Health IQ exits life and auto insurance

Health IQ, the company that raised over $135 million to reward the health-conscious with better life insurance rates, is officially out of the life insurance business.

In 2020, Health IQ entered the medicare and auto space as the board of directors encouraged management to diversify the product offering. Now, the company is ending life and auto sales to focus solely on the medicare business. “We have made the decision to focus on our more lucrative and fast-growing Medicare business,” a Health IQ spokesperson shared in an email. “We are in the process of adding hundreds of additional Medicare sales agents and are excited about our path forward.”

This decision resulted in a number of employees losing their jobs. According to a Glassdoor review, at least 25 employees were let go. The Health IQ spokesperson declined to share the number of employees that were impacted while stating that “many of the agents” were offered a role with the medicare team.

Based on information obtained by Coverager, there’s nothing lucrative about Health IQ’s medicare business. “They basically dialed people that were over 65 and then immediately transferred them to me,” a former Health IQ agent told me. “Most of the time the person on the phone had no idea what was going on and would hang up more than half the time before I could try to explain what the call was about. It was pretty chaotic and disorganized. They also would call the same people as much as 10 times a day during AEP.” Perhaps this is one reason why the company is looking for a counsel with “extensive experience” in TCPA and CAN-SPAM, among other areas.

And when it comes to fast-growing, some would argue otherwise. Most Health IQ medicare agents average less than one sale per day. According to one agent, other companies in the space see a figure that’s 2-3 times higher.

Bottom Line: Health IQ moved from one gimmick to another.