Bright Health's chief operating officer is leaving after about 16 months on the job, the company announced Thursday.
Jeff Cook joined Bright Health in May 2022. Last week, the Bloomington-based company and Cook agreed he will depart effective Oct. 13 with separation benefits, according to a regulatory filing.
The proxy for Bright Health shows Cook is entitled to cash severance of $2.25 million. A spokesman said the company would not comment.
"Mr. Cook's duties will be redistributed to other members of the company's management team," the company said Thursday.
Earlier this week, Bright Health disclosed a repayment plan with health insurance regulators after failing to make full payment by mid-September on its risk adjustment obligations to the federal government.
The company expects to pay the balance owed — about $380 million — over the next 18 months, drawing on proceeds from an expected sale of its Medicare health plan business in California.
If Bright Health fails to pay, the federal government would not have to cover the shortfall. With the risk adjust program, the government simply transfers funds from health insurers that must pay to those that are owed money.
Bright Health went public in June 2021, in the largest-ever initial public offering by a Minnesota company. It suffered large losses with missteps in the health insurance business and announced last October that it would exit all 15 states where it sold coverage to individuals — by far its largest business at the time.
No longer a traditional health insurer, Bright Health is now focused on running a number of company-owned medical clinics in the south while administering "value-based care" contracts between medical groups and health plans.
