Photo provided The SIHO Summer Summit recently celebrated the opening of SIHO’s new Indianapolis office at 8180 Clearvista Parkway, which will serve as the company’s new brick-and-mortar presence in the city and a hub for serving clients such as Community Health Network, the City of Fishers, and other employers across the region.
A Columbus-based health care organization is seeking to expand its footprint in Indiana as health care costs continue to rise across the state and country.
SIHO Insurance Services, which is headquartered in downtown Columbus, recently opened a new office in the Indianapolis area, adding nearly three dozen employees and securing a contract to administer the Indiana Chamber of Commerce’s pooled health benefits plan for small businesses — a move that officials expect will allow the company to expand its reach throughout the state.
“If you look at our region, there aren’t too (companies) many like us,” SIHO CEO John Sadtler told The Republic. “…I think we’ll continue to grow, and that’s where I think the Indiana Chamber opportunity will allow us to expand our reach throughout the state and work with a lot of different organizations and different hospitals/health systems.”
SIHO was founded in 1987 through the cooperative efforts of local physicians, hospitals and employers who were concerned about the rising cost of health care, according to the company’s website.
The company, which now employs around 210 people in Indiana, was initially established as a non-profit corporation but later became a for-profit entity, according to the Indiana Department of Insurance.
SIHO offers a range of products and services, including comprehensive third-party administration, wellness programs, population health management, health system and network development, among other things, according to its website.
SIHO is currently owned by Schneck Medical Center, Community Health Network, Deaconess Health System and Columbus Regional Health.
As of 2022, CRH, Jackson County Schneck Memorial Hospital and Innovative Healthcare Collaboration of Indiana LLC each owned 33.3% of shares in SIHO Holding Inc., according to a report by the Indiana Department of Insurance.
Innovative Healthcare Collaboration of Indiana is a joint venture between Community Health Network and Deaconess Health System, the report states.
The city of Columbus, Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., CRH, Schneck Medical Center and Seymour Community Schools, have been among SIHO’s most prominent local customers.
So far, it has been a big year for SIHO.
In March, SIHO opened an office in the Indianapolis area with around 35 employees as the company plans to expand into the state’s largest market, Sadtler said.
This past week, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce said it will be cutting ties with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and is instead partnering with SIHO to administer its ChamberCare program, which offers Hoosier small businesses a way to provide healthcare to their employees.
Also this week, SIHO hosted its inaugural Summer Summit in Fishers, which included, among other things, panel discussions with representatives from Schneck Medical Center, Deaconess Hospital and Community Hospital, as well as a “fireside chat” with Sadtler and Indiana Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Vanessa Green Sinders.
While SIHO has had a “small presence” in Indianapolis before this year, the company has sought to expand in Indiana’s largest market because one of its owners — Community Health Network — is based in Indianapolis, Sadtler said.
“With Community Health Network being one of the owners, we’ve really started to make a push up there (in Indianapolis),” Sadtler said. “And because we are such a community-focused organization … we felt it was important that we open up an office in the Indianapolis area to better support our membership and be able to participate in the community. And that’s not at a detriment of any of the other geographies which we operate in — it’s just an expansion.”
“There are no plans to move” the company’s headquarters from Columbus, Sadtler said. SIHO owns the building that houses its headquarters at 417 Washington St., according to public records.
“A lot of hard work has gone into (the expansion), but it’s starting to come to fruition,” Sadtler said.
