Novus Acquisition & Development Corp d/b/a Novus Cannabis MedPlan is a California-based hybrid health insurance carrier and the nation’s first plan that focuses on cannabis benefits for recreational and medicinal users, saving them 35% to 40% off their cannabis purchases.
We operate in the HMO business model though we work as a supplemental, Discount Plan, and Embedded Insurance Plans. Upon federal legalization, Novus will offer User-Based Insurance (UBI), a tiered pricing plan based on a calculation of a user’s behavior on cannabis consumption.
Three things the reader needs to know that Novus’ business model:
We are not solely dependent on the end of cannabis prohibitions or the passing of the SAFE Banking Act since insurance codes work primarily at the state level.
Legislative reform obviously will bring, higher taxes on recreational cannabis, driving consumers from being rec users to becoming med users since in many states medicinal taxation is 50% less at the point of sale, and,
Employers are faced with an ever-changing landscape, as employees want cannabis in their health benefits, provoking HR departments to rewrite policies to entice and retain staffing deficiencies.
The reader should differentiate Novus from cannabis verticals, we are a health insurance carrier that happens to have a first-mover advantage in adding cannabis to consumer and employee health plans. Since 2015, our business model remains resilient in the ever-changing cannabis macroeconomic ecosystem. The reader should know that the HMO business model is a receivable-based business that withstands the current market pressure that cannabis stocks are currently facing.
Selling our health policies nationwide in CBD concentrate cannabis space,
Traditional benefit plans such as dental vision, hearing, telemedicine nationally and;
Sell THC health plans in the following states
Oregon Hawaii
Michigan Arizona
Colorado California
New York Massachusetts
Florida Vermont
Ohio Illinois
Maryland Wash. DC
Pennsylvania Maine
Oklahoma New Mexico
Nevada Nebraska
List Of Plans: Click Here
Regulation Present and Future
The top regulatory changes have put cannabis at the forefront of the minds of health carriers and big pharma.
Opioid Settlement Framework: State Attorney Generals settled on $45 billion in compensatory damages, rehabilitation, and opioid diversion programs. Novus proposes the use of its Cannabis MedPlan as a compelling option for the use of the settlement funds.
Compassionate Care Act: Employees are protected from termination for using medical cannabis, which leads the way for employer-sponsored health plans to start covering medical cannabis under their offerings.
The Veterans Cannabis Use for Safe Healing Act: Prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from denying VA benefits due to participation in a state-approved cannabis program(s).
Taxation: Legislative reform will create higher taxes on recreational cannabis. In California Rising Recreational Cannabis Taxation: taxation is as high as 37% prompting recreational users in getting their state cannabis cards and joining our health plan to get the medicinal tax rate which is 50% less than the rec tax rate.
Interstate Commerce: California SB 1326 permits interstate cannabis commerce from California to other legal states
Insurance Codes: California AB 2568, Insurance Code, is not a crime under California law solely for providing insurance or related services to persons licensed to engage in commercial cannabis activity pursuant to this division.
Patient Rights: California B1954, physicians cannot be penalized for administering treatment to a patient who uses medical marijuana in compliance with state law.
Fair Employment and Housing Act: California B2188: Eliminates employment-based THC testing and prohibits penalizing a person solely because of off-duty cannabis use.
Interstate Commerce: California SB 1326 permits interstate cannabis commerce from California to other legal states.
Insurance Codes: California AB 2568, Insurance Code, is not a crime under California law solely for providing insurance or related services to persons licensed to engage in commercial cannabis activity pursuant to this division.
Patient Rights: California B1954, physicians cannot be penalized for administering treatment to a patient who uses medical marijuana in compliance with state law.
Fair Employment and Housing Act: California B2188: Eliminates employment-based THC testing and prohibits penalizing a person solely because of off-duty cannabis use.
Furthering Compliance: With Health Savings Account (HSA) and Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA). These are savings/reimbursement accounts used by employees with a high-deductible health insurance policy, allowing individuals to save money and be tax-free as long as it is amenably applied towards medical expenses and/or
Bidens Healthcare Bill: To lower drug costs the Inflation Reduction Act would empower Medicare to negotiate prices of certain costly medications administered in doctors’ offices or purchased at the retail level. This gives a boost to the prescription health insurance industry, for Novus, if prohibition is overturned, grouping medicinal cannabis could be considered costly medicine. Especially, if drought conditions worsen in the western states, cannabis plants are not recognized as agriculture by the state of California, therefore it is not included in any subsidized water restriction exemptions. Making the future supply chain considerably less, and pricing much higher.
