Bind president prepares to scale health coverage startup

Jodi Hubler is planning for major growth as the first president at Bind, the "on-demand" health insurance startup in Minneapolis.

Serving as president expands Hubler's role with Bind, where she has been a board director and investor since its 2016 launch. Hubler continues as CEO and managing director of Lemhi Ventures, a Minnetonka-based health care services venture firm that has invested in Bind.

"It's great, demonstrated evidence of the company's next inflection point, where we seek to continue to have significant growth and expansion," Hubler said of the creation of the president's position.

Hubler expects to see "multiple six-figures types of growth" in members enrolled in Bind, up from 65,000 now. Members include employees of Best Buy Co., Target Corp., Medtronic, UnitedHealth Group, Culligan and Cumberland School District in western Wisconsin. Bind should end this year with close to 400 employees, up from 250-plus working in Minneapolis, San Francisco and New York.

Bind is a health plan administrator that serves self-funded organizations. The company says it can save employers up to 20% on annual health care costs. Employees get cost and coverage clarity, Hubler said. Most spend less than $450 out of pocket during a plan year compared with a national average $943, according to the company.

Instead of deductibles, employees pay "smart" copays and search for treatment by condition rather than by provider.

Employees can buy additional coverage when needed for elective procedures as needed with Bind's "on-demand" feature.

Hubler's experience combines executive leadership positions at companies including Cargill and Alcoa and board service with nonprofits CaringBridge and Medical Alley Association, venture-basked Central Logic and the University of Minnesota Discovery Capital Investment Advisory Board. She is board chair of the LaunchMN advisory board and Lemhi Ventures portfolio company Digital Reasoning.

Hubler has startup experience with Definity Health, a health benefits company that UnitedHealth acquired in 2005.

Q: Why did you want to be Bind's president?

A: I've spent the last 14 years investing in companies [through Lemhi]. We've had an opportunity to not only start but to invest in a number of health care services through Lemhi. The creation of Bind is an opportunity to get back to what I love, being part of boots on the ground, getting not only your head from a board perspective but your hands inside a company and helping that company manifest and grow.

Q: What is driving Bind's growth?

A: Bind really affords an opportunity to have a true win-win. With Bind's plan design not only are employers saving up to 20% on their annual health care cost but employees … have an opportunity to select lower-cost alternatives they wouldn't have known were there. Seventy-nine percent of the time they choose a procedure that's a more effective and more efficient treatment plan. Nearly 70% of the prescriptions that are filled are at lower-cost pharmacies.

Q: What are your priorities as president?

A: One is to ensure that we maintain our [Net Promoter Score, which measures customer loyalty or willingness to recommend a company.] Ours is 36 from our members. That's well above the industry average of 14. In addition to that, continuing to renew our clients, to expand inside of our current clients is dramatically important. Continuing to have the kind of impact we are having on more employees' and more plan sponsors' lives.

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Lake Elmo. His e-mail is todd_nelson@mac.com.