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Insurance center may employ 150 in Kalispell

New West Health Services, which recently took over Montana Benefits and Life Co. of Kalispell, is now planning a customer service center here that could employ up to 150 people.

By Dave Reese
The Daily Inter Lake

The state’s second-largest insurance company, New West provides health insurance to 20,000 Montanans, including 4,000 in northwest Montana.

The five-year-old New West, based in Helena, was formed by hospitals in Helena, Billings, Missoula and Havre. Two months ago, the company took over MBLC, which was founded in 1989 as Montana Medical Benefit Plan, but fell on hard times in recent years and went through a reorganization.

MBLC was eventually put into state-ordered rehabilitation due to low cash reserves and was brought back to life by New West.

Now renamed Health Connections, the company serves about 12,000 Montanans, including 4,000 in northwest Montana, working at places like Kalispell Regional Medical Center and Columbia Falls Aluminum Co.

Health Connections remains based in Kalispell and has about 20 employees. That number could soon grow, however, as New West plans to lease an operations center in Kalispell at a new site.

Jimmy Senterfitt, chief operating officer of New West, said

his company chose to pluck Montana Benefits out of rehabilitation because it wanted to be able to offer affordable health insurance for Montanans and increase competition among insurance companies.

Senterfitt, 50, said Montana-based insurance companies have a hard time succeeding because of the small population base. The new ownership will reduce Montana Benefits’ overhead, and make it more competitive.

"This business is all about numbers. The larger the group, the more the costs can be spread around," Senterfitt said. MBLC ran into problems because of being undercapitalized because it faced higher administrative costs due to the implementation of HIPPA, the Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act, according to Senterfitt.

Montana is a challenge to service for a health insurance company because the state has so many small employers, which makes delivering health care quite expensive, Senterfitt said.

"The number of life and health insurance companies in Montana is dropping dramatically every year," he said.

Senterfitt has had a long career in health-care management, and was brought in to oversee the merger with Montana Benefits and Life — now called Health Connections.

"I’ve worked in every corner of the sandbox," Senterfitt said. He thinks his experience will help to make the company a success.

"I want to be able to raise the level of dialogue among consumers, employers and health-care providers," he said.

New West had to show the state it could put up $3 million in cash reserves — above and beyond the state’s required amount — and demonstrate that it had the ability to carry the insurance company forward and return the maximum amount it could to MBLC shareholders.

Senterfitt says with reduced overhead and combination of some services, New West can make it work.

"One of things I was most impressed with was the dedication of the staff in Kalispell," he said.

Reporter Dave Reese may be reached at 758-4438 or via e-mail at [email protected]

Blue Cross/Blue Shield remains the largest insurance company in Montana, with about 250,000 people insured.

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