Dive Brief:
- Nevada is moving to liquidate Friday Health Plans nearly two months after state regulators took action to take control of the failing insurtech.
- Coverage for existing beneficiaries will end at midnight on Aug. 31, the Nevada Division of Insurance said in a press release earlier this week. Nevada is the latest state to shut down Friday, which announced earlier this summer that it would wind down operations.
- The insurer launched in 2015 and raised hundreds of millions in venture capital and debt funding to offer “better designed” plans for consumers who buy their own insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. But Friday struggled financially, saying in a statement posted on its website that it was “unable to scale our financial infrastructure to match the pace of our growth and secure the additional capital required to run our business.”
Dive Insight:
Friday previously operated in seven states, but regulators have moved to put the insurer into receivership and shut it down over the past several months.
Though Friday didn’t offer plans in the state this year, Texas placed the insurer into receivership in March, appointing a trustee to manage operations at the struggling company, and ordered its liquidation. Friday coverage will last until the end of this month in Georgia, and beneficiaries in North Carolina have until Aug. 31 to switch to a new plan to avoid a gap in coverage.
Colorado is also shutting down the insurtech in the state, though regulators had earlier hoped Friday had enough cash to operate through the rest of the year. After the state took control of the health plan in June, more detailed financial analysis revealed Friday might not make it the end of the year and could confuse members trying to enroll in plans for 2024, said the state’s Division of Insurance.
About 3,000 people will need to find new coverage in Nevada, according to state regulators. The state set up a special enrollment period for Friday members that will run through Oct. 31.
“We have a network of over 700 brokers and seven navigator entities across the state offering free enrollment assistance to any Nevadan who will experience a loss of coverage from Friday Health Plans,” Katie Charleson, communications officer for Nevada Health Link, the state’s insurance marketplace, said in a statement.