Finding and enrolling in the right health insurance plan can be a burdensome task for many people, and navigating claims can be downright daunting.

Enter insurtechs: tech-driven startups that promise to disrupt the industry and make navigating health insurance more accessible.

The first insurtechs popped up in 2010, and in 2017, consulting firm McKinsey projected the startups would see success similar to what the fintechs that had disrupted the banking industry saw. At the time, McKinsey partners projected insurtechs would extend innovation and create “a competitive threat to incumbents but also potentially valuable opportunities for partnering on the changing terrain.”

But while insurtech’s popularity peaked in 2021—when at least three insurtechs IPOed with multibillion-dollar valuations and venture capitalists had invested $11 billion (double the amount invested in 2020, according to McKinsey)—several of the top companies have since reported huge net losses.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

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Wondering who got a new job or what new positions healthcare companies have filled recently? Healthcare Brew’s got you covered. Each month we highlight some of the major job changes in the healthcare industry as part of our Movers and Shakers series.

Tanya Belcheff: Frontier Nursing University named the nurse-midwifery program assistant professor as the Kentucky-based school’s director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Monica Bertagnolli: The former National Cancer Institute director officially took over as the National Institutes of Health director, following a Senate confirmation in early November. Bertagnolli is the first surgeon to hold the position.

Keep reading here.—SY

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

In 2021, United Parcel Service (UPS) teamed up with Patch Caregiving, a startup providing childcare solutions to employers with frontline workers, to roll out an emergency childcare pilot.

Sarah Alexander and Olivia Rosenthal, Patch’s co-CEOs, started the company while they were graduate students at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business; UPS was one of their first research partners.

After conducting surveys and interviews with workers at several facilities in California about their childcare needs, Patch and UPS decided to pilot an emergency childcare benefit in Lathrop, California, on the site of a new facility. Because construction of the facility was already underway, it was fairly simple for UPS’s President of Human Resources and Operational Training Danelle McCusker Rees and her team to identify a conference room where the childcare center could be located.

Keep reading at HR Brew.—CV

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: The US spends nearly $13,000 per person on healthcare, compared to the next country (and that’s Germany, which spends $7,400 per person). (the New York Times)

Quote: “Who the hell can afford this? There’s no relief for families unless they have great wealth or see their wealth sucked away.”—Frank Lee, a retired chef, on spending about $100,000 a year on his wife’s home care (KFF Health News)

Read: The FDA’s plan to ban menthol cigarettes is reportedly facing delays. (NBC News)

The more you know: Patient data can be a provider’s superpower. Just look at Modern Health—they use feedback from Typeform to support their customers, all while staying HIPAA compliant. Get the deets.*

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