Pledge Health (YC W23)

Pledge Health is a Y Combinator-backed (W23) healthcare technology company that provides an AI browser assistant for automating insurance-related administrative tasks directly within existing EHR systems. The company was founded by Shreya Jagarlamudi, who brings seven years of AI and healthcare experience from Microsoft, and Andrew Tang, founding engineer at CancerIQ with deep EHR integration expertise.

The platform automates insurance benefits verification, prior authorization checks and submissions, claims status inquiries, and payment posting across any payer portal. Unlike traditional RPA solutions, Pledge's AI assistant operates within the browser-based EHR interface itself, requiring no external integrations or IT implementation. The system is customizable to match specific practice workflows and claims to help teams work 10x faster while reducing denials by up to 50%.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, Pledge Health currently serves healthcare organizations ranging from specialty practices to integrated health systems with 100+ employees. The company offers HIPAA-compliant services and works with EHR systems including Elation, AdvancedMD, eClinicalWorks Cloud, and athenahealth.

Organizations should consider Pledge Health when they need to rapidly scale their revenue cycle operations without hiring additional staff or when existing automation solutions have failed to accurately handle specialty-specific insurance verification requirements. The platform excels in environments where staff are already overwhelmed with payer portal navigation and manual insurance tasks.

Expect a relatively quick implementation since the solution works within existing EHR workflows rather than requiring system integrations. The company provides hands-on support during onboarding and offers a 60-day free trial to validate effectiveness before financial commitment.

Pledge Health is exclusively focused on healthcare revenue cycle management, specifically addressing the insurance administration challenges that contribute to provider burnout and revenue loss. The company demonstrates deep understanding of healthcare-specific workflows, from complex specialty benefit verification requirements in cardiology to multi-location integrated health systems.

Their HIPAA-compliant platform is purpose-built for healthcare payer interactions and integrates with major healthcare EHR systems. The founding team's background includes healthcare AI automation at Microsoft and EHR integration work at CancerIQ, providing healthcare-specific technical expertise.

The ideal client is a specialty medical practice or integrated health organization with 50-500 employees handling high volumes of insurance verifications and prior authorizations across multiple payers. Organizations experiencing revenue leakage from denials, struggling with administrative staff burnout, or needing to scale operations without proportional headcount increases will benefit most from Pledge's automation capabilities.