Name: Alan Silver
Previous title: Senior director and financial, actuarial and analytics intellectual capital leader, WTW
New title: President, Ambetter Health Solutions
On Thursday, Centene named Silver as the inaugural president of Ambetter Health Solutions. The St. Louis-based insurer created the role to oversee its growing investment in individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements, or ICHRA plans, according to a Thursday release.
ICHRA allows employees to shop and choose between plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges and have some or all of the cost offset by their employer through a stipend.
Membership in the plans is quite small, with about 300,000 people enrolled in ICHRA coverage today. Still, Centene is targeting ICHRAs as a key area for future growth, according to recent comments from executives.
“Large-scale ICHRA adoption will be a journey of several years … but considering the small group health insurance market covers 62 million Americans and the full commercial group market covers 170 million, we see a healthy addressable market over the long term,” Centene CEO Sarah London said during the payer’s investor day in December.
Centene is betting that incoming President Donald Trump will drive growth in ICHRA plans, given the coverage was introduced during the president-elect’s first term. Regulators in the Trump administration are also expected to expand alternatives to traditional ACA coverage, given Republicans’ animus toward the Obama-era law.
Centene launched ICHRA plans in six states this open enrollment period. The insurer has partnered with Thatch, an online ICHRA platform, along with Allstate Health and QuickBooks to introduce more employees to Centene’s ICHRA plans, according to London.
“Aggressively pursuing this line of business is an easy choice,” London said during the investor day.
Through its Ambetter subsidiary, Centene is the largest marketplace carrier in the U.S., with 4.9 million members in 29 states as of the third quarter.
Alan Silver, the president of Ambetter Health Solutions.
Courtesy of Centene
The insurer has attributed much of its recent growth to ACA plans. Its marketplace membership increased 22% year over year in the third quarter, while earnings from the business rose 27%, according to financial statements.
Meanwhile, earnings from offering Medicaid and Medicare plans dropped 27% and 30%, respectively. Both businesses were tough for payers last year as rising costs outpaced reimbursement rates.
Before joining Centene, Silver was a longtime employee of WTW, the multinational advisory and brokerage firm previously known as Willis Towers Watson. The executive was with the company for 24 years in a variety of actuarial roles.
“Alan’s appointment underscores our dedication to making ICHRA a cornerstone of our growth strategy,” said Ambetter CEO Kevin Counihan in a statement.
