The insurance and technology firm SeeChange Health landed $15 million in capital funding from two investment firms, the Psilos Group and Maverick Capital, who say they sense a shift in the employer-provided insurance market towards more focus on wellbeing and early intervention.
San Francisco-based SeeChange, which currently sells health plans in California and Colorado and has roughly 20,000 members, says it wants to expand its insurance line along with its suite of software products for third party administrators, employers and insurers.
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SeeChange CEO Martin Watson said investors and consumers see innovative business models in "value-based benefit design solutions that give people an incentive to make healthy choices. SeeChange Health Insurance is the fastest-growing health plan in California and Colorado," said Watson, who previously worked for United Healthcare and Aetna International's e-business division.
The other half of the company focuses on offering self-funded and traditional health plans with software services for tailoring wellness incentive programs. This kind of engagement with employees as patients is "a cornerstone of designing benefit solutions," said Al Waxman, senior managing member at Psilos and SeeChange board chairman.
"The SeeChange Health approach to individual accountability is an important leap in our continued struggle to manage health care costs and generate better outcomes for health care consumers," Waxman said.
The Psilos Group has funded other start up health organizations focused on providing prevention and wellness incentives. SeeChange Health was founded 2008, and after starting in California, the company is now offering 14 PPO plans and HSA account health plans to small businesses in Colorado.
In a recent interview, SeeChange Health EVP Alan Katz said there's growing interest in insurance products that reward members for managing and improving their health. He said it "allows us to reduce costs and improve the quality of life of our members through early detection of serious chronic conditions."
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Katz said SeeChange hopes to sell plans on Colorado's health insurance exchange, and he sees the company as potentially disruptive, bringing patients more accountability and competing with dominant insurers, especially in the markets for catastrophic and high deductible plans.
"We're paying people to go see their doctor," he said. "The hospitals like us because we're another player in the market, and for them it's all about negotiating with the big boys and the fact that we're around gives them an ounce more leverage, and they'll take whatever leverage is out there."