Former Aetna CEO to Take Helm of Wellness Insurer Oscar
Mark Bertolini,
former chief executive of wellness insurance coverage giant Aetna Inc. and hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, will take the helm of
Oscar Wellness Inc.
as it seeks to turn a profit and carve out a function as a technologies supplier in the healthcare business.
Mr. Bertolini, 66 years old, will take the post powerful subsequent Monday, the corporation mentioned. He will succeed
Mario Schlosser,
44, who co-founded Oscar in 2012 with
Joshua Kushner
and will take the new title of president of technologies, reporting to Mr. Bertolini.
Mr. Schlosser will also stay on Oscar’s board, which Mr. Bertolini will join, the corporation mentioned.
Oscar is anticipated to announce the alterations Tuesday.
Mr. Bertolini mentioned he would initially concentrate on guaranteeing Oscar meets its aim of getting a lucrative insurance coverage business enterprise this year and complete-corporation profitability in 2024. Beyond that, he mentioned, he thinks the corporation can provide technologies tools to aid physicians and wellness systems interact with sufferers and handle their care, a distinct strategy than some substantial insurers that have been far more focused on obtaining up medical professional groups, clinics and other assets.
“The digital platform has an chance to definitely transform healthcare,” he mentioned. “What we’re pondering about is, how can we use it to allow the provider program alternatively of owning them.”
Nevertheless, that would pit Oscar against lots of of the biggest corporations in the business, such as
UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s
Optum arm,
Elevance Wellness Inc.
and
Cigna Group.
Mr. Bertolini was a longtime wellness-insurance coverage official who became chief executive of Aetna in 2010. He sold Aetna, a single of the country’s most significant wellness insurers, to CVS Wellness Inc. in 2018 for practically $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 mentioned his stint as chief executive there was constantly intended to be restricted.
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He has been advising Oscar for the previous 18 months, Mr. Schlosser mentioned.
“I do not have also lots of far more of these possibilities to transform the program that I’ve identified because the starting of my profession back in 1983,” Mr. Bertolini mentioned.
Oscar, of New York, has mentioned it is working with technologies to make the practical experience of its roughly 1.15 million members easier and far more frictionless. Most of its members are enrolled in person and little-employer plans, such as a solution it presents with Cigna.
The corporation, which has never ever posted a lucrative year, reported an accumulated deficit of $two.six billion at the finish of 2022. It had about $four billion in income final year and posted a loss of about $610 million.
Final year, Oscar mentioned it would pull insurance coverage operations out of Arkansas and Colorado. It mentioned final August that a Florida wellness strategy to which it was supplying administrative and technologies solutions had terminated their deal.
Create to Anna Wilde Mathews at Anna.Mathews@wsj.com
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