Oscar launches Optimized Network Thanks to Data Mining

The Gist: Oscar’s state of mind is that it’s a technology company, not an insurance company . Its latest pitch is ‘choose better care’. ‘Better care’ made possible because of tech perks like concierge care teams and direct scheduling from one’s smartphone. ‘Better care’ made possible because the company has extracted insights from health care data such as claims, medical records, and doctors directories to better serve its members. And according to Wired, it working. And by ‘working’ think – some 50K members from NY said ‘sign me up’ this past enrollment season. So what’s new? In Jan. 2017 the trendy health insurer launched what it refers to as ‘optimized network’ – the outcome of a long experiment in taxonomy that had Oscar’s data scientists dig through records and define groups of doctors by the service they provide rather than by their titles. Keyword: Optimized. With an O.

Bottom Line: their word against their word.