Health First
Legal name: Health First Administrative Plans Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 821851221
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Rockledge, FL, US
- Phone
- 321-434-1000
- Rating
- 67
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $34,696,825
- Expenses
- $37,036,269
- Assets
- $21,494,586
- Liabilities
- $19,152,683
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
23 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- MATTHEW F GERRELL (SR VP CEO HEALTH PLANS)
- TERRY L FORDE (PRESIDENT/CEO BEG 8/5/202)
- STEVEN P JOHNSON (FORMER CHAIR/PRESIDENT/CEO)
- TAYLOR K SMITH (FMR INTERIM CEO HFI END 8/24)
Highest reported compensation
- BRETT A ESROCK (FRMR EXEC VP CFO/COO TREASURER): $1,267,396 total reported compensation
- TERRY L FORDE (PRESIDENT/CEO BEG 8/5/202): $1,081,516 total reported compensation
- NICHOLAS W ROMANELLO ESQ (SECRETARY): $1,042,107 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We exist to improve the health and wellness of the communities we serve.
What it reported doing in 2024
Health first administrative plans, inc., (hfap) is a parent holding company, licensed to operate as a third-party administrator (tpa). The company operates as a tpa providing claim processing and benefits administration, and is responsible for real estate, employees, provider contracts, broker contracts, and vendor agreements for its affiliates.hfap serves to promote, further and support the charitable purposes of health first, inc., which is central Florida's only fully integrated health delivery system. Hfap provides third party management services for its related entities, health first health plans, inc. And health first commercial plans, inc. These combined management and health plan activities within the integrated delivery system ensures a full geographical coverage by offering coverage in counties in which there are limited affordable options. Hfap collaborates with government and other non-profit organizations, such as the orange county department of corrections and the orange county medical clinic. The company receives and pay bills on behalf of these organizations with a lower than standard rate as a furtherance of its charitable purposes.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 99% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 77
- Transparency & Controls: 67
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 23
- Growth: 0
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 87.8%; rating input score 88
- Program expense ratio: 82.6%; rating input score 83
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Limited
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 75%; rating input score 75; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: Fail
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -6.7%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.58; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.89; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1%; rating input score 85; 85th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: -3.8% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -5.4% per year; rating input score 0; 2nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -9.2% per year; rating input score 0; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 87.8% of revenue deployed · 82.6% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 4 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $30.6M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $1.3M · 23 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 33 of 33 current checks pass
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes executive pay and related organizations
- Filing history: 8 filing years from 2017 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Related organizations: 19 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 14/100.
- High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 19/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 10/100.