Episode Transcript
iHeartRadio Providence CEOs. You should know. Today with me, I've
got the founder and CEO of Eternal Health. Who'sha Aika,
how are you?
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm good? Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Adam absolutely welcome in. You know, tell me a little
bit about the mission of Eternal Health and how it
is unique.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So, Eternal Health is a Medicare advantage health plan. We
are based in Massachusetts and we serve six counties in Massachusetts,
so we serve Worcester and Middlesex, Suffolk, Bristol, Norfolk, and
Plymouth County. We have started the company for the very
purpose of being able to offer more accessible health care
to Medicare beneficiaries. So Medicare beneficiaries typically end up being
(00:40):
people who are over the age of sixty five. However,
you can be under the age of sixty five and
be eligible for Medicare. And what we found was that
it was really hard navigating the healthcare space and navigating
the insurance space.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So we wanted to be able to bridge that gap
and not only offer.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Better access to care, but all so really educate the
population on what is out there and what they should
be looking for when they think about the insurance carrier
they want to choose. So our goal is being able
to provide access, being able to provide really rich benefits,
and making sure that we are making them really affordable
for the fellow residents in Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Absolutely. So it's not often that we get to talk
to the founder and CEO at one time. So tell
me a little bit about how your company got started
in where that kind of like brainstorm came from.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
So I have two wonderful parents. They're both in the
healthcare field, but in different aspects of healthcare. So my
mother is a primary care physician at UMass and Worcester
and my dad's a healthcare technology entrepreneur. So I like
to say that I've been surrounded by healthcare for as
long as I can remember. And when I started to
think about what I really wanted to do, my grandma
(01:53):
quite honestly drove a lot of my decision. So my
grandmother moved from India when I was a baby to
help take care of me with my grandfather. My grandfather's
no longer with us, but my grandmother is. And when
she turned Medicare eligible, I was just graduating college and it.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Was a real whirlwind for her and.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
She doesn't speak English, but she has a huge care
circle and family around her that's here to support her.
And it really got me to think, like, Wow, there's
so many people out there that don't have that care
circle and are aging into medicare and might not have
the right support and resources, that really need the assistance
and they need an advocate. And so as I started
(02:34):
to think about areas for opportunity, the idea about starting Internal.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Health came about.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
I had absolutely no clue what I was getting myself into,
but I now have a really great team. We are
in both Massachusetts and Arizona, just a lot of seasoned executives,
people who understand the space. And I'm really fortunate to
be able to make an impact and build something from
scratch that I think is really addressing a noble cause.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And you know, all of us really want to be
a catalyst for change in this space.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Absolutely. How many people does Eternal Health employee right now?
Speaker 3 (03:10):
We employ right around forty people across Massachusetts in Arizona.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
A majority of our team is based in.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Massachusetts, so awesome. How do you see your role in
the local economy? Obviously, you know medicare is such a
complicated thing for a lot of people. You know, in
the local economy, what you guys are doing has the
ability to make an effect. What do you see your
role as?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
So few things?
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Right first, I mean, I mean it's always about employment
and creating more jobs and creating more opportunity.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Right. So I'm really happy and fortunate.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
To say that we have the privilege of being able
to do that, and we're able to employ a really,
really diverse team that looks and feels exactly like the
people of Massachusetts. And then in addition to that, I
would say, uh, as we think about really any election
year and just the economy in its current state today,
(04:00):
the two most impacted populations are your low income population
and then also your senior population because both of those
populations end up living on fixed incomes. So for us,
when we create our plan designs or benefits, it's so
important that we're mindful of that and that we're creating
benefits that truly bring money back into our customer's pockets
(04:23):
and our members pockets.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
And so that's what we've done.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Like, we have a three thousand up to three thousand
dollars we offer in dental. It's on a prepaid master
card that they can use. We offer over the counter
as well as healthy grocery dollars that they can leverage.
We offer a Fitness Flex card that they can use
to play golf and really go out and experience other
fitness and wellness activities. And you know, we also offer
(04:50):
a reduction and cost sharing medical Expense Wallet, which again
allows people to essentially just swipe their MasterCards so that
they can reduce we are out of pocket costs. So
we've been really really mindful about that, and especially in
the state that the country and the economy is in now,
(05:12):
I feel like it's more important than ever. And the
last thing I'll add is when you look around at
other medicare advantage plans in.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
The space, it's all over the news.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
You hear about plans reducing benefits, increasing costs. And because
of our platform and our technology and also just our
model that we're embarking on, that's not who we are.
We are making sure that we're creating sustainable plans that
are focused on the consumers and focused on making sure
care is accessible and it's affordable.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Awesome, are you guys hiring Eternal Health and how does
somebody apply? So we are.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
We're actively growing.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
We have a few roles that are posted up on
LinkedIn as well as on our website, and we would
love to be able to get more local town in Boston,
really in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
We're a Boston based company right in Back.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Bay, and we're an an office company, which I think
adds to our culture and who we are as an organization.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Absolutely. So, how can somebody if they're hearing this and
they're interested in what you guys have to offer, how
can they connect with you and learn more?
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So they can visit us on our website, So please
visit us at www dot Eternalhealth dot com. E T
E R n A l H e A l t
h dot com. We on our website will have the
ability for people to look up put in their zip code,
see what plans are available within their zip codes, compare
(06:44):
all of our different plan options.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
We have three plan options this year. And then in addition.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
To that, there's also a phone number right at the
top of the page where they can speak to a
licensed representative who.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Will be able to walk them through all of their
plan options.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
And in addition to that, they can ask they're broker
if they leverage an existing broker within the community because
we are contracted with several brokers who are able to
sell on our behalf awesome LAPUSA.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Thank you for everything that you guys do in the
community and fortaking a little bit of time with us
on iHeartRadio CEOs. You should know we definitely appreciate the time.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Of course, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
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