Health Net California Health Insurance

On March 24, 2016 Health Net became a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene, Corporation, which is based in St. Louis, Missouri.  In California, Health Net is focused on providing medical insurance to individuals and families, seniors (Medicare age 65 +) and people in low income plans (Medi-Cal). While Health Net offers coverage to small employers, in recent years, Health Net has not been very price competitive.

Health Net offers a full range of small group plans – Platinum through Bronze, PPO, HMO, HSA and HSP plans (an HSP plan is a very narrow network plan that requires member to access care exclusively through the PureCare network of physicians and hospitals. Members can use any Health Net provider for ancillary, pharmacy and behavioral health.

Strengths

Health Net offers a wide selection of plans and provider networks. They offer a variety of network HMO plans that range in size from very small to very large. Employers can offer either the largest Health Net, HMO or PPO plans or narrow network plans. Their PPO Value plan seem to be well priced. However, you should be aware that the value PPO plans apply the full medical deductible to both prescription medicine and medical expenses.  If that’s not a problem, then the PPO value plans may work well for your company.

Challenges

Not Competitive Pricing: The bottom line is that despite the huge number of plan and network choices; few of the Health Net plans are price competitive with other insurance companies. Hopefully, they will simplify their plan offerings and reduce the premium (monthly price) for their plans. Everyone would love to have Health Net be a competitive option for small employers.

No full network HMO with narrow network: Health Net has two portfolios of small group plans: Enhanced Choice A and Enhanced Choice B. Health Net offers the full network and Community Care HMO plans in A and all of the other HMO networks in B. The challenge is that a small employer can’t offer the full network HMO with the Whole Care, Smart Care or Salud y Mas HMO networks.

Pricing and Employer Strategy

Health Net’s Salud Y Mas HMO plan is well-priced and geared to a Spanish speaking population. This very small HMO network of providers is only available in certain parts of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. If most of your employees are Spanish speaking and your business is located where this network is available, this may be a viable option for your company. Give us a call and we can help you figure it out 800-476-0045.

Health Net’s plans are becoming more competitive.  Their Value PPO plan may be a good fit if you’re looking for affordable PPO coverage. You should include Health Net plans in your survey of alternatives