What it does: Extend Health provides health benefit management services using its proprietary exchange platform and decision-support tools and operates the largest private Medicare exchange.
How it grew to become one of healthcare's hottest Extend Health built its exchange in 2004 to respond to automaker Chrysler's needs for its Medicare-eligible retirees. In buying a one-size-fits-all group plan, Chrysler executives told Extend Health that the company's costs kept rising and much of it had to be passed on to the retirees. “The retirees were not happy with the price or the options,” says co-founder and CEO Bryce Williams. And once Chrysler started using the exchange, soon Ford and General Motors were also moving over their retirees.
