Windsor Medicare Extra Bought by Sterling

[ksigmtsu]

Windsor just sent out a broker letter saying they've been acquired by Munich Re, parent company of Sterling Life. Appears they decided they want to get into the HMO market.

 

[medsuptage]

This is true I am an active sterling agent.

I'm not exactly sure what this entails product wise for us but hopefully it's good.

 

[ksigmtsu]

Windsor has several MA HMO plans, most of them are in the area near and around Tennessee. They started out as a company called Vanderbilt health plans. They were headquartered out of Brentwood, TN.

I very much doubt it will have much impact on you in Washington State, typically when a company buys out a HMO company it is because they want to offer their products/network in the area they're already in.

Their network was sparse in spots here but they offered decent benefit packages for the price, in some counties they are the only HMO, they specialize in SNP plans with a lot of extra/added benefits.

 

[medsuptage]

Oh, wow very nice. Thank you for the insight!

 

[ksigmtsu]

Sterling had a good share of PFFS here in TN, they were very aggressive, but now most counties are at the cap for managed and they can't offer PFFS in them.

 

[AgentPipeline]

The acquisition should be good for all of us. We need more large Medicare Advantage companies to stay in the market. Smaller companies that don’t hit their Star Ratings with CMS may not be able to compete with the big boys.

Below is a section of an email I received from Sterling regarding the acquisition:

“Our parent company, Munich Re, issued a press release earlier today with great news – we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsor Health Group Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee. Our intention is to combine the operations of Windsor with our business here at Sterling, creating a larger and more complete health care organization, with the products, services, distribution channels and resources we need to compete in the years ahead. This transaction is a huge step forward for Sterling.”

Here is a link to the Press Release.
Here is a link to the Bloomberg Article.

 

[Tom Highway]

The acquisition should be good for all of us. We need more large Medicare Advantage companies to stay in the market. Smaller companies that don’t hit their Star Ratings with CMS may not be able to compete with the big boys.

Below is a section of an email I received from Sterling regarding the acquisition:

“Our parent company, Munich Re, issued a press release earlier today with great news – we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire Windsor Health Group Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee. Our intention is to combine the operations of Windsor with our business here at Sterling, creating a larger and more complete health care organization, with the products, services, distribution channels and resources we need to compete in the years ahead. This transaction is a huge step forward for Sterling.”

Here is a link to the Press Release.
Here is a link to the Bloomberg Article.

I could probably find the numbers for this online, but how big is Sterling? Are they all over the US, regional, or what?

And I'm wondering if the end game of this with Munich is indeed to gobble up some of the smaller regional HMO plans with existing networks, with them having only PFFS with Sterling right now. That would position them to be among the large national players, and like someone said earlier, that sort of strengthens the voice of MA on a national level, which is a good thing for agents, seniors, and the plans themselves.

 

[ksigmtsu]

Sterling is pretty large, Windsor had a large area HMO set up also most of 5 states. Their geographical area they occupied was larger than healthsprings. They just seemed to focus more on SNP.

Probably good overall.

 

[AgentPipeline]

I could probably find the numbers for this online, but how big is Sterling? Are they all over the US, regional, or what?

And I'm wondering if the end game of this with Munich is indeed to gobble up some of the smaller regional HMO plans with existing networks, with them having only PFFS with Sterling right now. That would position them to be among the large national players, and like someone said earlier, that sort of strengthens the voice of MA on a national level, which is a good thing for agents, seniors, and the plans themselves.

Sterling is in about 20 states with PFFS, NPFFS & PPO plans. They offer PDPs in all 50 states. Combined, they will have over 200,000 members.

I have a blog post that goes into more detail and includes the full email from Sterling. Link is in my signature.