Marta Bralic Kerns, founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, joins Will Shrank, MD, a16z Bio + Health venture partner.

Together, they talk about the innovator’s dilemma with building in the Medicaid space, how Pomelo partners with managed care plans, and the opportunity to potentially lower costs through providing additional support to pregnant women.

This is the third episode in our Medicaid Matters series. Listen to previous guests Mark Smith, MD, and Nikita Singareddy in the Raising Health feed.

Nikita Singareddy, cofounder and CEO of Fortuna Health, joins Will Shrank, MD, a16z Bio + Health venture partner.

Together, they discuss building a useful and convenient platform for Medicaid enrollees, listening to patient feedback to improve, and the complexities of different states’ Medicaid processes. This is the second episode in our Medicaid Matters series. Listen to previous guest Mark Smith, MD, to hear about Medicaid from a provider's perspective.

Over the next three episodes, we’re going to talk about why Medicaid matters, and the potential for technology to make it easier for enrollees to access and utilize the program. Our first guest is Mark Smith, MD, Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF.

He was the founding President and former CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation from 1996-2013, which is where he began his work to improve Medicaid. He experienced Medicaid from a provider perspective when he began his residency during the early days of the AIDS epidemic in San Francisco in the 1980s.

In this interview, he is joined by a16z Bio + Health venture partner Will Shrank, MD. Together, they discuss Mark's time at CHCF, how Medicaid works, and how founders can potentially partner with the Medicaid program.

In future episodes, we’ll also hear from Marta Bralic Kerns, founder and CEO of Pomelo Care, and Nikita Singareddy, cofounder and CEO of Fortuna Health. Both companies are directly working with Medicaid patients to make their lives easier.