Dallas-Based Evry Health Wants to Make Accessing Healthcare 'as Easy as Ordering a Pizza'

Dallas-Based Evry Health Wants to Make Accessing Healthcare ‘as Easy as Ordering a Pizza’

"Signing up for healthcare or paying a doctor’s bill should be as easy as ordering a pizza," says Chris Gay, co-founder and CEO of Evry Health. His Dallas-based B2B health insurance company has emerged from stealth to make healthcare just that simple—with a high-tech, mobile-first approach focused on preventative health and reducing costs for mid-sized companies.

Dallas-based Evry Health has emerged from stealth to offer North Texas companies “reliable, value-based healthcare” for their employees. Evry’s plans come with a high-tech, mobile-first twist—making accessing healthcare as easy as tapping an app.

“With today’s technology, signing up for healthcare or paying a doctor’s bill should be as easy as ordering a pizza,” Evry Health co-founder and CEO Chris Gay said in a statement. “We’ve done the hard work of building a better health insurer from the ground up, so we can charge less, enabling employers to pass these savings on to their employees and to be more competitive in the market.”

Founded in 2017, Evry Health is on a mission to make healthcare “affordable, transparent, and high quality again.” The startup says it uses software automation to lower the cost of healthcare, “providing expanded benefits at an affordable price, lowering premiums by up to 20%.”

With no deductibles or copays for in-network care, the company’s benefit plans emphasize preventative health and access to care.

“Great businesses should provide great benefits without breaking the bank,” added Gay, a Dallas native who took on healthcare after founding a previous insurance startup, MileMeter, which offered pay-per-mile auto insurance.

Co-founders have healthcare experience

Gay has two co-founders with healthcare backgrounds. Mark Jamilkowski, who serves as Evry’s CFO and chief actuary, is also managing partner and founder of healthcare consulting services firm G.O. Strategic Advisors. Prior to founding that in 2017, Jamilkowski was a managing director at KPMG, delivering healthcare management advisory services to providers, health plans, and state exchanges nationwide.

Co-founder and COO Jay Startz was a financial analyst at VMG Health before co-founding Dallas-based tech company MassCatalyst and partnering at another tech-focused startup.

“Each of Evry’s founders has been a business owner and insurance policyholder who has struggled with rising insurance premiums and has a story of personal loss because of our healthcare’s shortcomings,” Gay said in the statement. “We’re overhauling the end-to-end healthcare experience, making consumer-focused healthcare more transparent and more accessible for everyone.”

Also helping to guide Evry’s services is chief medical officer Mamata Majmundar, MD, who previously worked as a medical director at Aetna.

Investors include Y Combinator and Silicon Valley VCs

Evry Health has received over $7.3 million in startup funding from Y Combinator, venture capital funds in the Silicon Valley, and local business leaders. The company says its management team, investors, and advisors have pooled their experience in the fintech, insurance and healthcare industries to create an innovative new health insurance offering.

Tailored wellness plans at no cost to employer or employees

Evry Health’s initial launch is focused on companies with 100 to 2,000 employees in Dallas, Denton, Collin, Rockwall, and Tarrant Counties. The company says it has built an extensive local medical network of physicians and health systems, with a nationwide network also providing coverage.

One key Evry differentiator is offering no-cost wellness plans to help employees stay healthy—and out of doctors’ offices to begin with.

“Typically, mid-sized employers don’t have built-in wellness plans at no cost, but we made this an essential part of our business model,” COO Startz said in the statement. “The COVID-19 pandemic taught us that our health, and more specifically our mental health, is a top priority. We’re the technology facilitator to answer your questions, connecting you with your personal care team instead of relying on answering machines or endless phone trees. We’re giving businesses this toolkit to take care of themselves and their hard-working employees.”

Evry Health incentivizes its members to be healthy with tailored wellness plans that come at no cost to the employer or their employees. Its wellness solutions provide “a wide range of resources, tools, and rewards that are different from other health insurance plans, including benefits such as prenatal support, nutritional counseling, and mental health, depression, and anxiety counseling.”

Employees get “rewards” for participating in the wellness plans, which are deposited to a reward card that members can use like any other credit card.

Planning for rapid growth

Evry’s Dallas headquarters includes its back-office administrative functions and claims centers. But if its plans come to fruition, it may need more space. The company aims to grow rapidly in 2022, with hiring focused on staffing operations, customer support, claim administration, software engineers, and care coordinators.