AHLA's Speaking of Health Law

Health Law Career Journeys: Annie Shieh, Senior Director of Compliance, Bright Health Group

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In this series from AHLA’s Early Career Professionals Council, health law professionals share their career paths, what they wish they had known as students, and what a typical day in their job looks like. In this episode, Rob Yates, Managing Consultant, Berkeley Research Group, speaks with Annie Shieh, Senior Director of Compliance, Bright Health Group. Annie talks about her role overseeing the day-to-day activities of her company’s California compliance program, how she grew her company’s compliance department, her experience as AHLA’s first diversity intern, and how she stays connected and engaged with her network.

Watch the conversation here.

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

This episode of A HLA speaking of health law is brought to you by A HLA members and donors like you. For more information, visit American health law.org.

Speaker 3:

Hello, and welcome back to another installment of ALA's Health Law Career Journeys podcast series, brought to you by the Early Careers Professional Council . Our goal here is to highlight the breadth of career paths in ALA's membership and encourage those who are just starting their careers in health law to explore all the different possibilities that this space has to offer. I'm your host, Rob Yates, and I'm a healthcare governance and regulatory compliance advisor with Berkeley Research Group. Today my guest is Annie Shai , a senior director of compliance at Bright Health, and I'm excited to chat about her experience in navigating the field of health law . Annie, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 4:

Thank you.

Speaker 3:

So to get started off , um, can you just explain a little bit about your role and kind of what it looks like on a day-to-Day basis?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so I've got a really long title. First of all, it's Senior Director of California Compliance Officer, and what I do is I oversee the day-to-day activities of the California Compliance Program. So we have two licensed health plans under our parent company and we have Medicare Advantage product. So in totality, we have about 140,000 members under our purview. Uh , so what I do to , I oversee corrective action plans , uh, as well as investigations, any kind of , um, escalation of compliance issues to the board and the compliance committee, as well as overseeing any kind of marketing review and approval process. Um , vendor oversight, first tier downstream related entities, and a whole gamut of other compliance activities.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure the , the breadth of things that crosses your desk is fairly wide. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative> . Um, so that sounds like a really interesting role. How, how did you, how did you get there? What was your career path like?

Speaker 4:

Well, gosh, let me start out with this. I've actually worked at the same company since graduating from law school. It's just that we've gone through , um, and now we'll be going through our third acquisition. So that's been most exciting for me. Um, when I first started in this role , um, with Central Health Plan, which is one of the licensed plans under our current parent company , um, I started out working in the compliance department for one compliance director. So we were a two person team, and within six months on the job, she actually resigned for a different position and I was left to run the compliance department on my own. So that was , uh, a very large undertaking for a fresh OUTTA law school grad. I quickly learned the ropes , um, how to run a compliance program, as well as privacy work with outside counsel and legal issues. Um , so it was kind of trial by fire , but um, I eventually built out the program and after a couple years, you know, we grew in size, we almost quadrupled the size of our health plan, and I also was able to build out my compliance team, which was wonderful. And part of my structure, because I come from a law background, was I felt it was really important to have people with legal training. So I actually developed an internship program as well , um, working with local law schools to partner to have law students come intern for our company , um, which was a great way not just for us to , um, teach new inspiring grads on what compliance was and how it's tied to healthcare law, but also to provide a future pipeline of young healthcare lawyers who were very quickly employable as soon as they graduated from law school. So it's actually one of my greatest honors and achievements being able to create this program. And I think as of today, we've graduated 60 or 70 students total out of my entire tenure of running this program for over 10 years. So that being said , um, being with the company and now going through our third acquisition , um, Medicare Advantage is a really hot area right now. So , um, everything I've learned has led up to this moment.

Speaker 3:

That's really cool. That , and that's a really amazing opportunity that it sounds like our listeners would probably be pretty interested in. Um, so do you have any other advice , um, for, for students or early career professionals to who might be aspiring to get to a position like yours?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and kind of what I frequently tell people is if you've identified an interest in healthcare, just seek out any opportunity you can. That's really what I did when I was a law student. Um, I found employment, you know, working in a nonprofit , working for the healthcare entity that runs the state licensing, which is the Department of Managed Healthcare. Um, just internships to get experience, even if they're not paid, you can get school credit. Um, because I was able to get those kind of experiences and actually my very first summer was spent at a HLA as their very first diversity intern. So that was a tremendous experience where I not only gotta meet members of the board, but also get to see the internal workings of the association. I got to work with the publications team and the membership team and kind of see how the association delivers content. And I actually, because of that internship, my one all summer, I was able to , uh, work on their journal of health and life sciences law, which was an amazing opportunity. I know most law students do the law journal , um, that's on campus, but I actually worked for a professional association journal, which is really cool. And I'm actually still working on the site as a freelance editor , um, blue booking citations.

Speaker 3:

That's great. That's that's such a good point too, because I think a lot of people have a really narrow kind of understanding of what they want to do and try to find opportunities in that area, but I think it is really important to kind of broaden your experience, if nothing else, Jen , just to show yourself what you don't wanna do. <laugh>

Speaker 4:

<laugh> . So true. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3:

Well, is there anything else that you would like to share with our listeners today?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, so networking is so important. Um, a lot of what I've done is through the work of mentors, mentees and et cetera. So one of the first things I did as a last student or early career professional was reach out to those in my field. Um, especially, and this is a little bit secret, but when I applied for my job, I actually did not know what compliance was. Um, but I just knew that it was in healthcare and that's where I wanted to be as a potential lawyer. So , um, making those contacts early on. I still talk to a lot of people today. Um, I reached out to alumni from not only my college, but my law school to establish connections. And it was out of honestly just wanting to know what people did as a career. Uh , I think now healthcare law is a lot more popular and it's , um, because of the public health and the pandemic back then , um, people didn't really know what it was. Everyone thought healthcare law was medical malpractice. So when I reached out to actual lawyers that did the day-to-Day practice, you know, whether they were at a firm or working in government, they told me what their jobs were like. And that was a really great takeaway for me and having these mentors and support throughout the years. Um, we've kept in touch, they've seen as I've gotten publications through and they've encouraged me every step of the way. And it's just been really great. Um , of course, networking leads to job opportunities. Um , I've definitely helped a bunch of my mentees get jobs not only at my company, but with other employment. And just getting to know people in the industry has been so great for my experience. Um, also as a HLA volunteer.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Thank, I can definitely second that as well. And that's definitely a common refrain that, that we've heard here on the podcast.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Annie. I think this has been another really great episode for our listeners. Um, thank you so much.

Speaker 4:

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for listening. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to a HLA speaking of health law wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about a HLA and the educational resources available to the health law community, visit American health law org .