Raising Health

Can AI finally make healthcare cheaper? UnitedHealth Group Chief Commercial Officer Dan Kueter believes it can, potentially within a single-digit number of years, but only once AI moves beyond automating existing administrative work and starts enabling things the healthcare system couldn’t do before.

At a16z BUILD, Dan joins General Partner Julie Yoo to discuss a generational shift in employer-sponsored health insurance, why self-funded plans are becoming accessible to smaller employers, and how AI is changing everything from underwriting and distribution to consumer navigation.

They also get into UnitedHealthcare’s goal of eliminating 30% of prior authorizations, what a “touchless” version could eventually look like, and why personal AI agents could become a new front door to healthcare, forcing insurers to meet consumers wherever they choose to interact. 

Resources:

Follow Dan Kueter on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dankueter/

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

Learn more about a16z Bio + Health: https://a16z.com/bio-health/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Healthcare spent the last 15 years digitizing medical records. Now the challenge is making that data useful to patients, AI agents, and new health technology companies. National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Tom Keane says the next phase is about interoperability, patient access, and lowering barriers for new entrants.

Tom joins a16z’s Julie Yoo and Colin Rom to discuss how healthcare data can move more easily through APIs and TEFCA, how wearables and AI-generated data fit in, and where privacy and security concerns can become competitive moats.

And when Julie asks when AI might produce a serious new competitor to today’s dominant electronic health record companies, Tom predicts: within one to two years.

Resources:

Follow Thomas Keane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-keane-b41a5012/ 

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

Follow Colin Rom on X: https://x.com/CF_Rom 

Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT: https://healthit.gov

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

AI is making healthcare advice abundant. But what happens when you actually need to act on it? General Medicine CEO TJ Parker argues that the new bottleneck is getting the lab, booking the specialist, filling the prescription, or understanding what any of it will cost.

At BUILD 2026, a16z General Partner Vineeta Agarwala sits down with TJ to unpack General Medicine's vision for a healthcare “store”: one place where patients can understand their options, prices, and insurance coverage, then actually get care.

They discuss why convenience can materially change patient behavior, how AI can connect medical records and benefits to the right next step, and what TJ learned building PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy about making a complicated healthcare system feel simple. 

Resources:

Follow TJ Parker: https://x.com/tjparker

Follow Vineeta Agarwala: https://x.com/vintweeta

Learn more about General Medicine: https://generalmedicine.co/

Learn more about a16z Bio + Health: https://a16z.com/bio-health/

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

a16z General Partner Jorge Conde sits down with Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel to discuss a major milestone for mRNA technology: positive Phase 3 results from Moderna and Merck’s individualized treatment for melanoma, after more than a decade of work on personalized cancer vaccines.

Stéphane explains how the treatment works by sequencing an individual patient’s tumor and healthy cells, identifying the mutations most relevant to their cancer, and encoding up to 34 of them into an mRNA designed specifically for that patient. Rather than simply unleashing the immune system, the goal is to teach it exactly what to recognize and attack.

They also unpack the engineering challenge of manufacturing a different medicine for every patient, how Moderna has brought the process down to roughly 42 days from biopsy to treatment, and what it would take to manufacture personalized medicines at scale. Finally, Stéphane looks beyond melanoma to lung, kidney, bladder, pancreatic, and gastric cancers, as well as Moderna’s longer-term work applying mRNA to rare genetic and autoimmune diseases.

Resources:

Follow Stéphane Bancel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/st%C3%A9phane-bancel-8185251/

Follow Jorge Conde on X: https://x.com/JorgeCondeBio

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Julie Yoo sits down with Dr. Suchi Saria, founder and CEO of Bayesian Health, to discuss the current state of clinical AI and what it takes to deploy AI systems in real-world healthcare settings.

