Oscar Health names Mark Bertolini as new CEO, stock rises

Yahoo Finance’s Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show to discuss the rise in stock for Oscar Health following news that former Aetna executive Mark Bertolini will become CEO.

Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Anjalee, stay with us because Oscar Health, that's also in focus this morning on news that the health insurer has named Mark Bertolini as its new CEO. Bertolini, the former CEO of Aetna, will step into his new role at Oscar Health next month in hopes of helping the company become a profitable insurance business here.

Shares-- investors are liking this, it seems. Shares are up by about 50% on this news. Bertolini also going to be joining our programming later this morning around 11:30 AM. Anj, you're all over that. So what are some of the top kind of takeaways from this decision over at Oscar Health?

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well, we definitely need to take note that Mark is, of course, a big name in the insurance industry, a longtime veteran serving as CEO of one of the largest insurers. So that brings possibly some stability to this company, which has-- it started off as this key disruptor in the insurance space, really focusing on InsurTech as a concept.

And while it has struggled in the past few years to maintain that momentum, it does seem that having Mark at the helm could bring some of that more traditional insurance knowledge to the company. But they have held their own over time. They've partnered with Cigna, which is also one of Mark's old stomping grounds.

So it will be an interesting outlook for the company. He has said that in a statement today that he really does still see Oscar as a challenger in the industry. So the fact that this is believing in sort of the core performance of the company should be interesting to see. We are also going to be hearing from both the current CEO, Mario, as well as Mark at around 10 o'clock. So we'll bring you some of that a little bit later.

BRAD SMITH: All right, Yahoo Finance's own Anjalee Khemlani. Looking forward to that interview as well, Anjalee. We'll be tuning in as we know our viewers will also. Thanks so much.