Female Founders to Know: CEO of eternalHealth Pooja Ika Shares Mission to Disrupt Health Insurance for the Better
“While I might not have 20 years of healthcare experience in a conventional sense, I have been surrounded by the healthcare space for as long as I can remember.” Today’s woman dreamer, Pooja Ika, is a young and dynamic healthcare female founder to know. As the CEO and Founder of eternalHealth, she is on a mission to transform and disrupt the health insurance space for the better, and to ultimately make healthcare accessible to all. In this inspiring interview, she shares her passion for having more women in the boardroom/leadership roles, how her family inspires her, and how she navigates the healthcare entrepreneurial ecosystem at such a young age. Enjoy her story!
1) Tell us your story. You are the founder of eternal health, and are one of the youngest healthcare entrepreneurs. What inspired your passion for entrepreneurship and healthcare, and what were some challenges /obstacles you faced in your journey? How did you overcome them?
While I might not have 20 years of healthcare experience in a conventional sense, I have been surrounded by the healthcare space for as long as I can remember. I credit a lot of my passion for this space to both of my parents. I grew up watching my mother interact with her patients and I saw the close relationships she was able to build with them. She was not only their provider, but she was also their friend and someone they really trusted. My mom would and still does share stories about me to her patients and on the flip side, they would share stories about their own children and would always make it a point to ask about me and all of the progress I have made since they last spoke. My mothers patients trusted her enough to never go to the ER or do anything without calling her first, and by building that unique relationship with her patients, my mother came home with an incredible sense of gratitude and thankfulness.
Meanwhile, I watched my father dreams come to fruition, as he built companies from scratch. I watched him go through the typical ups and downs that you face in a start-up environment and I saw him take on any and every task with a smile on his face. By always being optimistic, he was able to bring together a group of people who were equally passionate and shared the same mission and vision. My mother made me fall in love with healthcare, while my father helped me develop my business acumen and made me fall in love with the start-up environment.
As I started to think about my future and my career, I realized that given my specific skill set and strengths, starting a health insurance company was my calling. I knew that the space I was entering into was dominated by older men, and I saw that in some of my very first interactions in the space. Not only am I woman, I am a young, minority woman, in a space that was not used to seeing someone like me run a health plan. Some of the challenges include having to go against any stereotypes and biases that were already established about me prior to even having a conversation with me or being dismissed because of my age and ‘lack of experience’. In that moment, I knew I could either allow those comments to get to me, or I could brush them off and focus on the work. Someone told me a while ago that respect needs to be earned, and I am willing to put in the time and work to gain the respect of my peers in the space. In addition to that, in the same way that my age, race, and gender can be used against me, I realized I could also leverage them and spin it to benefit me. There is always a silver-lining, you just need to look hard enough.
2) You are also passionate about having diversity across the company, particularly having women and POC represented on the board/ in director roles. Tell us more about this. What are some learnings you had in building a diverse and inclusive company?
Fostering diversity at all levels and empowering woman to step into leadership roles was always very important to me and something I was passionate about, but it was also the right business decision across the board. About 80% of healthcare decisions are made by women for themselves and their families. And while woman are making 80% of the healthcare decisions, 58% of them do not feel confident in the decisions that they are making, yet they still continue to make them. So at eternalHealth, we are committed to educating our members because knowledge is power and we want to place the power back in our members hands. . I want to foster diversity at all levels, so that our organization can represent the population we are serving, to allow for more comprehensive and inclusive decisions to be made around our members care.
3) As the platform for women dreamers, how do you define women empowerment? Is there an empowered woman in your life that you admire?
One of my very first role models was my mother, and now with my career, she is the source of my inspiration because she has really shaped the way I approach healthcare and my job. One of the many reasons I admire my mother, is because she has a big heart and is always committed to do right by her patients, which is now one of eternalHealth’s core values. The first thing I always tell anyone who joins the eternalHealth team is that we must place the member at the center of everything we do, because every decision must be centered around prioritizing our members needs. In addition to that, the one thing I will always be grateful to my mother for is that she made me believe that nothing was impossible. She worked, took care of my grandparents, was always there for me whether it was at pick up/drop off or cheering me on at soccer games, and was always there for my father. And most impressively, she did it all with a smile on her face, while many told her she would not be able to do it all. This encouraged me to have the same mentality and made me want to empower other woman in a similar manner. With that in mind, over 50% of eternalHealth’s workforce, executives, board of directors, and investors are woman. At eternalHealth, we are committed to fostering a diverse and passionate workforce that feels empowered and supported to grow within the organization.
4) As the platform for women dreamers, what is your next big dream?
My dream is to transform and disrupt the health insurance space for the better, and to ultimately make healthcare accessible to all. eternalHealth strives to provide sustainable, high-quality, and affordable care to all our members. By working closely with all the stakeholders across the care continuum and embracing the right technology platform, eternalHealth will be able to optimize our internal processes, to then pass down saving to our members through robust benefits and reduced out-of-pocket costs. eternalHealth will operate with trust, transparency, and integrity to ensure that we are always working in the best interest of the member and prioritizing their care and needs.
None of this would be possible without the support of my team, and so my dream is that I am able to lead an extremely empowered workforce, that is aligned with eternalHealth’s mission and vision. My dream is to have the entire workforce feel a sense of gratitude and fulfillment, and that they are working for an organization that is doing things the right way, while still being successful and profitable.
5) What are some of your hobbies? How do you decompress and relax after a long day?
I unfortunately do not have as much free time as I used too, but with the little time I do have, I enjoy spending it with those I love, like my family and friends. I also have a little puppy named Brooks, who takes up a lot of my free time as well. I love taking him on walks with me through the city, and sometimes he is even my partner-in-crime on my shopping adventures!