Latest / Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast / Ty Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Angle Health

Transcript

Ty Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Angle Health · Becker’s Payer Issues Podcast

• 0:00
  Evernorth brings the power of wonder and relentless
• 0:02
  innovation to create world class pharmacy, care, and
• 0:05
  benefit solutions.
• 0:07
  Barriers to care can lead to gaps in
• 0:08
  care, which can drive up the total cost
• 0:10
  of care. Our capabilities work seamlessly together to
• 0:13
  create innovative pharmacy care and benefit solutions for
• 0:17
  today and tomorrow.
• 0:18
  Our connected health services make the treatment, prediction,
• 0:21
  and prevention of health care's most complex conditions
• 0:24
  easier and more accessible as we drive organizations
• 0:27
  and people forward.
• 0:29
  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Payer Issues
• 0:31
  podcast recorded, the third annual spring Payers Issues
• 0:33
  roundtable.
• 0:34
  I'm joined today by Tai Wong. Tai, can
• 0:37
  you please introduce yourself and tell us a
• 0:38
  little bit about your role in your organization?
• 0:40
  Yeah. And thanks for having me here again.
• 0:43
  I'm Tai Wong, cofounder and CEO of Angle
• 0:46
  Health. And, Angle Health is an AI native
• 0:48
  integrated health care company. Our core products are
• 0:51
  custom full service health plans for employers.
• 0:55
  We offer fully insured and level funded health
• 0:57
  plan products and serve thousands of small and
• 1:00
  medium small and medium sized, businesses and tens
• 1:02
  of thousands of members across the country today.
• 1:06
  Balancing affordability and quality is a constant challenge
• 1:09
  for health plans. How is your organization innovating
• 1:12
  to manage the cost of care while maintaining
• 1:14
  or improving member outcomes?
• 1:16
  Yeah. That's a great question.
• 1:18
  I think one thing that's important for us
• 1:20
  as a full stack health plan offering and
• 1:22
  especially in the level funded space where we
• 1:24
  are the TPA, the plan administrator,
• 1:27
  and the stop loss carrier,
• 1:29
  we really see ourselves as fully aligned with
• 1:31
  the member and the employer when it comes
• 1:33
  to improving costs and, improving,
• 1:36
  health outcomes. So we're constantly building and launching
• 1:39
  new products and partnerships,
• 1:40
  with the best in class solutions across health
• 1:43
  care access and treatment
• 1:45
  Through our integrated data platform and proprietary AI
• 1:48
  and machine learning capabilities that we've built here
• 1:50
  at Engle Health as well, we are able
• 1:52
  to surface insights for our care and advocacy
• 1:55
  teams who are then able to really engage
• 1:57
  our members into these programs that best meet
• 1:59
  their health care needs, whether it's chronic disease
• 2:02
  management or a complex course of care.
• 2:05
  This also serves to really ensure that our
• 2:07
  members access the most appropriate,
• 2:09
  high quality, and cost effective care available to
• 2:12
  them. In many cases, that means delivering preventive
• 2:15
  care to avoid a major future event like
• 2:17
  an ER admission.
• 2:19
  Mhmm. And so member satisfaction is obviously invention
• 2:22
  to thrive in today's super competitive health care
• 2:24
  market.
• 2:25
  What experience or engagement strategies have proven effective
• 2:29
  for your organization, and what are your KPIs?
• 2:31
  How are you managing success?
• 2:33
  Yeah. So we've learned a lot through the
• 2:35
  launch of our angle advocacy program, which we
• 2:38
  launched last year, and it's essentially a concierge
• 2:40
  care navigation service for our
• 2:42
  highest acuity members. One of the biggest learnings
• 2:45
  that we had was that people just want
• 2:47
  a real human to engage with. Ideally, someone
• 2:49
  that's knowledgeable that can help them navigate their
• 2:52
  care journey.
• 2:53
  And the reality is that even when someone
• 2:55
  has a PCP,
• 2:56
  a team of specialists,
• 2:58
  many many still feel like they're left to
• 3:01
  navigate the complexities of the health care system
• 3:03
  on their own.
• 3:04
  The status quo is that no one really
• 3:06
  expects to get help, least of all, from
• 3:08
  their health plan. So we found that it's
• 3:10
  really up to us to engage. And and
• 3:12
  when we do, the response
• 3:14
  has been overwhelmingly positive.
• 3:16
  To your question about how we measure that
• 3:18
  success Mhmm. I would say, ultimately, the feedback
• 3:21
  that we're getting from our members,
• 3:23
  these are people who are in incredibly sensitive
• 3:25
  situations. They're facing difficult circumstances, not just with
• 3:28
