Heather M. Fernandez

CEO, Co-founder @solvhealth. BOD @atlassian. Fmr @trulia, politics. Laugher, runner, mom of 3.

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@johnprendergass Thank you John. So much is now possible for consumers and providers in this moment and I'm here for it!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

We're at the start of the agentic shift in consumer healthcare — personalized insight at your fingertips, routed straight to in-person care nearly anywhere in the US.

Thrilled to be on this journey with Amazon Health AI and our urgent care partners. This just the beginning!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

Starting today, "Powered by Solv" is the only in-person urgent care option built directly into Amazon Health AI.
Not near a One Medical office? Same- or next-day care shows up right in the chat, filtered by your insurance. Book without ever leaving the app.

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

Confirmation, intake, insurance eligibility — handled before you arrive. So when you walk into the clinic, they already know who you are, why you're there, and what your insurance will and won't cover.

No clipboards. No insurance phone calls. No hours-long waits. Imagine that.

[Big Brain AI @realBigBrainAI]

Uber Investor Bill Gurley on why young graduates anxious about AI taking their jobs are thinking about it the wrong way:

When asked what advice he'd give to new graduates worried about AI eliminating entry-level roles, he reframed the entire problem with an advice:

"In any role in any field, be the most AI enabled version of yourself you can possibly be."

To illustrate why, Bill draws on an analogy from anthropology:

"There's tons of anthropologists that have written about how we evolve with our tools. And you can just imagine a farming competition between a guy with a tractor and some drones and the other guy's got a plow and a donkey. Who's going to win?"

The implication is clear: AI isn't the threat. Being the person who hasn't learned to use it is.

@bgurley explains how this plays out inside organisations:

"If there are 40 people in your org all doing the same thing and you understand how AI affects that role more than the rest of them, you're not getting laid off. Like, it's just not going to happen."

But the upside goes beyond simply keeping your job.

Becoming AI-enabled changes the nature of the work itself:

"You'll also start to understand what parts of your job are a threat or not. And maybe you can elevate yourself to where you're a designer and not the worker bee because you now have this power."

The takeaway for young professionals is that the anxiety is misplaced, since AI only replaces the version of you that refused to learn it.

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@bricexeth @peteflint Learned from the best Pete!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

Consumer empowerment is my life's work.

And I've been focused on answering three questions in healthcare -- "when, where, and how much" since I started Solv. Today with AI -- all three of those are finally possible!

Thanks @chrissyfarr for having me on.

[Christina Farr @chrissyfarr]

Why don't you know what your doctor visit will cost? @heathermirj of @solvhealth joins Lifers to explain why that's finally about to change.

Timestamps:
(00:00) Lead In
(00:57) Intro
(02:06) Leveraging walking meetings to foster authentic collaboration
(05:09) Heather's career from Capitol Hill to venture-backed PR
(07:36) Deciding to join a room of misfits at Trulia
(09:32) Managing family milestones alongside major tech exits
(11:12) From real estate to a complex healthcare market
(16:14) Projecting an Uber-like paradigm shift for medical pricing
(19:05) Bottoms-up data ingestion to solve localized plan complexity
(22:21) Transitioning Solv from consumer marketplace to AI-first OS
(23:52) Mapping structural forces driving a sudden consumer health pull
(25:26) Deploying automated voice agents to eliminate front-desk administrative drag
(27:19) Forcing organizational transformation amidst high-profile tech layoffs
(33:54) Applying a "skip the landline" mantra to legacy workflows
(37:33) Navigating the three operational phases of AI adaptation
(39:46) Reshaping the healthcare front door through tech investments
(41:39) Challenging industry insiders who dismiss medical cost urgency
(43:53) Calling for passionate tech outsiders to disrupt entrenched structures
(45:19) Wrap

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@scottbelsky The scars earned from working deep in customer workflows will have outsized benefits. Could not agree more.

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@edstros @solvhealth @athenahealth Edwin - did you get a response?!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

This is so so good.

'As our decades of rigidly regulated approaches have led to disappointing population health outcomes with excessively high spending, it’s time to offer patients, providers, and insurers the option to explore more organic and flexible solutions."

