Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: HealthSherpa CTO Ning Liang (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: Do you get paid commissions on the full price?

Ning Liang: Yes, we do. 

Sramana Mitra: What is the situation with the semi-legal immigrants in the country – people who do not have Employers Tax Number? Are they eligible for Obamacare?

Ning Liang: Yes. In our application, we have a question about citizenship. If you are not a citizen, then you are asked about immigration status and if you have a valid one. There is a long list. There’s the common ones like the green card and what not, but there are temporary things that are being set up.

For a while, there was Haitian refugee temporary status rights, for example. There is about a list of fifteen of them that you can have. As long as you have one of those, you will also qualify for the savings whether that’s through subsidies for the private health plans or through Medicaid if your income is lower.

Sramana Mitra: Okay got it. Let me switch to asking you about open problems in this general universe that you play in. What are some open problems you would point new entrepreneurs to start a new company in?

Ning Liang: That’s a great question. There’s a health insurance aspect – America has a relatively high uninsured rate. Trying to get people into health insurance and covered by health insurance is one aspect.

Looking for gaps in the safety net or gaps in typical benefits that people might have with a large employer that are not prevalent in other parts of the population, that’s one opportunity.

The way you can solve that, which is what we are doing with this specific opportunity, is making it easy for people to navigate those programs and get connected with them and then continue to manage those programs.

There are also other companies doing similar things. For example, Snap, has a food stamp program to help people sign up for and utilize their food stamps. We’re helping you make sure that you get your savings and maintain your savings. We make sure you have the right health plan so you also save the most on your co-pays.

There are many programs like that in the US that have opportunities like this and, frankly, the government underutilizes the whole. 

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. Are there similar opportunities for mental health that is poorly understood and very poorly serviced?

Ning Liang: Absolutely. I think one of the lesser known things about the ACA is, it did require health coverage programs to cover mental health equally along with non-mental health issues. I am not sure if that is commonly known.

There is potentially an opportunity to connect consumers to mental health providers now that there is basic expanded coverage for those services. 

Sramana Mitra: Very interesting. I’m very glad you connected with us. I’m very happy to hear what you are doing and we wish you all the best. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: HealthSherpa CTO Ning Liang
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