Former Aetna CEO to Take Helm of Health Insurer Oscar
Mark Bertolini,
former chief executive of health insurance giant Aetna Inc. and hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, will take the helm of
Oscar Health Inc.
as it seeks to turn a profit and carve out a role as a technology supplier in the healthcare industry.
Mr. Bertolini, 66 years old, will take the post effective next Monday, the company said. He will succeed
Mario Schlosser,
44, who co-founded Oscar in 2012 with
Joshua Kushner
and will take the new title of president of technology, reporting to Mr. Bertolini.
Mr. Schlosser will also remain on Oscar’s board, which Mr. Bertolini will join, the company said.
Oscar is expected to announce the changes Tuesday.
Mr. Bertolini said he would initially focus on ensuring Oscar meets its goal of having a profitable insurance business this year and full-company profitability in 2024. Beyond that, he said, he thinks the company can supply technology tools to help doctors and health systems interact with patients and manage their care, a different approach than some large insurers that have been more focused on buying up doctor groups, clinics and other assets.
“The digital platform has an opportunity to really change healthcare,” he said. “What we’re thinking about is, how can we use it to enable the provider system instead of owning them.”
Still, that would pit Oscar against many of the largest companies in the industry, including
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s
Optum arm,
Elevance Health Inc.
and
Cigna Group.
Mr. Bertolini was a longtime health-insurance official who became chief executive of Aetna in 2010. He sold Aetna, one of the country’s biggest health insurers, to CVS Health Inc. in 2018 for nearly $70 billion. He left the CVS board in 2020.
In early 2022, he became co-CEO of Bridgewater, stepping down earlier this month. Mr. Bertolini said his stint as chief executive there was always intended to be limited.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What impact will the change in leadership have on Oscar Health? Join the conversation below.
He has been advising Oscar for the past 18 months, Mr. Schlosser said.
“I don’t have too many more of these opportunities to change the system that I’ve known since the beginning of my career back in 1983,” Mr. Bertolini said.
Oscar, of New York, has said it is using technology to make the experience of its roughly 1.15 million members simpler and more frictionless. Most of its members are enrolled in individual and small-employer plans, including a product it offers with Cigna.
The company, which has never posted a profitable year, reported an accumulated deficit of $2.6 billion at the end of 2022. It had about $4 billion in revenue last year and posted a loss of about $610 million.
Last year, Oscar said it would pull insurance operations out of Arkansas and Colorado. It said last August that a Florida health plan to which it was supplying administrative and technology services had terminated their deal.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Mark Bertolini,
former chief executive of health insurance giant Aetna Inc. and hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, will take the helm of
Oscar Health Inc.
as it seeks to turn a profit and carve out a role as a technology supplier in the healthcare industry.
Mr. Bertolini, 66 years old, will take the post effective next Monday, the company said. He will succeed
Mario Schlosser,
44, who co-founded Oscar in 2012 with
Joshua Kushner
and will take the new title of president of technology, reporting to Mr. Bertolini.
Mr. Schlosser will also remain on Oscar’s board, which Mr. Bertolini will join, the company said.
Oscar is expected to announce the changes Tuesday.
Mr. Bertolini said he would initially focus on ensuring Oscar meets its goal of having a profitable insurance business this year and full-company profitability in 2024. Beyond that, he said, he thinks the company can supply technology tools to help doctors and health systems interact with patients and manage their care, a different approach than some large insurers that have been more focused on buying up doctor groups, clinics and other assets.
“The digital platform has an opportunity to really change healthcare,” he said. “What we’re thinking about is, how can we use it to enable the provider system instead of owning them.”
Still, that would pit Oscar against many of the largest companies in the industry, including
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s
Optum arm,
Elevance Health Inc.
and
Cigna Group.
Mr. Bertolini was a longtime health-insurance official who became chief executive of Aetna in 2010. He sold Aetna, one of the country’s biggest health insurers, to CVS Health Inc. in 2018 for nearly $70 billion. He left the CVS board in 2020.
In early 2022, he became co-CEO of Bridgewater, stepping down earlier this month. Mr. Bertolini said his stint as chief executive there was always intended to be limited.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What impact will the change in leadership have on Oscar Health? Join the conversation below.
He has been advising Oscar for the past 18 months, Mr. Schlosser said.
“I don’t have too many more of these opportunities to change the system that I’ve known since the beginning of my career back in 1983,” Mr. Bertolini said.
Oscar, of New York, has said it is using technology to make the experience of its roughly 1.15 million members simpler and more frictionless. Most of its members are enrolled in individual and small-employer plans, including a product it offers with Cigna.
The company, which has never posted a profitable year, reported an accumulated deficit of $2.6 billion at the end of 2022. It had about $4 billion in revenue last year and posted a loss of about $610 million.
Last year, Oscar said it would pull insurance operations out of Arkansas and Colorado. It said last August that a Florida health plan to which it was supplying administrative and technology services had terminated their deal.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at [email protected]
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Denial of responsibility! Techno Blender is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.