He’s a the founder and principal of a boutique international tour company, a career that’s taken him to 80 countries and counting. But when not leading photography tours through the Sahara Desert (yes, camels are involved) or luxury yacht cruises through the Aegean, he’s recharging and planning his next adventure from his home base in the Garden State. Meet Alex, head of Open Sky Expeditions and Oscar NJ member.

What was your insurance situation like before you found Oscar?

I’ve never had a lot of healthcare needs, so when I left my previous company to start something on my own, I’d stuck with the same insurance company. Even without using them much, though, I always found insurance companies to have a behemoth feel – super cumbersome and difficult to get information from.

How did you first connect with Oscar?

When it came time to explore insurance this year, I jumped on Oscar, which had just launched for my state. My old plan was expiring, and it was so tough to get someone on the phone to talk about alternatives. By contrast, everything about Oscar is customer-focused. The website is novel, simple, and a lot more intuitive than anything I’ve ever seen in this space. For me, that sent a lot of good signals, so I called in to ask some questions and I got great service right away. I’d been concerned about switching to a new provider, but Oscar’s novel tech-savvy perspective is so in line with where I feel healthcare needs to go, that I decided it was worth trying. I wanted to be part of this new approach.

What’s been your experience so far?

One of the specific things I thought was very attractive was the Doctor on Call feature. It’s so much smarter to just tap a button and ask some targeted, personalized questions rather than go down that endless rabbit hole of Google search. I recently called in about a sore throat and a medical professional was able to evaluate my symptoms right away. I’ve also been impressed with the website. It does a good job of distilling important information—the key things you want to see when you arrive.

When you’re not on the move between countries (or even when you are!), are there any ways Oscar’s started to fit into your day-to-day life?

I’m trying to be more mindful of my health, and I was really happy to learn that I could synch Oscar’s Misfit tracker to my iPhone. I just did the synch a week ago. Although I haven’t used it every day, I have been counting steps. It’s a good motivator. Hopefully I can make it a habit.

Okay, we’re itching to ask. Any good travel tips?

The Mediterranean is one of my favorite places in the world. People tend to flock there in the summer, of course, with August at the peak of high season. But go in September, and the weather is still reliably summer-like, but the crowds have largely retreated, prices go down, and the water temperature is actually at its warmest. Be sure to check out the Greek island of Santorini–white-washed villages perched atop imposing cliffs at the edge of a massive caldera. Then, head over to nearby Folegandros. Off-the-beaten-path, it has the beauty of Santorini, but without the crowds. It’s a true hidden gem in the Aegean.

As soon as my luggage is dispatched for a flight, I take a photo of the luggage receipt with my phone. That way, if my bags don’t make it, I know the locater number is safely stored electronically, and I don’t have to fuss around searching for the receipt (I find these often peel off boarding passes, and are generally very easy to lose).  

Labor Day’s just around the corner, and here’s some good news for those of you with travel plans. If you’re an Oscar member, you will be covered for the following immunizations when you get them from an in-network provider. The immunizations aren’t free, but subject to the cost sharing of your plan (which includes a deductible if you have one). While we’re on the topic, remember consultations at travel clinics aren’t a covered benefit. Bon voyage! 

International / Travel Vaccines: 

• BCG (tuberculosis or TB vaccine) 
• Japanese Encephalitis 
• Rabies 
• Smallpox 
• Typhoid 
• Yellow Fever
  

If you have more questions about vaccines and immunization schedules, feel free to reach out to us at 855-OSCAR-55 or help@hioscar.com. We can walk you through coverage details, and refer you to in-network physicians who can administer the shots.

He’s a certified occupational therapist, hand therapist, and strength and condition specialist at NYU’s state-of-the art Center for Musculoskeletal Care, where he’s part of a team of experts focused on treating orthopedic, rheumatology and sports medicine clients. Meet Bill Finley, one of the many highly-trained occupational and physical therapists in the Oscar network.

Tell us a little about what you guys do at NYU’s Center for Musculoskeletal Care?

On any given day, there are between 25 and 30 therapists here, and we each see between eight and twelve patients every day. We’re an incredibly diverse and also specialized team. For instance, we have nine therapists that are certified for hand therapy alone, and we can custom-make orthotics here, so you can get something that’s really targeted to your problem. We also have a therapist who’s certified for something called ergonomic assessment. She can do on-site office assessments, looking at how people use everything from chairs and desks to mouses and keyboards. Then, she’ll help them develop practices to prevent or improve strain injuries.

