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Simplifying the health insurance market through revolutionary and easy to use analytics tools

Jay Silverstein is the CEO of Picwell, a healthcare startup dedicated to simplifying employees’ healthcare choices. Based in Philadelphia, PA, Picwell uses predictive, statistical algorithms that analyze nearly a million variables and are tailored to individual consumers’ lifestyles to deliver highly personalized, scored healthcare plan choices. The system improves incrementally with each new Picwell user, adding value and additional savings for consumers over time. Jay’s career in healthcare goes back to 1985; prior to working on Picwell, he held leadership roles at UnitedHealthcare, Medco, and Oxford Health Plans.

Jay spoke with Reid Blynn of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank for this interview.

REID BLYNN: Are you considering expanding into other insurance areas?

JAY SILVERSTEIN: We think of Picwell as potentially becoming the TripAdvisor for all insurance, that the anchor tenant of the employer world is indeed health plan selection. That is the gnarliest, the most complex of them. The choice, as we mentioned before, is roughly one paycheck a year, but the reality is the same choice then extends itself across benefits: life, AD&B, dental, vision, critical illness, and as many employers may move to high deductible plans, it becomes more and more important for the individual to understand how to optimize the ideal selection of that grouping of insurance products as opposed to just the one.

That we will launch first quarter of next year. We then roll from there into building out what we call health and wealth, or the convergence of health and wealth. There’s some fascinating dynamics in terms of how much money seniors spent on their health benefits relative to all that money and hard work that they put in creating a trust or a legacy. In fact, the average senior will spend over $230,000 in medical costs from the time they’re 65 until death. We also see tremendous opportunity in life, in auto, and in home. In fact, the buying behaviors in life and auto are very similar to the buying behaviors that exist in health. Now, it may not be nearly as complex with as many factors but the choice there is about the same and the expense is roughly the same. These are high ticket items that you’re purchasing once a year without really any insight into what’s right or how they’re doing, and so we believe that if we do build a brand and we build a meaningful brand like Picwell—and we do that through the B2B environment, through the carrier—we do that through the exchanges where people are trusting us, then we can extend that trust into other key decisions that people are making and save people thousands of dollars and create efficient and dynamic marketplaces not just in health, but in life and auto and all.

Q. What about selling directly to individuals?

A. We’re trying to retain independence and objectivity. In order to do that, we don’t want to be collecting downstream revenue for commission. We are not a web-broker, nor are we a model that’s built on that. We’re built on enabling next generation platforms and enabling decision support. We look at the business as being pure and virtuous, and that’s what we try to deliver, and that’s how we measure ourselves. We measure ourselves on our ability, the confidence we give to people in making the right decision for themselves, and so we don’t want to be participating in kind of an open, public environment. The problem with that is there are ways that we can participate with the broader public and monetize that by supporting downstream participants by getting people—perhaps more qualified leads in the hand of agents or into the carrier where it makes sense for that carrier to be talking to that individual because the individual has raised their hand as a function of our tool identifying that carrier. That works and we can monetize ourselves that way, and that keeps us independent and objective, but what we can’t do is participate in the sale component, where the commission based model just does not work for us.

Connect with Jay on LinkedIn

ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Reid Blynn, Executive Managing Director at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF), has been a leader in Philadelphia’s commercial real estate brokerage community for nearly 30 years. Reid has completed over 1000 transactions representing over eight million square feet.

Today Reid devotes his full attention to his corporate real estate and tenant representation services practice. He has represented many Philadelphia-based corporations for corporate headquarters requirements. By concentrating his practice in representing tenant and corporate clients, Reid is able to avoid potential conflicts with the region’s property owners, thus ensuring his clients receive the full benefit of his advocacy.

Reid has close ties to the venture capital community and has represented many growing venture backed companies in the health care, IT and life sciences sectors. Long term relationships have enabled him to work outside of Philadelphia as his clients grow outside of the region. Presently, multi-market corporate work is the fastest growing sector of Reid’s practice.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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