» Highlights from the MemorialCare Presidents’ Partnership: Ashok Subramanian of Centivo

Last week, we shared some highlights from Elizabeth Mitchell’s presentation at the 2022 MemorialCare Presidents’ Partnership, and this week, we’d like to turn the spotlight to a presentation and comments by Ashok Subramanian, the CEO of Centivo, a leading TPA in offering affordable, high-quality healthcare to employers.

Click here for a Twitter thread on my overall takeaways and highlights

I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Ashok speak a number of times now and he always brings the fire to what he does. He’s a mission-driven founder and Centivo has a clear purpose:

To bring affordable, high-quality healthcare to the millions of Americans who struggle to pay their healthcare bills

Centivo came about because of some alarming aspects of the US and its healthcare industry. We’re the wealthiest country in the world yet half of our workers can’t afford their deductibles. The average single deductible in the country is $1,669 while it’s estimated that half of all adults would have difficulty paying for a $400 emergency expense, while 19 percent of adults would not be able to pay the expense at all.  Ashok said flatly:

“We need to have greater moral outrage about our healthcare system”

The event was a collection of leaders for mostly larger organizations. This makes sense; large organizations have the scale to look into solutions and creative options for managing healthcare costs. But small and mid-sized companies don’t have the bandwidth to put things like direct contracting into practice. Ashok soberly reminded us that while it’s great how these large employers and organizations are figuring out healthcare, 99.5 percent of purchasers don’t have that expertise and weight. They need help.

That help is frankly going to come from brokers and advisors such as ourselves who sit in the middle of the intersection between healthcare and employers. We hear about innovation upmarket among large employers and in the healthcare sector, then bring these solutions to employers.

In Ashok’s case, Centivo is revolutionizing Direct Contracting for the small and middle markets. While direct contracting has traditionally been only for the largest employers such as Boeing and Disney, Centivo has created a way for employers with 500, 150, or even 50 employees to benefit from the advantages offered by a direct contract with a local health system.

If we don’t communicate innovation to employers, they won’t learn about it. Our job is to educate and inform so employers can make the best decision for their employees.

Do you want to know how benefits innovation might help your team? Click here for a complimentary consultation today!

Posted by John Hansbrough in Business Strategies, Digital Health, Direct Contracting, Employee Benefits, Health Equity, Healthcare Innovation, News