Founded in 1997, eHealth (NASDAQ: EHTH) has built a powerful online platform for health insurance (focused on individuals, families and small businesses). With President Obama's ambitious plans to reform health care, the company has been savvy with its public relations efforts. Over the past few months, eHealth has certainly received valuable ink.
The company has also posted its Q2 results, which are solid. Revenues came to $33.4 million, up 22% and submitted applications increased 17% to 121,100. Cash flows from operations were $8.3 million. In all, eHealth has $150.6 million in the bank.
Although, the Street was still disappointed (the shares fell 12% to $16.53). Then again, there was some weakness with paid and natural search marketing.
But beyond this, a key to eHealth is its eOD (eCommerce On-Demand) system. Essentially, this allows third-parties, such as healthcare insurance carriers, to take online enrollments. Based on Q2 results, eHealth continues to rack-up more clients for eOD.
Okay, so what about Obama's health care reforms? What might this mean for eHealth?
Of course, it's still somewhat sketchy. Yet, eHealth is definitely getting lots of buzz. At the same time, there will be a need for scalable enrollment systems.
Besides, there is resistance to some of Obama's initiatives (especially in terms of the need for funding). In other words, it would not be a surprise that the result is something that is muted, allowing for less government involvement. So, in the end, the positives may outweigh the negatives for eHealth's future.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook,
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-29-2009 @ 6:07PM
BestHealthcareRates.com said...
ehealthinsurance is probably an example of what a healthcare exchange would look like. Their are a few very good sites online that allow cosumers to compare plans and costs side-by-side, http://www.BestHealthcareRates.com is a very good example. This sector should be OK on the far side of reform.
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