FinFit, the Virginia Beach-based financial wellness company, and Optima Health, a Virginia Beach-based health insurance provider, have joined forces to help those in underserved and vulnerable populations ease financial stress.

Traci Massie, Optima Health’s director of government programs, said in a news release the stress money, or the lack thereof, can bring to a person or family affects their physical and mental health.

“To address this need, Optima Health is partnering with FinFit, a financial wellness solution with tools to help our Medicaid members manage and understand their finances, including one-on-one financial counseling,” Massie said.

Founded in 2008, FinFit offers an online platform to garner financial well-being and increase financial knowledge via educational resources and tools. The company currently serves more than 300,000 clients and millions of members throughout the U.S.

Charles Lattimer, FinFit’s vice president of innovation and growth, said the partnership developed after he spoke with Randy Ricker, president of Optima’s Medicaid population.

“The conversation was around the social determinants of health and the importance of financial stability in assuring their members had security in other areas like housing, food and transportation,” Lattimer said.

Together, they identified two key areas that needed to be bolstered within the community: general financial literacy and ensuring individuals without bank accounts have access to free emergency savings accounts.

“So once they take the lessons learned through financial literacy — and hopefully begin spending a little bit less than what they make, they have an opportunity to take those additional resources and invest in themselves over time for an emergency savings account,” he said.

Lattimer said they understand that 50% of people who have financial challenges are too embarrassed to ask for help.

“Anytime you can kind of remove that barrier of embarrassment, it’s an opportunity to engage somebody on their financial wellness journey,” he said. “We like to unfortunately say that the most expensive job in America is being poor, and we’re actively engaged in making sure that is not a problem in this country within the next five to 10 years.”

Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@insidebiz.com