By Daniel Casciato
At just 30 years old, Fred Turner, co-founder and CEO of Curative, is no stranger to building big things under pressure. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Turner led one of the nation’s largest testing operations, standing up CLIA-certified labs, administering millions of tests, and operating across nearly every U.S. state. But it wasn’t just the scale that left its mark on him; it was what the experience revealed about the U.S. healthcare system.
“Scaling a national testing operation during COVID fundamentally shaped how we run our health plan today,” Turner says. “We learned how to move fast without losing focus on our purpose and the member experience—and always putting that first.”
That relentless focus on the end user, whether a patient or a provider, is now the cornerstone of Curative’s mission: a health insurance plan that removes financial barriers to care.
From Pandemic Response to Health Plan Reinvention
Curative’s origins as a pandemic testing company gave Turner a unique lens into how the system works, and often fails. “Running one of the largest testing operations in the country meant interacting with nearly every payer in America, in 49 states,” he recalls. “We saw firsthand how complicated and inconsistent the system was, even as something as simple as processing the correct CPT code two years into the pandemic.”
That dysfunction sparked an idea: if the root of the problem is how care is paid for, the only real way to fix it is to become the payer.
As an employer trying to provide coverage for 7,000 workers during the height of the pandemic, Turner says Curative struggled to find a plan that encouraged preventive care rather than delaying it.
“Everything had trade-offs that discouraged the very behavior you want—using preventive care early,” he explains. “We ultimately landed on the idea that to truly move health, you have to be the payer. If the payer covers care, people get it. If they don’t, they don’t.”
That realization became the foundation for Curative’s zero-deductible, zero-copay commercial PPO plan, now offered to employer groups in multiple states.
The $0 Out-of-Pocket Cost Model: Not a Leap of Faith—A Logical Response
In an era dominated by high-deductible health plans, Curative’s approach sounds almost radical. But Turner insists it’s not ideology; it’s evidence.
“High-deductible plans were built on the premise that members needed to have skin in the game,” he says. “In reality, the complexity and lack of transparency make it impossible for individuals to analyze their options. What happens instead is people skip preventive visits and delay treatment—and the costs show up later.”
Curative flipped that model by removing cost-sharing entirely for in-network care and most prescriptions. Members begin their coverage with $0 out-of-pocket costs, and by completing a “Baseline Visit” within 120 days of their plan start date, they continue to maintain those $0 costs. There is no waiting period—just a simple step designed to keep members engaged with their care from the start.
“Eliminating copays and deductibles wasn’t a leap of faith, but rather a logical response to what the evidence showed: when people can afford to engage earlier, they do, and the whole system performs better,” Turner explains.
Financially, the company controls costs through proactive engagement and high-value care.
“We control trend through proactive management to high-value providers, and a modern claims and pricing infrastructure that limits administrative waste,” Turner says. “We’re exchanging deferred, high-cost care for earlier, lower-cost intervention.”
The Baseline Visit: Turning Coverage into Action
The Baseline Visit is more than onboarding. It’s the foundation of Curative’s engagement model. “It’s a structured process that ensures people understand their benefits, know how to access care, and start building healthy habits from day one,” Turner says.
The process pairs members with both Curative clinicians and care navigators. The clinician reviews medical history, labs, and preventive needs, while the navigator helps schedule next steps and serves as a continuing point of contact.
That early engagement is paying off. Curative reports 98 percent completion rates for Baseline Visits, with 90 percent of members with chronic conditions identified early, before claims hit. “When people understand their benefits and feel confident using them, engagement and outcomes both improve,” Turner says.
A Health Plan Providers Actually Like
Curative’s pitch to providers is simple: fewer headaches, faster payments, and no chasing patients for unpaid balances.
“We’ve focused on fixing the parts of the payer–provider relationship that waste time and create friction,” Turner says. By removing patient billing layers and simplifying coverage rules, Curative reduces administrative burden and smooths cash flow for provider organizations.
The company’s provider letter highlights those same advantages: “No more bad debt write-offs from uncollected copays and high-cost deductibles. The bill stops with us, not the patient.”
That streamlined approach has helped Curative build goodwill among hospital systems and
physicians in its original state of Texas and as it expanded into states like Florida and Georgia.
Built to Last: Financial Rigor Meets Mission-Driven Design
For a young company, Curative’s financial credentials are impressive. It holds an A- (Excellent) rating from AM Best and is fully funded for three years with the Texas Department of Insurance. “From day one, we’ve prioritized financial rigor,” Turner says. “Our A- rating reflects that stability, and our three-year funding ensures member protection and solvency.”
Curative’s financial model is sustainable, Turner explains, because it aligns incentives between members, providers, and the company itself. “When members engage early and providers are paid cleanly, everyone wins.”
The Future: Reimagining What Insurance Can Be
Looking ahead, Turner envisions a future where “no deductible” isn’t the differentiator. It’s the standard.
“Five years from now, I think the biggest change in health insurance will be a mindset shift,” he says. “Everyone is starting to realize that deferred care is the real cost driver, not utilization itself.”
He predicts that the most successful plans will be those that align incentives around prevention, transparency, and trust. “By then, ‘no deductible’ won’t be the differentiator, but the expectation for what functional, modern health insurance looks like.”
For Curative, the path forward is clear: scale the model nationwide, deepen provider partnerships, and continue proving that a health plan built around engagement, not avoidance, can both improve outcomes and lower costs.
As Turner puts it, “Ultimately, we’re applying the same approach that worked during the pandemic—identify what’s broken, remove the barriers that don’t add value, and build a system that performs better for both the people who use it and the ones who deliver care.”
For more information, visit curative.com.
