Sidecar Health is an American health insurance company headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company offers insurance plans serving the large group, ACA and IFP markets in 18 states.

History

Sidecar Health was founded in

El Segundo, California El Segundo ( , ; ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located on Santa Monica Bay, it was incorporated on January 18, 1917, and is part of the South Bay Cities Council of Governments. The population was 16,731 as of th ...

in 2018 by Patrick Quigley and Veronica Osetinsky. The pair were previously executives at Katch (formerly Vantage Media), an online advertising technology company and customer acquisition marketplace for insurers. The company launched its first insurance product in 2019 in Texas, as the state's large uninsured population offered a sizable potential customer base. By the end of the year, Sidecar Health had expanded to Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and North Carolina. Sidecar Health initially raised $18 million in funding through venture capital firms GreatPoint Ventures and Morpheus Ventures. In July 2020, it raised $20 million in a new round of funding that included

Comcast Ventures Comcast Ventures was a corporate venture capital firm headquartered in San Francisco, California. History In early 2011, Comcast and NBCUniversal combined their two venture arms, Comcast Interactive Capital founded in 1999 and the Peacock Fund, ...

, Kauffman Fellows, and

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CEO

Anne Wojcicki Anne E. Wojcicki ( ; born July 28, 1973) is an American entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as CEO of the personal genomics company 23andMe. She founded the company in 2006 with Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza to provide the general public access ...

. It closed its Series C funding round in January 2021, led by

Drive Capital Drive Capital is a venture capital firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. History Drive Capital was founded in 2013 by Mark Kvamme and Chris Olsen, both formerly of Sequoia Capital. The firm primarily invests in tech startups outside Silicon V ...

, at $125 million—bringing it to a $1 billion valuation, often referred to as

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicor ...

status. Funding supported staffing and further expansion, along with investment in new insurance products. As of 2022, the company operates in 18 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.

Services

Sidecar Health offers plans for multiple markets, including employer sponsored, ACA and IFP. All Sidecar Health insurance products are built on users paying providers for care directly at the point of service. The website and mobile app provides members their benefit amounts, and offers local market data including prices and reviews among local providers. The company provides members with a Sidecar Health VISA debit card to pay for services. Such cash payments are often lower than negotiated rates with insurance companies according to academic studies. Upon payment, the company pays its share as determined by its reimbursement schedule, and any remaining amount is charged to the user's account. For example, the company reimburses $153 for a visit to an

OBGYN Obstetrics and Gynaecology (also spelled as Obstetrics and Gynecology; abbreviated as Obs and Gynae, O&G, OB-GYN and OB/GYN) is the medical specialty that encompasses the two subspecialties of obstetrics (covering pregnancy, childbirth, an ...

. In 2022, Sidecar Health launched

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and colloquially known as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Pres ...

plans in the state of Ohio, and a fully-insured employer-sponsored product in Ohio. In addition, it continues to market its Access Plan, which is an excepted benefit plan under the ACA in 18 states and is underwritten by partner insurers. A

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

report suggested that excepted benefits products like its Access Plan may undermine risk pooling.

References

{{reflist American companies established in 2017 Financial services companies established in 2017 Health insurance companies of the United States