Mark Bertolini. Credit: Oscar Health
The head of Oscar Health — a high-profile, venture-capital-backed, relatively new health insurer — is now in charge of the Verizon board.
The mobile phone company announced Monday that Hans Vestberg, its chairman and CEO, is stepping down from those posts.
The company named Daniel Schulman, the former CEO of PayPal and its lead independent director, to be its new CEO.
The company named Mark Bertolini, who has been serving on its board as an independent director since 2015, as its chairman.
Bertolini was the chairman and chief executive officer of Aetna from 2011 through 2018. He became the CEO of Oscar in 2023 and is still the CEO there.
What it means: Bertolini's new role on the company's board could expand his ability to shape U.S. benefits markets: Verizon is one of the biggest employers and providers of employee benefits in the world.
Verizon: Verizon has about 100,000 employees. Kevin Cammarata, Verizon's vice president of benefits, serves on the American Benefits Council board.
The company's retirement benefits have received more news coverage in recent years than its health benefits. Pension plan participants sued Verizon in January over the company's move to use a group annuity from Prudential to transfer defined benefit pension risk.
But Verizon has also been active in using health benefits strategies such as encouraging employees to use online pharmacies to hold down prescription drug spending.
Bertolini: While Bertolini ran Aetna, he helped lead Aetna through the rise of the Affordable Care Act framework for commercial health insurance. He also oversaw the strategic moves that led to the sale of the company to CVS Health.
At Oscar, Bertolini has promoted use of individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements, or efforts by employers to give employees cash that the employees can use to buy their own individual health coverage. It's possible that his new role at Verizon could support increased benefits community interest in ICHRAs.
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