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The U.S. Medicare system loses tens of billions annually, not from fraud, but from seniors choosing suboptimal health plans due to a system that’s become too complex. A San Diego founder, Augustus Holm, first encountered it up close at 13, helping his grandmother sort through 500-page prescription binders at the kitchen table.
Now 20, Holm is among a cohort of Gen Z entrepreneurs redefining what a successful startup looks like, building companies around problems they know firsthand rather than markets they’ve spotted from a distance. CheckRx, his AI-native Medicare platform, is quietly doing something the industry has resisted for decades: making the system legible.
“The same transparency issues that inflate drug prices are inflating Medicare costs,” Holm says. “Insurance brokers are paid more to push certain plans regardless of patient fit, and seniors have no easy way to know that’s happening. We’re fixing the information gap.”
Photo Credit: Mark Morera
The platform saves the average agent 950 hours a year by automating key workflows such as plan comparisons and member retention. Seniors access the service for free, with the choice of an AI or human-assisted process.
Holm describes CheckRx as “the infrastructure for what Medicare will look like next” — turning CMS data into actionable decisions and automating back-end processes so the focus can stay on the people.
“Agents love being able to talk to seniors; they love the human part,” he said. “We do the boring stuff and let them focus on the people.”
Photo Credit: Hernan Cazares
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