BIP Winter 2025

BROKER VOICES SERIES

E Emily Trevino turns coverage into care

“Everybody deserves access to healthcare. Our job is to bring transparency so people can use their coverage with confidence,” says Emily Trevino, co-founder of Wise Insurance in Houston, Texas. After 16 years in the individual and ACA markets, Trevino still measures success the same way: Did the client actually get care? Having entered the individual market when confusion was high and many agents were exiting, what Trevino saw was an underserved public, families guessing at plans, seniors overwhelmed by forms and new Americans trying to navigate benefits in a second language. “People lose sleep over healthcare,” she says. “They need a guide who understands benefits and real life.” That conviction shows up most clearly in crisis. For instance, one client with a scheduled, pre approved heart procedure called in a panic after the hospital suddenly declined to proceed. Trevino’s team escalated the issue with the carrier that afternoon. By 5 p.m., the surgery was back on for the next morning. For Trevino, that day is the point of the profession: expertise plus relationships that remove barriers between a patient and the care they need. From confusion to clarity Trevino’s first conversation with any client is part education, part reality check. Cheapest seldom means best. Networks differ. Hospital brands can mask multiple entities. Prescriptions, referrals and prior authorizations create friction the average person can’t see coming. Wise Insurance then wraps that education with a dedicated in-house care team. After enrollment, clients get help finding specialists, confirming network status, fixing referrals, decoding EOBs and disputing surprise bills. “The relationship starts at the sale,” says Trevino. “Access is the goal.” She also addresses gaps people rarely plan for — cancer, heart attack, stroke — by showing how supplemental solutions can protect families financially. Her litmus test is simple. Will this help someone use the health system the way they believe it should work?

34 bip magazine Winter 2025