Once a fast-rising Des Moines company, OpenLoop Health Inc. is scaling back its goals and incentives after failing to meet local employment benchmarks.
On Monday, Feb. 23, the Des Moines City Council voted to amend OpenLoop’s April 2023 contract with the city, lowering the number of jobs OpenLoop must create in Des Moines to qualify for incentives and reducing the amount to be paid out. The amendment calls for the company’s local employment to reach 100, down from 400 in the original 2023 agreement, and provides it an additional two years, until July 10, 2028, to reach that benchmark.
It also changes the description of OpenLoop’s headquarters to “leased premises,” reflecting the company’s move to rented space at 909 Locust St. from the tower at 317 Sixth Ave. that still bears its name.
OpenLoop will have to repay the city $187,500 of a $250,000 forgivable loan by July 10 and provide documentation that verifies it has invested at least $2.5 million in improvements to its new space. In order to qualify for the remaining sum, 60 of the jobs its creates will have to meet or exceed the state’s high-quality Job wage threshold for Polk County of $37.85 per hour, or $78,724 annually.
The city action comes after OpenLoop on Friday terminated a separate 2023 incentive package with the Iowa Economic Development Authority that was supposed to provide it $167,000 in estimated tax credits and a $500,000 forgivable loan to create 60 high-quality jobs. The company had not claimed any of the incentives.
CEO blames flooding, staffing obstacles for failure to meet goals
In scaling back OpenLoop’s incentives, CEO Dr. Jon Lensing in a letter to the state economic development authority listed a number of setbacks he said prevented the company from meeting its targets.
Lensing said OpenLoop is experiencing growth of 600% a year, but encountered difficulty recruiting and retaining local employees and had to hire a national workforce to meet its client expectations. He did not say how many employees the company has or how many work in Iowa, though in a January 2023 Des Moines Register story quoted Lensing as saying the company had 175 workers.
He also said the Sixth Avenue tower the company occupied ― the former Bank of America building ― experienced flooding in winter 2024 that caused extensive interior damage and limited the company’s ability to grow. It has since leased 33,086 square feet of office space in the Federal Home Loan Bank building.
Lensing wrote that despite the setbacks, the company is committed to retaining Des Moines as OpenLoop’s world headquarters.
Company faces lawsuits, including one alleging ‘snake oil’
The flooding and local staffing challenges aren’t the only setbacks OpenLoop has encountered. Other challenges include two class-action lawsuits.
One of the suits concerns an alleged cyberattack that allegedly may have exposed the health data of 1.6 million people to unauthorized disclosure. The other case, filed on Nov. 20, 2025, in federal court in Delaware, alleges OpenLoop embarked on the manufacturing, distribution, and nationwide sale of a fraudulent, unapproved GLP-1 weight loss drug, specifically, an “oral tirzepatide” weight-loss pill that attorneys for the plaintiffs referred to as “modern day snake oil.”
OpenLoop did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. But Larry Trittschuh, chief information security officer for the company, previously told the Iowa Capital Dispatch that the company did have a security incident in January.
Idea for company began in medical school
Lensing in 2021 told the Register he started brainstorming the business idea behind OpenLoop, founded in 2020, with business partner Christian Williams while he was at the University of Iowa medical school. They wanted to build an “Uber for health care,” matching physicians and nurses with providers who needed shifts filled.
But he said they found demand limited, so as many patients shifted to telehealth for the first time In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, they shifted their focus there.
Staff writer Tyler Jett contributed to this article.
Kevin Baskins covers jobs and the economy for the Register. Reach him at kbaskins@registermedia.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Ambitious Des Moines company cuts goals as it misses jobs benchmarks
Reporting by Kevin Baskins, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
