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Debra Friedman: Healthcare CEO insures members are healthy and in good hands

Debra Friedman: Healthcare CEO insures members are healthy and in good hands

Affordable health care is a basic human essential, claims the head of the fastest growing insurance company in New York history.

“Every family has the right to good quality health care,” says Debra Friedman, president and chief executive officer of the year-old Health Republic Insurance of New York. “If you or your child get sick, you want to be able to go to the very best place, no matter how much you make.”

The Brooklyn Heights resident has spent 20 years helping people access good health care in senior-level insurance and health care positions with major national companies, including Blue Cross and Blue Shield, United Healthcare, and Health Plus, where she accomplished such dramatic growth in its market ranking as chief Medicare officer that the health maintenance organization jumped from 12th to second place in a single year in targeted segments.

She is accomplishing similar wonders at Health Republic.

The company enrolled 155,000 new members in its first year — 125,000 more than projected — and has more than a billion dollars in annualized revenue, making it the largest of the 22 consumer operated and oriented health plans, known as co-ops, created under the Affordable Care Act.

The record response made the newly minted New York State of Health one of the top two state-run exchanges in the country, leaving competitors to muddle through a rough roll out of the president’s signature legislation that prompted the resignation of former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Health Republic soared above the rest because New York had a superior operational performance and used a multi-lingual approach to reach the uninsured, claims Friedman, who frequently stayed in the office until 2 am to provide members with the materials and information they needed during the enrollment launch.

She has maintained the company’s progressive track with creative plans and policies, including offering members gym reimbursements and a free telemedicine program availing them physicians who can evaluate, diagnose, and treat minor ailments online or over the phone.

“It’s a great way to avoid the emergency room or urgent care center when you don’t have a real emergency situation,” says Friedman, who is in her 50s.

The Woman of Distinction’s proficiency is no surprise to her former boss, the ex-chief executive officer of Health Plus.

“Deb is a great leader and a caring individual who has achieved countless successes throughout her career,” says Tom Early, executive vice president of Elderplan. “At Health Plus she grew the Medicare membership that we served in communities throughout the New York metropolitan area 15-fold in two years.”

Health care cooperatives have a long history in America, dating back to the Depression era when Uncle Sam gave loans to ailing rural farmers. Most have since disbanded, but surviving ones are ranked among the highest performing health systems in the country because of a philosophy they share with Friedman.

“There is nothing more important for families than proper health care,” she says.

OCCUPATION: President and chief executive officer.

COMPANY: Health Republic Insurance of New York.

CLAIM TO FAME: Providing the best health insurance available to New Yorkers who never had health insurance.

FAVORITE PLACE: Brookyln Bridge Park.

WOMAN I ADMIRE: My board chairwoman, Barbara Davis, because she is a person of great intelligence, compassion, and effectiveness.

MOTTO: Looking forward to the day.