Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Ty Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Angle Health

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Ty Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Angle Health · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is where health insurance leadership comes together.
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  Becker's fourth annual spring payer issues roundtable brings
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  together over 400
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  payer and health plan executives and more than
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  100 speakers to Chicago April.
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  This year's event includes keynote conversations with the
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  industry's top leaders and former president George w
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  Bush. For the full agenda and event details,
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  visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  and click on the events tab in the
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  upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you
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  here in Chicago.
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  Hello, everyone. Welcome to Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm
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  Scott King. Thrilled today to be joined by
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  a very special guest, Tai Wang, cofounder and
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  chief executive officer
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  over at Engel Health. Tai, how are you
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  doing? Thanks so much for joining.
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  Doing well. Thanks so much for having me
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  on again, Scott. Yeah. Of course. And, you
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  know, we're really looking forward to having you
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  speak at our spring payer issues roundtable as
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  well, and we have a lot of kind
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  of big topics to get to here in
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  in health care and with health plans. But
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  before we address those ties, I wonder if
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  you could just please share a little bit
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  about your, career background and your journey in
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  health care.
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  Yeah. I'd be happy to.
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  I'm Ty Wang, cofounder, CEO of Engle Health.
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  Before starting Engle Health, my,
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  cofounder and I were both at Palantir leading,
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  major teams and and deployments over there and
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  and working
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  across government and and commercial
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  customers, including,
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  health care customers. So,
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  that's where we learned a lot of,
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  a lot of, I would say, kind of
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  the operational,
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  pieces of of how this whole ecosystem
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  works together and and how we ended up
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  building
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  today, Angle Health is the first AI native
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  vertically integrated health plan, and we're one of
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  the fastest growing health care companies in the
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  country.
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  Our products themselves are fully customizable major medical
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  health plans, all ACA compliant for,
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  small and medium sized businesses. And,
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  essentially, we're delivering
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  these Fortune 100 level health care benefits to
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  your local businesses. So Angle Health enables brokers
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  and their small employer clients to build these
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  custom health plans just like a major employer
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  with thousands or tens of thousands of employees
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  and a large sophisticated benefits team might do
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  it. And and we're really
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  we've been able to bring that all the
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  way down market to your local businesses,
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  because of the infrastructure that we've built.
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  Thanks so much for sharing that that info
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  on your background,
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  Ty, and and how, you know, kinda Engel
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  Health came to be and what it does.
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  And, you know, it it's certainly a time
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  where,
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  obviously, providers
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  and payers are, like, are both facing a
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  lot of regulations.
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  Right? And and we know how how difficult
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  that can be. How how are you seeing
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  a relationship between,
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  you know,
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  providers
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  and health plans change,
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  you know, on both sides
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  as they face cost pressure as, you know,
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  specifically in workforce shortages?
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  Yeah. I I would say I would say
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  one of the biggest shifts that we're seeing
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  today is that the relationship
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  between providers and health plans is,
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  becoming less
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  a bit less transactional and and and kinda
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  more operational.
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  So with like you mentioned, with with,
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  all the changing regulation
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  with the economy, it's it's impacting providers and
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  hospitals just as much
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  as health plans, and the two sides are
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  really inextricably
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  linked. When costs go up on one side,
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  they go up on the other side. And,
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  as a result, we're we're seeing we're seeing
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  more openness, I would say, to shared problem
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  solving. So things like reducing administrative burden, simplifying
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  workflows like prior authorizations,
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  improving,
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  integrations and data handoffs, and and being more
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  aligned on on the,
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  care pathways that actually work. And
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  I think,
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  for us, as a modern,
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  platform for health care benefits, we
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  we specifically seek out those partners,
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  and and partners that are willing to,
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  redesign
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  the what more traditional workflows rather than just,
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  renegotiating
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  fees. And I think we're we're seeing a
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  lot more openness and a lot of collaboration
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  there across the,
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  payer and provider sides.
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  Yeah. Yeah. I I've talked to a lot
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  of a lot of people speaking at at
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  the spring pair of shoes roundtable recently,
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  from the health plan side, and and they
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  definitely agree
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  with you, Ty. It's it's that they're just
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  seem like, you know, everyone's got so many
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  issues to deal with. Everyone just kinda coming
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  to the table Mhmm. With some ideas and
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  and to work collaboratively. So, yeah, definitely agree
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  with it, you know, seeming to not be
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  so transactional anymore. So I appreciate your insight
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  there.
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  And, you know, I'm also curious, where do
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  you see the biggest gap today between
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  payer strategy and operational execution?
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  Yeah. That's a good question. The I think
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  one thing that many plans talk about
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  are,
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  around value based care, digital enablement,
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  things like the member or patient experience.
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  But the the challenge that and and I
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  would say this is this is the gap
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  is that
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  many payers and and,
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  legacy health plans are still operating on on
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  legacy systems, on fragmented systems, manual processes that
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  really make executing on some of these things
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  at scale very difficult. So there the the
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  strategy is really assume,
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  and require
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  things like having clean data, having real time
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  insights, having very much aligned incentives.
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  Whereas the
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  operational
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  side,
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  and and to actually execute on that,
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  there's still really the operational side is really
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  still stuck doing things like reconciling eligibility files
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  or
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  chasing faxes.
