Novus MedPlan is a supplemental health plan that focuses on reducing patients’ costs for medical marijuana and hemp/CBD, and Novus Chairman and CEO Frank Labrozzi said the program has value not only for patients, but also for dispensaries and cultivators.
The plan can reduce patients’ costs associated with alternative, naturopathic, dental, vision and diabetic care, as well as prescriptions and imaging, in addition to providing savings on medical cannabis, according to the company’s website.
Novus partners with companies to direct patient members to the companies’ products, which are displayed on the MedPlan’s online portal. Novus applies the health plan’s discount on products, but the transaction occurs between the patient and company directly when members make a purchase, Labrozzi said. To sell their products at the discounted price, partnering companies should be vertically integrated, Labrozzi said, so they can more easily afford the discount. Novus offers its partnering companies benefits to combat this loss, such as complimentary marketing and advertising services, “as well as display their inventory … so our patient members can order directly from the dispensary,” Labrozzi said.
Benefits of partnering with Novus include member access, an instant web presence in Novus’ online shop, SEO services and more, according to the company’s website. Labrozzi said Novus is looking to add vertically integrated dispensaries, cultivators and manufacturers to its provider program.
Labrozzi said Novus has found ways to advertise itself and members of its provider program within state regulations, and this year it has gone from reaching around 15,000 with its marketing to about 1.3 million.
Novus began in 2015 and works strictly on the state level, but hopes to grow when cannabis becomes federally legal.
“Once it becomes federally approved, then we can start doing reimbursements and co-pays,” Labrozzi said. “In Canada, we’re working on a plan of creating re-imbursement and a co-pay along with the discount.”
Canada’s medical marijuana system is federally regulated, but since U.S. regulation relies on each state’s cannabis and insurance programs, Novus must file and be approved in each state to sell risk and non-risk plans, Labrozzi said. Since it is a California-based insurance company, and California’s insurance regulations are recognized as being particularly stringent, many states allow Novus to replicate California’s model, if it uses approved benefit packages.
The full plan is $24.95 per month for patients with no copays, deductibles or long-term contracts, and applicants get immediate approval in the Novus MedPlan network. A patient who spends $150 or more per month on cannabis medication can expect a savings of $1,000 per year or more, the website says.
Labrozzi said that Novus’ plans are fully automated, and patients can visit the company’s website to complete the application and sign up. All applicants are accepted.
Both medical and recreational cannabis users can expect to pay 30 percent to 40 percent less for products under the Novus MedPlan, Labrozzi said. The company offers CBD and THC plans, and recreational users are signing on to receive savings, he added. Members are also buying more products at a time. According to Labrozzi, a Novus member’s average transaction is $300, while the industry average across the United States is around $74 per transaction, according to Scott Vickers, CTO and co-founder of Headset, a cannabis market and business intelligence platform. This November, Novus will release new CBD plans with 300-1,000 mg packages where patients can receive products from 12 CBD manufacturers shipped directly to their homes.
Novus’ CBD plans are available nationwide, while the THC plan is currently only offered where legal programs exist in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Michigan and New York, Labrozzi said. Services are offered in the United States and Canada.
Top image courtesy of Novus
