Dive Brief:
- Maryland's Evergreen Health, one of the health insurance co-ops created under the Affordable Care Act, announced this week that it was profitable for three consecutive months from January through March.
- The stretch marks Evergreen's first-ever profitable quarter in the young company's history.
- The co-op's success is significant considering the difficulties experienced by the majority of the 23 cooperatives originally created. Only 11 co-ops currently remain.
Dive Insight:
Debate has ensued since the second half of 2015 over the sustainability of the remaining co-ops, what has gone wrong for so many, what needs to be done to monitor those remaining, and how to recoup any federal funding from those that have failed.
Evergreen says its positive financial trend follows that which began in late 2015 and it expects the trend to continue going forward. Its success is no surprise to Evergreen, which has been following a unique and previously laid out strategy toward profitability and reporting record revenue.
"For a company in only its third year of sales, and in a business as competitive and as difficult to break into as health insurance, this is a remarkable achievement," said Evergreen CEO Dr. Peter Beilenson in a prepared statement. "I'm extremely proud of our entire team and very grateful to our members, healthcare providers and brokers."
Beilenson has attributed three factors for their success: A diversified book of business, appropriately-priced individual plans, and a heavy focus on wellness and prevention.
Evergreen highlights that its additional achievements for Q1 2016 include:
- 40,000 enrollees;
- Risk-based capital more than three times the state's requirement;
- A surplus of $25.3 million;
- Premium revenue of $40.9 million; and
- Net income of $547,000.
“Our goal is to get to 53,000 or so by the end of this year," Beilenson told Healthcare Dive earlier this year.