Pat Wang joined Healthfirst as president and CEO in 2008. Healthfirst is a 2 million-member nonprofit health insurer serving downstate New York. Its membership includes one-third of New York City’s Medicaid population and it serves a large population of Medicare beneficiaries who are also eligible for Medicaid with medical as well as long term care insurance products. Healthfirst, which was founded and continues to be governed by area health systems, works in close collaboration with local hospitals, independent providers, and community organizations to improve health outcomes and equity.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) appointed Wang to serve as a commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment policy, from 2016 through 2022. She is a board member of the Chinese-American Planning Council, the nation’s largest Asian-American social services organization, and has participated in several New York State initiatives, serving on the Commission on the Future of Healthcare, the Emerging Technology Advisory Board, the Medicaid Redesign Team II, and COVID Vaccine Equity Taskforce. She serves as a trustee of America’s Health Insurance Plans.
Earlier in her career, Wang was a law clerk to Judge Whitman Knapp of the Southern District of New York. She also served as an attorney in private healthcare practice and a senior executive of the Greater New York Hospital Association where she helped create Healthfirst in 1993 with a consortium of hospitals and health systems.
She is a graduate of Princeton University and New York University School of Law, cum laude, and is a longtime resident of New York City.
