Tag: Press

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vericred, a data services platform delivering digital infrastructure for the distribution and fulfillment of health insurance and employee benefits, today announced the launch of its HRA Development Kit, a suite of APIs enabling InsurTech and HRtech companies to build solutions that empower businesses to take advantage of new Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA) rules.

As the only data platform partnered with hundreds of health insurance carriers serving both the group and individual markets, Vericred is uniquely positioned to help tech companies, and their customers, capitalize on changes to HRA regulations, which, beginning in January 2020, are expected to transition millions of employees from traditional, employer-managed group health insurance plans to individual market plans.

Vericred’s HRA Development Kit includes the following data solutions: Group and Individual Rating APIs, which provide technology platforms with a means to generate quotes in both markets from hundreds of health insurance carriers, thus enabling brokers and employers to evaluate the cost differences between group and individual health plans, and ultimately to enable employees to shop for individual insurance plans; Group to Individual Disruption Analysis, which empowers brokers and employers to examine how shifting employees from traditional group plans to individual market plans would impact in-network access to their favored providers; and Shop by Doctor and Shop by Drug, enabling employees to shop for individual insurance plans based on their preferred doctors and prescription drug requirements. Together, these solutions power decision support tools that inform employers, directly and through their brokers, as to whether ICHRAs are the right solution for their companies.

“Equipped with Vericred’s data solutions, our customers — online insurance marketplaces, quoting systems, BenAdmin and HR platforms — can ease brokers, employers and employees through this complex and evolving ICHRA landscape,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Beyond offering employees health plan transportability and expanding plan choice, these new regulations offer tech platforms an exciting opportunity to scale their solutions for the individual market. Vericred is positioned to mitigate the time and expense that would otherwise be required to build and maintain such functionality.”

HRAs are a type of employer-sponsored benefits arrangement in which businesses reimburse their employees a set, tax-free amount for eligible health insurance expenses, such as monthly premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket medical costs. In June 2019, the Trump administration finalized new HRA rules that, starting next year, will permit employers of any size to allocate a fixed amount for their employees to purchase health plans on the individual market, including the healthcare.gov website, state-based exchanges, and InsurTech platforms.

The size of the individual market, according to White House estimates, is projected to expand by 50 percent, thereby creating a mandate for InsurTech companies that are currently focused on the group market to offer individual plans as well. By supporting solutions for both plan types, InsurTechs can seamlessly migrate users from group plans to individual plans, therefore retaining customers who would otherwise be forced to shop elsewhere.

For more information on how Vericred can help your platform take advantage of this new HRA environment, please contact sales@vericred.com.

About Vericred

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is building infrastructure for the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits. The Vericred Platform serves as a data translation layer between insurance carriers and technology companies that are transforming the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold, enrolled and managed. Vericred offers robust solutions for technology companies focused on the under 65 individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets, as well as the group market. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

 

Empowering users to quickly and dynamically analyze what percentage of employees would be affected by switching networks

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vericred, a data services platform powering the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits, announced today the immediate availability of its Disruption Analysis API. Vericred’s new API enables InsurTech companies to build decision support tools that help their users — primarily brokers and employers — assess what percentage of an employee population would be affected, positively or adversely, by switching health or dental insurance networks.

Disruption analysis, traditionally, has been a complex process through which employers and insurance brokers evaluate how the transition to a different group health insurance (or dental) network would impact employees’ in-network access to their most important doctors, health systems and hospitals. Analyzing plans in this manner has rarely been accessible within the small group environment, as it was typically a high-cost and inefficient process.

Vericred’s latest API, however, empowers InsurTech companies — which include online insurance marketplaces and quoting platforms — to build user-facing solutions that make disruption analysis far more streamlined and automated. Rather than having to build and maintain the underlying data and logic themselves, InsurTechs can leverage Vericred’s API to develop these features, easily and within an accelerated timeline.

