Episode 37: Making Healthcare Costs Transparent with Ethan Steininger from Compared Care
March 26, 201534:35

Episode 37: Making Healthcare Costs Transparent with Ethan Steininger from Compared Care

Ethan worked at Johns Hopkins University conducting clinical research with patients which initiated his interest in the consumer-centric healthcare experience.
He later worked at a Medical Billing and EHR software company. While there he discovered many of the problems patients face with understanding their medical bills.

Ethan was inspired to solve this discrepancy by creating a minimalistic healthcare information portal for consumers to compare healthcare services among providers in their area.

Some of Ethan’s colleagues and classmates have joined the Compared Care team including Brandon, Compared Care’s CTO and Ethan’s co-founder.

Compared Care is the winner of several awards including UMBC’s first ever Cangialosi Business Innovation Competition.


00:00 Ethan talks about ComparedCare.
00:20 ComparedCare is a free web platform where consumers can compare providers.
03:00 The price of a service like an MRI can vary by thousands of dollars.
03:10 “Non-transparency breeds price discrepancies.”
04:00 ComparedCare allows not only patients to compare prices of providers, but providers to compare the cost of their services with what other providers charge.
07:11 ComparedCare brings patients the ability not only to find a provider who can give them the care they need, but also one who can provide the service at a price they can afford.
12:30 New York is now mandating that medical prices become transparent, causing an uproar with some hospitals.
13:00 “The only way to create innovation is to bring change.”
16:20 The quality value system: can patients determine quality care from providers well enough to navigate the decision between price and quality of care?
21:00 HIPAA compliance with ComparedCare.
28:50 How transparency can improve situations with surprise fees and charges.
29:20 Factors that Ethan believes will drive costs and improve quality in healthcare, along with transparency.

healthcare,health,patient,provider,payer,transparency,comparedcare,compared care,
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