In 2021, the Texas Legislature asked Texas Mutual to investigate options to provide health care plans to small businesses in Texas.
The result was Texicare, which recently launched in West Texas. In 2022, Texas Mutual’s board of directors approved Texicare’s creation.
CEO Meredith Duncan said their primary focus is businesses with less than 50 employees, although they have quoted some that are a little bit larger.
Duncan said coverage includes medical and pharmacy coverage for small business employees and their families. It doesn’t include workers’ compensation.
“Texas Mutual is our parent company,” Duncan said. “Texas Mutual offers workers’ compensation insurance to businesses across Texas. We’re the health affiliate of Texas Mutual, so we’re focused on medical and pharmacy coverage.”
Texicare was founded about a year and a half ago. Texas Mutual has been a leading provider of workers’ compensation in Texas for more than 30 years.
Duncan said there are 75,000 small businesses in West Texas and there are about 3 million across Texas.
“What our data shows is that about 68 percent of small businesses don’t offer health coverage to their employees. This felt like an opportunity for us to provide a new option for health coverage for those small business owners, their employees and their families,” Duncan said.
The company is starting in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa and all areas in between.
“We are also focused on Houston as we aim to cover businesses across the state, but our initial focus is on West Texas,” Duncan said.
She added that small business is a really important part of the West Texas economy. West Texas is also an important part of the state economy.
“We’re a Texas-based company really looking to support Texas businesses. Most health care companies would start in Dallas and then come to West Texas later. We decided that we really wanted to start in some of the smaller and midsize markets in Texas,” Duncan said.
The cost to employees will depend on what their employer chooses as their benefit.
“Ultimately, we’re not selling this product directly to individuals. We’re selling it to the businesses and the business will then decide what kind of plan it wants to offer and what portion it wants to pay, which then will determine what the individual pays,” Duncan said.
“We do offer some pretty unique things as part of our plans. We offer zero dollar virtual care on all of our plans, so that means if someone wants to talk to a doctor they can do that through their cell phone in less than a minute. We chose this partner specifically so we could serve individuals that are in more rural areas that may not have great broadband access so they can get to a doctor in less than 60 seconds to get medical questions answered,” she said.
Texicare’s Essential Care plan includes four zero dollar visits annually to primary care physicians, urgent care facilities, specialists, mental health practitioners, retail clinics, and physical therapy. The plan also includes free, unlimited virtual care, $5 common prescriptions and unlimited $0 common maintenance labs, a news release said.
The company’s Savings Care plan, which allows employees to make tax-free contributions into a health savings account, also ensures withdrawals for care are tax-free and allows employees to earn interest on pre-tax dollars. The triple-tax advantage available under the Savings Care plan lowers overall costs for members.
Statewide, about 5 million people are without health coverage.
Texicare wanted to develop plans that people could understand and use.
“We want people to be able to take care of their health because we think that small businesses will be stronger if people are healthy employees,” Duncan said.
The response has been good so far, she added.
“The folks that we’re talking to, they’re excited to have another option,” she added.
Statewide, there are more than 5 million people without health coverage.
“I’m a native Texan and many of our team members are born and raised in Texas, so we’re a team that’s 100 percent based in Texas. We bring a lot of strong experience in serving healthcare needs of Texans across the state. We like to say that we were founded by Texans for Texans. That’s something that’s really important to us and our vision, as I said, is to cover and take care of folks across the entire state of Texas. Ultimately, we want to create a healthier and happier Texas,” Duncan said.
Employers in Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa and their surrounding areas can contact their health care agent today to learn more about Texicare plans for their employees. The company will roll out in additional markets in the coming months.
