Texicare appoints Angie Haney Urrea chief clinical officer ahead of Texas expansion. October 27, 2026 Angie Haney Urrea, RN Texicare, the health insurance affiliate of Texas Mutual, has appointed Angie Haney Urrea, RN, as chief clinical officer, adding three decades of healthcare experience to its leadership team as the company prepares to expand its health plan offerings across Texas in 2027. Haney Urrea will oversee clinical initiatives focused on improving access to healthcare, strengthening relationships with providers and simplifying how members use their health insurance benefits. Her appointment comes as Texicare expands its employer-focused health insurance business and introduces new plan designs intended to make primary care, behavioral health and specialist services more accessible to Texas workers and their families. A registered nurse and longtime Texas healthcare executive, Haney Urrea brings experience spanning hospital care, Medicare and Medicaid programs, commercial health insurance, clinical operations and quality improvement. Most recently, she spent more than 12 years at UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas, holding several senior leadership positions involving complex patient populations and large-scale clinical service operations. She served as executive director of the company's Medicare-Medicaid Plan, STAR+PLUS long-term services and supports, and nursing facility programs. In that position, she reported directly to the chief executive officer and led more than 365 clinical service coordination and support employees, including managers and directors. Her responsibilities included overseeing programs serving individuals with complex healthcare needs, coordinating clinical services and managing teams responsible for supporting members across different care settings. Earlier at UnitedHealthcare, Haney Urrea served as executive director of its Texas Medicare health plan, where she developed and implemented the organization's strategy for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Star Ratings. That work involved initiatives related to healthcare quality, member experience and health plan performance. Before joining UnitedHealthcare, Haney Urrea spent nearly 13 years across two periods at FirstCare Health Plans, a regional health insurer serving West Texas that is now part of Baylor Scott & White Health Plan. As senior director of quality improvement, she led quality improvement and medical management departments supporting Medicare Advantage, Medicaid managed care, commercial insurance and self-funded health plans. She also directed FirstCare's effort to obtain accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Her quality improvement responsibilities included conducting Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set chart reviews in physicians' offices, providing firsthand experience with the administrative and clinical challenges involved in managed care. Haney Urrea began her healthcare career as a pediatric nurse at Texas Children's Hospital, caring for critically ill and injured children. That clinical background, combined with her health plan management experience, will inform her responsibilities at Texicare as the company works to improve coordination between members, providers and insurance operations. "Our members deserve the highest-quality healthcare experience we can deliver, and that takes strong clinical leadership," said Meredith Duncan, president and CEO of Texicare. "Angie has spent her entire career in Texas, from serving as a pediatric nurse to leading large clinical teams. She knows what working Texans need from their coverage." Duncan said Haney Urrea will play an important role as Texicare prepares to expand across Texas in 2027 and further develops its health plans and member services. The appointment follows Texicare's recent introduction of TotalCare Plus, a health plan offering unlimited visits to primary care providers, mental health professionals and specialists with zero copays for those visits. The offering reflects the company's focus on reducing financial and administrative barriers that can discourage members from seeking routine or ongoing medical care. For employers, the approach is intended to provide employees with greater access to healthcare services while supporting the management of chronic conditions, preventive care and behavioral health needs. Haney Urrea said her priorities will include helping members understand and use their benefits, particularly services that can support ongoing health management. "From my earliest days as a nurse to my decades of experience with health plans, I've always been focused on the whole person, not just the patient," she said. "My priority is to ensure our plans bring deep value to our members, and that every Texan takes full advantage of our offerings." Her leadership responsibilities will also involve improving provider partnerships, an important component of Texicare's strategy to simplify healthcare delivery and reduce friction between insurers, medical practices and members. Born in Fort Worth and raised in Belton, Texas, Haney Urrea earned a bachelor's degree in adult and corporate fitness and wellness from Abilene Christian University. She also holds a bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Texicare operates through Texicare Health Insurance Company and TXM Holdings LLC, doing business as Texicare. As the health affiliate of Texas Mutual, the company provides health insurance solutions for Texas businesses, employees and families. Its offerings focus on access to healthcare services, affordability and simplified benefit structures designed to help employers support their workforces. With Haney Urrea joining its executive leadership team, Texicare is strengthening its clinical management capabilities as it prepares for geographic expansion and continues developing health plans focused on care accessibility, member engagement and provider coordination.

