A new era for dental insurance?: Beam Technologies and Stride Health partnership responds to sharing economy
Beam Technologies Inc., the Columbus-based startup that introduced its smart toothbrush in late 2014 and made its foray into the dental insurance industry in 2015, announced a partnership with San Francisco’s Stride Health Inc., creator of an insurance recommendation engine, last week. Together, Beam and Stride aim to improve access to affordable dental insurance for the self-employed—and specifically, for independent contractors. The partnership marks Stride’s entry into the dental industry.
If you’ve been paying attention at all over the past two years, you probably recognize the name Beam Technologies. Beam is the company that launched a Bluetooth-connected electric toothbrush in 2014. (1) Then, upon entering the dental insurance industry with its offering of group plans in 2015, Beam decided to distribute that same brush to its policyholders to both encourage preventive home care and collect data on usage. (2)
If the name Stride Health sounds new to you, it’s because its partnership with Beam, announced last week, marks its entry into dental. Initially looking to aid the self-employed in health-insurance-buying decisions, Stride created an online platform that generates personalized insurance recommendations for its users, making its calculations with users’ personal information and health data, as well as with the premiums and deductibles of the plans included on its platform. (3) Launched in 2014 in California, the company grew rapidly. (3) Now, it covers 24 states and continues to expand nationally. (4) According to a Stride Health press release, the partnership with Beam helps to answer a demand that Stride recognized from its users: better, more affordable access to dental coverage for the self-employed. (5)
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For the partnership, Beam and Stride developed new dental plans designed specifically for self-employed individuals that will be available exclusively via Stride’s platform. (5) Beam’s plans automatically include a subscription to Beam Perks, which delivers the Beam brush, refill heads, toothpaste, and floss to the policyholder’s door, free of charge. (6)
“The addition of Beam’s dental plans represents a major shift for us,” said Stride Health’s CEO and cofounder Noah Langin a press release. (5) “For medical insurance, we now offer a marketplace of over 200 insurance carriers across the US, but [we] were forced to go in a different direction with dental benefits. I wasn’t satisfied with the coverage available on the market, and neither were our members. So we waited to offer dental until we could find a partner who would build the right plans at the right price, just for our members.” (5)
For Beam, the partnership improves access to a certain population of insurance buyers: independent contractors. In a blog, Beam’s CEO and cofounder Alex Frommeyer explained that the labor model created by today’s sharing economy demands a new approach to benefits such as health and dental insurance since most of the labor comes from independent contractors. (6)
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“Stride is a platform for some of the biggest names in the sharing economy, servicing Uber, Postmates, Intuit, and others,” wrote Frommeyer in the blog. (6) “Stride serves a population that is growing incredibly quickly, on a national scale, and has unique benefits needs,” he said in a press release. (5) “Their platform is not only pioneering worker protection in the 1099 economy but also represents the future of how most Americans will shop for coverage.” (5)
Editor’s Note: Is this a new era for dental insurance? How do you think the sharing economy will affect the dental industry in the future? Comment below and let us know, or join the discussion on Apex360’s Facebook and Twitter pages.
References
1. Frommeyer A. Meet the all-new Beam brush. Beam Technologies blog. http://blog.beamtoothbrush.com/2014/12/01/meet-the-all-new-beam-brush/. Published December 1, 2014. Accessed January 14, 2016.
2. Higginbotham S. Meet the startup building an insurance business around a connected toothbrush. Fortune website. http://fortune.com/2015/06/26/connected-toothbrush-insurance/. Published June 26, 2015. Accessed January 14, 2016.
3. Temple J. A stride toward simpler health insurance in California. Re/code website. http://recode.net/2014/03/17/a-stride-toward-simpler-health-insurance-in-california/. Published March 17, 2014. Accessed January 14, 2016.
4. Do you offer insurance coverage for residents of my state? Stride Health website. http://support.stridehealth.com/hc/en-us/articles/201669710-Do-you-offer-insurance-coverage-for-residents-of-my-state-. Published July 20, 2015. Accessed January 14, 2016.
5. Stride Health partners with Beam Dental to redesign dental care for self-employed Americans [news release]. San Francisco, CA: Stride Health Inc.; January 12, 2016. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/stride-health-partners-with-beam-dental-redesign-dental-care-self-employed-americans-2087239.htm. Accessed January 14, 2016.
6. Frommeyer A. Why Beam is partnering with Stride Health. Medium blog. https://medium.com/@AlexFrommeyer/why-beam-is-partnering-with-stride-health-4f2ad2cc462d#.d5vo21i5z. Published January 12, 2016. Accessed January 14, 2016.
