Health EZ | 7201 W. 78th St., Bloomington, MN 55439 | Phone: 952-896-1203 | Fax: 952-896-4880 | n azie.eftekhari@healthez.com

Nazie Eftekhari is the founder and CEO of HealthEZ, a Minneapolis-based provider of services designed to streamline health-care billing and payment processes, and founder and chair of the Araz Group, which brings together doctors and other health-care providers into a network to negotiate service rates with insurers and  third-party administrators. Throughout her career, she has developed ways for self-insured employers to provide attractive health-benefit programs for their employees and found new ways to implement information technologies in health care. She is founder of the Foundation for the Children of Iran, where she was born. She serves on the board of visitors of the University of Minnesota Medical School and the board of overseers of the University’s Carlson School of Management.

Born: January 4, 1955 in Tehran, Iran

Children: Sahm and  Raz McGlynn

Education: London School of Economics and master's degrees in International Relations from the University of Southern California (UK) and in Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota.

Career History: Chairwoman and CEO, America’s PPO/America’s TPA/HealthEZ, present; Chairwoman and CEO, The Araz Group (formerly ETHIX Midwest), 1994-2002; Chairwoman and CEO, ETHIX Midwest (formerly Family Health Plan), 1990-1994; President and Director of Family Health Plan, 1985-1990; Vice President of Administration & Provider Relations, Family Health Plan, 1983-1985; Planning and Management Consultant, Brim & Associates, 1981-1983; Assistant Administrator, Fairview Riverside Hospital, 1979-1981; and Administrative Fellow, Fairview Community Hospitals, 1979-1980.

Activities: Nazie is a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Minnesota Medical School and serves on the Board of Overseers of the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management and Board of Trustees of The Walker Art Center. She is also the founder of the Foundation for the Children of Iran.

Awards: Nazie has received recognition for her leadership in business and service to the community. In 2004, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal named her one of the Twin Cities’ Women Changemakers. The Araz Group was cited by City Business as one of the region’s top 25 women-owned businesses. In 1995, Ms. Eftekhari was named Small Business Person of the Year. Among her other awards: the Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights Award and the Woman of Distinction Award.  

Key Achievements: First: Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) in the nation (the term PPO was coined for our company by Paul Elwood in 1982); TPA to offer a proprietary PPO; PPO to provide customized, employer-specific provider networks; medical management provider offered under the name Value Assurance Plan, launched in Minnesota in 1983; to consolidate insurance and consumer payment to providers; to provide consolidated, monthly statement in place of traditional EOB; paperless statement; to show Rx claims on medical statement; to allow consumers to pay doctor bills via their TPA; to allow consumers to pay multiple unrelated providers via the credit card of their choice through a single web portal; TPA to provide consumer loans for healthcare bills; to automate payments from HSA/HRA/FSA accounts to providers in a single transaction and allow consumer to determine order of priority; to allow consumers to audit claims prior to payment via electronic notification; to provide employer-specific customized transactional websites