Anti-Vertical Integration: State governments are looking towards proposing licensing restrictions so businesses can’t vertically integrate to cultivate, transport, and sell their proprietary products.
Emergence of Third-Party Online Ordering: As smaller operations look toward online retail with online platforms it offers an advantage to be more reactive to industry trends and maintain an inventory that consists of popular and varietal product segments.
As Management continues to negotiate and finalize agreements of embedding our cannabis health plans with regional and national health carriers, we overcame the obstacles concerning conflicts with the Drug-Free Workplace Act and state laws authorizing cannabis use.
Fortunately, The Patient Rights Act and Insurance Codes prompted Human Resource Departments to rewrite their policies concerning cannabis. Aside from employee safety issues, employers are approving the adaptation of policies in accordance with the Responsible and Equitable Regulation of Adult-Use Cannabis (RERACA). What’s changed their minds? Since COVID the zero-tolerance employer is confronted with daily struggles in staffing shortages, recruitment, telework demand, and retention issues which top their priorities directly.
Carington: Careington International Corporation is a leading provider of discount programs for health, wellness, and lifestyle services.
PRAM: Begins a market rollout to their subscriber base. PRAM focuses on proprietary prescription drug benefits PRAM identifies a unique need for pharmacy cost containment in the marketplace. They have a sizeable client base in the group markets, proprietary health plans, and a distribution base with carriers.
Compass Health: This insurance agent platform offers customized ready-to-buy personalized plans designed for agent access to customized policies. Their portal can pair Novus Cannabis MedPlan with guaranteed issues and as standalone policies.
Unique Insurance Concepts UIC: A consortia of health insurance agents that focus on group policies, Medicare supplements, dental and critical illness with over 5,000 corporate clients.
Go Enroll / Elevate Wellness: One of the nation’s top InsureTech platforms targeted for large groups with over 92,000 clients. This platform allows employees to integrate cannabis with Dental, Vision, GAP, and Medical Plans. The Elevate Wellness Plans cover over 4,500 employers where their employees are allowed to choose alternative treatment options that may not be available through their traditional healthcare providers.
Oneshare: A medical cost-sharing provider with an ACA-exempt path to healthcare. Its health-based sharing membership plan focuses on Catastrophic Plans and Complete Health.
Essential Benefits: Minimal Essential Care (MEC) is a plan that meets the Affordable Care Act requirement for getting health coverage. Some of these programs under MEC include marketplace plans, job-based plans, Medicare, and Medicaid. Mainly focused on covering routine preventative illness plans.
Wellness 360: This is an employee-based wellness platform that offers plans, program guides, online educational resources, a white-label wellness program, and many other customizable options for workplace wellness.
Back 9 Insurance: This is the InsureTech platform that sells annuities, life, long-term care, disability, and annuities. Their platform makes it easy for agents to display side-by-side comparisons with over 50 carriers and offer Novus’ plans in a cross-sell.
National Life: Contracted through Novus provider Compass Health this is one of the oldest life insurance carriers in the country.
Forty-nine percent of the 150 million American workers get their health plans from their employer, and more than 60% of the American workforce wants cannabis as a health benefit. There is no better way to pool cannabis users than by incorporating employer-sponsored health plans with cannabis and the mechanism used as a corralling tool. The health insurance ID card. Spending most of its time in a wallet it’s the cannabis user’s passport to care and coverage.
This compliantly influences the purchasing habits of the consumers and directs them to specific cannabis brands. The cannabis verticals benefit from increased sales by a loyal customer base that is aligned with Novus giving them the faculty to compete and separate from the herd of undesirable weed operations in the marketplace.
The burning question is, are employers ready to handle cannabis as a part of healthcare for their employees? It’s been a challenge up until March 2020, when precedence was set in the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”), employees who legally use cannabis as permitted by the state’s Compassionate Use of Cannabis of Medical Marijuana Act[i] (“Compassionate Use Act”) may not be fired. Subsequently, we’ve seen employers shying away from zero tolerance to the freedom of non-discriminatory workplace rules and standards relating to cannabis use.
I could go on with voluminous amounts of information and how it applies to healthcare impact the American workforce, and consumer/patient benefits, but we can discuss it at a future date. Book a Call
