New health insurance company launched in Worcester

  • Dr. Eric Dickson, president & CEO of UMass Memorial Health, is a manager of Central Mass. Health (Photos courtesy of Worcester Business Journal)

    Central Mass. Health formed by UMass Memorial CEO, other health care heavyweights

    A recently formed Worcester company with ties to the Worcester area’s largest health care provider and led by health care heavyweights wants to be the state’s newest health insurance company.

    Central Mass. Health LLC was formed on Feb. 11, according to records on file with the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, is listed as a manager of the corporation.

    Not yet registered on the016.com? Sign up today and be the first to know what's going on in and around Worcester! Registration is free and easy

    Central Mass. Health would join Fallon Health as Worcester-based insurers, and it would give the city two Worcester-based insurers for the first time since the sale of Central Mass. Health Care in the late 1990s.

    Central Mass. Health “has made application to the Massachusetts Division of Insurance to obtain a Health Maintenance Organization license to transact Health Insurance as a Health Maintenance Organization in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,” according to a legal notice that appeared in the Telegram & Gazette on April 28.

    Others involved with the company are successful health care veterans Thomas A. Scully of New York and Jack Shields of Stoughton. 

    Scully is listed as a partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, a New York firm whose strategy is to invest “in growth-oriented companies in our two focus industries: healthcare and technology,” according to its website. “Our strategy is to buy growth businesses, partner with outstanding management teams, and build value through a combination of operational improvements, internal growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions.”

    Scully “was the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for three years and the President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals for six years,” according to his profile on the WCAS website. “He also served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and as the Associate Director of OMB under President GHW Bush from 1989 to 1993.”

    Shields is the founder and chairman of Shields Health Solutions, according to the company’s website . “Over his 30 years as a national leader in healthcare entrepreneurship, Jack has overseen the creation of four highly successful companies in the fields of dialysis, oncology, radiology and pharmacy,” the profile reads. “Each company was founded with care and service at its core, providing more affordable healthcare and better access to healthcare for more kinds of people.”

    Public records also name Edwards Stubbers, General Counsel & SVP of Legal at CareSource, a Dayton, Ohio-based company that is “nationally recognized for leading the industry in providing member-centric health care coverage,” according to its website. “The company’s managed care business model was founded in 1989 and today CareSource is one of the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care plans.”

    What else is happening in and around Worcester? Click here or keep scrolling ⤵️

Announcements