The rise and fall of HSI

FORT COLLINS – Almost 60 years ago, several Fort Collins business people, physicians and the superintendent of what was then Larimer County Hospital got together and started Hospital Service Inc.

The small, not-for-profit insurance company gradually increased its membership and expanded its line of health plans to include PPO, EPO and HMO products, a Medicare supplement and an innovative wellness program.

For many years, HSI Health Plans Inc., as it came to be known, held its own alongside industry goliaths. But the harsh realities of a rapidly changing marketplace, with its increased regulation and demand for new products and state-of-the-art information systems,…