The Lund Report sat down with Kathy Prosser, who had been national client solutions leader at Mercer, before joining ZoomCare as vice president of sales on Nov. 3.
TLR: What led you to leave Mercer after a 19-year career?
KP: After meeting with Denise Honzel and Dave Sanders, both of whom I’ve known for a long time I decided to join the organization; they were in the market for the right person to lead their efforts on the employer side.
TLR: What was your role at Mercer?
KP: The last two to three years I was focused on national client solutions – bringing telemedicine to employers, working through the private exchanges, wellness programs and pharmacy strategies to impact the cost of healthcare and improve quality. I worked directly with about five clients – generally large clients who had over 1,000 employees in Oregon. I was not looking to leave Mercer but was inspired by what I saw happening at ZoomCare and wanted to get back to my healthcare roots.
TLR: What appealed to you about ZoomCare?
KP: The opportunity to disrupt health care – be a disruptive force of our current delivery system -- start from scratch, put the patient in the middle and think in a different way about what ZoomCare has done well and start building on that success.
TLR: When do you anticipate launching the new insurance plan called Zoom?
KP: We got approval from the Oregon Insurance Division right before Thanksgiving -- that’s breaking news – to sell to the large market – 51 plus -- and start sales on January 1.
TLR: But isn’t this a little late to get into the market for next year since most employers renew their health plans by Jan. 1?
KP: We got approved in November, and realistically employers do renew January 1 so we anticipate bringing on our first employer group in mid-year; we’re targeting July, recognizing that we’re building the health plan, and simultaneously doing all the filing for the small group market and the exchange. It takes time to market and put our structure in place. 2016 will be a very big year for us.
TLR: Do you intend to involve brokers to help sell the plan?
KP: We certainly plan to work with the brokerage community – I’ve been at ZoomCare for 4 ½ weeks – and have had conversations with brokers and plan on forging those relationships
TLR: How about the smaller employer market and the health insurance exchange?
KP: We’re gearing up for that now. It’s a filing process, and we’ll start selling in 2016. My role is working across the organization on all three – large group, small group and the exchange. We have
brought a lot of talent together with a team of about 7-8 people focused on the health plan.
TLR: Are you considering going outside Oregon since ZoomCare has clinics already in Washington?
KP: Yes, we have locations in Washington and are working toward Washington but haven’t filed anything yet with state officials. Obviously we’ll assess how our health plan works in Oregon and use the same model in Washington.
TLR: Last year ZoomCare tried to get a contract with the Public Employees Benefit Board but was unsuccessful. Do you have plans to try to get a contract with the Oregon Educators Benefit Board when it comes up for renewal?
KP: Right now I have no idea. We’re not that far yet.
TLR: What kind of marketing efforts are underway to attract employers to Zoom?
KP: We’re still in the stage of putting everything together, and are talking to employers. They want to know exactly how we’re constructing Zoom, It’s much more of a movement – a different way of getting healthcare. And it’s natural for employers to be very excited about working with us.
TLR: Will your health plan be statewide in Oregon?
KP: We’re very tri-county focused for now.
TLR: The latest statistics show that ZoomCare saw 250,000 patients annually. That represents a significant number of people and could quickly transform Zoom into a major health insurer. Also, Dave Sanders has publicly stated that he wants his health insurance company to offer lower prices than its competitors.
KP: Right now we’re organizing our health plan product and determining prices. In our clinics today we work with those insurers. We do have a sizeable potential market share, and have a lot of member patients who use ZoomCare.
TLR: What else excites you about ZoomCare?
KP: We’ve been defined as a neighborhood clinic on demand for injury and illness and have been very successful, but now we’re building a movement. You could call it Zoom 2.0 where we’re taking it across the health plan, looking to bring on a whole array of specialty services and surgical procedures. We want to think about the outpatient side beyond illness. It’s going to be a continuum, a complete care model and our members, our employers can come to expect these other services. We need to go end to end and look at all the aspects of healthcare. That’s going to take more infrastructure, and we have a lot to do, but I’m excited about where we’re headed. The vision is very big, very direct and very innovative. You’ll see new relationships formed and new structures built in the ZoomCare way. That’s really the next stage.
TLR: Before concluding I need to ask the perennial question – when. if ever, is ZoomCare going to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients?
KP: There are no changes – you have to start and establish yourself and work from there.
Diane can be reached at [email protected].
