CFO Studio Magazine with David Huber

4th QUARTER 2012 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 7 U nprecedented change. Those words apply to every aspect of the business of health insurance in 2012. Each consumer sees opportunities or new costs ahead. Every company is facing pricing changes, difficult benefits decisions, and risk assessments. Financial executives at companies of every size are finding themselves often with more questions than answers. And Dave Huber, CFO of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ), the largest health-care insurer in the state, is in many ways right in the eye of the health-care reform storm. The storm has been gathering for four years, ever since President Obama took office and wrestled through Congress legislation — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) — that attempts to rein in high medical care costs and extend care to unin- sured Americans without changing how most working people obtain coverage. Even now, plenty of questions remain about precisely how these reforms will be implemented on the state and federal levels. Navigating a major insurance company through the potential risks raised by the PPACA in a bad economy and a thick fog of uncertainty would make the average person have trouble sleeping at night. But when Huber discusses these industry-shaking developments, it is with the unruffled ease of a man who is comfortable with change. “This is a seismic shift with an awful lot of uncertainty,” says Huber. “[But] I thrive on opportunities and I like to work in this kind of environment where there is a lot going on and there is a chance to do things differently or do things better.” Huber has served as CFO since April of this year, when he took over from his longtime mentor, Bob Pures, with whom he had worked closely for years as vice president of finance. Serving more than 3.6 million members throughout the state, his company is moving fast to adjust its entire approach to the new insurance landscape — one in which millions of individuals will for the first time be selecting their own plans. From Wholesale to Retail The biggest shift for which Huber must plan is the expansion, legislated by the PPACA, of the number of individuals receiving coverage. Under “Obamacare,” companies with more than 50 full-time equivalent employees are required to provide health insurance for their workers or pay stiff fines (starting at $40,000 and going up from there, depending on com- pany size). For organizations with fewer than 50 employees, the responsibility to maintain minimum essential health insurance falls on the individual workers themselves, and they too can incur a financial penalty if they do not comply. (This is known as the individual mandate and was upheld by the Supreme Court in June.) New Jersey, a state of 8.8 mil- lion individuals, had an average of about 1.3 By Alex Palmer Photography by Ron Wyatt STEADY in a STORM AS HEALTH INSURANCE UNDERGOES A TRANSFORMATION, DAVE HUBER REMAINS CALM INHIS ROLE AS CFO ATHORIZON BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELDOF NEW JERSEY