CEO: eHealth Indy Operations Could Be Company’s Biggest

The chief executive officer of California-based eHealth Inc. (Nasdaq: EHTH) says, if all goes as planned, the company’s new Indianapolis location will be its biggest operation. The private online health insurance exchange announced Monday it is investing more than $10 million to establish its Eastern U.S. Technology and Operations Headquarters on the north side of Indy and create up to 500 jobs by the end of 2023. Scott Flanders says the effort to set up the new location began in February.

An Indianapolis native, Flanders says he believes the company has a robust employment base to accomplish its goals.

"I come from Indiana; I built a business here earlier in my career and one thing I know about Hoosiers, if you treat them well, they’ll be loyal," Flanders said at a news conference Monday. "We believe that we will have the strongest set of tenured sales agents in the eHealth system."

eHealth says it has already hired 125 people toward its ultimate goal. The company plans to fully occupy the more than 81,000 square feet of space available by November 2022. Governor Eric Holcomb says the announcement is about more than just the number of new jobs.

"We talk about hundreds of jobs; these are careers," said Holcomb. "These are the kind of careers that every mayor and every governor and every secretary of commerce, every councilman covet. This is not happening around America at this scale and pace."

Flanders says the business climate on both the state and local level helped seal the deal to bring eHealth to Indy.

"When I was explaining to the board why Indianapolis, I said there is no other business climate where a Republican governor appoints a Democratic secretary of commerce that ran against him and then the mayor is a Democrat, and then when you meet with them, all they do is talk about more and better paying jobs for the citizens of Indiana. So I’m very proud to be from this state. I’m very thankful for what everyone’s done to make this possible."