Shriya Jonnalagadda on Rethinking Healthcare Financial Planning

Shriya Jonnalagadda (CAS’28) joined the Enlight Fellowship to address a problem she saw at the intersection of healthcare and financial security: people often don’t understand the financial risks of their healthcare choices until it’s too late. Through the fellowship, she built Bottom Line, a model that uses healthcare, financial, and insurance data to estimate a person’s potential worst-case out-of-pocket costs and connect those at risk with financial counselors and community resources. Her work this summer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reinforced the need for earlier financial planning, while Enlight taught her how to turn an idea into reality. ----- Innovate@BU is a University-wide initiative to enable all BU Terriers to become drivers of innovation in their own lives, careers, and communities. Through its physical home on the Charles River campus, the IDG Capital Student Innovation Center, it provides a variety of signature programs that foster an entrepreneurial mindset and help students turn their ideas into something real. Learn more: https://www.bu.edu/innovate/about/