Raising Health

Recently,  a16z Bio + Health general partner Julie Yoo spoke with Nikita Singareddy, cofounder of Fortuna, and Florian Otto, cofounder of Cedar. They talked about why healthcare affordability is reaching a breaking point, how AI voice agents are transforming patient financial experiences, and what it will take to leapfrog decades of administrative burden in Medicaid—from 30-page paper applications to legacy technology systems built in the 1990s to the real opportunity for giving every American a "five-star healthcare experience."
 
Resources:
Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://twitter.com/julesyoo
Follow Nikita Singareddy on X:  https://twitter.com/singareddynm
Check out Fortuna: https://www.fortunahealth.com/
Follow Florian Otto on X:  https://twitter.com/flottobrasil
Check out Cedar: https://www.cedar.com/
 
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures.

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Out-of-Pocket is a healthcare education company founded by Nikhil Krishnan that helps people understand how healthcare works and how to navigate it in practice. In this episode, a16z investing partner Jay Rughani and Nikhil discuss why health insurance is losing its role as the default way people access care. They explain how rising costs are pushing more consumers to pay out of pocket for diagnostics, preventive care, and navigation. The conversation also looks at what this shift means for startups, AI-powered tools, regulation, and access as healthcare continues to move beyond insurance.
 
Resources:
Follow Jay Rughani on X:  https://twitter.com/JayRughani
Follow Nikhil Krishnan on X: https://twitter.com/nikillinit
Read Out of Pocket’s 2026 Predictions: https://www.outofpocket.health/p/out-of-pockets-2026-predictions
 
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If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!
Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z
Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details, please see http://a16z.com/disclosures

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Cofounders Jeremy Wohlwend and Gabriele Corso join the a16z podcast to discuss the launch of Boltz, a public benefit company building AI infrastructure for molecular biology. The conversation explains how breakthroughs following AlphaFold moved the field beyond protein structure prediction into modeling biomolecular interactions and binding strength, why open-source Boltz models saw rapid adoption across pharma and biotech, and how that work is now being productized. They outline the launch of Boltz Lab, a platform that brings protein and small-molecule design agents into scientist workflows, Boltz’s decision to operate as an infrastructure company rather than a therapeutics company, and how AI could reduce early drug discovery bottlenecks by improving molecular design and speeding iteration between computation and the lab.
 
Resources: 
Follow Gabriele on X: https://twitter.com/GabriCorso 
Follow Jeremy on X: https://twitter.com/jeremyWohlwend 
Follow Jorge X: https://twitter.com/jorgecondebio 
Follow Zak on X: https://twitter.com/zakdoric  
 
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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg](https://x.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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In this episode, a16z GP Julie Yoo sits down with Peter McCanna, CEO of Baylor Scott & White Health, to break down how one of America's largest health systems is transforming from a supply-driven "walled castle" to a customer-centric ecosystem, and how it's achieving a 10% operating margin while most hospitals struggle to stay in the black.
They get into why helping his father navigate healthcare convinced Pete the entire system is fundamentally broken, what differentiates academic medical centers from community health systems, and why traditional hospital economics root out essential services like behavioral health. Peter also explains how ambient AI reduced physician burnout rates by 70%, why AI will eventually replace any job involving human-screen interaction, and what he looks for in startup partnerships beyond just TAM and business fundamentals.
 
Resources:
Follow Peter on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mccanna-784619104
Follow Julie on X: @julesyoo
 
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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711
Follow our host: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.

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A labor and delivery nurse who ran Senate healthcare policy now manages $1.7 trillion in federal health spending—and she runs her team like a startup.
Steph Carlton, Chief of Staff and Deputy Administrator at CMS, reveals the OKRs driving Medicare and Medicaid, why they're killing social determinants funding while building consumer health apps at scale, and how real-time provider data could collapse the 18-month lag between care delivery and payment. 
The team mixing founders with policy veterans is rewriting quality measures around VO2 max and app engagement, not just disease management—because preventing illness years before it happens might finally be worth more than treating it after.
 
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Find a16z on X: https://x.com/a16z
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Listen to the a16z Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX
Listen to the a16z Podcast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a16z-podcast/id842818711
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see http://a16z.com/disclosures

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