WoW Woman in FemTech I Katie Higgins, Chief Commercial Officer at Progyny
Katie Higgins is the Chief Commercial Officer at Progyny. Progyny (Nasdaq: PGNY) is a transformative fertility, family building and women’s health benefits solution, trusted by the nation’s leading employers, health plans and benefit purchasers. Their outcomes prove that comprehensive, inclusive and intentionally designed solutions simultaneously benefit employers, patients and physicians. Their benefits solution empowers patients with concierge support, coaching, education, and digital tools; provides access to a premier network of fertility and women's health specialists who use the latest science and technologies; drives optimal clinical outcomes; and reduces healthcare costs.
Headquartered in New York City, Progyny has been recognized for its leadership and growth as a TIME100 Most Influential Company, CNBC Disruptor 50, Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare, Forbes' Best Employers, Financial Times Fastest Growing Companies, Inc. 5000, Inc. Power Partners, and Crain's Fast 50 for NYC.
With over 25 years of healthcare experience, Katie oversees the teams that drive revenue, business growth, and client success. Prior to Progyny, she was the Chief Revenue Officer at Crossover Health, a national medical group providing an innovative model of advanced primary care to the country's largest self-insured employers, where she spearheaded the company's go-to-market strategy. Prior to her tenure at Crossover, Katie spent three impactful years at Optum, where she led teams in crafting innovative collaborations with health systems, and 20 years at the Advisory Board Company, where she played a pivotal role in leading strategic account teams that served as thought partners to some of the nation's largest health systems. Katie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Davidson College in North Carolina.
Katie, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I have nearly 30 years of experience in healthcare with most of my career at a wonderful company called The Advisory Board Company, where we served as primary thought partners to health system C-suite executives. In 2017, United Health Group acquired the company and we integrated into OptumInsights, which provided data, technology and consulting to healthcare payers, providers and life sciences companies. After 23 years, I shifted to the employer/payer side of healthcare at Crossover Health, where I came to understand how the true “buyers” of healthcare think about their investment in benefits. This led me to Progyny, an innovator who has transformed how employers provide fertility, family building, and women’s health benefits.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
In college, I studied to enter a career in international relations: I worked for the UN in Geneva, pursued international humanitarian work, and worked for a criminal justice defense law firm in Atlanta. However, I graduated with a good amount of college debt and needed to find a job to pay the bills before pursuing that career. I happened to interview with The Advisory Board Company upon graduation and intended to take the offer for 2-3 years before getting back onto my intended career path. But as luck would have it, I fell into a great group of professionals who were passionate about elevating the performance of health systems and I was hooked. I ended up staying with the company for 20 years until we were acquired in 2017.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
At The Advisory Board Company, I developed a knack for building and leading account management and sales teams, particularly for our new businesses. During my 20-year run there, we launched 4-5 new business segments that cut across leadership development training, software, business intelligence platforms, and consulting services. This became my skillset of building teams while launching new businesses – I learned the importance of setting vision and expectations, teaching flexibility and agility, and acting as a general manager from the market point of view for our new solutions.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
My best professional achievements will always center around the fantastic talent I have had the opportunity to identify, mentor and promote. While I am proud of the innovative businesses, deals, and partnerships I have led or helped broker, the longest-lasting impact any of us can have is to create the next set of leaders who can continue to implement change for a better healthcare system.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
I’m incredibly energized to harness the innovation that Progyny has created to address a truly complex, fragmented, and costly healthcare condition – infertility -- and apply that DNA to other conditions within women's health. I could not be prouder of the way we’ve set the standard in terms of creating an actively managed network of specialists, pushing the envelope on top tier outcomes, and betting on an efficient payment model that leaves both patients and providers with a great experience. That is the holy grail of innovation within healthcare, and I can’t wait to apply it to other aspects of women’s health.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Absolutely. Women make 80% of the healthcare decisions for their families and extended relatives in addition to themselves. We need more women leading the way to think differently about healthcare innovation.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Leveraging AI efficiently to drive change has all of us on the edge of our seats – there is a lot of noise, but also a lot of promise and I am excited to see what use cases start to turn the dial to help providers work top of license and hopefully reduce burnout. Also, our industry is awash in administrative burden and related expenses. AI could transform that to create much-needed efficiencies.
Also, my hope is that we continue seeing innovative value-based care payment models that eliminate fee for service. The alignment of priorities and values is key to driving the change we all aspire to see in our industry.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Find an interesting problem to solve and dive in. We are constantly in need of new thinking and fresh ideas.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry that you admire?
Renee DeSilva, Health Management Academy – Renee was a colleague of mine at The Advisory Board Company and I loved her mix of thoughtful decisiveness, empathy, and execution. I often find myself thinking “What Would Renee Do” when faced with a tough situation. She has transformed HMA as CEO across the past 5 years into a truly high-impact thought leadership company.
Sarah London, Centene – She was in a leadership role at Optum during my first year, and I remember thinking what an excellent example of leadership she demonstrated – smart, visionary, but also down-to-earth and comfortable in her skin.
The Break into the Boardroom program – I know I’m cheating, as this is not one person, but I wanted to highlight the team of women across Deerfield and Oxeon who are committed to filling more board seats with women leaders. The best way to create changes in our industry is to ensure we have diversity of thought in the places where decisions are made, and I applaud BiB’s commitment and success to date in placing women in phenomenal board positions.
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Connect with Marija on LinkedIn.