On May 5, Bloomberg News published a lengthy, and factually inaccurate, story on our partnership health plans critical of our efforts to lower the cost of healthcare with new and innovative, ERISA-based coverage options.
After we brought numerous factual inaccuracies to Bloomberg’s attention, the news organization was forced to issue a correction and clarification, acknowledging problems with its reporting.
EASE companies worked in good faith with Bloomberg’s journalists for more than six months, sitting for hours of interviews, traveling to New York to meet with reporters and editors, answering lengthy lists of questions via email and providing hundreds of pages of documents.
Despite our best efforts to provide key facts in an attempt to ensure a fair story, Bloomberg ultimately published an incomplete and misleading portrait of our work and the results we have achieved.
We created this site to address the misinformation and false allegations presented in the Bloomberg story.
The plans’ work arrangements are fake
The article says the EASE data-sharing model uses “fake jobs,” making a determination of fact where none exists. The legal status of data sharing by limited partners will be decided by the courts, which have already ruled that the Department of Labor does not have authority to define “work.” Neither does Bloomberg. It’s unfair, and frankly unethical, for journalists to put their thumb on the scale in favor of the DOL’s argument. Read More
Consumers were misled by telemarketers.
EASE companies should not be blamed for unscrupulous activity by unethical brokers. We released a product. We did not conduct, condone or facilitate any misrepresentation. You would not blame Apple, creator of the iPhone, for spam telemarketing calls. You would not blame Google, the makers of Gmail, for phishing scams. Similarly, it is not right to blame our companies for dishonest acts committed without our knowledge by serial con artists. Read More
The numbers show this is simply untrue at present. There are 30,000 Americans enrolled in legitimate partnership plans and, thanks to the DOL’s refusal to regulate, perhaps twice as many who have bought into questionable copycat plans. That means fewer than 100,000 people have paid for partnership plan coverage from 2019 to 2023, according to Bloomberg’s own numbers. By contrast, more than 24 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans this year on the ACA exchanges, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Read More
EASE has been seeking guidance and regulation from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) – the agency which oversees most group health plans – since 2018. DOL has consistently refused to engage, despite numerous requests from our company and court rulings in our favor. DOL has also turned a blind eye toward numerous “copycat plans,” which falsely claim to operate with the same legal legitimacy as EASE. Read More
Partnership plans provide less comprehensive benefits than the ACA
With an average price of $488 for a Bronze plan this year, ACA exchange plans are not viable for millions of Americans. Millions of middle-class workers, who do not have W2 employment and are ineligible for ACA subsidies, are being priced out of the market. Others obtain ACA plans, only to learn that their high deductibles and co-pays make them useless for all but catastrophic illness or injury. Read More
The article fails to describe the current crisis in health coverage, in which even a high-deductible bronze plan on an ACA exchange is beyond reach for millions of Americans. Innovation is not something nice to have. It is badly needed. Read More
Healthcare coverage should not just exist for the very rich and the very poor. We need plans that work for everyone, no matter what their means or type of job. What we have done is create a model within existing laws to give people more options. It’s new. It’s innovative. And it works.
Bill Bryan,
Co-founder of EASE Partnership Plans
“I was starting a new job, and they weren’t going to offer insurance. … So I went looking around and found this and it’s just been wonderful ever since.”
There’s no question that it works. I truly don’t have anything bad to say.
The Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as ACA or Obamacare, ushered in the largest shakeup to the U.S. healthcare system in decades—and those changes are still evolving. Even now, with the law marking its 15-year anniversary in March 2025, the issues of healthcare costs and coverage are a major part of the national conversation, especially during federal elections. While the number of uninsured Americans has decreased, owing in part to pandemic relief measures and the expansion of Medicaid programs nationwide, the cost of health insurance has continued to climb.
Several entrepreneurs predicted that the Department of Labor AHP rule would fall short, and struck upon an idea to create a new model for affordable health coverage. Alex Renfro, a Nashville-based benefits attorney, created an innovative structure to help small businesses meet their new requirements under ACA. In 2013, Renfro met two private equity investors who decided to back his idea. The trio later formed Suffolk Administrative Services (SAS), which provides consulting, plan design and compliance services to sponsors of health benefit plans governed by ERISA.
While there are now several imitators that may cost more than they should, and/or provide lesser benefits, EASE plans offer high-quality health care coverage with monthly payments that are often far more affordable than COBRA options and even many of the Affordable Care Act exchange plans, when total costs are compared.
Interviews with dozens of partnership plan customers show that many value an affordable option that provides basic coverage.
Despite the success of EASE partnership plans in providing affordable healthcare to tens of thousands of Americans, government regulators have tried to shut them down.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) initially expressed support for partnership plans—but then refused to provide regulatory clarity. Instead, they launched an aggressive campaign to block the growth of this innovative model.
EASE fought back—and won. Twice.
In court battles that spanned years, EASE-affiliated organizations secured decisive victories:
Still, the Department of Labor continued its campaign, using what EASE’s legal team called coercive tactics designed to intimidate and dismantle these affordable coverage options.
But EASE—and the people they serve—refused to back down.
“It’s the kind of tactics you’d expect from The Sopranos, not the U.S. government.”
— Jonathan Crumly, Lead Attorney
