Mike Aldridge had an unusual experience when he was diagnosed with cancer and went to pick up a drug he needed at a pharmacy. The pharmacy mistook him for someone else — and the price of the drug was much lower than what he had been paying.
The realization that different people pay different prices for the same health care products eventually led Aldridge and his co-founders Brittaney Bethea and Megan Douglas to launch Costnip in 2023. The platform aims to improve health care price transparency. The startup features a team of three founders, development and operations staff.
Users can view how much others have paid for health care services. To gain access to the data, people must upload their own medical bills. The website provides a tool to allow users to block out private information.
Costnip then aggregates the data and makes searchable. That way, if a patient needs a particular health care service, they can search for that service and see what others have paid for it in their area. The platform provides information about whether and what type of insurance the customer used.
“What we're trying to do is really create a level of competition, again, the same competition that exists when you're searching for a flight,” Bethea said. “We truly believe that everyone deserves to know the cost of care before getting billed.”
Costnip uses algorithms to find low-cost resources a consumer may not know about, such as community clinics and financial assistance programs. It also provides information about managing medical condition and health care costs.
Federal and state governments have taken steps to increase health care price transparency in recent years. For example, starting in 2021, the federal government mandated that hospitals post price lists on their website so that consumers could comparison shop. The federal government and Georgia also have laws against so-called surprise billing for out-of-network care.
But those measures don’t go far enough, Bethea said. For example, the federal price transparency regulations only apply to hospitals, leaving many health care services out. Costnip allows consumers to comparison shop for outpatient services and even dental and vision care.
For now, the team is focused on finding out how to drive customers to the site without using paid media. Though currently mostly focused on Georgia, they also plan to expand the service to other states.
One potential growth strategy is to partner with government entities to help states manage health care costs. The trio has so far bootstrapped Costnip. Next week they will present at the Atlanta State of Diabetes summit.
This week the company launched a new platform with additional features.
“For us, the laser focus is really about the technology development, because that's the most critical component,” Bethea said, adding that the company is open to investors.
A previous version of this article misstated when the startup was founded and underrepresented the size of the firm's workforce.
