New day for New West: Licensed Medicare provider seeing dramatic growth
<p>Jim Driscoll is the Medicare specialist for New West Heath Services in Kalispell. New West, with a customer service office in Kalispell and corporate headquarters in Helena, has seen 60 percent growth year to date.</p>
Not much more than a year ago, New West Health Services was coming back from an antitrust settlement restructuring that forced it to drop the commercial side of insurance, leading to a layoff of some employees in Helena and Kalispell and a 50 percent drop in annual revenue.
The fortunes of the company have taken a dramatic turn in the last year, though. As the only Montana-based and licensed Medicare provider, New West is taking advantage of the growing numbers of baby boomers turning 65 to develop its client base, taking its rolls from about 11,000 on its Medicare Advantage and supplement plans in early 2012 to around 19,500 clients today.
“It’s been such a tremendous and positive turnaround, we’re close to the numbers we had before we began shrinking,” said Jim Driscoll, Medicare specialist for New West in Kalispell. “It’s because we’ve remained focused on a singular product — Medicare — and improved the model.
“It’s a more efficient way for us to provide great coverage and service and become a growing and sustaining entity.”
New West has 60 percent year-to-date growth supplying patients with the Medicare Advantage and Medicare supplement plans that the federal government outsources to private entities such as New West.
The nonprofit business is consistently hiring at its Kalispell customer service office based in the old Gateway West Mall as well as corporate headquarters in Helena.
Company-wide, the staff currently numbers about 85 after being down to 70 in April 2012. Applications are currently being accepted for claims processors and claims supervisors in Kalispell. Driscoll expects New West to reach 100 employees as vacancies are filled and membership grows by the end of the calendar year.
When a person turns 65 and “ages in” to Medicare coverage, he or she can choose a Medicare Advantage plan such as those offered by New West or opt for traditional Medicare coverage.
During the annual enrollment period that runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, New West holds enrollment meetings and markets its Medicare plans. Eligible recipients then lock in their plan for one year.
The New West Medicare Advantage plan is $17 each month for the value plan, $59 for the standard option and $120 for enhanced. Medicare Advantage Plans are approved by Medicare and managed by private insurance companies such as New West Medicare.
“We’re not for profit, and we’re just in Montana, providing health care exclusively for Montanans,” Driscoll said. “People are happy when they have a problem or question in the middle of the night that when they call up and get the nurses or are calling about a bill, that they’re actually speaking with their neighbors.”
The network of providers for those under the New West plans is vast, Driscoll said.
“We’re able to negotiate for better group buy-in for patients and as long as the members use our network, they get the benefit of negotiated pricing,” Driscoll said.
The Affordable Care Act should have little effect on New West’s business, Driscoll said. Whatever the changes, he’s willing to give the plan a chance before pronouncing judgment on its effectiveness.
“I spent the first half of my career in Massachusetts [where the state implemented a similar health care program] and I’ve seen its successes as well as its challenges,” Driscoll said.
“It would be hard to argue that seniors aren’t going to be on the better end of the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. There’s a lot of good in it that doesn’t get discussed enough. It’s human nature — people don’t like change and they resist it.”
Call Driscoll at 751-3379 for more information.
Business reporter Heidi Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or by email at hgaiser@dailyinterlake.com.