A health insurance company announced its entry into the West Texas market, including Lubbock, with the goal of helping small businesses and their employees.
Texicare, the healthcare subsidiary of Texas Mutual, announced that the company’s health care plans are now available to small business owners in Amarillo, Lubbock, Midland and Odessa.
“We believe that health care should be used, and in our research, we found that many small business owners were really frustrated with health plans because their employees couldn’t use them,” said Meredith Duncan, CEO of Texicare. “So we’ve designed plans that are meant to be used.”
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Texicare plans include Essential Care and Savings Care. The Essential Care plan offers “four visits for $0 per year to primary care physicians, urgent care centers, specialists, mental health professionals, retail clinics and physical therapy,” according to a company statement released Tuesday.
“The no-cost visits were specifically designed to empower people to take care of their health,” Duncan said. “We don’t want cost to be an issue for preventive and basic health care visits.”
This plan also offers unlimited, free virtual care, unlimited common maintenance lab work for $0, and common prescriptions for $5. Virtual care is offered in part because of healthcare deserts in rural areas, where some patients may have to drive an hour or more to reach a hospital.
“Our members can get in touch with a doctor in less than a minute,” Duncan said.
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The Savings Care plan allows employees to make tax-free contributions and withdrawals into a health savings account. Employees will also earn interest on the money before taxes. This triple tax advantage reduces overall costs, according to the release.
“We’re focused on small businesses, first and foremost,” Duncan said. “We want small business employees and their families to be able to use their health care benefits. If people can be healthy at work, they can be more productive at work and help small businesses.”
Interested companies should speak with their health insurance agents or brokers about Texicare plans. The company is also looking to continue expanding in the future, with the goal of covering all of Texas.