Insurer Oscar Health is entering into a partnership with the Cleveland Clinic to sell health plans in 2018 through the Obamacare exchange in Ohio in five counties that Anthem said it plans to vacate.
Through entering the exchange, Oscar is moving in the opposite direction of many other insurers who have chose not to participate next year because of millions of dollars in losses and uncertainty ahead as Republicans vow to repeal and replace portions of the law.
They also face uncertainty about how much to charge as they wait to hear about the extent to which the Trump administration will enforce the healthcare law and whether it will make insurer payments called cost-sharing reduction subsidies.
The partnership with Cleveland Clinic and Oscar is also supposed to offer a different approach to healthcare that will help patients follow up on wellness visits and use telehealth. People who live in Cuyahoga, Summit, Lorain, Medina and Lake Counties will be able to purchase a plan that would be tax subsidized by the government on the Obamacare exchange or would be able to purchase it from the individual market.
Mario Schlosser, CEO and co-founder of Oscar, said in a statement the partnership with the Cleveland Clinic would focus on keeping customers healthy, helping them find the right kind of care and reducing the cost of healthcare.
Dr. Brian Donley, chief of staff at the Cleveland Clinic, said in a statement he hoped other hospitals would consider similar approaches.
“It’s about getting people the right care, at the right place, at the right time,” he said. “It’s about avoiding an unnecessary trip to the doctor or a stay in the hospital, whenever possible, through better patient education, better access to care, better care coordination, better behaviors and, ultimately, better health.”
Oscar was co-founded by Josh Kushner, brother to President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, but he has no operational role in the company.
