Dive Brief:
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Dr. Peter Beilenson, founder and CEO of Evergreen Health in Baltimore, has resigned.
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The company, started in 2010, was one of the first insurance startups under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Only four of 23 insurance co-op startups formed in response to the ACA are still operating.
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The resignation comes after a Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Yolanda Tanner placed Evergreen Health into receivership, which put Connecticut-based Risk & Regulatory Consulting in charge of the company.
Dive Insight:
Beilenson has a long history in healthcare, including 20 years in public health leadership and serving as the health officer of Howard County in Maryland. Before launching the company, he created the Healthy Howard Access Plan, which provided health and wellness services to uninsured Howard County residents, and a state-wide initiative for universal health coverage in Maryland called Health Care for All.
Risk & Regulatory Consulting, which works with state insurance departments on regulatory issues, will oversee Evergreen and its 25,000 members. As part of the receivership, Evergreen cannot participate in the 2018 ACA exchanges enrollment period, which begins in November.
In the heady days following the ACA, Evergreen and other startups joined the effort to insure millions of newly insured Americans. However, the past year has not been kind to Evergreen. A U.S. appeals court ruled in August that the payer must pay $24.2 million for the ACA’s risk-adjustment program, after Evergreen challenged the program’s payment methodology.
Struggling to find a way to gain profitability, Evergreen toyed with the idea of switching to for-profit status. In June, Maryland Insurance Commissioner Al Redmer agreed to let JARS Health Investments, Anne Arundel Health System and BH Evergreen Holdings acquire Evergreen, but investors backed out a month later.
Beilenson’s departure is the latest in a tale that held such promise in the early days of the ACA. Now, like many small startups before it, Evergreen is faced with an uncertain future.