While much of the recent attention around AI has focused on copilots, chatbots, and administrative workflows, Saria argues that the greatest opportunity lies in helping clinicians make better decisions at the point of care. She explains how Bayesian Health's clinical intelligence platform continuously analyzes multimodal patient data to identify signs of deterioration, sepsis, and other high-risk conditions before they become medical emergencies.

The conversation explores FDA approval, reimbursement, clinician trust, AI governance, hospital workflows, and why healthcare requires a higher standard of evidence than most software categories. Along the way, Saria shares lessons from bringing AI into clinical practice, the future of proactive medicine, and why the next era of healthcare may be defined by continuous intelligence rather than reactive care.

Resources:

Follow Suchi Saria on X: https://x.com/suchisaria

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julieyoo

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nicolás Abad, founder and CEO of Telepatía, joins a16z to discuss building AI-powered tools for healthcare in Latin America.

Inspired by the loss of his father to a preventable medical error, Adbad set out to address one of the region’s most significant challenges: a shortage of doctors, fragmented medical records, and limited healthcare infrastructure across a population of more than 700 million people. Telepatía's first product acts as a clinical copilot, helping physicians document visits, access patient context, and make more informed decisions.

The conversation explores healthcare delivery in Latin America, AI-assisted medicine, medical errors, electronic health records, and why Abad believes AI can help expand access to care while improving outcomes. Along the way, he shares his vision for building an “AI doctor for doctors” and the long-term goal of transforming healthcare across the region.

Resources:

Follow Nicolás on X: https://x.com/Nicobot01

Follow Gabriel on X: https://x.com/GEVS94

Follow Daisy on X: https://x.com/daisydwolf

Follow Eva on X: https://x.com/evajsteinman

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This episode originally aired on StartUp Health. Unity Stoakes speaks with Julie Yoo, general partner at a16z, about why healthcare is poised to benefit more from AI than any other industry, how the business profile of health tech companies has fundamentally shifted, and what founders need to show up with today to stand out at the seed and Series A stages.

Resources:

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

Follow Unity on X: https://x.com/unitystoakes

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daisy Wolf speaks with Dr. Andrew Huberman, professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University and host of the Huberman Lab podcast. They discuss how the pandemic sparked a consumer health revolution, the emerging peptide and GLP landscape, what the science actually says about focus drugs, and the neurotechnologies Huberman believes will let us write to our own biology within the next five years.

Resources:

Follow Andrew Huberman on X: https://twitter.com/hubermanlab

Follow Daisy Wolf on X: https://twitter.com/daisydwolf

Stay Updated:

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

Listen to the a16z Show 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 http://a16z.com/disclosures.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

a16z Partners Daisy Wolf and Eva Steinman talk with Zach Cohen and Raymond Wang, cofounders of Ease Health, a company building an AI operating system for behavioral health that combines CRM, EHR, and revenue cycle management into a single platform. They discuss why behavioral health software has lagged behind, what it means to build AI native versus AI integrated, and why Zach left his job as an investor at a16z to go build in this space. They also cover how Ease plans to replace the dozen software vendors most practices rely on today.

Resources:

Follow Daisy Wolf on X:  https://x.com/daisydwolf

Follow Eva Steinman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-steinman/

Follow Zach Cohen on X:  https://x.com/zachcohen25

Follow Raymond Wang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arrays/

Stay Updated:

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

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 http://a16z.com/disclosures

.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

At the Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit 2025, Julie Yoo, General Partner at a16z Bio + Health, makes the case that healthcare is uniquely positioned to benefit from AI more than any other industry. She argues that healthcare's historical underinvestment in technology is now an asset, enabling the industry to leapfrog directly to AI-native models of care delivery with unprecedented speed and scale.

Resources:

Follow Julie Yoo on X: https://x.com/julesyoo

Stay Updated:

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to like, subscribe, and share with your friends!

Find a16z on X: https://twitter.com/a16z

Find a16z on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a16z

Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5bC65RDvs3oxnLyqqvkUYX

Listen to the a16z Show 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 http://a16z.com/disclosures

.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.