After quietly building a small insurance unit, one of the nation's largest health systems is launching a new health plan brand that could pose more competition for established insurers.
Catholic Health Initiatives, the 93-hospital system based in Denver, has renamed its insurance subsidiary as Prominence Health, to oversee a growing portfolio of commercial and Medicare Advantage health plans, along with delivery networks and other insurance products and services.
Catholic Health Initiatives leaders say the Prominence Health subsidiary will "operate and consult across the full continuum of healthcare," spanning payers, providers, employers and consumers, and in particular focus on population health in a post-fee-for-service world.
"Prominence Health will significantly advance CHI's ability to excel in a pay-for-value environment," said Juan Serrano, CEO of Prominence and senior vice president of payer strategy and operations, in a media release. "Through Prominence, CHI has developed a catalyst to position us as a broadly integrated health system that enables exceptional health services and superior value for the communities we serve," said Serrano, a former UnitedHealthcare and WellCare executive.
Along with CHI's health plans and networks, Prominence Health will oversee benefits management, data analytics, corporate wellness and occupational health, with the aim of creating a "customer-centered 'bridge' to population health," the organization said.
Focus on the employer
In insurance, though, Serrano said Prominence Health will be a way to expand in one especially large market: employer-sponsored health benefits.
Already, he said, Prominence is working directly with employers in collaborations that "will go far beyond the provision of basic insurance administration and medical care." Among products and services being tailored for employers are wellness education and health coaching, preventive screenings and disease management support and onsite healthcare.
The bid to directly partner with employers is a strategy other large health systems are taking, most notably of late being the accountable care contracts Boeing has set up, one with the Providence and Swedish health systems and one with the University of Washington Medicine.
For CHI, the nation's third largest religious-based health system, rebranding and expanding the Prominence insurance subsidiary is part of a strategy to offer integrated health services and find a path towards value-based, non-fee-for-service business -- and one only recently in the making.
Prominence Health was formerly called CollabHealth Managed Solutions, created in 2012. That was CHI's first foray into insurance, begun with a majority interest acquisition in Southpath Health, a Medicare Advantage plan in Tacoma, Washington.
In April, CHI announced an acquisition of the Little Rock, Arkansas-based insurance company QualChoice. Arkansas, where CHI operates the St. Vincent Health System, is "a fantastic place to develop our health insurance capabilities as we strive to better serve communities here and across the nation," Serrano said at the time.
Now, CHI is planning to use QualChoice to extend its insurance reach with third party administrative services and Medicare Advantage plans in Kentucky, Nebraska, Ohio and Tennessee -- Midwestern markets where established national and regional insurers may soon have more competition.