Elektra Health, a virtual menopause care provider, is now in-network with MetroPlusHealth and Fidelis Care plans in New York.
The company’s services now cover more than 95% of women in the state, Elektra claims. It offers personalized care to support women throughout the menopause journey, from perimenopause to postmenopause. Each Elektra patient is paired with clinicians, coaches and a community of peers.
“The goal is to be accessible and convenient, but to have a multifaceted model,” Jannine Versi, co-founder and CEO of Elektra, told Fierce Healthcare in an interview. “We see menopause as an opportunity to take care of women when they are really underserved and there are not enough providers to take care of them.”
“Every year in New York City, thousands of women enter menopause. Yet many women with symptoms go undiagnosed, and many wait over a year before their transition is even acknowledged by a provider,” Julie Myers, M.D., deputy chief medical officer and director at MetroPlusHealth, told Fierce Healthcare. “We see this gap clearly within our member population, and we’re committed to closing it.”
The partnership with MetroPlus, owned by Health + Hospitals, New York City’s public health system, did not necessarily come easy. “They have a really high bar,” Versi said. “We really worked hard with their clinical team to explore the needs of the members, and I really appreciate that.”
Elektra, currently operating in more than half a dozen states with plans to expand next year, is also considered in-network at EmblemHealth, Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, Healthfirst, Molina, MVP Healthcare, Oscar Health and United Healthcare. While it does not engage in full risk-based arrangements yet, Elektra negotiates enhanced reimbursement for engagement with some of its partners. The company also takes Medicare and Medicaid in most of its markets.
Elektra’s multidisciplinary care team consists of clinicians trained in primary care, sexual health and gynecology. They are all certified by the Menopause Society, which sets the gold standard of evidence-based care in the space, according to Versi. Elektra can also provide primary care services, particularly for those who may not have an existing physician.
“Access can be so limited and for those patients we can absolutely provide additional clinical services beyond the scope of menopause symptom management,” Versi said.
Unlike some other newer-generation virtual women’s health companies, Elektra does not sell or monetize supplements. Doing so could be perceived as a conflict of interest by patients. “We want our patients to know they can trust the care that is delivered,” Versi noted. The chief clinical officers of payer partners are often concerned about this, she added. “They’re seeing especially in women’s health and in this area in particular, every day there’s a new solution like magic bullet.”
Elektra spent five years building out its educational content, which can include information about popular products like ashwagandha or melatonin. “It’s not to say that there aren’t holistic alternatives that can be helpful and have been studied, but we try to surface that information so that patients can make an informed decision,” Versi said.
Prior to Elektra, which launched in 2019, Versi was on the founding team of Cityblock Health, a health tech unicorn that pioneered a value-based model of care centered around social determinants. Elektra has expanded insurance coverage rapidly, signing its first payer partner 2024 and now having close to 40. It also works with provider groups for referrals to in-person care as needed. Elektra builds those relationships locally and aims to ensure the partners are also in-network. Examples include UPMC Magee-Womens Midlife Health Center, Mass General Brigham Health Plan and Mount Sinai Health Partners.
Patients come to Elektra about menopause symptoms because the existing healthcare system is often not able to adequately address them. “There’s either not enough time in a visit, or simply providers who aren’t really trained don’t feel comfortable,” Versi explained. Since menopause care is complex, it’s not a condition a physician can quickly read up on and immediately feel comfortable with.
Elektra has a net promoter score over 90. Most (85%) of its patients see improvement in at least one symptom within nine months of treatment. When it comes to feeling educated about menopause, feeling supported and having access to experts, members report a 250% improvement from baseline in Year 1, Elektra says.
Why menopause care is not widely taught and practiced by all doctors is the result of a few historical factors. Hormone therapy, an FDA-approved first-line therapy to relieve symptoms like hot flashes, fell out of favor with providers in the early 2000s. A single study found links between hormone therapy and elevated health risks in women, including breast cancer.
Almost immediately, prescriptions plummeted. Though dozens of studies since have assuaged these concerns, the treatment’s reputation never fully recovered, according to a report from The New York Times on the subject in 2023.
“It was like: Throw the baby out with the bath water,” Versi said of the era.
Around the same time, the National Committee for Quality Assurance introduced a HEDIS measure surveying the management of menopause, assessing the breadth and personalization of menopause counseling as well as people's exposure to it. The metric was retired in 2005, but Versi would love to see it reintroduced. “Every woman deserves to be counseled around this pretty crucial inflection point in her health,” Versi said.
Another reason menopause care is not commonly offered is menopause—and women’s health more broadly—is an underfunded area of research. “There is just an absence of lobbying on behalf of women’s health that is hopefully starting to change as celebrities and spokespeople are entering the fray … but it has been long overdue,” Versi said.