DR. LISA TSENG

37 Executive vice president Optum Eden Prairie, Minn.

Throughout her career, Dr. Lisa Tseng has learned the importance of listening and hearing. Five years ago, Tseng and her team from United Health Group embarked on a series of listening tours and town hall meetings to try and figure out how they could better serve their healthcare members.

One of the issues that kept coming up was access to affordable hearing aids. Tseng went on to found hi Health Innovations, a direct-to-consumer hearing aid company that allows patients to save 60% or more on custom-programmed hearing aids, making them more accessible for 48 million Americans with hearing loss.

“We opened up healthcare coverage of hearing aids and now our members can get a hearing aid for anywhere from free to $ 599,” she said. “We engaged primary-care providers to emphasize hearing as a part of their healthcare counseling.”

In her current role as executive vice president at Optum, she has led the development and operation of a post-acute transition program in more than 47 markets and 30 states, improving the continuity of care for members discharged from hospitals and nursing facilities. The end-to-end clinical model enables clinicians to be by the member’s side within 24 hours of notification and gives them a full view of the patient’s medical and pharmaceutical history.

“I think we are delivering innovation at a reduced cost, understanding that a lot of people are living with more chronic conditions,” she said. “The challenge is tremendous, but we are making swift progress on many fronts and there is a lot of movement toward better outcomes and better value for healthcare dollars spent.”

“I think we are delivering innovation at a reduced cost, understanding that a lot of people are living with more chronic conditions.”