“Traditionally, it’s been expensive, time-consuming and labor-intensive for brokers and employers to examine how switching to a new insurance plan would disrupt members’ in-network access to their preferred doctors and dentists,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Using our new Disruption Analysis API, InsurTech companies can effortlessly bring to their customers features that are imperative in today’s complex insurance market.”

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2018 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 61 percent of employers offering health benefits had shopped for a new health plan during the past year, with 25 percent of those businesses choosing to change carriers. Further, it is likely that more businesses will reconsider their options in 2020 and beyond, as the Trump Administration’s new policy on HRAs will afford employers another alternative to traditional group plans. As open enrollment approaches, companies will require disruption analysis and other support tools to best analyze how switching group plans, or transitioning from a group plan to the individual market, would impact their employees’ in-network access to providers.

The Disruption Analysis API — which includes all major medical and dental networks — joins Overlap Analysis and Shop-by-Doctor as the third component of Vericred’s suite of provider-network solutions.

For more information, please contact sales@vericred.com.

About Vericred

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is building infrastructure for the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits. The Vericred Platform serves as a data translation layer between insurance carriers and technology companies that are transforming the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold, enrolled and managed. Vericred offers robust solutions for technology companies focused on the under 65 individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets, as well as the group market. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Decent announced today a new partnership to distribute — through the Vericred platform — its affordable health plans for self-employed people in Austin, Texas, to hundreds of brokers, quoting platforms and online insurance marketplaces.

Vericred is a data services company connecting its health plan partners, such as Decent, with InsurTech platforms that are transforming the way health insurance is quoted, sold and enrolled. Rather than build one-to-one connections with each individual InsurTech company to enable the exchange of plan design, rate, and network data, Decent is leveraging Vericred’s platform to do so.

“Self-employed people need affordable health insurance. Decent is partnering with Vericred to bring it to them, in Texas and beyond,” said Decent CEO Nick Soman. “We heard from several digital insurance companies that Vericred is the easiest, most streamlined way to ensure our plans are accurately represented across their platforms. This partnership makes it a no-brainer for online brokers and insurance exchanges to add Decent’s market-leading plans.”

Decent’s ACA-compliant, off-exchange plans include the Austin market’s lowest-premium bronze-level plan for most self-employed enrollees who don’t qualify for ACA subsidies, and an affordable silver-level plan with low monthly premiums.

“Working with Vericred enables Decent to focus its resources on building the best health insurance products for the gig economy instead of developing technology to work with brokers and other InsurTech companies,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “By partnering with Vericred, Decent has immediate access to all of the tech companies on the platform, and those companies to the Decent products.”

This partnership will also benefit Vericred’s customers, who, through Vericred’s modern API, may now quote and sell Decent’s affordable coverage plans.

Decent and Vericred plan to grow their partnership to deliver new plans across expanded geographies in the next year. If you have questions, please contact hello@decent.com or sales@vericred.com.

About Decent

Decent (www.decent.com) administers affordable health plans for self-employed people — including sole proprietors, freelancers, and independent (1099) contractors. Plans are designed around unlimited direct primary care (DPC), which is built into members’ monthly premium. Decent plans are currently available in Austin, Texas. For more information visit www.decent.com or find us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Vericred

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is building infrastructure for the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits. The Vericred platform serves as a data translation layer between insurance carriers and technology companies that are transforming the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold, enrolled and managed. Vericred offers robust solutions for technology companies focused on the under 65 individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets, as well as the group market. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

Enabling BenAdmin and InsurTech platforms to add shop-by-dentist and dentist search functionality

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vericred, a data services platform powering the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits, announced today the immediate availability of dental network data. Vericred’s dental network data enables technology companies — which include benefits administration platforms, online insurance marketplaces and many other InsurTech firms — to add shop-by-dentist and dentist search functionality without having to build and maintain the underlying datasets and logic.

