Upside Appoints Christian Bagge as Vice President of Payer Sales

The 15-year health plan sales leader joins Upside to expand housing stability partnerships across Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and other government programs.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - Upside, a nationally scalable housing stability platform purpose-built for healthcare, today announced that Christian Bagge has joined the company as Vice President of Payer Sales. Bagge brings more than 15 years of experience driving growth for technology-enabled solutions across Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Exchange/ACA, and the Federal Employee Program (FEP). He joins Upside's commercial team under Patrick Regan, EVP of Sales and GTM of Upside, and will focus on growing the company's footprint with national and regional health plans.

Known for his Challenger sales approach, Bagge shapes executive-level conversations, influences buying decisions, and builds value propositions that resonate with leaders across Quality, Risk Adjustment, Population Health, Marketing, and Care Management. Throughout his career, he has built and expanded relationships with national and regional health plans, including Florida Blue, BCBS Louisiana, BCBS South Carolina, Centene, Humana, WellCare, Molina, Elevance, UHC, and Aetna amongst others.

Bagge has spent his career in HealthTech, in leadership and individual contributor roles spanning sales, strategy, and go-to-market execution. Most recently, he served as Chief Growth Officer at DUOS. Before that, he was Head of Payer Strategy at Get Well, where he led go-to-market and commercialization efforts and helped establish the company's presence in the payer market. Earlier, he held roles at mPulse Mobile and NovuHealth, driving growth and building strategic relationships across the health plan market. He began his career with extended tenures at Capital One and LexisNexis, building a foundation in enterprise sales, strategic account management, and data-driven decision-making. Bagge is based in Jupiter, Florida.

"Christian has spent his career working alongside the Quality, Risk, and Care Management leaders inside health plans, and he understands what they're accountable for," said Patrick Regan, EVP of Sales and GTM of Upside. "Housing touches every one of those numbers. Christian knows how to show a plan where Upside fits and how to build a partnership that lasts. He makes this team stronger, and we're glad to have him."

Upside serves members in nine states and is backed by a $20 million Series A co-led by Aquiline and Flare Capital Partners. Its Care Guides work each housing case to completion, supported by AI, so the lease gets signed and avoidable ER visits stop.

"I've sold into health plans for a long time, and housing is the gap that shows up behind almost every quality and cost problem they're trying to solve," said Christian Bagge, Vice President of Payer Sales of Upside. "What drew me to Upside is that the team doesn't stop at a referral. A Care Guide stays with the member until they're housed and the housing holds, and that's an outcome a plan can see in its own data. I'm excited to bring that to the plans I've worked alongside for years and help more members get to a stable home."

Bagge's appointment strengthens Upside's commercial team as the company expands across Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, D-SNP, and employer-sponsored populations. Upside will continue building partnerships with health plans that want housing to be a standard part of care.