  their health, but also in many cases, their
• 3:30
  financial well-being. So Mhmm. When we're able to
• 3:33
  provide a service that, in the worst case,
• 3:35
  provides a bit of moral support and in
• 3:37
  the best case, really,
• 3:39
  saves lives and provides thousands of dollars in
• 3:41
  savings to our members. You can imagine
• 3:44
  why members and employers don't just view us
• 3:46
  as a health plan, but really as a
• 3:47
  partner in health. Mhmm. Mhmm.
• 3:50
  You and I chatted last year,
• 3:52
  on the same, I believe at the same
• 3:53
  conference on the same show. And, you know,
• 3:56
  a lot in health care has changed since
• 3:58
  then, and it's gonna be continuing to change
• 4:00
  at a super rapid pace.
• 4:02
  And
• 4:03
  looking ahead, I'm very curious. What do you
• 4:05
  see as the biggest opportunities for payers
• 4:08
  to lead the charge in transforming health care
• 4:10
  delivery and driving better outcomes for all of
• 4:12
  the stakeholders involved? And how can leaders such
• 4:15
  as yourself,
• 4:17
  take a step in this direction now?
• 4:19
  Yeah. That's a great question, and I think
• 4:21
  that's a really big question.
• 4:23
  I would say AI is easily the largest
• 4:25
  opportunity for payers today to evolve how they
• 4:28
  operate and and to deliver services that ultimately
• 4:30
  result in better, more efficient delivery of care
• 4:33
  to consumers.
• 4:35
  At angle through our integrated data platform, we're
• 4:38
  already seeing significant operating leverage across our operations,
• 4:42
  especially with the AI,
• 4:44
  models and the and the tools that we
• 4:46
  have, which result in lower administrative costs and
• 4:49
  ultimately savings for our members and employers.
• 4:52
  The AI tools that streamline operations, whether it's
• 4:54
  for policy management, eligibility,
• 4:57
  claims processing,
• 4:58
  clinical decision making, or anything else
• 5:01
  will fundamentally change the way that health plans
• 5:03
  and providers operate,
• 5:05
  which provides efficiencies back into the health care
• 5:07
  system, and I think will also free up
• 5:09
  providers to spend more time doing what's,
• 5:11
  most important, which is treating their patients.
• 5:15
  So, I think the the best thing that
• 5:16
  leaders can do right now to take a
• 5:18
  step in that direction is to really foster
• 5:20
  a culture
• 5:21
  of innovation and and,
• 5:23
  embrace this new technology.
• 5:26
  Ty, as someone who's really utilizing
• 5:28
  AI in this space
• 5:30
  and AI, you know, even where it was
• 5:32
  a couple years ago versus now is night
• 5:33
  and day,
• 5:34
  what are some of the things you could
• 5:36
  see as use cases or ways that might,
• 5:39
  like, totally impact your industry in a couple
• 5:41
  years that we might not even be thinking
• 5:42
  about now? Like, what are you most excited
• 5:45
  about that might not be being utilized right
• 5:47
  now?
• 5:47
  Yeah. That's a great question. So I think,
• 5:50
  the pace of advancement in AI is is
• 5:52
  immense. Every single day, something new comes out,
• 5:55
  and if you're not keeping up with it,
• 5:57
  you're already behind.
• 6:00
  I think there's still a long way to
• 6:02
  go when it comes to many of the
• 6:04
  more advanced capabilities that people are really working
• 6:07
  on, whether it's in,
• 6:09
  the ability to leverage AI to truly make
• 6:11
  clinical decisions or to even on kind of
• 6:14
  the education side where we now have companies
• 6:17
  that are,
• 6:18
  starting and trying to replace things like medical
• 6:20
  school with with AI.
• 6:23
  I think I think those I think
• 6:25
  some of those areas are extremely
• 6:28
  exciting for what it means when it comes
• 6:30
  to lowering the the barrier to
• 6:33
  accessing care and and and to more people
• 6:35
  really entering
• 6:36
  the workforce in the industry.
• 6:38
  And and here at Engel Health as well,
• 6:40
  we really believe in a human in the
• 6:41
  loop, philosophy when it comes to AI. And,
• 6:45
  I think we're really seeing that as we
• 6:47
  as as a lot of these new use
• 6:49
  cases and companies,
• 6:51
  form to
• 6:53
  to build these kinds of tools that will
• 6:55
  really change
• 6:56
  the way that,
• 6:57
  a health plan and and and really the
• 6:59
  health care system operates across the administrative side
• 7:02
  and across the clinical side.
• 7:04
  Awesome. I love that. Well, Ty, thank you
• 7:06
  so much. Again, it's been a pleasure chatting
• 7:08
  with you, and I really appreciate you joining
• 7:10
  us today on the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. It's
• 7:12
  a pleasure as always, and, we look forward
• 7:14
  to chatting again next year. I do too.
• 7:16
  Thank you so much.