Curative recently landed over $150 million in series B funding. Now, the COVID-19 testing company-turned-insurer is expanding.
Curative CEO Fred Turner told Becker’s about the company’s choice to move into the Mid-Atlantic region, starting with Maryland and Washington, D.C.
“In particular, Maryland is an attractive state because of the way hospital rates work there, which is more favorable for new entrants,” he said. “We’re not having to negotiate contracts with every single health system to get started.”
Maryland will continue to follow a total cost of care model in 2026, and other states are slated to join in the coming years. The model encourages cross-payer alignment and limits negotiation challenges. Curative has already dispatched its sales team in the region.
But geographic growth is not the only goal on Mr. Turner’s mind.
“It’s membership expansion, as well as geographic expansion,” Mr. Turner said about how Curative plans to use the funding. “We doubled membership over the last year. We are planning to close-to-double it again next year.”
He said employers are “fed up” with rate increases and steep deductibles.
“People are starting to be willing to look at other options or different ways of doing things to seek a different result,” he said.
Curative’s signature approach calls for members to get a baseline visit within their first 120 days to prevent out-of-pocket costs for covered care and preferred prescriptions. The payer also provides a cash card in case an in-network provider does not recognize a member ID card.
While some insurers are leaning into deductible-free models, Mr. Turner says payers should “go one more step further and get rid of the copays, as well.”
“There’s a big difference in people’s minds between it being truly zero and, ‘I’m going to have to pay something, and I don’t really know what it is,'” he said.
