Health in Your Hands

Dallas startup empowers you to take command of your health insurance

Jack Hooper, CEO (center), and the Take Command Health team.

Photo courtesy of Take Command Health

The mere thought of navigating insurance plans during open enrollment makes us groan. That’s why we’re excited about Dallas’ own Take Command Health, a service that makes navigating insurance plans a breeze. And with open enrollment ending December 15, the timing couldn’t be better.

Take Command Health follows a model like that of TurboTax. It takes a complex task and breaks it down into one question per page. With each answer, the system narrows your search for plans you’ll actually use, saving you money along the way.

The goal? To move the process away from picking a plan based on a laundry list of numbers and instead help you select a plan that will give you the most benefit, based on your needs.

It’s estimated that 88 percent of Americans waste money by choosing the wrong health insurance plan, costing an average of $533 a year. Sites like healthcare.gov and individual brokers don’t give you all the options — on-exchange, private, and faith-based plans — and few resources exist to give people realistic estimates of how much care will cost.

One of Take Command Health’s many features is a health condition simulator which helps you get a feel for how much a condition, like asthma, or a big life event, like a new child, will cost you.

“We want to empower informed consumers so they can get the best value out of their insurance plan, without breaking the bank,” says CEO Jack Hooper.

Premier memberships start at $12 and include a telemedicine feature that puts you in touch with a doctor via the phone when you need it. Other features, like medical bill negotiation to dispute incorrect medical bills, and dental and vision discounts, help with your bottom line. There’s no question about your co-pay or co-insurance either: Advice and support are available when you need it.

Hooper notes Dallasites’ excitement over the options Take Command Health offers; the startup raised $1 million from Dallas sources alone in its earliest iteration.

“It was so fun to see Dallas pitch in and help. It says a lot about the city and our people.”

health

Coworking News

New coworking space to open in Dallas' Oak Lawn neighborhood

Office Evolution

A coworking space is opening in Dallas in a central location: Office Evolution, a Louisville-based coworking chain, will open what a release says is a "state-of-the-art coworking space" at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. #360 in Dallas at the southeast corner of Lemmon Avenue.

No details on what makes it state-of-the-art, but construction is ongoing and an opening is anticipated in mid-October.

Office Evolution was founded in 2003 as a shared workspace-coworking environment, cultivated on the principles of "Ohana," the Hawaiian tradition that references family working toward a common goal. (The founder was from Hawaii.)

The company started out in Boulder, Colorado, then relocated its headquarters to Louisville. It's an affiliated brand of United Franchise Group, and is part of The Vast Coworking Group, which specializes in franchising within the coworking industry. All of their locations are franchised.

The Dallas location is owned by franchisee Michael Pickering, a Dallas native who runs a family-owned indoor soccer facility in Dallas. (There are two other Office Evolution locations in the DFW area in McKinney and Southlake, owned by different franchisees.)

They're describing the Dallas location at 3500 Oak Lawn Ave. as "Turtle Creek," although its location at Oak Lawn and Lemmon really puts it at the epicenter of Oak Lawn. (To further complicate matters, the building previously and incorrectly described its address as "Uptown.")

It's a seven-story building in which the majority of tenants are doctor and medical offices.

Office Evolution rates include a coworking day pass for $25, plus "flex" office options starting at $200 a month for 20 hours, up to $550 a month for 80 hours.

Amenities of the building that are also accessible to Office Evolution customers include a front desk; a 1,000-square-foot fitness center; covered parking; and on-site security six days a week.

According to a spokesperson, Pickering and his team put $1.2 million into the renovation to transform the space, which occupies most of the fourth floor where it will span 9,240 square feet of space with 41 total offices — one of which is earmarked as an "on-demand office" for the professional on the go.

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