Using Vericred’s platform — which includes all major dental networks — as their data foundation, technology companies can now effortlessly build and maintain solutions that assist employers, employees, consumers and brokers to shop for and manage dental insurance options. Vericred’s dental network APIs enable insurance marketplaces to offer their end users shop-by-dentist functionality – a feature that allows consumers to evaluate dental plan options based on whether specific dental providers are in-network.

“For many Americans shopping for dental insurance, their top priority is finding a plan in which their current dentist participates in-network. Sorting through a myriad of plan and dental network options to arrive at the right choice can be a time-consuming and frustrating process,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “We’re focused on providing solutions that enable our technology customers to more efficiently build features, like shop-by-dentist, that are valuable to their end users.”

Vericred’s dental network data also powers dental provider search functionality on BenAdmin platforms, enabling employees to find in-network dentists without leaving the tech platform from which their benefits are administered. Currently, most employees must contact their insurance carrier directly to identify in-network dental providers. Vericred simplifies the process by offering dental-network APIs, so that BenAdmin platforms can build new features that eliminate this step for employees.

Vericred dental network data for individual and group dental plans is delivered through a suite of APIs. These data work independently from, and in coordination with, Vericred’s dental rating API, which delivers detailed dental plan benefit and rate information.

For more information, please contact sales@vericred.com.

About Vericred

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is building infrastructure for the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits. The Vericred Platform serves as a data translation layer between insurance carriers and technology companies that are transforming the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold, enrolled and managed. Vericred offers robust solutions for technology companies focused on the under 65 individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets, as well as the group market. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

**NOTE: Ideon is the company formerly known as Vericred. Vericred began operating as Ideon on May 18, 2022.**

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Vericred, a data services platform powering the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits, announced today a Medicare Advantage rating API enabling InsurTech and digital health companies to build innovative solutions that serve the fast-growing Medicare-eligible population.

Using Vericred as their data foundation, technology companies building Medicare Advantage plan search and quoting solutions can now do so without acquiring and maintaining the necessary underlying data and logic. Vericred’s Medicare Advantage API returns detailed information for all relevant Medicare Advantage plans, including plan type, star rating, premiums, and cost sharing for in-network and out-of-network services. Further, the API enables powerful plan search functionality including shop-by-doctor and shop-by-drug, delivering actionable insights into provider and drug coverage of each plan.

“There are more coverage options in the Medicare space than ever before, and as a result, plan choice can be a particularly complex and daunting process for seniors and brokers alike,” said Michael W. Levin, Vericred’s co-founder and CEO. “Vericred’s Medicare Advantage API enables InsurTech platforms, online brokers and other innovators to develop solutions for this growing and intricate market. This data infrastructure, upon which our customers build their consumer and broker-facing products, will open new opportunities and functionality for our wide-ranging roster of clients.”

Medicare Advantage – also known as Medicare Part C – is a program in which individuals who qualify for Medicare enroll in certified health plans offered by private insurance companies, instead of the government-run Medicare plan. By providing supplemental, flexible benefits and low premiums, Medicare Advantage plans have proven increasingly attractive to Medicare enrollees. Nationwide, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the number of Medicare Advantage enrollees has expanded this year to an all-time high of about 22 million, a 32 percent increase since 2015, and 91 percent of Medicare beneficiaries have access to 10 or more Medicare Advantage plans.

Additional plan options have generated a diverse, competitive over-65 insurance market where insurance carriers now vie for enrollees by offering differentiated benefits, such as vision and dental coverage, in-home support services and wellness programs. Vericred’s comprehensive Medicare Advantage API supports technology companies with the critical data required to serve seniors, employers and brokers in this burgeoning market.

About Vericred

Vericred (www.vericred.com) is a data services platform powering the digital distribution of health insurance and employee benefits. Vericred serves as a data translation layer between insurance carriers and technology companies that are transforming the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold, enrolled and managed. Vericred offers robust solutions for technology companies focused on the under 65 individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets, as well as the group market. For more information visit www.vericred.com or interact with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.