A Wichita startup is making progress on an ambitious goal to tackle one of the biggest issues in modern America: How to make health care more affordable.
Fair Market Health was launched in 2018 and is now led by president and CEO Dean Jargo, who had spent 20 years at Koch Industries in Wichita.
Jargo says the original idea came from local doctors interested in replicating a cash-based surgery center they knew of in Oklahoma City.
“The idea became, instead of building a physical surgery center, to accumulate and grab all those cash prices and put them on an online marketplace that’s available to consumers,” he says.
Fast forward to 2022, and that’s what Fair Market Health (FMH) has done.
By partnering with health-care providers, FMH is building what its leadership says is a price-transparent marketplace that runs the full spectrum of health-care services. That, they say, is proving beneficial to not just consumers, but also to employers.
After starting in Wichita, FMH has rapidly expanded across Kansas and, Jargo says, it will look to launch in adjacent markets later in 2022.
“We’re seeing a lot of demand,” he says.
For consumers, the benefit is readily apparent. They can log onto to FMH and find the providers with the best cost for the service they need — all with no hidden costs because the listed cost includes both the providers price and FMH’s fee.
“The price is all-inclusive … and for patients with employer groups … there’s no cost sharing. In most cases, we’re seeing employer groups set up with 100% coverage,” says Sara Berney, director of customer experience for FMH. “It’s not taking anything away, it’s just enhancing what they have available. It’s a just a completely different way of navigating the health-care system.”
By cutting what its leaders say are the unneeded costs of the third-party payer system dominated by insurance carriers, FMH hopes to make health care ultimately more affordable for employees and employers alike.
And as an added benefit, says Jargo, the business is increasingly finding providers that have themselves been fatigued by the red tape of the traditional insurance model. They aren't charged to be on the platform.
FMH leaders are quick to say they aren’t anti-insurance — but they do believe the platform can provide a needed alternative for many services as part of the annual spend of $4 trillion on health care in the U.S.
“Does insurance need to be involved in every health-care transaction?” asks Jargo. “It does not.”
At the core of its service is its digital marketplace, with tech-industry veteran Ross Haskell serving as vice president of product for FMH.
“We’re a software company in the health-care industry,” Haskell says. “It’s an e-commerce business. The real advantage is that this is a model people are used to in other businesses.”
Spanning the system
But it isn’t just the waste that FMH leaders believe their platform can cut from the current system — they also see the scope of services available as a primary differentiator.
Geron Bird not only brings more than 20 years of legal experience to FMH as its general counsel, but he also leads the company’s mental health services.
“I became very interested in the mental and behavioral health sector for personal reasons,” he says. “It changed my life, getting access to (those services). And I wanted to bring that to more people. As I stayed involved with (FMH), it became clear pretty quick that the client base was hungry for more mental health options.”
Also having joined FMH is Chris Majors, a dentist for more than 20 years, who is serving as a strategic advisor and the leaders of the company’s dental health business.
Much like Bird says of mental health, Majors says the opportunity to provide better access to dental health services was a strong draw for him to FMH.
“Sixty percent of the market have private dental insurance plans,” Majors says. “I think patients are seeking a more robust dental plan they what they’re currently getting from the market. Our vision is to free up the dental care space to provide a more direct-care model to work between patients and providers. It’s a non-insurance innovation. I would have appreciated that more direct-care model (as a dentist). We just didn’t have the platform to go out to the public space … and make that available.”
Also part of FMH’s leadership team as a strategic advisor is Chris Howell, who brought more than 20 years of experience in commercial banking and finance.
“From a growth standpoint, I think the market is very interested and excited about what we’re doing,” Howell says. “We realize this is a re-education of what we’re used to, even for us. We’re asking the market to re-learn and re-educate themselves about the possibilities. That’s exciting from startup perspective, that we get to drive that discussion.”
While the company has raised capital through the Kansas Angel Investor Tax program, a vehicle Jargo, the CEO says, has been very beneficial to FMH, the biggest thing Wichita can do to drive continued growth for the company is to use the platform.
“We believe health care works best when patients and providers are working together,” says Jargo, the CEO. “We have a functioning marketplace. The virtuous cycle is ready to happen in Wichita. We just need more providers to catch the vision of Fair Market Health, and the same thing for patients and employers.”
