eHealth, Inc. Announces Partnership With CareCounsel, a Leader in Health Advocacy Programs
"We've seen requests for individual health insurance options increase by nearly 90 percent in the past year, which is why we decided it was time to find a partner that could help us better meet our members' needs in that area," said Larry Gelb, President and CEO of CareCounsel. "When you start to add up the benefits of working with eHealth -- the largest variety of plans and carriers available online, licensed to sell insurance in every state, end-to-end paperless automation of the enrollment process, low cost to adopt their platform -- it didn't take us long to see that they were the ideal partner for CareCounsel."
Through this partnership, eHealth will provide employees, retirees and family members covered by CareCounsel with access to over 10,000 individual health insurance products from more than 180 brand-name insurance companies nationwide. eHealth's simple, streamlined implementation process will allow CareCounsel to quickly provide integrated, efficient, and seamless access to its customers through eHealth's state-of-the-art technology platform.
Many employers seeking a confidential health advocacy firm to answer employees' health benefits questions and troubleshoot emergent health plan issues turn to CareCounsel to provide employee-focused benefits counseling. They provide employers with a single, experienced and dedicated point-of-contact when their employees have questions about their company's health care options.
By integrating the eHealthInsurance platform into their benefits consultation, employees with questions about individual health insurance products will be able to work with a CareCounsel specialist to review their coverage options in the individual market, as well. The CareCounsel members who are most likely to benefit from a partnership with eHealth are pre-65 year-old retirees, recent college graduates, the recently unemployed looking for alternatives to COBRA, part-time workers whose benefits are not covered by their employer, and employees researching cost-effective coverage alternatives for their spouses and children.
"Among advocacy firms, CareCounsel has built a reputation for providing excellent individual service to its customers and carefully measuring satisfaction to make sure they're continually delivering quality," said Bruce Telkamp, eHealth, Inc.'s Executive Vice President of Business and Corporate Development. "It's now open-enrollment season, which is typically a busy time of the year for the health insurance industry. We're confident that our partnership with CareCounsel, a company that shares our passion and commitment to providing excellent quality and service, will be a mutually beneficial partnership for years to come."
About eHealth eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) is the parent company of eHealthInsurance, the nation's leading online source of health insurance for individuals, families and small businesses. Through the company's website, http://www.eHealthInsurance.com, consumers can get quotes from leading health insurance carriers, compare plans side by side, and apply for and purchase health insurance. eHealthInsurance offers thousands of health plans underwritten by more than 180 of the nation's leading health insurance companies. eHealthInsurance is licensed to sell health insurance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, making it a functioning national health insurance exchange. Through its eCommerce On-Demand solution (eOD), www.ehealth.com/eOD, eHealth is also a leading provider of on-demand e-commerce software services. eHealth's eOD platform provides a suite of hosted solutions that enable health plan providers and resellers to market and distribute products online. eHealth's eCommerce On-Demand solution is currently available to health plan providers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. eHealthInsurance and eHealth are registered trademarks of eHealthInsurance Services, Inc.
About CareCounsel, LLC CareCounsel was founded in 1997 to help employers support their employees, retirees and their families as they navigate healthcare. The company is headquartered in San Rafael, California. More information is available at www.carecounsel.com
Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined within the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding the utilization and effectiveness of eHealth's technology platform and the potential benefits of eHealth's relationship with CareCounsel. These forward-looking statements are inherently subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the statements made, including the attractiveness of eHealth's technology platform; system failures, malfunctions, bugs or capacity constraints; the performance, reliability and availability of the platform and underlying network infrastructure; ecommerce security risks; and insurance carrier system failure or process breakdown. Other factors that could cause results to differ are described in eHealth's most recent periodic report as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on the investor relations page of eHealth's website at www.ehealthinsurance.com and on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. eHealth does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in expectations.
For media inquiries, please contact: Nate Purpura eHealth, Inc. 650-210-3115 nate.purpura@ehealth.com Larry Gelb CareCounsel, LLC 888-227-3334 ext. 101 LGelb@carecounsel.com
SOURCE: eHealth, Inc.
mailto:nate.purpura@ehealth.com mailto:LGelb@carecounsel.com