What This Partnership Means for Oklahoma Members
Oklahoma is set to see a significant shift in how primary care is delivered through ACA Marketplace plans. CommunityCare and direct primary care technology company Mending have announced a partnership to embed DPC providers into Oklahoma ACA plans beginning in 2027. The move signals a broader trend in which payers are turning to relationship-based care models to drive better health outcomes.
This collaboration brings together two distinct but complementary strengths. CommunityCare contributes deep roots in the Oklahoma insurance market. Mending contributes the technology infrastructure needed to make direct primary care work inside a traditional insurance framework. Together, they aim to make high-quality primary care more accessible to individual and family plan members across the state.
Why Mending Is Exiting as a Carrier
A Strategic Pivot, Not a Shutdown
Mending, formerly Taro Health, will no longer serve as a health insurance carrier in 2027. Co-Founder Jeff Yuan confirmed the company is leaving its markets in both Maine and Oklahoma as a carrier, but will maintain a presence in the health insurance space — working alongside its competitors rather than against them.
The distinction matters. Mending is not closing. Instead, it is stepping out of the high-risk, high-regulatory-burden role of being a licensed insurer and stepping into the role of a technology enabler. At the beginning of 2026, the company launched Mending Access, a platform designed to help self-funded employers and third-party administrators integrate direct primary care into existing plans.
Proving the Model Before Scaling It
Mending’s leadership sees its years as an ACA carrier as a proof-of-concept phase rather than a permanent business model. Jeff Yuan described the challenge bluntly: direct primary care has historically operated outside the insurance system entirely — cash-based, membership-only, with no fee-for-service claims. Yuan said Mending’s ACA plans proved that DPC and traditional insurance “can actually coexist.”
That proof-of-concept is now the company’s strongest sales asset as it pitches the Mending Access platform to other payers. CommunityCare is the first public partnership to emerge from that strategy.
How CommunityCare Will Embed DPC Into ACA Plans
In-Network DPC Providers Starting 2027
CommunityCare will include in-network DPC providers in its ACA Marketplace plan options. The partnership brings together CommunityCare’s Oklahoma-based health plan experience with Mending’s technology platform built specifically for direct primary care practices.
For members, this means access to a dedicated primary care physician — with longer appointments, stronger communication, and more emphasis on prevention — without paying out of pocket at each visit. The DPC component sits alongside traditional insurance coverage for specialty and hospital care.
CommunityCare’s Local Advantage
CommunityCare is Oklahoma’s largest local health plan, owned by Saint Francis Health System and Ascension St. John in Tulsa. Founded in 1993, the plan focuses on local, personalized, and compassionate service aimed at every member’s optimal health.
Josiah Sutton, President and CEO of CommunityCare, framed the partnership as an extension of the plan’s core mission: making healthcare feel local and personal. By adding DPC to its ACA plan options, CommunityCare gives members a path to primary care that prioritizes the doctor-patient relationship over transactional, volume-driven encounters.
What Is Direct Primary Care and Why It Matters
The DPC Model Explained
Direct primary care is a healthcare business model in which patients purchase a monthly membership that allows unlimited access to certain primary care services, without paying an additional fee at the time of service. Members can visit their doctor as often as needed. Many DPC practices also provide access to prescription drugs, labs, and imaging at wholesale pricing.
Why DPC Fits ACA Plans
Combining a DPC membership with an ACA-compliant health plan gives patients unlimited access to a primary care provider for routine needs, while the health insurance plan covers more significant or specialty care. The hybrid model addresses one of the most persistent gaps in employer and marketplace coverage: accessible, unhurried primary care.
DPC practices typically maintain smaller patient panels. As a result, physicians spend more time with each patient. Early intervention, chronic disease management, and preventive care all improve. Downstream costs — emergency visits, specialist referrals, hospitalizations — tend to fall.
What Happens to Existing Mending Members
Transition Guidance During Open Enrollment
Current Mending members who have an existing DPC plan will receive guidance on transitioning to CommunityCare plans during open enrollment. The partnership was designed in part to create a clear path for these members rather than leaving them without comparable coverage options.
Mending will not offer coverage after the end of 2026, so approximately 7,000 people in Oklahoma with Mending plans will need to select new coverage during open enrollment, which begins November 1, 2026. Members who want to maintain access to DPC providers should look specifically at CommunityCare’s 2027 ACA plan options as they become available before open enrollment.
The Bigger Picture: ACA Market Exits in 2027
Mending Is One of Seven Carriers Leaving
Mending’s exit from the carrier market is part of a larger national trend. Mending’s exit is one of seven marketplace carrier exits announced for 2027, affecting more than 636,000 people nationally who will need to select new plans.
Other departures include CareSource exiting Indiana, PacificSource leaving Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and Providence Health Plan winding down most of its operations. Mending is shifting toward a direct primary care platform for self-funded employers and third-party administrators, rather than absorbing the regulatory and financial risk of running an ACA plan.
What Sets This Story Apart
Unlike the other six exits, Mending’s departure comes with a clear successor plan for its members and a broader strategy for influencing the market. Its partnership with CommunityCare ensures that the DPC model it spent five years building into ACA coverage does not disappear — it expands. Other carriers looking to differentiate their ACA offerings now have a proven technology platform and a living example of DPC working inside a regulated marketplace.
