Employers Can Contract With Health Networks in Emerging Model (1)

A four-year-old health-care company is building its own medical provider network, a relatively new business model that it expects will save employers from paying exorbitant prices to offer health benefits to their workers.

Centivo, headquartered in Stamford, Conn., announced Tuesday it is entering the Iowa market in partnership with MercyOne, one of the state’s largest health-care providers. Centivo, which started in 2017, is a health plan administrator that works with self-funded employers and is in seven markets in the U.S., including New York City; Los Angeles; Detroit; Orlando; and Greensboro, N.C.

Self-funded employers directly pay the cost of their employees’ ...