A Letter From Our CEO

Why transparency and trust in your healthcare
partner is our priority.

Dear Fellow Residents of Massachusetts,

I would like to start by introducing myself. My name is Pooja Ika and like many of you, I was born and raised in Massachusetts. Today, I’m the founder and CEO of eternalHealth , a locally owned Massachusetts healthcare plan with a simple objective: Deliver high quality, affordable care so that we can make care accessible for all Americans. The people of Massachusetts have every right to demand high quality,affordable care from their insurers, and we know that the healthcare industry can and should do better for their members. At eternalHealth , we are committed to accomplishing to that mission.

Although eternalHealth was officially founded in 2019, I have been surrounded by the healthcare industry for as long as I can remember. One of my fondest memories growing up as a child was accompanying my mother to her office. She was a primary care physician in Worcester and seeing the relationships and bonds she was able to build with her patients inspired me even at the age of 10. Up until my senior year of high school, I wanted to be a doctor and follow in my mother’s footsteps. However, as I learned more about myself, I realized that my true calling was in health insurance and that this industry is a place where I could harness my own skill set to its fullest potential to initiate real change. Now, I wake up every morning excited at the opportunity to be able to be an advocate for my members and truly transform the health insurance landscape for the better.

At eternalHealth , we tell our members that we want to be their forever partner in healthcare. We are committed to being a new kind of plan that does things the right way and by focusing on establishing real,sustainable relationships with our members, we hope to offer the quality care that they need. Not only will eternalHealth prioritize our members’ care, but we are committing to put their care at the forefront of every decision that we make. At our core, we believe in operating with integrity, honesty, and transparency with all of our partners, whether that be our members, the health systems, doctors, or other vendors. We understand the importance of accepting feedback when building sustainable relationships. With that in mind, we have built and will continue to build upon our product and processes that address our partners needs and pain points.

Out of the $4 trillion spent in healthcare, $900 billion in administrative and operational costs are wasted annually. This not only tells us that there is enough money in the system to take care of our most vulnerable populations, but also that there is enough to care for the uninsured and under insured populations. eternalHealth will work to substantially reduce this waste through the relations we build with our extended family as well as our innovative platform. We hope to then pass down our savings to our members through affordable plans and high-quality benefits.

eternalHealth is a woman-owned, women-run, and women-built company. By investing in education and retention strategies for women, we will be able to foster both professional growth and development,ultimately increasing the representation of women at executive levels in this industry. We want our workforce to represent the people of Massachusetts and beyond, and so we are committed to inclusivity and diversity in all forms.

Millions of Americans do not have the luxury of not worrying about their healthcare, and this is the change I am trying to drive forward. eternalHealth is very proud to be a Massachusetts-based company that is focused on the specific needs of the people. Having a grandmother who is a Medicare beneficiary in Worcester County has allowed me to explore the best opportunities for care that I can with the ultimate goal of being able to offer a product that I would feel comfortable and proud to enroll my own grandmother in.

So, I welcome and thank you coming on this journey with us. I welcome all feedback and I look forward to working for the people of Massachusetts and beyond so that we can collectively deliver and receive better care.

Warmly,

Pooja Ika
Founder & CEO

Get to Know the Rest of Us!

We’ve put the right people in place to ensure we make a difference in the health care industry and in each of the communities we enter into.

Page Last Updated On: April 25, 2024
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
Tom Cunniffe

Tom Cunniffe

Director of Operations 

Tom Cunniffe comes to eternalHealth with over 20 years of healthcare operations’ experience, having held leadership positions in Call Center, Enrollment, Credentialing, UAT and Reimbursement teams. Tom has worked with Medicaid, Commercial and Medicare lines of business and has consistently built teams who are metrics driven with proven successful outcomes. Making sure our business strives for an efficient, best-in-class customer experience is at the center of Tom’s philosophy.

Tom has a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a master’s in business administration from University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Tom Lawless

Tom Lawless

Chief Financial Officer

Tom Lawless has spent the past 20+ years building, sustaining, and growing new healthcare-related programs that balance fiscal responsibility & prudence with creativity & innovation, focusing on models of care that are novel, person-centered, and improve the social welfare of those who are served. He is very excited to continue doing so in his role as the Chief Financial Officer of eternalHealth.

Tom comes to eternalHealth from a not-for-profit, member-centric, health insurance cooperative. He helped the company continuously strive toward its dual goals of thriving financially, while keeping members at the very epicenter of its mission and service model. While there, Tom also spearheaded the creation of a brand new private, charitable foundation, which will be meaningfully giving back to those in need in the surrounding communities for years to come. Previously, Tom worked in the finance department of a successful hospice that provided high-quality care to persons experiencing their unique and poignant end-of-life journeys, assuring that the appropriate financing was always available. Tom’s career began as a civil servant in the Wisconsin Medicaid program, where he helped to create a program that expanded the institutional entitlement to care into home and community-based settings. Starting with only a blueprint in hand, the program now serves more than 57,000 frail elders and disabled adults and is considered a national model. Growing into a senior leadership role, Tom was a key architect of an innovative financing model, through which the public and private sectors successfully collaborated to better the lives of persons in great need.

Tom holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, with additional graduate work in economics completed at the University Wisconsin-Madison.

This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.
This link will leave eternalHealth.com, opening a new window.