Writing anything about CLOV feels a little like kicking a puppy. But, it is still a publicly traded company making pretty bold predictions (now prefaced with "over the long term") and being entirely too opaque about their Direct Contracting Model participation.
At the core, their problem is they want to be a technology company that gets to talk all about the future state while ignoring the fact they added less than 500 new Medicare Advantage members. Their sales program is broken or nonexistent or ... something. Will Direct Contracting help? Hard to say as they were hard pressed last night to describe in full the accounting treatment and the associated benefit expense. It is not all their fault, uncertainty is a given when working through new models at CMMI.
They made little progress on their MLR which came in at a breathtaking 111%, something that may be common among private insurers but is unsustainable for a publicly traded company. What is worse, they seem to be under the mistaken impression that COVID-19 will pass and benefit costs will return to normal - which for them is generally high - in a matter of a couple of quarters. Maybe it happens but it isn't looking likely when you listen to the providers who report high utilization for acutely sick non-COVID patients.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
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