Swiss Re backs Google unit Verily's new insurance venture Coefficient

Google's sister company Verily has launched a new stop-loss health insurance subsidiary, called Coefficient Insurance Company, backed by Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, the commercial insurance unit of Swiss Re Group.

Verily, an Alphabet company, has established Coefficient to offer innovative data-driven health technology solutions focussed on employer stop-loss insurance to help protect self-funded employers from unexpected and large employee health benefit claims.

Coefficient will leverage Verily’s technology and Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’s risk knowledge, distribution capabilities and reputation in the employer stop-loss market.

Using an analytics-based underwriting engine to identify unexpected areas of cost volatility, Coefficient’s precision risk solution is designed to provide self-funded employers with more predictable benefit plan protection. Coefficient also plans to integrate Verily’s suite of health devices and tech-driven interventions for workers and dependents into its precision risk solution to improve health outcomes and control cost.

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has agreed to make a minority investment in Coefficient, subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions including regulatory approvals.

In connection with the investment, Ivan Gonzalez, CEO North America, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, has been appointed to Coefficient's board of directors.

"Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has long prided itself for being a knowledge-based and data-driven insurer. Today, we're building on that strong foundation by partnering with Alphabet's Verily to use advanced technology and data analytics to innovate risk management in the employer stop-loss space," said Andreas Berger, CEO of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. "We look forward to working with Coefficient in delivering on our mission to address industry inefficiencies, provide an outstanding customer experience and advance corporate insurance together.”

Andy Conrad, CEO of Verily, said: “Employers have been facing rising and increasingly unpredictable healthcare costs for years Coefficient is aimed at reducing blind spots and providing greater cost control mechanisms for self-funded employers, and we expect that partnering with Swiss Re Corporate Solutions will help us to better develop and distribute our precision risk solution to the employer stop-loss market. Over time, we look forward to integrating Coefficient with Verily’s employer health solutions, including mobile health devices and innovative care management programs, in order to align payment models with better health outcomes.”