Name: Mark Bertolini
Previous title: Chief executive officer, Bridgewater Associates
New title: Chief executive officer, Oscar Health
New York-based insurance company Oscar Health has brought in well-known healthcare executive Mark Bertolini to be its next chief executive officer, effective April 3. Bertolini has had a long career in the payer sector, including an almost 16-year tenure at Aetna that culminated in his becoming CEO from 2011 through the insurer’s sale in 2018.
Bertolini sold the health insurance company to CVS for almost $70 billion that year, creating a vertically integrated healthcare giant.
Since 2022, Bertolini has worked as co-CEO of asset management firm Bridgewater Associates, but is returning to the health insurance sector as Oscar’s chief executive.
News of the appointment sent Oscar’s shares up by more than 60% in early morning trading Tuesday.
Oscar is bringing Bertolini on board in part due to his track record in building and scaling companies, and in helping them achieve profitability, according to comments from Oscar leadership in an announcement.
Oscar has been shaking up its management team as the Alphabet-funded insurer reallocates resources and works to bring down the cost of care. In February, Oscar reported a $227 million loss in its most recent financial quarter off revenue of $995 million.
In total, Oscar lost $610 million in 2022. However, Oscar management has said they expect the company to be profitable by the end of 2024 by continuing to focus on efficiency and cutting back on making major investments.
Bertolini is familiar with the company, having worked as a strategic advisor to Oscar for the past 18 months.
Oscar’s current CEO Mario Schlosser, who co-founded the company in 2012, will become president of technology and lead product and engineering, with a focus on Oscar’s tech platform +Oscar. The insurer has been struggling to implement +Oscar on a broader scale and has lost clients as a result.
Schlosser will report to Bertolini, who will join Oscar’s board of directors.
