Elevance Health says its acquisition of Verily’s Granular Insurance is designed to bolster its offerings to self-funded employer clients.
Elevance, which operates Anthem brand Blue Cross and Blue Shield health plans in 14 states, has scores of regional and national employer clients. Financial terms of the deal aren’t being disclosed, an Elevance spokeswoman said.
Granular was launched in 2020 as provider of “stop-loss, reimsurance and fronting solutions for self-funded employers and captives.” Under such policies like stop-loss, the insurer becomes liable for losses that exceed certain limits set up between the insurer and an employer’s self-funded policy.
“Through this acquisition, Elevance Health is complementing its existing capabilities and expertise by integrating Granular’s technology and data-driven insights, allowing us to offer enhanced healthcare cost management solutions for self-funded employers,” Elevance said in a statement.
The deal comes at a time health insurers including Elevance and its government-subsidized health plans are seeing higher costs and an exodus of health plan members, particularly in Medicaid coverage for poor Americans.
Elevance Health ended 2024 with fewer health plan members than the year eaelier largely from a drop in Medicaid customers.
The end of the U.S. Public Health Emergency in May of 2023 after three years of the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted health insurers that have a significant business administering Medicaid coverage for states, which conducted so-called “Medicaid redeterminations.” Medicaid redetermination, also described as Medicaid renewal or Medicaid recertification, is essentially when people are asked to show they are qualified for such coverage.
It’s also possible more Americans could lose Medicaid health benefits in coming years as Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress look to cut government spending on Medicaid coverage for poor Americans to fund tax cuts.
Elevance’s employer offerings are growing at a time sales of its government-subsidized coverage products have slowed.
Elevance’s medical membership decreased 2%, or 1.1 million, to 45.7 million as of December 31, 2024, “driven by attrition in our Medicaid business, partially offset by growth in Employer Group fee-based and Affordable Care Act health plan membership,” the company disclosed last month in its 2024 annual and fourth quarter earnings report.
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