Oscar has entered into a multi-year quota-share reinsurance transaction with AXA’s International Employee Benefits (IEB) division. The partnership comes as Oscar Health doubled its market presence to six states across the US: New York, New Jersey, Texas, California, Ohio, and Tennessee.
Although this partnership may seem counter-intuitive, it will, in fact, assist Oscar’s expansion efforts and spur long-term growth across the US.
Joel Klein, Oscar Health’s Chief Strategy and Policy Officer has said of this new partnership “As Oscar prepares for its next phase of growth and pursues its mission to use technology to deliver better care at a lower cost, we will benefit from this strategic partnership with AXA and its global scope, deep reinsurance expertise, and a shared vision for the future of healthcare.”
Oscar Health’s Telemedicine feature is the core service which helps in cutting outpatient claims costs and benefits both doctors and patients
For AXA, this partnership is part of its payer-to-partner strategy as Oscar’s strategy has focused on building out high-touch services including telemedicine and “ask your concierge,” a health insurance advice team.
Oscar Health’s app which provides an intuitive, user-friendly product that gives our members access to their health information anytime, anywhere
Ultimately, this teaming up of Axa and Oscar is yet another example of a legacy insurer re-inventing itself through both internal and external initiatives. For Oscar’s part, its willingness to partner with the division of a would-be competitor demonstrates a shrewdness that belies its startup status.
