Tampa philanthropist Kiran Patel tapped to expand health insurance company in Boston

Tampa businessman and philanthropist Kiran Patel is returning to the health insurance industry through a new venture with Boston-based eternalHealth.

Patel is a major investor and shareholder in the company, which manages Medicare Advantage health plans in six Massachusetts counties, according to an announcement this week. It recently expanded to the Phoenix area and now has access to about 2 million Medicare beneficiaries, according to the firm.

With Patel’s guidance, EternalHealth plans to acquire small and mid-sized Medicare Advantage plans across the country and expand its presence in many states. That could include Florida, officials said.

The company’s CEO, Pooja Ika, said she wanted to partner with Patel to capitalize on her proven track record of growing healthcare businesses. In 1999, Patel invested $5 million to take control of WellCare HMO plans in New York and Connecticut. By the time he sold the company to the Soros Group in 2002, the company was worth a billion dollars and had more than 400,000 members.

Patel also acquired and expanded Freedom Health Plan and Optimum Healthcare, which he acquired in 2008 for $12 million in cash, a $5 million equity contribution, and 25 million shares of his new healthcare holding company Health, Americas 1st Choice Holdings of Florida.

Under Patel’s leadership, the company and its subsidiaries operated the largest Medicare Advantage health plan in Florida and the second largest chronic special needs plan in the country. Freedom Health agreed in 2017 to pay $31 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act, according to a Justice Department statement.

Patel sold Americas 1st Choice Holdings to Anthem, now called Elevance, in 2018.

His knowledge and expertise are invaluable, and his business acumen is unmatched, Ika said in a press release.

Patel said he was attracted to investing in the company because of its innovative approach to reducing administrative costs. The company uses a cloud-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate operations and communicate with different suppliers, avoiding the need to use multiple IT systems.

I knew this was a company I was excited to be a part of,” he said in a statement. I look forward to working with Pooja, the leadership team she has built, and a capable board of directors to help grow the business and bring much-needed innovation and efficiency to the space.”

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He and his wife, Pallavi Patel, had made several large donations to the Tampa Bay community, resulting in buildings and institutions bearing their names. This includes an $18.5 million gift to the University of South Florida in 2005 to establish the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions. Other donations led to the creation of the Pallavi Patel Conservatory of Performing Arts at the Straz Center, the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Elementary School, and the Dr. Kiran C. Patel Research Institute.