When insurtech Vivid Well being Staff first emerged again in 2015, it had daring objectives of disrupting the insurance coverage business via leveraging era. It raised a whopping $2.4 billion — together with from Cigna Ventures — and went public in 2021 earlier than the IPO marketplace dried up.

As soon as a high-flying insurtech that aimed to shake up the legacy insurance coverage business, Vivid Well being has since noticed its wings clipped. Or even a up to date company rebrand is not going to burnish its symbol.

Within the 3rd quarter of 2023, the corporate reported a $462.8 million running loss and in April opted to get out of the insurance coverage trade altogether. In January, it offered the rest bits of that trade — two California Medicare Merit plans — to Molina Healthcare for $500 million, $100 million much less than what used to be in the past deliberate.

After jettisoning its insurance coverage trade, the corporate shifted center of attention to its present value-based person care trade referred to as NeueHealth. NeueHealth has two segments: NeueCare and NeueSolutions. NeueCare delivers “value-driven” care to shoppers around the ACA Market, Medicare and Medicaid thru its owned clinics and partnerships with suppliers. NeueSolutions is helping unbiased suppliers and scientific teams tackle value-based preparations thru inhabitants well being equipment and partnerships with well being plans and executive techniques.

NeueHealth serves greater than 500,000 shoppers and companions with greater than 3,000 affiliated suppliers. Desperate to shake off associations with a failed challenge in insurance coverage, Vivid Well being introduced ultimate month that NeueHealth could be its company logo identify. It additionally moved its headquarters from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Doral, Florida. 

However will a number of thousand miles and a brand new avatar save the corporate?

Nobody from NeueHealth agreed to be interviewed. A number of business professionals stated the corporate had no selection however to rebrand given the shift in its center of attention however maximum weren’t bullish about its long term.

“The identify is also ‘neue’ however their issues are outdated,” quipped Ari Gottlieb, primary of A2 Technique Corp., in an interview. “It doesn’t trade the rest. This used to be a basically failed corporate when its identify used to be Vivid and it’s a failed corporate when the identify is Neue. You’ll depart in the back of your outdated identify and the legacy that incorporates it, however you’ll’t depart in the back of your liabilities.”

The corporate is kind of $1.4 billion in debt, Gottlieb estimated. This comprises cash owed to the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Products and services (CMS) in possibility adjustment bills, in addition to cash to Cigna Ventures, New Undertaking Pals and CalSTRS, he stated.

As well as, $100 million of its $500 million from its MA sale to Molina Healthcare is being put into an escrow account, by which a 3rd celebration holds onto the budget till positive tasks are met, in line with an SEC submitting. The budget will probably be equipped if there’s a a hit consolidation of Vivid Well being’s two MA plans — Emblem New Day and Central Well being Plan — or if Emblem New Day is in a position to succeed in a minimum of 3 stars for its Section D plans from CMS. So there’s a risk that NeueHealth gained’t even get all of this cash, Gottlieb stated.

Gottlieb added that the NeueHealth trade isn’t value $1.4 billion, making it not going that it’ll live on. 

“I simply suppose it is a zombie corporate that no one cares about. … I feel they simply drain this after which report for chapter coverage in March of 2025 earlier than they owe the government cash and there’s not anything anyone can do about it,” he stated.

Some other skilled echoed Gottlieb necessarily implying the inner issues can’t be glossed over via a rebranding — although a rebranding used to be vital to direct center of attention to a consumer-focused challenge.

“It’s converting the window dressing, nevertheless it doesn’t trade the rest significant about their stability sheet,” stated Wesley Sanders, a well being plan marketing consultant at Evensun Consulting, in an interview.

Sanders stated he anticipates NeueHealth both going beneath or being received, in particular as a result of he hasn’t “noticed the rest particular about their value-based care preparations that makes me suppose that they’re going to have a greater type than anyone else.”

In keeping with Gottlieb, a few of NeueHealth’s competition within the value-based care area come with Cano Well being (which simply filed for chapter) and CareMax.

Whilst Gottlieb and Sanders don’t foresee a long term for NeueHealth, one business follower has a extra constructive view.

“Vivid Well being is working in an enviornment that has numerous momentum and tailwinds as payers glance to spouse with organizations which are keen to take monetary possibility for the care they’re offering,” stated Tyler Giesting, director of healthcare and existence sciences at West Monroe, in an e mail. “Massive payers are vertically integrating via development or obtaining their approach into the distance NeueHealth operates in, which I’d be expecting to simply proceed.

“Between Medicare ACO, Medicare Merit and Medicaid, there’ll proceed to be alternatives for them to lend a hand suppliers transition to value-based preparations in new markets or to construct or achieve their very own clinics in new spaces. I’d be expecting extra geographic enlargement as they construct further scale and develop lined lives.”

Unsurprisingly Mike Mikan, president and CEO of NeueHealth, stated in a information unencumber that he anticipates a good long term for the corporate.

“Taking the NeueHealth identify indicates our dedication to turning in cost thru our differentiated care type that uniquely aligns the pursuits of well being shoppers, suppliers, and payers. Our NeueHealth id has been a core and a hit a part of our group’s tale, and we look ahead to development on its sturdy efficiency as we take the lead within the business’s shift to value-based care.”

The sunny tone however, Giesting of West Monroe believes the corporate’s luck will in the end be decided via how neatly its running and care fashions carry out in value-based contracts.

Photograph: carloscastilla, Getty Photographs