Digital health maintenance organization is for US citizens earning too much to be eligible for free public insurance and too little to get adequate private coverage.

Thirty-eight million Americans without health insurance wake up every day hoping they won’t need medical care. Another 44 million have health insurance insufficient for their needs.

A new alternative for those 82 million Americans — typically earning between $17,000 and $55,000 annually — comes from Israel, a faraway country of just 9.2 million.

Call it chutzpah if you will. But the founders of Antidote Health believe their plan to build a digital health maintenance organization will help cure the healthcare access crisis for US citizens earning too much to be eligible for public insurance and too little for adequate private coverage.

Keeping you healthy

“We took the playbook of the Israeli system – the HMO structure – and will apply it to the underserved population in the US,” says Enosh, whose previous ventures include cofounding Cyota, a fintech company acquired for $145 million in 2005.

“Israelis pay a monthly fee, and from that point on, any medical expense you incur is expensed to your HMO provider,” Enosh explains. “The HMOs are not compensated on treating you but on keeping you healthy, so they focus on prevention – such as annual screenings and patient education.”

“We come from a different approach,” says Enosh. “We provide a set of services that is totally digital, incorporating a lot of AI technologies to save resources. And every interaction we have with the brick-and-mortar world, we integrate through a layer of financial services.”