What kinds of injuries do you see the most?

We see a mix of post-operative, traumatic, and repetitive strain injuries. During the warmer months we tend to get more injuries related to sports and competitive activities such as CrossFit, rock climbing and extreme racing. As the weather gets colder, we’ll see an influx of patients who have falls on ice, or sports injuries related to skiing, snow boarding, and hockey.

How did you first hear about Oscar? And what has your experience been like?

I learned about Oscar through members I was treating. My experience with Oscar has been extremely favorable. A major obstacle in outpatient rehabilitation is attaining authorized visits, many companies will authorize very limited visits within a narrow window of time. Oscar allows the clinician more freedom to utilize visits within a timeframe that works best for the clients’ diagnosis and schedule. Also, Oscar doesn’t require as much documentation as other companies, and that results in members getting authorized for visits more quickly.

Okay, for the uninitiated, how does a typical occupational or physical therapy appointment work?

Usually, a patient gets a referral from a doctor in the form of a prescription for therapy. At our center, the first appointment is an evaluation that lasts about an hour. We take a lot of measurements – everything from range of motion to how much pain you’re experiencing. From there, we do 30 minute sessions. We generally spend about half the time doing manual treatment, where we work on you to loosen your muscles. A lot of centers have eliminated this, but we think it’s important because when you’re injured, your muscles are much tighter. Manually manipulating muscles is analogous to going to the gym and doing a warm up, and that helps you achieve much more in the session. The rest of the time, we spend doing exercises that patients can continue at home. Toward the end of a set of visits, we can prepare a gym routine they can use for the long-term.

What’s some advice you’d give us about injuries, and preventing them?

I’ve noticed that people are often hesitant to seek medical attention for repetitive strain injuries. That pain that slowly builds up at the office, carrying your kids—basically, in day-to-day life. They may seem minor, but as time goes by, other muscles start to compensate, and you begin to get inflammation and eventually scar tissue at the site. Luckily, they’re incredibly easy to treat early on, so the sooner you get to them, the better. Also, the big thing that I stress to all my patients is stretching. Your muscles want to move, and this helps them go in the directions they want to without overextending.

CEO Mario Schlosser via HP Matter

He’s worked as a software engineer and a business analyst, as head of product and lead engineer. Today, he’s managing and building our growing team of engineers. Meet Andrew—better known at the office as “Shults”—Oscar’s Director of Engineering.

What brought you to Oscar?

Prior to Oscar, I was leading engineering at a small ad tech firm focused on out-of-home media. I had been there for a couple of years, and was looking for something that felt a little more meaningful –something that I felt a personal connection to. Around that time, a recruiter reached out to me and I started chatting with Oscar. When I started, there were only about 20 people. And that was just under two years ago. Today we’re at about 320 (50 of which are engineers)…and still hiring!

What was it like in the beginning?

We were small, and working on getting a whole bunch of stuff out the door by December 31st. It was exciting, as we really were all hands on deck to try to build this company. I remember things like sitting down with Mario, our CEO, late into the night, working to add a cost estimator to the Care Router.

What’s your job like today?

My day-to-day now has become much more strategic. It’s great because I’m excited to hand the baton off on some of the projects that I started so they can reach the next level. I spend a lot of time looking at our external platforms—for members, providers, brokers, and our staff. For each, we’re constantly determining what we want to include, and how best to execute so the experience feels integrated. I’m also involved with hiring, and so I spend time meeting with candidates and talking about what’s going on at Oscar.

From the beginning, you’ve been pretty deeply involved with the Care Router. Can you talk a little about that?

Care Router, which allows users to type in conditions and get suggested actions, was one of the early projects I worked on, and we’ve recently revamped it based on everything that we’ve learned since launch. The reason we view it as our flagship is that it tackles a lot of stuff that other insurance companies don’t do. It uses natural language search, for instance. A member can type in anything, and we’ll translate it into a condition or a procedure. We’re trying to be really intelligent about this matching up process, and capturing intent so that we better understand why people are searching for, say, an ENT. If they’re doing it because they have a sinus infection, we can suggest that they speak to one of our doctors using our free Doctor on Call service. Since most of these infections can be treated virtually, we’re giving our members a faster, cheaper, and more convenient option. Basically, we’re giving people the tools that make it easier for them to take action.

How would you describe engineering at Oscar?

