HealthSherpa

HealthSherpa is a California-based technology company that connects individuals with health coverage. The site was initially built as an alternative way to research plans available on Healthcare.gov, and the company describes itself as a certified web broker offering a platform for enrolling individuals and families in individual health plans, together with tools to help users select a plan and use their insurance after enrollment.

As of 2020 the company operated three core business units. The consumer unit provides shopping, quoting, enrollment and application and coverage management for people signing up for Affordable Care Act plans; HealthSherpa.com displays all plans from all insurers without regard to commission payments and offers only ACA-compliant on-exchange coverage, and the company also partners with employers to help non-benefits-eligible employees find coverage. The carrier unit supplies an Enhanced Direct Enrollment (EDE) platform used by insurance issuers. The agencies and brokers unit provides a free enrollment pathway with integrated quoting, enrollment and servicing.

Founding story

HealthSherpa was created by programmers who built an alternative front end for researching plans listed on Healthcare.gov, work that drew coverage from outlets including NPR, The Washington Post, CBS and CNN. Founders George Kalogeropoulos and Ning Liang met through the Y Combinator accelerator, and Catherine Perez joined as a late co-founder and Chief Product Officer in 2015.

Business model

HealthSherpa operates a certified web-broker platform serving three customer groups: consumers enrolling in on-exchange ACA coverage, insurance carriers licensing its Enhanced Direct Enrollment technology, and agents, agencies and brokers who use a free enrollment, quoting and servicing pathway. It also works with employers to help non-benefits-eligible employees obtain individual coverage.

Traction

More than 36,000 agents and 4,800 agencies have adopted the free agency and broker platform. As of October 2021, over 6 million people had enrolled in individual health coverage through HealthSherpa; the company's Y Combinator profile states over 10 million enrolled since 2014. Headcount was reported at 73 in November 2021 and 220 on the Y Combinator profile.

Latest developments

The Y Combinator company profile lists HealthSherpa as active with a team size of 220 and states more than 10 million people have enrolled since 2014.