Clearhealthcosts.com is a startup bringing transparency to healthcare costs by providing real prices for common medical procedures. Their solution allows people to see how much an MRI, IUD, or mammogram could cost, as prices can vary widely in the same area from $350 to $3,500. The company crowdsources price data and is expanding to more cities. They plan to generate revenue through ads, sponsorships, and business services like price widgets. Clearhealthcosts aims to solve the big problem of healthcare's lack of price transparency by empowering consumers, especially young uninsured women, to make informed decisions.

1. Clearhealthcosts.com. Jeanne Pinder, CEO, jeanne@clearhealthcosts.com, 914-450-9499

2. Bringing transparency
to health care
by telling people what stuff costs.

3. The problem
• No one knows health prices in advance
• Prices for the same procedure vary 10x
in the same locale
.

4. Our solution
• We’re telling people real health-care prices..
• An MRI: $350 or $3,500?
• An IUD: $175 or $1,156?
• A mammogram: $56 or $2,786.95?

5. clearhealthcosts.com

6. 1. The customer piece
• Women: They make 80-90% of health-care
decisions
• Uninsured, high-deductible
• News organizations

7. 2. The tech piece
• Hiring devs: Portland, NYC, Vietnam, Lincoln,
Neb., Cleveland, Kiev and Paris
• Project management and scoping/specs
• Web site design—DB design—wireframing—
Python or Rails or Java, oh my!?
• It’s not rocket science

8. 3. The money piece
• Business to consumer (ads/sponsorships,
freemium subscription)
• Business to business (widgets, consulting,
business services)
• CHC as a service provider and developer
resource

9. Networks work
• My three grant organizations. I lurve them.
• Women (IWMF, J-Lab, xx in tech, techlady
mafia)
• Less so: The startup world
• Less so: The health ecosystem (a lot of
pressure for business as usual)

10. What’s new? What’s next?
• Timing matters.
• We’re now in 7 metro areas
• 50% of our traffic is mobile
• Crowdsourcing

11. Crowdsourcing with WNYC

13. Lessons learned
• When they say “no” it means “not yet”
• Listen to your customers (vasectomies! STD
testing!)
• Most important: Solve a really big problem.

15. Clearhealthcosts.com. Jeanne Pinder, CEO, jeanne@clearhealthcosts.com, 914-450-9499

17. 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

24. 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.

26. The transparency ecosystem