Success Stories

Creating Healthcare Choices for Small Companies

When a general insurance agency came to us in the mid-90's and asked how it could expand coverage for employees at small companies, we helped them create and develop a whole new insurance delivery model.

At the time, most small companies – if they offered employees any insurance at all – could only offer one insurance package. We envisioned a business model that allowed employees at small businesses to choose from five to seven different plans, through an insurance "exchange." Regulators, however, had no way to handle this innovative model.

We drew on our strong working relationships with officials at the Department of Corporations, which oversaw managed healthcare, to win their approval of the exchange. Under that first exchange, known as California Choice, 10,000 small employers have been able to offer health insurance to 200,000 employees, nearly half of whom had no prior insurance at all.

Now even the federal government – the biggest single insurer in the country – is mandating state health exchanges.