Skip to content

Sidecar Health and Carrum Health Partner to Bring Centers of Excellence into Consumer-Driven Health Plan

September 23, 2025

Collaboration adds Carrum’s bundled specialty care — surgical, cancer and substance use treatment — to Sidecar Health’s transparent, consumer-driven model

Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA — Sept. 23, 2025Sidecar Health, the leading consumer-driven health insurance company, today announced a new partnership with Carrum Health, the leader in value-based Centers of Excellence (COE), to bring Carrum’s specialty care bundles onto the Sidecar Health platform. Sidecar Health members will now have access to bundled prices for more than 1,200 rigorously vetted COE providers for surgical, cancer, and substance use treatment – accessible to 90% of Americans within 50 miles of a Carrum provider.

The partnership highlights a structural change in how healthcare can – and should – work. Sidecar Health’s model allows members to shop for care with the same transparency and financial control they expect in every other part of their lives.

For every medical service, Sidecar Health provides a Benefit Amount, which is set according to local provider prices and shown upfront. In the Sidecar Health app, members can see pricing for nearly every doctor in the nation as well as guaranteed financial outcomes to help them shop for care confidently. Sidecar Health members know exactly what their plan pays before they get care. When they choose care priced below their Benefit Amount, they keep half of the savings; if they select care that costs more, they simply pay the difference – all based on their own preferences and priorities.

To tackle the biggest costs that reside downstream in specialty care, Sidecar members will now receive facilitated access to Carrum’s top-tier COE providers at all-inclusive, pre-negotiated bundled prices. Carrum’s model is independently validated to produce up to 45% cost savings on expensive treatments, with 30% surgery avoidance and 80% reduced readmissions.

“This collaboration demonstrates our vision in action,” said Patrick Quigley, CEO and co-founder of Sidecar Health. “We don’t limit or steer members. We give them the tools and aligned incentives to make their own informed choices. When market leaders like Carrum offer transparency on quality and price, it shows what’s possible: better care, lower costs, and a more sustainable healthcare system.”

“Sidecar Health is daring to break from the traditional insurance model built on opaque pricing and misaligned incentives and instead empowers members and incentivizes them to make smart healthcare choices,” said Brent Nicholson, co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Carrum Health. “By working together, we are giving members even greater confidence and clarity in selecting the highest value specialty care providers.”

For Carrum, the partnership represents an opportunity to expand beyond large self-funded employers and serve Sidecar Health’s growing base of covered lives.

For the industry, this partnership signals that healthcare’s future will be driven by consumer choice and that even complex care can be delivered in a way that is both high-quality and affordable.