ZOOM+ has lost four top-level executives in the last month, but CEO and co-founder Dr. Dave Sanders flatly denied anything was amiss.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he told The Lund Report. “We’re performing at such a high level of success; it’s amazing. We had a record fourth quarter in all-time growth, and set a record pace in revenue during the first quarter,” he told The Lund Report.
Here’s who no longer drawing a paycheck at ZOOM+:
- Ellie Godfrey who came on board in February 2015 and was the driving force that established ZOOM+ valuable member services. Her goal was to deliver “twice the service, half the cost and ten times the satisfaction,” according to a comment posed on Linked In. Earlier, she spent 25 years at Kaiser as vice president of quality and service. Since leaving ZOOM+, Godfrey has become the population health manager for PacificSource Health Plans as it embarks on a partnership with Legacy Health.
- Denise Honzel, who became vice president and health plan manager in August 2014 to guide ZOOM’s insurance product in Oregon and Washington and launch its large employer plan. Honzel spent 25 years at Kaiser Northwest and had been a health policy consultant for the Oregon Business Council.
- Kathy Prosser joined Zoom Care Health Plan in November 2014, having been recruited by Honzel and Sanders to become vice president of sales, and encouraged small employers to join its health plan. She had spent 19 years as a senior partner at Mercer, and is now the northwest benefits practice leader at Woodruff-Sawyer & Co.
- Dr. Brett White, who came on board as the medical director of the ZOOM+ health plan known as Performance Health Insurance, and had also been an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University. White has since moved back to California.
The Lund Report has heard that other physicians are about to leave ZOOM+, but their names could not be verified at press time.
Although none of the departing executives were willing to comment about why they left, others in the community inferred that ZOOM+ could face problems with the growing number of neighborhood health clinics sprouted by its competitors -- Legacy, Providence, Kaiser and Portland Adventist, among others. Currently, Portland has 75 such clinics, with ZOOM + holding down 25.
After entering the insurance market last year, ZOOM+ has 1,654 members, and recently gained approval from the Insurance Commissioner to lower its small business rates by 11.7 percent.
In an exclusive interview, Sanders told The Lund Report he’s not worried about the growing competition, insisting his company was innovating at a much higher pace and would outperform its competitors.
“We began this movement 10 years ago with Sarah and everyone said we would lose our shirt because everyone wants traditional care, medical homes, and now everyone is trying to follow our lead,” he said. “You can’t just throw down a new product. You have to figure out how to make it work. We’re doing multi-year innovations at a phenomenal pace and are in the lead.”
He also said ZOOM+ would remain at the forefront despite the consolidation within the marketplace as insurers team up with large hospital systems evidenced by the recent Legacy/PacificSource partnership.
“We have strong relationships with hospitals and insurers,” he added, mentioning Regence BlueCross BlueShield, which, as of yet, has not chosen to affiliate with a hospital chain.
New Innovations
In other news, ZOOM + has hired a vice president of neighborhood clinics, a vice president of specialist surgical business, a vice president of primary performance and a new clinical leader.
“Certain roles have been filled while others have been redefined -- all part of an evolution of being a growth oriented business,” Sanders said.
In July 2014, ZOOM+ had 130 total employees, in December 2015, 350 and are on pace to end 2016 with 425 employees, he said. The company also announced plans to take two floors in a new downtown office space to create a home for growth.
On the clinical side, Sanders said, “we’re seeing strong indications of success across multiple metrics, including new people coming to ZOOM+, return visits, those using ZOOM+ for the full array of services and new Performance Health Insurance membership.”
Among the latest innovations:
- ZOOM+Smile has expanded the number of full-time hygienists and added an additional dentist.
- ZOOM+Specialist has added a full-time ENT, dermatologist, gynecologist and orthopedic surgeon.
- ZOOM+Super expanded hours to be open 20 hours a day.
- ZOOM+Performance has extended hours, launched classes and events, and offers $25 performance assessments.
- ZOOM+Prime added Saturdays and launched group cooking classes on food as medicine.
- ZOOM+Kids launched cooking classes for families.
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