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  So I I I think until major health
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  plans truly modernize their core infrastructure, so there's
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  systems for claims and benefits and provider data
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  and care management,
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  it'll be extremely hard to execute on those
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  strategies. And and that's why we're really building
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  and why we started Angle Health by building
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  technology infrastructure from the ground up. So although
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  Angle Health today is a product company delivering
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  these affordable and personalized health health plans to
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  thousands of small businesses across the country,
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  we really believe that our our core asset
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  is the technology platform that that powers it,
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  and I think we're seeing a lot more
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  focus and and and urgency as well from
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  from major players and from the market and,
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  also,
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  trying to modernize themselves.
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  What's the one investment or initiative you believe
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  will most reshape
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  how health plans operate over the next two
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  to three years?
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  The the easy answer there is, is is
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  AI, I think. But I I I'm happy
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  to take it kind of a little bit
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  deeper than that. I think I think it's
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  it's outcome linked payment infrastructure.
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  So,
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  as as more reimbursement,
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  incentives are tied to outcomes rather than
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  pure utilization.
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  And I I think this is a major
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  push especially with pro the the programs like
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  ACCESS.
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  Health plans need to be able to really
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  track performance across their vendors and providers and
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  health systems and and and really in in
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  any care setting.
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  And it's it's it's much more than, like,
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  contracts themselves. It's really investment in the systems
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  that that enable them to operationalize things like,
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  measurable,
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  standardized,
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  and and very transparent,
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  outcome data.
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  If you could change one regulatory or industry
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  practice tomorrow, yeah, so, like, very soon to
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  improve, affordability
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  and access, what would it be and why?
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  If I were to change one regulatory or
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  industry practice tomorrow,
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  I think the I think what could make
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  one of the most immediate impacts is,
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  I I'd bring a lot more transparency
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  into
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  employer
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  health care costs and broker compensation
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  structures, particularly by the major insurance companies. So
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  particularly
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  by large,
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  where where these large incumbents use
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  certain incentives to steer behavior.
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  We, I mean, we see it all the
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  time today in the market where in most
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  cases,
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  broker compensation is designed in ways that
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  favor
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  or or or lock,
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  brokers and employers into certain carriers,
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  or incentivize things like higher premiums
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  regardless of whether that's that's best for the
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  employers or the members. And we see that
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  across, I think, across all all,
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  lines of business within the health plan space
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  where we're only in the commercial space, but
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  it's it's true in,
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  Medicare. It's true in in in the government
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  program space. So,
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  I I think,
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  most brokers want to do the right thing,
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  but because of the
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  kind of very opaque incentive structures that exist
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  as well as the gatekeeping of health care
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  cost data, which is extremely impactful when you
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  talk about small and medium sized businesses and
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  and the lack of access that they have
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  there.
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  That can make it very difficult for for
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  brokers to
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  be that strategic partner,
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  with with fully aligned incentives. So and it's
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  it's one thing that we that we focus
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  on a lot today. So we're we're I
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  would say we're really paving that road at
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  Angle Health with, what we we call the
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  Angle Health scorecard where we're maybe the only
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  health plan today that provides
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  an
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  unprecedented level of transparency into the actual health
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  care costs for employers with every single quote
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  that we that we issue.
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  And the last question I have for you,
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  Ty, what issue is putting the most pressure
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  on health plan margins right now,
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  and how will you respond differently in 2026?
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  Yeah.
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  I I think the probably one of the
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  biggest ones, very, very timely as well,
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  this week is the,
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  the Medicare
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  rates,
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  that's that CMS is,
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  is setting.
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  It's not it for us, since we're not
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  a Medicare plan, it's it's less impactful for
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  us, but but it it's the it's still
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  it's the medical cost trend. I think that's,
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  that has and will probably always be the
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  single biggest cost pressure, and and it's it's
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  being driven by things like specialty care, by
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  things like pharmacy, and and, ultimately,
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  unmanaged medical conditions.
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  Most I would say in terms of kind
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  of how we're responding, I think most plans
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  leverage or historically have leveraged these very blunt
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  tools to do reactive cost containment.
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  How we view it at Angle Health and
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  what we're really focused on is is,
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  what I would say is is proactive care
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  orchestration.
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  So,
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  being able to identify risk earlier,
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  being able to engage and steer members to
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  the right settings, and and and being able
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  to intervene before
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  major costs,
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  spike,
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  without creating with,
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  while also delivering a a kind of first
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  class member experience.
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  So the way that we're doing that is
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  through tighter integration,
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  between the actual benefit plans themselves to the
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  clinical
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  programs and the provider partners that we that
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  we work with there
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  and then a focus on on workflows that
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  really improve
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  the engagement workflows that really improve the experience
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  for the member and and also drive operational
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  efficiencies,
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  for,
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  for the employer, for the provider, for for
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  the health plan. And our our belief is
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  that
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  margins improve
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  if you can make the system work in
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  a better kind of more coordinated way
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  in the long term,
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  not when you increase friction, which may
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  improve margins in the short term, but is
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  is is a very shortsighted way of of
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  of thinking about it. So we really focus
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  on on
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  on that kind of long term view and
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  and rebuilding,
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  what we call these kind of core care
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  pathways,
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  so that,
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  we can fully align
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  each of the stakeholders
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  while also,
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  streamlining that experience for our members.
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  I think that sounds great. And, Ty, thanks
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  so much for joining us on the podcast.
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  It was a great conversation. Looking forward to
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  having you speak with us in April. Amazing.
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  Thanks so much, Scott. This is fun, and
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  I'm excited to, see everyone again in April.