Meet Oscar

[dgoldenz]

I like how the article compares total revenues of the largest health insurance companies to the amount of loss by Oscar as if they were somehow correlated.

 

[RayNY]

I like how the article compares total revenues of the largest health insurance companies to the amount of loss by Oscar as if they were somehow correlated.

Not to mention, they only looked at 5 carriers.: Aetna, United, Cigna, BCBS (Anthem and North Carolina divisions only). They mention Anthem as a separate company, and don't mention they limit BCBS to just NC, but it clearly says it in their cited report.

There's 16 insurers just on-exchange for individuals in NY, 3 of which are BCBS divisions. (Empire, Excellus (Excellus BCBS and Univera put together), HealthNow (BS of NENY, BCBS of Western NY put together))

Seems a bit silly to cherry pick 5. Seems even more silly to imply Oscar is the only one with an operating loss when 2 aren't in this state, and the other 3 are national.

 

[AllenChicago]

Get Ready California.. HERE COMES OSCAR!


Oscar Wants To 'Revolutionize' Health Care. But Will It Even Survive Covered California? | Kaiser Health News

I wonder if Oscar uses/pays Independent Agents?

 

[RayNY]

Get Ready California.. HERE COMES OSCAR!


Oscar Wants To 'Revolutionize' Health Care. But Will It Even Survive Covered California? | Kaiser Health News

I wonder if Oscar uses/pays Independent Agents?

Yes, they do. Their comp ("marketing fee") is in line with other companies, and they even offered a bonus program that was pretty generous. They only pay through "aggregators", what you'd normally call a GA (even on-exchange). Administratively, they're a great company to deal with, even if they are still learning the ropes.

I'm surprised they expanded to CA's indy market, they've been talking about coming into NY's small group market since they were introduced, and more recently, expanding through NJ. I heard nothing from them concerning CA until now.

 

[Brian Anderson]

Here's some more news on Oscar from a Sept. 15 WSJ article:

Insurance Forums | Oscar gets investment from Google; eyes California and Texas in 2016

 

[kgmom219]

Looks like they are coming to Dallas and SA in Texas......

https://www.hioscar.com/about/jobs/77482?gh_jid=77482

 

[MaryDallas]

Looks like they are coming to Dallas and SA in Texas......

https://www.hioscar.com/about/jobs/77482?gh_jid=77482

Do you speak Mandarin? Teledoc is becoming increasingly more popular it seems.

 

[Ann H]

What Oscar needs in Texas is a really great FMO that can speak Texan, not just Mandarin, Spanish or Korean like they requested in that link!

https://www.hioscar.com/about/jobs/77482?gh_jid=77482

 

[TxOnline]

Re: Meet Oscar - MGA required

Looks like they are coming to Dallas and SA in Texas......

https://www.hioscar.com/about/jobs/77482?gh_jid=77482

Which MGA to use???
https://www.hioscar.com/brokers/general-agents/NY

I've used BenefitMall in the past...(the ancient past ...for group business...probably in the early 1990's).
I was never very impressed with them.
When I called them for help with a group renewal, they told me that they were in the "sales business". They couldn't help me with renewal problems.
They were QUICK to call me, though, when they stopped getting their override commissions on that group.
I've never used their CRQS Quoting System. Seems complicated.

Here's an MGA that's not listed at link above:
Home

Does anyone use AHIA?
Comments about AHIA?

Any others?

 

[RayNY]

I'd bet there's TX specific MGA's assigned. AHIA appears to be one of the first moving into that position.

Of the existing GA list, only one or two serve TX at all, and none have an official MGA contract yet (nor have they alluded to getting one). I wouldn't be surprised to see none of them in TX as an Oscar MGA.