MORGANTOWN, W. Va.–A new option will be available this fall for Medicare-eligible West Virginians through the insurer Peak Health. The company launched in 2021 offering coverage to 32,000 WVU Medicine employees and families and is now ready to enter the consumer market.
Peak Health is the only provider-owned, provider-sponsored plan option in the state and is owned by WVU Medicine, Marshall Health, Valley Health, and Mountain Health.
WVU Medicine President and CEO Albert Wright said open enrollment is from Oct. 15 through Dec. 1 for the plan that provides access to Medicare coverage and additional services not covered by Medicare like dental, pharmacy benefits, and even gym memberships.
“We want to simplify things and create a system where we are incentivized to keep people as healthy as possible in the lowest-cost setting,” Wright said Thursday on MetroNews “Talkline.”
Wright said they want long relationships with customers that, over time, can benefit from their strategy of preventive maintenance, health incentives, and care. The approach is expected to lower the overall cost of health insurance and improve outcomes.
“Here, if we get good alignment and patients enroll that live here and are going to do business with us permanently, we have the incentive to make those long-term investments like the screenings I mentioned,” Wright said.
Research at the WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute has established that people with dementia develop signs of plaque in the brain up to 15 years before symptoms are displayed. This, in addition to early screening for other serious conditions, will be offered to improve outcomes and reduce long-term costs.