"Special Announcement" Tomorrow

[RayNY]

Join Us for a Special Announcement from the New York Health Benefit Exchange | New York Health Benefit Exchange

Straight from the officials: something is getting announced via webinar tomorrow at 11am.

Check the link if you want to see, or check back here after the announcement for me to just tell you what it was.

----------

Feel free to click the link and watch.

So, the big reveal was
*drumroll please*

The official name will be "nystateofhealth" Yes, one word, all lowercase. And the logo is a silhouette of NY state with a circle around it.

They also showed the commercial, a minute of a bunch of people hugging and being families, 3 seconds of the logo being flashed with the website in subscript.

Navigators will begin training later this month. Call center people will be trained and working by mid-Sept.

We have a bunch of new carriers named for on-exchange:

Today's Options of New York, Inc. (2013 Medicare Advantage Insurance Plans| Universal American Medicare)
healthfirst Free and Low-Cost Health Insurance | Health Insurance NY New York - Healthfirst
Health Republic (no website yet)
Independent Health (www.independenthealth.com)
Market Plus (no website yet)
Oscar (the only entrant they ever mentioned previously, probably because of the founder's connections, hioscar.com, but there is nothing there besides a logo right now.)

If it concerns you that 2.5 of these on-exchange companies that are supposed to integrate with the hub and do all that fancy programming stuff don't even have a website, don't worry, October 1 is a really long time away and everything will be ready.

 

[benwrigh]

How does the company itself get organized so quickly? Kind of scary to think that companies are getting thrown together so quickly.

 

[RayNY]

Companies like Oscar are founded by entrepreneurs that are used to getting big projects off the ground (and, they have a lot of money). Hire some talent, recruit the right people, and throw enough money at it and anything can be done in a condensed time frame.

I dug into DFS's website to look at the company filings. Oscar was just approved last month, 7/12, as an "accident and health" carrier. Healthfirst is filed as a "prepaid health service plan" (in contrast to the usual "accident and health" or "hmo" filings) and has been around for a while. They currently offer supplemental, CHP, and HNY product among other subsidized product. No "traditional major medical" from the looks of it. Quite a few carriers on the list are in a similar spot.

MarketPlus, Today's options, and Health Republic don't have filings (or are DBA's of companies that have filings, like Emblem operating under HIP). Either way, off of a logo and a name, I couldn't find them.

Independent Health has been around for a while, but only in the Buffalo region, so the name didn't ring a bell for me. I assume they were "IHA HMO" and "IHBC" on the recent rate filings.

----------

Turns out, Health Republic is the DBA of Freelancers. Still no idea on the other 2.

 

[benwrigh]

I guess its a lot easier to start up considering there is no underwriting and the amount of automation.

 

[RayNY]

"Today's Options" is "American Progressive Life & Health Insurance Company of NY"

"HealthNow" is "BS of NENY and BCBS Western NY"

"MetroPlus Health Plan" is "Market Plus" (only in the metro area, obviously)

Plan map: Map of Health Plans Offered in New York State of Health | New York Health Benefit Exchange

Premium Estimator: Tax Credit and Premium Estimator | New York Health Benefit Exchange