Often, a personal struggle sparks innovation. For Oscar CEO Mario Schlosser, it was his wife’s first pregnancy in 2012.
“[When you go through that], you kind of realize how complicated the healthcare system is,” he said at CB Insights’ Future of Fintech Conference. What really pissed me off at the time is how little the insurance companies seemed to care about the complexity. You get these confusing statements called EOBs, explanations of benefits …”
These “explanations,” were often in all caps, “which is a great indicator that there’s no layer between you and a computer or a database,” he said. That is not the way humans want to get their information or their care, he added.
Schlosser blames this on the fact that the companies are providing health insurance, not health care. This lack of clarity around the ultimate goal, he says, drives a lot of complexity and diminishes quality of care.
“You’d call [the insurance company] and they’d have no idea how much [a given procedure] would cost you,” he said. “This information was very obviously available somewhere … but you certainly wouldn’t get it from the insurance company.”
Oscar uses its own data to help customers get better information and care. He continued:
“That’s a winning proposition.”
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