Daniel Petkevich founded Fair Square Medicare in 2019 after watching his parents navigate a “dismal” experience shopping for Medicare plans. “I saw the experience my parents went through, and I thought, ‘Hey, let’s build the health insurance brokerage that I wish they had,’” he said.
Today, Fair Square Medicare has grown from one customer in August 2020 to “thousands and thousands” in all 50 states – growth Petkevich attributes to Fair Square Medicare differentiating itself from other brokerages by being “customer obsessed.”
“By and large, when you go to a broker, whether you go to one down the street or you call a large Medicare brokerage, those brokers often end up recommending a plan that simply pays them the highest commission instead of the plan that’s right for you,” he said. “When we work with people, we do not care about commission. In fact, most of our customers are enrolled in low commission plans. We just care about finding the right plan for you.”
Fair Square Medicare focuses on educating instead of selling seniors and uses algorithmic intelligence to sort and present the most-relevant Medicare plans based on their budget and preferences. The platform also includes a web portal that allows them to take full advantage of their available benefits.
By addressing customer needs over commission concerns, Fair Square Medicare has earned trust among its clients, which has translated to industry-leading ratings. Petkevich pointed out that the company has an NPS (net promoter score) of 95 – well above the average NPS score for U.S. insurance brokers in 2021 of 34 and has ranged as low as 9 over the last decade. In addition to the high NPS, Fair Square Medicare also has a high retention rate – 94% – compared to the industry average of 50%.
“We have been fortunate that we have been striking a chord with seniors,” Petkevich said.
Fair Square has also struck a chord with investors. On Aug. 25, the company announced $15 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Define Ventures with additional participation from Slow Ventures, YCombinator and angel investors. To date, Fair Square has raised $19 million.
“Seniors deserve a trusted healthcare partner that’s always acting in their best interest,” said Define Ventures Partner Chirag Shah, who will join the Fair Square Medicare Board of Directors. “Fair Square Medicare’s model builds trust with seniors, because it treats them like family. When you prioritize the long-term relationship with the customer over potential short-term financial gains, they’ll trust you with more of their health. That’s the recipe for sustainable growth, which is why we’re investing in Fair Square Medicare’s future.”
New Features
Petkevich said Fair Square Medicare plans to use the new capital to launch a set of new features for its clients.
One feature will show clients the free services that are listed in their Medicare plans, such as free physical exams or free colonoscopy screenings.
“We’re going to tell you what services you get for free. Just tell us what doctors you want to go to to get these services and we’ll schedule it for you,” Petkevich said.
Fair Square Medicare will also locate and list various benefits in Medicare plans, like gym memberships or dental and vision coverage, which currently often go unused.
“A reason why a lot of these benefits aren’t used is twofold. Fist, people don’t know they exist, and second, there’s like friction in accessing them,” Petkevich said.
An example of that friction are the OTC (over the counter) credits at pharmacies offered by some Medicare plans but require filling out a form by hand and returning it by fax or mail. “So nobody does it,” Petkevich added.
The Fair Square Medicare site will enable instant access to all health insurance benefits.
Gym Membership
In the example of a free gym membership, the site will find all available memberships included in a plan and list them.
“So we’ll just give you the gym membership number and the participating gym.”
Other planned features of the Fair Square Medicare site include finding and scheduling appointments with preferred providers; setting up annual preventive health and dental services; finding the lowest-available price on their prescriptions; and accessing on-demand consultations with a clinician to answer impromptu health questions.
Petkevich also envisions Fair Square Medicare offering clients with chronic conditions access to digital health services like Hinge Health, which uses AI-driven cameras to help seniors through exercises that help manage arthritis.
“It turns out, having that constant feedback from that app every day is a lot more effective than seeing a physical therapist every two weeks or your doctor once every three months,” he said. “That’s the direction we want to go. We started as a health insurance broker and we’re becoming a health navigator.”
Fair Square Medicare
Founded: 2019
CEO: Daniel Petkevich
Headquarters: Carlsbad
Business: Tech-enabled concierge healthcare platform for seniors
Employees: 25
Website: www.fairsquaremedicare.com
Notable: Fair Square Medicare has a client retention rate of 94%, compared to industry average of 50%.