advance precision medicine and clinical research.
“Together, we have more than 14 million patients. That’s bigger than Kaiser,” Van Etten said.
UCI also plans to address quality of life and survivorship issues in cancer patients, working with Henry & Susan Samueli College of Health Sciences to address integrative oncology.
Etten said his greatest cancer research challenge is funding, as President Trump’s 2018 budget request calls for massive cuts in spending on scientific research, medical research and other health programs.
“We are down about 30% in real dollars,” Van Etten said, referring to funding provided by the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. “The proposed budget cuts into NIH funding by 20% is entirely devastating to biomedical research.”
UCI raised $400,000 at its inaugural Anti-Cancer Challenge this year. It plans to double that next year.
The center received $5 million from the Chao family in June. Van Etten said the money is structured so that every year 4% to 5% of the gift will fund research. The family is specific in its instructions, starting with using the gift first for stem cell transplantation for blood cancer patients and later to fund hereditary cancer research.
Home Care
Irvine-based home healthcare services provider Jet Health Inc. acquired Richardson, Texas-based Alpine Plus Home Health, a home health agency that provides skilled nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech pathology, medical social and companion care services. Alpine has about 30 employees.
Terms were undisclosed.
It’s Jet Health’s third acquisition since it was founded more than a year ago. The company plans to acquire or open home health agencies in middle-markets in the western U.S., Jet Health Chief Executive Jim Glynn told the Business Journal early this year when it acquired its second property, Home Health Investments LLC in Colorado, following an earlier purchase of a business in Texas that provides services in Fort Worth and Albuquerque, N.M.
Its newest buy intends to expand its presence in Texas.
Jet Health operates as a Medicare-certified provider. It’s raised $19 million from private equity and venture capital firms, including SV Life Sciences in London and Health Enterprise Partners LP in New York.
Board Expansion
Hoag Hospital Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, expanded its number of endowed chairs to 13. The additions, comprised of two endowed chairs targeting developmental cancer therapeutics and aortic care, were created through gifts totaling more than $5 million from Margaret Larkin, a former director of the Hoag foundation, and Martha and Jim Newkirk.
