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Bringing transparency to health care
by telling people what stuff costs.
Health costs are out of control.
Source: Consumer Reports
The problem
• No one knows health prices in advance• Prices for the same procedure vary 10x in
the same locale• Increasingly prices are paid directly by the
patient-consumer – actually, we prefer to call them people – but those prices are hidden
• It’s a $2.7 trillion industry, and it’s completely opaque.
Examples from our reporting
• An MRI: $350 or $3,500? • A CBC blood test: $16 or $117?• A walk-in clinic visit: $88 or $500?• A mammogram: $50 or $869?• (Yes, these are all real.)
Our Solution
• We’re telling people real health-care prices.• Tools: Reporting. Sourcing and curation of
databases. Crowdsourcing (lets people easily share the price of health care). Partnering.
Markets seek transparency
• The last big remaining opaque marketplace.• Airline ticket sales, real estate, car sales --
once opaque, now transparent• Health Savings Accounts (you spend less, you
keep more) • Obamacare is here, and people are horrified
about the prices.
The customer focus
• Women: They make 80-90% of health-care decisions
• High-deductible insureds (39 million and growing fast)
• Uninsured (51 million) including 20- and 30-somethings, creative classes
• Insured, with high copays, out of network• People wanting to be informed about costs
Our sweet spot
Women in their 20’s and 30’s. Many are uninsured, and they use health care for reproductive matters, while their male peers do not.
These women are upset about prices. They like to share. They’re used to shopping online.
Business model
• Business to business.• Business to consumer.
The landscape
• Regardless of politics etc., the marketplace is talking: consumers will be paying more for health care.
• It’s an opaque, secret marketplace. But the Web doesn’t like opacity and secrecy.
• Obamacare is here. Consumers are starting to feel empowered.
Where are we now?
• $54k in grant funding (Tow-Knight Foundation, International Women’s Media Foundation, McCormick Foundation), modest friends funding
• We’re winning market validation just as Time magazine, the NYTimes, Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and others are newly noticing the prices.
What’s new? What’s next?
• More data, more cities • Choosing partners carefully• 37% of our traffic is mobile• Our crowdsourcing experience with our local
NPR affiliate was a huge success: 400 shares
Props for CHC--“Phenomenal!... Jeanne is pioneering what I like to call the ‘Travelocity of health services’ field.” –
Todd Park, CTO of US (ex-CTO, Health & Human Services)--The “most impressive presentation of the night came from Jeanne Pinder, the founder and CEO of
clearhealthcosts, a startup dedicted to increasing the transparency of the healthcare industry.” – Betabeat, The New York Observer, 8-22-12
--Our crowd-sourced birth control pill price lists and maps featured on the Rachel Maddow blog--”great set of demos at #NYTM: @chcosts @Docracy@brewsterapp @divide @ConditionOne
especially” (esther dyson tweeted us!)--”This is one of the most useful websites I have seen in years. Great job @chcosts. #NYTM
ow.ly/dDNi6”--"ClearHealthCosts is using the wisdom of the crowds to shine a light into the health industry's darkest
corners.“ – Mark Potts, co-founder, Washingtonpost.com and Internet entrepreneur– CHC “...has created the sort of transparency around health costs that the MA government has been
promising for years -- and failing to deliver.... It is a model for what health care consumers around the country need.” – Carey Goldberg, co-host WBUR’s CommonHealth blog
--”It’s about time. Clear price information so we can make informed health care choices. We’ve been needing this for years.” --Robert Field, Professor of Law and Public Health, Drexel University
--”Thanks to sites like ClearHealthCosts, price transparency is on the way…ClearHealthCosts will add great value.” – Dr. Neel Shah, founder, costsofcare.org, a Boston nonprofit working to expand the discourse on health spending
We’re bringing transparency to the health-care marketplace by telling
people what stuff costs.
