Customized products in Hometown Health future

In the 20 years since it opened its doors, Reno-based Hometown Health has rolled out nearly two dozen health-insurance products everything from a health maintenance organization to traditional indemnity medical insurance.

More are on the way.

Troy Smith, vice president and chief executive officer Hometown Health, a unit of Renown Health, says the organization increasingly thinks that "mass customization" a business strategy pioneered by Dell Computer holds promise for its future.

Increasingly powerful technology, he says, allows Hometown Health to offer coverage that's fine-tuned to meet the needs of customers. Benefits, for instance, might be customized. Or price. Or available access to providers.

That kind of customization makes sense, Smith says, as Hometown Health thinks that individual consumers will be a bigger part of its business in coming years. Those buyers, he says, might be self-employed or seeking more health coverage than they get through their workplace benefits.

Another source of growth, he says, will be companies that launch self-funded health programs. For that market, Hometown Health provides administrative support services.

And Hometown Health expects to see continued growth among employers that provide Health Savings Accounts, a service it markets to employers in partnership with Mellon Bank.

"We clearly need to define our niches and pursue those niches," Smith says.

To do that successfully, he encourages Hometown Health's 164 employees to listen carefully to customers and prepare to move quickly when the organization spots an opportunity.

Staffers meet regularly with task forces of employers, insurance brokers who market Hometown Health products and representatives of the 130,000 people covered by Hometown Health products.

It's not difficult to get feedback, Smith says.

"It really doesn't take a lot of energy to figure out what needs to be improved," he says. "You just have to be willing to listen.

We have a great team, and they are willing to take input from a variety of sources."

The bigger challenge is figuring how to design health-coverage products that deal with those problems without breaking the bank.

The organization came into existence in 1988 as a health maintenance organization. In 1992, it added third-party administration services, and a year later it launched a health insurance company that includes a preferred-provider organization, dental plans and an traditional health-insurance product.

Hometown Health also provides a Medicare Advantage Plan that is the largest in northern Nevada.