Cost Plus Wellness aims to bring transparency to employee benefits by connecting self-funded employers directly with healthcare providers. The initiative publishes real contracts with ambulatory surgical centers, single-specialty groups, and multi-specialty groups, including terms, rates, and pricing upfront. Employers can copy these contracts and modify them for their needs. As of May 21, 31 providers had published contracts on the site. The open-source nature makes it difficult to determine how many employers have used the platform to finalize agreements. The goal is to disrupt payment relationships among insurance companies, providers, and employers, and to reduce reliance on benefits consultants. An employer expert views the effort as a needed conversation starter while questioning scalability beyond Texas.
"The initiative connects self-funded employers directly with providers, including ambulatory surgical centers, single-specialty groups and multi-specialty groups. Real contracts with these providers are published on the website, showing terms, rates and pricing upfront. Employers can copy the contracts and adjust them to their needs. As of May 21, 31 providers have published contracts on the site. Because the site is open source, it's hard to say how many employers have used the site to cement contracts with providers."
"The goal is to disrupt the payment structure between the insurance company, provider and employer. And perhaps to undermine the influence of benefits consultants who typically work with large self-insured companies to design employee benefits. "We think it should be simple and direct. Not convoluted and opaque, as it is now," Cuban told MedCity News in an email."
"Cuban has been on a tirade on X about large employers not doing enough to lower their healthcare costs and not scrutinizing their contracts with PBMs and insurance companies. So it's in this context that he wants to be the one helping to directly link providers with large self-funded employers. But is this something employers will actually use? One employer expert believes that the Cost Plus Wellness initiative is a good conversation starter between the two parties."
""I think that is welcome. I think it is needed, and both employers and providers want to find a way to partner directly," said Elizabeth Mitchell, president and CEO of Purchaser Business Group on Health. "What is less clear is if this approach is scalable. Right now, it's in Texas, and it provides some baseline terms, which ar"
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