One City Built to Last

y rich monetti
CYBER-CONNECTING WITH HEALTH
Wayne Sakamoto, CEO
Health insurance seems
to be only a few clicks
away for anyone who
needs it – especially
with the implementation of the
Affordable Care Act (ACA). Putting
together the proper sequence
of strokes, however, overwhelms
many Americans. But while the
Obama Administration has been
late in directing people to the insurance
agents themselves for
help, this is a void that the media
has finally been addressing and
helping to fill, according to Wayne
Sakamoto of Health Insurance Interactive.
This CEO offers more
than a leg up for those who enlist
his company to assist in the finding
health insurance that is right
for them.
“I was one of the first to market
health insurance on the Internet,”
he asserts.
As a health insurance marketer,
Health Insurance Interactive is a
holding company of insurance-related
portals. The company provides
personalized and online
health insurance services to the
local, national and international
marketplace. Obviously, Health
Insurance Interactive helps customers
connect digitally. In addition,
any inquiries made always
rise quickly to a level where the
questions prompting a client’s
call can be fully answered. “That’s
going to be my top priority, so I
want to make sure I contact them
right away,” Sakamoto said.
On point, the response never
amounts to either a runaround
or a simple run of the
numbers. “An intuitive agent
not only understands the marketplace
but is a good listener
and has the ability to problem
solve – because each situation
is unique,” Sakamoto emphasized.
Being self-employed, for
example, could highlight a
consumer as one who could
INTERNATIONAL HEALTH PLANS
A Corporate Family of Insurance Related Websites
or should be using a health
savings account to reap additional
benefits. While the contributions
are yearly, staying
healthy could help those contributions
accumulate nicely
into a deferred retirement plan
that doubles as tax deduction.
Of course, the complexities of
the ACA keep insurance agents
up to their ears in compliance
issues for the companies they
represent. It also isn’t able to
completely shield individuals
from those substandard, socalled
“skinny networks,” that
severely limit the number of
doctors and hospitals in a plan.
This does not deter Sakamoto
by any measure. As the marriage
between technology and
healthcare delivery evolves, he
understands how this synergy
has brought him into markets
he would never have imagined
otherwise.
Beginning at the Department
of Defense in 2000, Sakamoto
was employing and associating
with embassy workers and
military officers from around
the world. The need for insurance
coverage became all
too apparent – especially if a
foreign national landed in a
U.S. hospital. As the Pentagon
picked up on Sakamoto’s International
Health Plans website,
this powerful collaboration
paved the way for the success
he now enjoys across the online
world. His various portals
offers connections to nautical
and travel-related insurance as
well.
As for social media, Sakamoto
not only loves sharing
threads of knowledge on his
Facebook page, but also welcomes
the opportunity that a
lack of knowledge offers. “I
love taking on challenges, and
if it wasn’t for the issues clients
have, I wouldn’t have that experience,”
Sakamoto acknowledged.
All he hopes is that there is
more of it to come.
www.healthinsuranceinteractive.com
THE SUIT MAGAZINE - NOV 2014