Skip to main content
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Digital Health
    • Transformation
    • ESG
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • Newsletters
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Insurance
December 17, 2018 12:00 AM

Health insurance on demand? Some are betting on it

Associated Press
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    People with health insurance often pay for coverage they never use. A startup wants to shake that up.

    It's a radical idea: On-demand insurance that lets customers buy some of their coverage only if and when they need it, similar to how TV viewers might rent a new release from Amazon instead of paying every month for a pricey cable package they rarely use.

    This approach from Bind Benefits is one of the latest wrinkles in a yearslong push by companies and insurers to control costs and make patients smarter healthcare shoppers. And it's drawing attention from the nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and some sizeable employers, as written about by Modern Healthcare in September.

    "It's the sort of thing we need entrepreneurs to be doing," said Robert Laszewski, a healthcare consultant and former insurance executive. "We haven't had a new idea in managed care in I don't know how long."

    Bind's plan draws concern from researchers worried about how this may hurt some pocketbooks, but it also has attracted employers hungry for a fresh way to tame expenses.

    School superintendent Barry Rose picked Bind as the only coverage option earlier this year for the Cumberland, Wisconsin, school district after cycling through numerous health plans in the last six years. Rose said about two-thirds of his workers use $500 or less in healthcare every year, and he didn't want to charge them premiums for care they weren't using.

    "We have quality healthcare. If people need it, great. If they don't, at least we're not soaking them for it," he said.

    Minneapolis-based Bind is not an insurer, but it designs health plans for big employers that pay their own bills.

    Here's how it works. Under Bind's plan, customers pay a base monthly premium that can be as much as 40 percent cheaper than other options their employer offers, the company says.

    That covers most care, like doctor visits, hospital stays, maternity care, cancer treatment and prescriptions.

    A patient can then buy additional coverage for some procedures that aren't urgent like a knee surgery or hip replacement. In these cases, the patient has time to plan for the care and look at different options for who performs it.

    The additional coverage comes with an extra premium and possibly a copayment, depending on the care provider and what is being purchased. In these cases, patients might get stuck paying more than $1,000 in additional costs.

    Users log onto Bind's website or app to see what is covered, what it will cost them. That can vary based on Bind's quality rating for a provider and how efficiently it provides care. Someone with an ear infection might pay nothing for a telemedicine visit. But a trip to an expensive emergency room for such a minor illness might cost a few hundred dollars.

    "If we get everyone buying better, we actually make the product more affordable for all of us," said Bind CEO Tony Miller.

    If patients stick to the plan's provider network in that core coverage, they will have one bill — a copayment. Miller said Bind avoids high deductibles or co-insurance payments that make it hard for some to understand how much care really costs.

    That simplicity helped Nancy Buchholz when she was trying to track her husband's expenses for cancer treatment last spring. She said he died six weeks after being diagnosed, and she became overwhelmed by billing notices from the hospital showing that care costs were approaching $300,000.

    But the only bill she had to pay for his hospital stay was the $1,900 copayment laid out in the insurance plan.

    "When you go through something that's emotionally devastating, the last thing you want to worry about is having to make sure something is paid for," said the Cadott, Wisconsin, resident, who got Bind coverage through her employer, Dove Healthcare.

    The potential for unexpected additional costs under Bind's system concerns Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown's Center on Health Insurance Reforms. She noted that older customers are more likely to wind up with these big bills because they tend to have more expensive procedures.

    "This gets close to the line if not a little bit over the line of being discriminatory because it would only be people who have certain health conditions that would face higher premiums," she said.

    Miller said his plans comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, and they provide all covered members the same benefit at the same cost.

    Bind started selling coverage this year and only has a few thousand people enrolled. But it is expanding nationally, with help from UnitedHealthcare, which covers more than 40 million people. UnitedHealthcare is offering Bind coverage to some employer customers for 2019.

    The company will need to offer big discounts to attract more business, said Laszewski, the healthcare consultant.

    He noted that customers are slow to accept new insurance ideas, and Bind relies on patients trusting its quality rating for the doctor they pick. That's a gamble in healthcare, where it's hard for people to understand and feel comfortable with those measurements.

    "If you're going to expect employers and consumers to take risks, they're going to have to see a premium up front," he said. "They're not going to buy the sales pitch."

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    surprise-billing_0.png
    SCAN, CareOregon help erase $110M in medical debt
    diversity2_i.png
    How Connecticut's Broker Academy targets health disparities
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Daily Finance Newsletter: Sign up to receive daily news and data that has a direct impact on the business and financing of healthcare.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Digital Health
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • ESG
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • Newsletters
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing