NIC Notes

Insights in Seniors Housing & Care

By: NIC  |  September 23, 2015

NIC Talks Speaker Spotlight: Chris Edell

Economic Trends  |  Ideas and Discussion

SpeakerSpotlight_CEdell-01

New to the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) Fall Conference are NIC Talks, a series of individual 12-minute talks designed to spark conversation about the future of aging.

Noted industry leaders will draw on their experience and knowledge to answer the question, “What do you envision happening over the next 10 years that will revolutionize the aging experience of the first boomer turning 80 in 2026?”

NIC is pleased to announce that Chris Edell, CEO and Co-founder of Elevar, will be speaking on how health insurance is being fundamentally re-shaped by the emerging Baby Boomer consumer. 

The health insurance industry is facing tremendous pressures to change.  Consumers are demanding an end-to-end insurance experience that is personalized, easy to navigate, and relevant to their specific needs.  The emergence of mobile apps and innovations has opened new and personalized opportunities in digital health, including technologies that could fundamentally disrupt the industry in unforeseen ways.  Industries outside of health, including financial services, have adopted end-to-end digital strategies for their customers, incentivizing health insurance companies to jump aboard the bandwagon.  This is fueling a surge of venture capital investment in digital health.

At the cross-hairs of these transformative changes are the Baby Boomers.   As the wealthiest, most diverse, and highest chronic health condition generation in the US to date, up to 75 million of Baby Boomers will qualify for Medicare by 2030, creating both unique opportunities and great challenges for the health insurance industry.  The opportunities are huge, as for the first time in recent memory, traditional health insurance companies are seeking new, non-conventional innovations to meet the needs of the Baby Boomer market.  But these opportunities are a reactive response to significant market challenges, as a crop of new digital innovations and business models pose fundamental threats to the industry itself.

As a digital innovation senior advisor to numerous C-suite healthcare executives across the United States, Chris will ‘lift the veil’ and uncover where digital health innovations are reshaping the insurance industry.   First, he will identify the key ‘hot spot’ areas that keep a CEO up-at-night.  Second, he will identify: 1) what unique opportunities show great promise in providing Baby Boomers with a better end-to-end experience, and 2) what innovations a health insurance executive would purchase and/or invest in to better engage with Baby Boomer members.

About Chris Edell:

Chris is Chief Executive Officer and a founding partner of Elevar, a firm based in Silicon Valley that connects innovative digital health startups with large healthcare organizations, including many of the largest health insurers and providers in the United States.  Since Elevar’s inception in 2013, the firm has grown considerably, operating ‘innovation labs’ in numerous cities across the country, and is in process to expand internationally to Scandinavia and Southeast Asia.

Prior to Elevar, Chris was Chief Operating Officer and a founding partner of Prebacked, one of the pioneers in the emerging digital health startup accelerator movement. Prior to Prebacked, he spent a number of years as a healthcare strategy professional at Booz & Company and Deloitte Consulting.   In addition, he worked in various roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, the United Nations Global Compact, Yale Law School, and Harvard Kennedy School.    

Chris received an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School, an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management and a dual B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.


 

About NIC

The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to support access and choice for America’s seniors by providing data, analytics, and connections that bring together investors and providers.

Connect with NIC

Read More by NIC