A Minneapolis health-care startup is hiring as its service graduates out of beta.
Bloom Health aims to simplify the process of picking out health insurance for both employers and their employees. Instead of choosing a few health plans to offer their workers, employers deposit their contribution to a pre-tax Bloom account, which employees can apply to any plan they choose.
CEO Abir Sen says their service is like a Charles-Schwab-meets-eHarmony for health insurance. Bloom acts as a broker and matchmaker. Employees take a survey that measures their health, finances, and appetite for risk and then recommends health plans based on those factors.
The company launched last September and hoped to have one customer by this fall, says Sen. Instead, it
announced late last month that five Twin Cities companies are now using its service. Meanwhile, the company is hiring. It has 19 FTEs today and expect about 25 by the end of the year.
"We found the market to be very ready," says Sen.
Sen compares the shift that's underway in health insurance to what happened with retirement saving in the 1980s. Companies were under stress from rising pension liabilities, so they transitioned to 401(k) plans, contributing funds but letting employees invest them as they wished.
Today, says Sen, we're seeing a similar climate around health care with rising costs, recession and regulatory changes.
Source: Abir Sen, Bloom Health
Writer:
Dan Haugen