Alphabet's Verily begins offering stop-loss health insurance
Coefficient Insurance Co. is backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.
Verily, Alphabet’s healthcare business, is overseeing a new subsidiary that will offer stop-loss insurance to employers. Coefficient Insurance Company is backed by insurance megacorp Swiss Re, and relies on data analytics to predict and reduce risk.
Stop-loss insurance is designed to help employers who self-fund their plans cover sudden, catastrophic health benefit claims. Under this system, self-funded business owners pay up to a certain amount of their employees’ claims, and the stop-loss insurance company pays what’s left.
Verily is bringing the hardware, software and data science to Coefficient, while Swiss Re has the distribution network and practical knowledge in the $20 billion stop-loss market. Swiss Re made a minority investment in Coefficient, and the North American CEO of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions is poised to join the new company’s board of directors.
Verily is responsible for a suite of health gadgets, medical research and COVID-19 testing solutions, and it’s the company behind Project Baseline, a comprehensive four-year study into human health around the globe. To that end, Verily created a smart watch with electrocardiogram technology built-in.
Once Coefficient Insurance finds its footing, Verily wants that smart watch and any other devices it builds to play a role in tracking employees’ health.
“Over time, Coefficient plans to integrate Verily’s suite of health devices and tech-driven interventions for workers and dependents into its precision risk solution to improve health outcomes and control cost,” a press release reads.