We’re a tech company at heart, so a big part of our strategy is focused on how we can use that mindset to solve specific problems. We always want to look at root causes of problems or challenges. The engineers here are very self-empowered; we like to build tools that, by simplifying processes, enable us to work on big projects on our own. For example, a year and a half ago, we started making a big investments in a tool called Mesos that’s taken a lot of the complexity out of getting things up and running. Since then, we’ve built a lot on top of it, and we’re pushing further in that direction.

And life at Oscar as a whole?

Working at the intersection of health care and technology, there are endless opportunities. So you always have the excitement of innovative projects. We’re always thinking, what can we do different from our competitors, and we’re using incredible tools and data to get those answers.

Last week, the National Institute of Health released some news that federal officials are calling “potentially life-saving.” In a study of 9,300 high blood pressure patients aged 50 and over, those who were able to reduce their systolic blood pressure to less than 120 had their risk of heart attack, heart failure, and strokes lowered by a third. Their risk of death went down by nearly a quarter. For years, 140 has been the cutoff for high blood pressure, so this new number represents a radical shift. What can you do with this news?  

First, know the numbers. Systolic blood pressure is the force that pushes your blood through your arteries when your heart beats. It’s the figure you get at the top of your reading. Diastolic blood pressure shows the pressure in the arteries when your heart is resting between beats. It’s the figure at the bottom, and for this, anything over 80 is considered high. 

Second, know your numbers. At Oscar, blood pressure screenings are included in your free annual Wellness visit or your Well Woman exam, so that’s a great way to stay on top of this. If you’re an Oscar member and are looking for a provider, our Care Router can help you find someone that’s right for you. 

oscardna:

Oscar is a company that has never existed before: a technology-driven insurer. It is exceptionally hard to start an insurance company. It involves large capital reserves, years-long licensing processes, a complexity that requires product design not around the average use case but around the edgiest use case, and the most fundamental subject matter there is - someone’s health and well-being. All of these things are diametrically opposed to where most technologists these days spend their time, whether on ad tech, social stuff or mobile. 

Keep reading

oscardna:

As an insurance company, we support our members by presenting them with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their care. As we think about how to provide the best possible experience for our members, one of our primary goals is to help them select the “right” healthcare provider for themselves. But what does it mean for a provider to be the right fit for a member? A review of patient choice studies echoes what we may intuitively all know – it’s all about the “complex interplay between patient and provider characteristics.” To us, this means that we need to allow our members to search for providers across a wide range of features, including specialization, distance from home or work, and patient panel demographics.

As we set out to build Oscar’s provider search, we knew that the industry standard simplistic search based largely on a provider’s static attributes (e.g. years of experience, education, hospital affiliations, distance) had to be replaced with a more dynamic, personalized experience.

Keep reading

He spent decades in the health and fitness world, and never once got sick. Then, last year, a serious infection changed everything. Meet JP, wellness coach and 2-year Oscar member.

First off, tell us a little bit about your wellness coaching.

I help people improve not just their physical and mental, but also their emotional and spiritual wellbeing. I work with them to find a center (with plenty of meditation) and also develop a game plan that’s right for them.

What was your health insurance situation before Oscar?

I’ve been self-employed my whole life, and it’s ranged from multiple plans to zero plans. In January 2014, my policy was dropped. So I had to start from scratch. I had heard about this new, modern company that was changing the way things worked. Price-wise it was fine, so I signed up. but I’d never expected to use it. With my last policy, I hadn’t spoken to a human in more than five years.

How did you first start using the plan?

Believe it or not, I’d never been sick or hurt until last summer. I run a sports camp on Fire Island —a ten week, 24/7 job at the beach. One day, I discovered I had an open wound on my hand. It turned out, I had picked up an infection. There aren’t a lot of physicians out there, and I couldn’t really leave. By the time I got diagnosed, things had become quite severe and I had to go to the hospital. One of the attending physicians there suggested that amputation might be necessary. That’s when I really started connecting with Oscar’s Medical Management team. When I got out of the hospital, they made it clear that they were invested in my wellness and on-hand to support me and help me get there.

What was that experience like?

I wound up having several surgeries and needing to take a lot of drugs. Navigating all that territory when you’re already sick is nothing short of overwhelming. So having someone, a real person, making sure I was getting the best care at a manageable cost made a huge difference. So much so that when I got back to the city in November, I had lunch with Tina, my Care Manager. She had been with me through the whole process, suggesting things to think about, things to try. We had a real feeling of connection, and I knew she was invested in the process with me. I’ve never had such a pleasant experience with an insurance company in 62 years!

How was your summer?

