The Exec: Healthfirst President and CEO Pat Wang Reflects on International Women’s Day

From the top post, Wang leads a plan that serves the world.

For 113 years, International Women’s Day has celebrated the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women and is designed to accelerate equality. IWD’s 2024 theme is the campaign theme for International Women's Day 2024 (March 8) is Inspire Inclusion.

One way to inspire inclusion is to represent it with excellence. In honor of IWD, HealthLeaders followed up our July 2023 interview with Pat Wang — the Healthfirst president and CEO who is also in her second year of serving as a director with the New York Fed.

Gaps in the C-suite

A designated day to recognize women shows both how far we’ve come and how far we have to go. In 2023, women held just 8.2% of CEO positions at S&P 500 companies (Catalyst, cited by Harvard Law). The numbers are much higher in healthcare and outside of the S&P but still need work: 15.3% of health system CEOs and 15.8% of health plan CEOs were women as of 2021 (JAMA).

Wang is one of them. She is also Chinese-American. Those factors are important, but it’s equally important to ask about them in the right way.

"I really appreciate your sensitivity towards that,” says Wang. “I don't have a strong reaction because I think it's legit. When I first took this job, the Chinese and Chinese-American community just couldn't believe it.”

“There are a lot of people in these communities who run businesses and have leadership titles,” Wang notes, adding: “But my role was a kind of Main Street, American company, so it was all the more notable from their perspective. I thought that was really interesting."

Leading by example

Wang reflected further.

“Which focus is more important: woman? Asian woman? I don't know, but 70% of Healthfirst employees are women. Those with children are by definition working moms who are setting important examples for their families. This is a community we celebrate and honor!”

Healthfirst and Wang understand how much this matters, on International Women’s Day but every day. Last year a female executive administrative assistant brought her daughter to the Healthfirst office and asked if she could meet Wang.

"She said to me, ‘I want her to see that somebody like you exists.’ There is a pride and an obligation to signal and set an example: You can do this too. It's really important to be aware of that."

A hyperlocal approach that delivers for women

Healthfirst’s hyperlocal approach is a recognition of its multi-cultural membership. Healthfirst is New York state's largest not-for-profit health insurance company, serving New York City's five boroughs, Long Island and the mid-Hudson Valley. Its 1.8 million members span multiple lines of business and speak 76 languages and dialects.

Nearly 1.5 million of those members are in Medicaid. More broadly, 19% of total U.S. Medicaid members are women (KFF, 2022). Female Medicaid members face unique health challenges, access to preventive care and screenings.

“Women with Medicaid are less likely than women with private health insurance to receive a mammogram,” notes Wang. “To help address this, Healthfirst performs culturally informed outreach to members and connects them with our provider partners who are committed to clinical quality and who we can recognize through incentives that are designed to improve health equity.”

Wang also highlighted a predictive analytics initiative that identifies potentially high risk pregnancies.

“We are energized by the results of a controlled pilot in our Healthfirst Cares Maternity program which showed that model was able to identify high-risk members more than seven weeks earlier than traditional clinical decision tree methods, allowing earlier intervention by care managers working with our trusted provider network.”

The CEO adds: “Evidence-based approaches like this are helping us evolve and improve what we do for women.”

Street smart and book smart

"As one of my VPs for external sales says, we have to be street smart and book smart."

"To be truly hyperlocal — in any aspect of the way that people access their healthcare — getting member trust is a cornerstone. We have a lot of offices in the community,” adds Wang. “We hire people from the community who speak the language, who look like our members, who understand the culture, and can really communicate in a way that people feel like they can trust that person.

Another example? “Many of the local residents we serve — especially the Chinese-, Spanish- and Russian-speaking communities — have a unique relationship with their local pharmacists. They trust their community pharmacy and often consult them for any clarifications on the medications they may be taking.”

Noses in, fingers out

Wang may be one of the few Chinese-American women in the C-suite but her experience lends insight that all leaders can apply: understand your role, be willing to stretch, and never be afraid to ask questions.

"There's an expression: noses in, fingers out. As CEO, you've got to keep track of what's going on but it’s the lead manager's job to pay a lot of attention to what's going on a daily basis."

Wang has applied these principles to one of her newest posts: Class C director on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Board of Directors.

"The New York Fed has been really interesting for me. It's a tremendous opportunity to meet people from completely different backgrounds and to start learning. In situations like that, the most important thing is to feel secure in knowing who you are and not be embarrassed about what you don't know."

Not just one day

So how is Healthfirst celebrating International Women’s Day on Mar. 8? With an entire month of initiatives to honor women’s contributions.

“Our WISE Employee Resource Group [Women in Search of Excellence] is spearheading a variety of events in March aiming to encourage, inspire, inform, and empower our female employees. I look forward to participating in these events, as do all of our female executives.”

Wang understands how novel it is to be one of those executives. She also understands what it's like to be a working mother and a single mother.

"Working mothers are a very special group of people. It's important to let them know, 'I am here for you. And I understand because that was me.'”