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March 12, 2015 at 12:33 PM
A health insurance Internet sales pioneer says it’s overhauling its business in response to problems with selling individual and major medical coverage through the Web.
The Web broker, eHealth Inc. (Nasdaq:EHTH), expects to eliminate about 160 of its 1,070 positions and focus more on selling Medicare-related products.
Web health insurance brokers reported strong sales during the first Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) major medical open enrollment period, which lasted from Oct. 1, 2013, to April 2014 in most of the country, and they were hoping to get even more business during the second annual open period, which started Nov. 15, 2014, and has now ended in most of the country.
But eHealth reported in February that it lost $19 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 on $45 million in the fourth quarter. Part of the loss was due to changes in how the company recorded Medicare sales revenue, but part was due to a sharp drop in major medical application volume.