[Ge Bai @GeBaiDC]

Full text of my article @Forbes: Health Savings Accounts: A Path To Financial Savings And Better Health

Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) will celebrate their 21st anniversary in January. Over the past two decades, they have provided tens of millions of Americans with financial savings and incentives to improve health. With the rise of the gig economy and the growing adoption of Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), the potential for HSAs to benefit more Americans is greater than ever.

As Joel White, Dr. David Hyman, and I discussed in Health Affairs Forefront last week, the 59 million and growing American gig workers, unlike full-time workers, lack access to employer-sponsored health insurance. Even among full-time workers, a rapidly increasing number are being offered ICHRAs by their employers to purchase health insurance independently.

These workers can purchase individual insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. However, due to regulations such as community rating, essential health benefits, the medical loss ratio, and the ban on coverage caps, unsubsidized premiums in the Marketplace are prohibitively expensive, often accompanied by high deductibles.

Why not allow these workers to use their HSAs to receive contributions from employers, themselves, the government, or private parties, to fund routine medical needs and even pay for premiums?

HSAs allow patients to benefit directly from lower prices and better health, reduce their vulnerabiltiy to medical debt, and offer a triple-tax advantage: tax-deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals. HSAs also enable patients to benefit from competitive cash prices and exert downward pricing pressure on providers.

Academic research has found that cash prices are often cheaper than insurance-negotiated prices, even for less shoppable services such as trauma activation fees. Numerous widely circulated cases on social media have suggested the same. In fact, while healthcare prices have generally risen rapidly, services not covered by insurance, such as plastic surgery and IVF, have experienced sharp price drops.

Why? When patients pay directly, they retain supreme bargaining power, forcing providers to compete for their business, which ultimately lowers prices and drives innovation. As Congressman Kevin Hern (R, OK-01) said, the best healthcare happens when no third party stands in between the patient and the provider.

Importantly, HSAs are not a luxury for the rich—68% of account holders live in areas with a median household income below $100,000. However, Medicare and Medicaid regulations restrict beneficiaries’ access to HSAs.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that patients who received cash subsidies significantly reduced emergency room visits and improved general health. Subsidizing low-income patients, such as Medicaid enrollees, through cash contributions to their HSAs would be more efficient than the current system, which offers patients no opportunity to benefit from cost savings or better health.

Expanding HSA access to all Americans is the right direction. Meanwhile, insurance companies should be allowed to offer affordable plans that cover only costly medical events. Patients choose plans based on their preferences and risk tolerance.

As our decades of rigidly regulated approaches have led to disappointing population health outcomes with excessively high spending, it’s time to offer patients, providers, and insurers the option to explore more organic and flexible solutions.

When Americans gain more control over our healthcare dollars, affected interest groups will inevitably resist change. However, the demand for better and cheaper care on the buy side, coupled with the drive to innovate and achieve returns on the sell side, can create an irresistible momentum that pushes our system toward one that works for all Americans.

@JHUCarey @JohnsHopkinsSPH @BSPH_HPM

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@nikillinit great content / rough timing

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@erenbali @udemy Time for 🥃 to catch up!!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

YES. YES. YES.

[Z Reitano @ZReitano]

Understanding your insurance coverage and OOP costs before you’re treated should be table stakes in healthcare. Unfortunately, it’s not. That’s why we built a free tool to empower patients with the coverage info they need at the beginning of their journey: https://t.co/vZWffULmJT

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@HealthcareAIGuy LFG @saranormous !!

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@chrissyfarr interoperability ftw

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@HeatherLandi @FierceHealth @AylaEllison Congrats Heather!! There's power in the name. :)

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@chrissyfarr When I turned 30, asked OB about egg retrieval - she said "too many people are banking on it as insurance. it works less than they think. if you want a baby and you *can*, don't wait"

Felt harsh at the time, obv complicated - but as you say biology is a real thing

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@Farzad_MD @toyinajayidoc great place. great people. nothing better.

[Heather M. Fernandez @heathermirj]

@StuartBlitz For a very small group of people (of which I am one) you are extremely funny and I appreciate you