This summer, I went back to Fire Island to teach again. Last year, I felt like I had the whole “zen” thing down, but this experience really upped the ante. I’m more invested than ever in the role that support and collaboration from others can have in our wellbeing. And Oscar definitely played a part in that.

BFF’s JP & Tina

Over fifteen years ago, while working at an outpatient clinic at Montefiore Medical Center, he started commuting into a tiny Soho office space after work so that he could see a few patients in the evening and begin building a small private practice. Over time, his practice grew so big that he has had to move offices twice and he’s currently gearing up for a third, larger space. Meet Dr. Barry Cohen, one of Oscar’s 40,000 in-network physicians.  

Tell us a little about your practice.

We are a true adult primary care office. Our youngest patients are in their teens and our oldest is 95. We treat everything but our primary focus is on health maintenance. We don’t want our patients to get sick before they reach out for help. We see our role as doing everything we can to make sure our patients stay well.  Supporting that goal, we have two Nurse Practitioners who are trained in both Women’s Health and Alternative Medicine. Within the larger practice, we each have our own specialties. For example, our Nurse Practitioners are well versed in the use of herbs and one is trained in everything from trigger point therapy for muscle pain to hypnotism for situations like smoking cessation and anxiety disorders. But, we are also very collaborative, and the culture of the office is such that patients feel as though they are treated by all of us. We’ve also embraced technology in everything from computerized medical records to prescription submission. Our patients are able to enter all their health and insurance  information on an iPad-like device when they first come in, avoiding paperwork that has become ubiquitous with a doctors office visit.

How did you first learn about Oscar?

I believe in insurance for everybody. One of my first jobs in medicine was medical assisting in a free clinic in my hometown of Chicago. So I am a big fan of the Affordable Care Act.  We made a point of ensuring that we were taking most of the exchange plans from the beginning. I started hearing about Oscar from patients-and the number who were mentioning it began growing exponentially.

And what’s your experience been like?

I have been really happy with what I have been hearing from my patients. They often mention the ease of enrollment and the support they receive from the website. And my staff continues to give me positive feedback on how easy it has been to work with them. It really seems like Oscar’s thinking ahead and trying to solve old problems in new ways. This is what I think needs to happen if we’re going to make sure this new healthcare environment lives up to it’s potential. As a result, I’ve recommended Oscar to many patients who currently don’t have insurance.

Is there one piece of health advice you always give new patients?

Try to relax! Over the years I’ve noticed that the people who have a hard time in this city are the ones who never slow down. This is an incredible place. Have fun, but don’t feel like you have to do everything at once. Keep a balance.

And please remember to drink water! Everybody in New York is dehydrated; we’re made out of water and it’s important to replace what we lose on a daily basis.

And we’re headed your way!

oscardna:

When Oscar first launched, billing was handled through an external vendor. But ultimately, we wanted more control over the design, how we interact with the system, and what happens when the bills actually hit the mail. So we took the whole project in-house. Here, Andrew Shults, Oscar’s Director of Engineering, breaks down the ideas, tools, and processes we used to completely overhaul the way we manage (and think about) bills.

Be yourself, love yourself. 

❤, the #OUTatOscar team

At Oscar, we care about keeping you healthy, so we make sure to cover many preventive tests and services for free. You can see the full list here. You can even toggle to personalize it for yourself or your family members.

But here’s something important to know: If you have certain symptoms, a test that might otherwise be preventive might be considered diagnostic. In that case, the test becomes subject to the cost sharing structure of your plan. This can be pretty confusing, so we asked Nicole, Oscar’s Manager of Benefits, to break things down. Watch the video for an overview of preventive care and an explanation on how some services can become diagnostic. If you have any questions about how to get the most out of your plan at the lowest cost, we’re here to help. Call or email and we’ll walk you through the details. 

 Flu season is around the corner. The CDC starts running a count of new cases starting at the end of October, but because it takes about two weeks for the body to build up immunity from the shot, now’s a great time to get a head start and get vaccinated. Especially since if you have an Oscar plan, it’s completely free.

 Unlike last year, when a flu strain mutated after the vaccine was manufactured, this year’s formula is expected to be very effective, covering all the strains experts are most worried about. So if you haven’t already, head to your local CVS, Duane Reade, Rite Aid, Walgreens, or any other in-network pharmacy. You don’t even need an appointment, just show your Oscar card to the pharmacist and you’re set. It’s that easy.

Not sure where to go? Find a pharmacy on our website. 

P.S. Not sure about the flu vaccine? Read more about it here.