Google sister company Verily Life Sciences on Tuesday launched a subsidiary selling analytics-driven employer stop-loss health insurance.
The Verily subsidiary, dubbed Coefficient Insurance Co., is backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance arm of reinsurance company Swiss Re Group. Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is making a minority investment in Coefficient; in exchange, Ivan Gonzalez, the company's North America CEO, will join Coefficient's board of directors.
The companies did not disclose financial details of the investment, which is still subject to regulatory approvals.
Coefficient will sell employer stop-loss insurance, a type of commercial insurance that self-funded employers purchase to cover large, unexpected employee health benefit claims. Verily officials said Coefficient's service uses analytics-based underwriting to help self-funded employers predict, and subsequently get coverage for, areas with volatile costs.
Coefficient's risk management tools will build on Verily's background in data analytics, software and hardware, as well as Swiss Re Corporate Solutions' experience in the employer stop-loss market.
Coefficient said it plans to add Verily's care management programs and health monitoring devices into its service as another component to control costs, though company officials did not specify an expected time frame.
"Coefficient is aimed at reducing blind spots and providing greater cost control mechanisms for self-funded employers," Verily CEO Andy Conrad said in a statement. "Over time, we look forward to integrating Coefficient with Verily's employer health solutions, including mobile health devices and innovative care management programs, in order to align payment models with better health outcomes."
Verily, Alphabet's research subsidiary, was at the heart of a controversy early in the COVID-19 pandemic. In March the company launched an online screener designed to assess users for COVID-19 risk and direct suspected cases to testing sites set up by the company, an effort that President Donald Trump touted during news conference in the Rose Garden.
The launch of the COVID-19 screening project sparked privacy concerns—including from a group of Democratic senators—largely on account of its connection with Google. Google, despite its own set of privacy controversies, has been aggressively pushing into the healthcare market; most recently, through a $100 million investment into telemedicine company Amwell.
