A Texas health maintenance organization which anticipates significant expansion under the federal healthcare reform law has kicked off an agency search to guide a “re-branding.”
Community Health Choice, a non-profit HMO which serves 230,000 people in Texas and includes a network of 5,000 doctors and more than 50 hospitals, said expansion of Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and other programs under the Affordable Care Act will increase Texans eligible for its healthcare services.
The move comes amid Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s protest of the federal law and pledge on July 9 that the state will not follow its requirements to set up an insurance exchange or expand Medicare.
CHC, which has issued an RFP open through July 30, said it is considering a re-brand and PR campaign because the provisions of the new law expanding Medicaid eligibility and providing assistance for purchasing health insurance create a new potential pool of patients. The HMO also said its current brand “may be too specifically aligned with governmentally-supported health programs to be attractive to what has traditionally been considered the commercial health insurance market.”
CHC wants an agency to conduct focus groups to gauge its current brand and if it is deemed unfavorable to develop a new one.
CHC’s president and CEO, Ken Janda, said, despite some reservations, he thinks the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the healthcare reform law will help three million Texans get health insurance.
View the RFP (DOC).