Here at Collective Health, we’re rebuilding the health benefits experience from the ground up. In our ‘Meet the Collective’ series, we introduce you to the members of our team taking on the challenge.
We sat down with Kimiko, one of our Member Advocates, to chat about how we’re changing people’s expectations about the health benefits customer experience.
State your name and title, please.
Kimiko, Member Advocate
Where are you from?
Born and raised in Hawaii. Aloha!
What were you up to before Collective Health?
I was a residential mentor for Stanford Pre-Collegiate Institutes, a program at the university for students who are interested in science, medicine and technology. I really got into the teaching aspect of it and was actually just about to take an offer to teach but then Collective Health swooped in.
Why did you make the move?
Originally the plan was to go into physical therapy but I realized I was pretty burned out from school. Working at a startup just made a lot of sense. I have a lot of interest in technology — once upon a time I was a computer science major but it didn’t work out very well because of theoretical math — and how it intersects with health. At the time, two of my friends recently received job offers from here and it was actually Akins’ Meet the Collective that drew me into applying! There were just a lot of things that were telling me to go for it!
How do you explain what you do to a 5-year-old?
I help people understand how to pay for going to the doctor.
What’s your favorite thing to do?
I like to go out dancing.
What’s the best thing about your job?
Recently, it’s the feedback we receive from our members. It’s a great feeling to read how much of an impact we’re having on these people. They completely change their mind about health insurance and customer service. They’re also just so happy, which isn’t always the case on the phone, but seeing them give positive feedback later makes it worthwhile. Another great thing is building relationships with our members. They call once, remember your name and then request you the next time they call. You get to build a rapport with them, which is really nice.
Fast 4:
Coolest company in healthcare right now (other than us of course): Call9 — it’s like a Doctor on Demand for retirement homes. When older people get sick, it usually gets blown out of proportion. It’s expensive and can be completely unnecessary — especially when it could just be a cold. Call9 has on-demand, top of the line physicians to treat, diagnose and decide whether or not it is an emergency. The company is saving the patient and retirement home a lot of money.
One meal you’d eat for the rest of your life: Hands down Korean BBQ. 100%
What would you challenge the rest of the team to? A squat challenge during one of our Collective Fit sessions.
Best Friday Collective Health BBQ was: The sushi day — there was a chef that just kept making an unlimited amount of rolls. It was a dream.
Interested in changing the way health benefits work? We’d love to meet you. Check out our open positions, today!
