1871 announces health care, benefits exchange for members
Meg Graham and Amina ElahiContact ReportersBlue Sky Innovation
Merchandise Mart-based tech hub 1871 announced Friday a private "one-stop shop" health care and employee-benefits exchange for its members.
The incubator said it partnered with financial-services firm Wolf Point Advisors to create the exchange, which offers health, dental, vision, identify theft and pet insurance, plus telehealth services.
The exchange will be open to the incubator’s 325 member startup companies, plus individual members and alumni members who have graduated but maintain membership, 1871 said in a news release. Members will be able to sign up for coverage for themselves and their families beginning Nov. 15, it said.
The incubator has activated its marketplace website, the 1871 Private Insurance Exchange, which offers plans from various providers — as does healthcare.gov, the federal marketplace for individuals, families and small businesses provided under the Affordable Care Act.
Howard Tullman ⇒, CEO at 1871, emphasized the convenience of the new marketplace.
“This is not being promoted as if it’s some huge savings” but more of a “one-stop shop” for members to avoid having to do their own comparative shopping, Tullman told Blue Sky Innovation on Friday.
Tullman said he "was hearing on a fairly regular basis from members that it was hard for young members to compete for mature talent and first-class talent if they didn’t have a successful HR and benefits solution — and certainly the exchange addresses that.”
