Health plans are evolving beyond their traditional role—aggregating risk, arbitrating claims, offering wellness benefits—to become a new and different kind of health partner, The Advisory Board writes in a blog post. This trend is apparent not just through plans’ market acquisitions, investments, and partnerships, but also in how they talk about themselves: Gail Boudreaux, CEO of Elevance, describes their future vision of the company as a “lifetime trusted partner in health,” while other companies emphasize the “diversified health services” or “omnichannel approach” they bring to members.
Though the market currently lacks a common vocabulary for describing these new kinds of health plans, it’s clear their evolution is defined by some degree of diversification into new areas of the health care space and vertical integration to (hopefully) realize disruptive synergies.
Large nationals have charted the course of this evolution, but other health plans are responding—often by attempting diversification of their own—to better achieve growth and stability in the future. While not every existing health plan could (or should want to) become a health solutions company, it’s clear these entities will up the stakes of competition for everyone. Read more.
