Education First — Patrick Eaton, Eaton Agency

Patrick Eaton, owner of Eaton Agency in North Little Rock, never set out to work in insurance. In fact, he was studying at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway to become a teacher when his father, attorney Jimmy Eaton, encouraged him to get his insurance license.

“He was getting into doing wills and trusts, and he thought, ‘Well, you go get your insurance license. Maybe somebody needs a life insurance policy or annuity, you can write that for me when that pops up,’” Patrick Eaton said. “I was like, ‘OK,’ you know? Going to school full time, I said, ‘Well, that doesn’t sound too bad.’ I ended up taking my insurance test at the same time I was doing semester tests. It was a tough one.”

By the time Eaton graduated, he was already selling insurance at Bankers Life and Casualty Co. He never went into teaching, but he has found a way to integrate education into his work.

“I always took my education into the sales side of it,” he said. “My main focus when I do sales is more of educating and then letting them decide.”

The summer after graduation, Eaton and his father began conducting seminars to teach attendees about wills and trusts along with planning for Medicaid, long-term care, home health care and annuities. That summer, Eaton decided being independent would be a better fit for his low-pressure sales approach. He and his father started Eaton Agency in 2002.

Like many in the insurance industry, he has worked for other companies while growing his firm. The business has had its ups and downs throughout the years, but Eaton said he is grateful for the success it has had. Developing a strong business plan and following through with it is essential for independent agents, he added.

“Learning to survive the lows with the highs and trust in the plan that you put out there is one of the biggest things that most people can accomplish when they go into the business,” he said.

With a focus on individual health, Eaton Agency specializes in Medicare and Medicaid while also providing for needs such as life, dental and vision. Eaton described Medicaid as something he has returned to multiple times throughout his career.

At Bankers, he said, the focus was on protecting one’s assets from Medicaid by having home health care and long-term care insurance. In 2006, he worked for Humana, helping people sign up for Medicare Advantage and apply for low-income programs to help pay for their prescription drugs.

By the time the Affordable Care Act came about, Eaton had become an expert in Medicaid, which positioned him as a trusted resource for those eligible for the program.

“ACA fundamentally changed everything out there for us,” he said. “It changed who we could help and how fast we can help them. It opened doors for people who have never had the ability to find affordable coverage, especially through the Arkansas Medicaid private option, and it gave us new tools to guide families through complex choices without the fear of being declined due to past health insurance.”

That was something Eaton had experienced in his own household, his wife having been mistakenly diagnosed with glaucoma during college. She and others who had been denied insurance due to past health information were now able to get signed on, he said.

“Then, with the private option, we were helping people get insurance for the first time in their lives,” he added. “A lot of these people never had insurance on their own, and I had people come to me crying that they found out they were diabetic and this was changing their life. Those first few years, the number of people that discovered the use of insurance was amazing.”

Staying on the leading edge of the insurance business takes a lot of reading, Eaton said, and he has his news feeds set to send him the latest Medicaid and health insurance news so he can keep up with what is going on in Arkansas and other states.

He is also working to streamline his processes by moving Eaton Agency into the digital age. The agency is working to deliver applications via text message, rather than sending applications by mail, and Eaton Agency is also working on an app that will allow people to complete applications, provide any needed documentation and update their information as needed.

Eaton said his clients are bombarded with so much information that it is easy for them to get overwhelmed and give up, but that is one of the worst things someone can do when it comes to Medicaid. He said he finds satisfaction in guiding them through the process.

“We help those people through some of the hoops that it takes to get on some of those plans and guide them through it so that they don’t just give up and not get signed up,” he said. “Helping people from confusion to clarity is one of the biggest rewards that we get.”