Eight insurers' 2027 plans lean on narrower networks. Family premiums for employer coverage reached $28,303 this year, up 5 percent, while the worker's share rose 9 percent to $7,471, according to KFF's 2026 Employer Health Benefits Survey. The 2027 product launches now reaching the market show how insurers are responding, and in the group segment the answer is narrow network plans. Eight insurers have announced new offerings for 2027. Sorted by market rather than by company, they split into two opposite design strategies, and which one an insurer chose depends on who picks the plan. The employer market is buying networks. Independence Blue Cross announced its 2027 portfolios for employers in southeastern Pennsylvania, adding eight exclusive provider organization plans for groups of 51 or more, five standard EPOs and three EPO HSA designs. Small groups of two to 50 employees get two more, EPO Platinum Preferred and EPO Gold Secure, which the insurer describes as pairing a PPO-style network with lower pricing. The company also added benefits that cost little to deliver: Teladoc virtual general medical, behavioral health and dermatology visits at no cost-share before the deductible on HSA-qualified high-deductible plans, Teladoc virtual primary care on two new PPO plans, and redesigned wellness incentives. "Innovative solutions that improve affordability, access, and whole-person health" is how Chris Fanning, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, characterized the portfolio. Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, part of Point32Health, took a similar route for employers with fewer than 50 workers. It extended its EPO to small groups in New Hampshire and Maine, having previously offered it only in Massachusetts, and introduced triple-plan bundles that package three options together with new tiered network products, decision-support tools and a no-fee health savings account. "We know health care affordability is top of mind for small businesses," said Jake Biscoglio, president of commercial markets and specialty. Two more follow the same logic: * Mass General Brigham Health Plan's Value HMO, starting Jan. 1 for large employers in Eastern Massachusetts, runs on a narrower high-value network of Mass General Brigham and affiliated providers plus other area systems * Capital Blue Cross and St. Luke's University Health Network's Valley Advantage EPO, launched in June for employers with more than 100 workers in Lehigh and Northampton counties, Pennsylvania, opens to groups under 100 in 2027 Why narrow network plans appeal to employers. The KFF figures explain the demand. Total family premiums rose 5 percent, or $1,310, while worker contributions rose 9 percent, or $621, meaning cost is already shifting to employees faster than premiums are growing. Wages rose 3.7 percent and general inflation 2.7 percent over the same period. Employers told KFF they are responding with direct provider contracting, on-site and near-site clinics, switching insurers, reducing eligibility for certain benefits, and tiered or narrow networks. Average deductibles for single coverage reached $1,955, up from $1,886. An EPO is a specific trade. It removes out-of-network coverage for non-emergency care, which gives the insurer leverage in rate negotiations, in exchange for a lower premium. Both Independence and Harvard Pilgrim emphasize that their EPOs require no referrals and, in Harvard Pilgrim's case, no designated primary care physician, which preserves the convenience employees notice while removing the network breadth they notice only when they need it. The individual and Medicare markets went the other way. Three of the eight launches add benefits rather than restrict networks, and all three serve markets where the individual selects the plan. * Texicare, Texas Mutual's health affiliate, launched TotalCare Plus with unlimited $0 copay visits for primary care, mental health and specialists, with coverage starting as early as Jan. 1 * Oscar's RetireEase targets ages 55 to 64 in Arizona, Florida, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas, with set prices for preventive visits, lab work, physical therapy, heart and bone-and-joint care, and $0 generic drugs * Centene's Ambetter Health is adding Enhanced Congestive Heart Failure Care plans in North Carolina and Ohio, with $0 cost on some heart failure and mental health drugs, nicotine replacement, up to four annual cardiologist visits, and covered cholesterol labs and electrocardiograms SCAN Health Plan sits in between, expanding Medicare Advantage with Costco and Walmart co-branded plans and new Oregon plans tied to The Springs Living. The divergence is not inconsistency. Where an employer buys for a group, lower premium wins and network breadth is the currency spent. Where an individual chooses, the plan must attract and retain the member, and in risk-adjusted markets attracting members with identifiable conditions can be financially rational rather than merely generous. What to watch. Two questions determine whether these designs hold. For the employer products, the test is adequacy and disruption. A narrower network produces complaints when an employee's existing specialist falls outside it, and small employers have less tolerance for that than large ones. The EPO's no-referral framing does not change which physicians are covered. For the condition-specific plans, the test is whether the enhanced benefits are used. A plan offering four cardiologist visits and $0 heart failure drugs only improves outcomes if enrollees with heart failure find the plan and the benefits function as described. What it means for payers. For competitors, the clearest signal is the migration of large-group product design into the small-group market. Harvard Pilgrim explicitly described extending services previously reserved for larger employers to firms under 50, and Capital Blue Cross is lowering its EPO threshold from 100 employees to below it. Small employers have historically had the fewest options and the least negotiating leverage. They are now the segment where narrow network plans are being actively marketed, which makes them the segment where network adequacy complaints are most likely to surface first.