BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The only provider-led health insurance company in the state has opened a second office in Bridgeport.
Peak Health is owned by the WVU Health System, Marshall Health, the Mountain Health Network, and Valley Health and will continue to grow statewide, according to president Ben Gerber.
“We think it’s good to have our employees there,” Gerber said. “We think it’s good that providers in our network and members of our team know that Peak is working hard for them.”
Peak Health has a mission of making health care understandable, transparent, collaborative, and more accessible. The company was created out of frustration with continuing efforts to improve health outcomes statewide that have fallen short.
“Make things easier for patients, with less frustration dealing with insurance companies and higher quality at lower costs that we can pass on to our patients,” Gerber said.
Peak Health is headquartered in Morgantown, where about 80 employees are, and 20 will staff the new location in Bridgeport. Gerber said the long-term plan includes a network of offices across the state serving a variety of patients.
“Next year, we’re going to offer a Medicare Advantage Plan in a number of counties in West Virginia,” Gerber said. “Particularly counties where WVU Medicine has facilities. So, we’re expecting to provide the best and market the cheapest Medicare Advantage Plans.”
The company currently serves about 32,000 people, primarily WVU Medicine employees and dependents, and that number is expected to grow. Peak Health plans to keep company operations within the state as that growth occurs, unlike some large health insurance organizations that are based outside the state but serve West Virginians, according to Gerber.
“We think it’s really important that we reinvest and keep those employees here and build up the communities,” Gerber said. “Our members are from all these communities, and we want to put our employees in all these communities because that’s the type of organization we are.”
Now, they work with companies that employ 50 or more people. As the company scales up, a wider variety of products and services will be made available.
“As the organization matures, we’ll be offering fully insured products for some of the smaller employers in the state as well,” Gerber said.