CHARLESTON, W.Va. — As WVU Medicine is preparing to offer health insurance plans to its employees through its own company, officials are considering how it can allow other businesses to purchase health insurance from the new company.
WVU Medicine launched Peak Health in September 2021 with the goal of having insurance plans ready by January 2023. WVU Medicine’s 30,000 employees and dependents will be the first people to purchase health insurance plans through the company.
Albert Wright, WVU Medicine’s president and CEO, said the first year will be solely focused on administering plans to employees and their families.
“You want to make sure when you come up with a product like this that you work out the bugs and it’s working well,” he said on “MetroNews Talkline.”
“In 2024, we will become a Medicare Advantage provider around the state,” he continued. “Medicare folks that choose to have a Medicare Advantage product could do this through Peak Health.”
Wright said small businesses could be interested in purchasing health insurance plans when Peak Health becomes a Medicare Advantage provider.
“We want to be a Medicaid managed care provider for the state of West Virginia, and who knows, maybe a PEIA provider,” he added. “In time, we want this to be a comprehensive product.”
WVU Medicine announced the creation of Peak Health in September 2021; Marshall Health and Mountain Health Network agreed to join the insurance company as minority owners in February 2022.
Wright said the focus of the health insurance company is lowering costs and improving the outcome of services.
“We’ll start to look at it as one bucket of dollars to invest in people’s health,” he explained. “What we need to do is when we come up with really good interventions that keep you from going to the emergency department, that keep you from going to the hospital … we want to be able to make those investments and share in those savings so that we’re able to reinvest back in our health care system.”
Wright is hopeful Peak Health will allow facilities and patients to work together on better controlling the costs of health care.