Dive Brief:
- Oscar Insurance Corp. has announced neurosurgeon Shaden Marzouk as its new chief medical officer, hailing her as "one of the most accomplished medical leaders in the world" for her previous roles including Senior VP of Clinical Operations at Cardinal Health and Chief of Neurosurgery at William Beaumont Army Medical Center.
- Oscar's blog by CEO Mario Schlosser called Marzouk a great fit for the company for being creative while deeply scientific, and "passionate about solving for the member."
- Marzouk, who replaces Dr. Aran Ron in the position, is slated to begin overseeing all of the medical efforts of the New York-based insurer on Monday.
Dive Insight:
Oscar's change in medical leadership comes as the company makes significant overall strategy changes in the face of ACA marketplace losses that included $52.2 million in New York state during the first half of 2016.
The losses have revealed the hip upstart to be subject to the same ACA market pressures as its more traditional competitors, despite its promise of a technology driven, customer centric new model.
The company announced plans in June for a New York health center to provide members with its own primary care, and announced in July that it would be slashing its New York provider network in half--not only to save money, it said, but to improve the patient experience by including only providers committed to achieving the same new vision of healthcare.
Most recently, the company revealed that it would be pulling out of the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas market and New Jersey beginning January 1, 2017. It said it would continue to sell plans in New York, San Antonio, TX, Los Angeles, and Orange County in California, and that it would be adding San Francisco.
The company also followed the industry trend of seeking a high premium rate increase in New York of 26.8%, which was reduced by regulators to 11.5%.
Soon Oscar will even more resemble its competitors. Though it began by only offering individual policies, it plans to offer small group insurance across most of its 2017 markets, the company said last month.