Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Torben Nielsen, Co-Founder of HealthSparq (Part 5)

Torben Nielsen: We actually got covered by Forrester Research back in 2012 on a 17-page research study. The study explored how Regence had managed to crack the transparency code and how we’ve managed to create an integrated experience for members where they could feel more like shoppers. The day that report was published, I went to management and said, “Spin us off as a company because we think there’s an opportunity here to take what we’ve created just for 2 million members, take it out to a national audience, and start selling it to health plans. Two years later, we got the funding for 12 employees. Twelve brave souls went over to a different building back in 2012. Today, we are 175.

Sramana Mitra: So it’s a corporate incubation spin-off, almost.

Torben Nielsen: Yes, it is.

Sramana Mitra: Awesome.

Torben Nielsen: We spun off from Regence into a new division called Direct Health Solutions, which is almost its own little incubator and VC-funded division. Direct Health Solutions has a pot of money that they can invest in startups on the outside that are really aligned with our mission, or they can pour the money into initiatives coming in from within. HealthSparq was one of the very first initiatives that came from within. As a startup, we are 100% funded by Cambia. That’s the holding company of Regence and Direct Health Solutions. We have seen tremendous growth over the past two and a half years in our ability to meet the market need.

Sramana Mitra: How much are you doing revenue-wise now?

Torben Nielsen: We’ve seen 10 to 15 times revenue growth from when we started two years ago. We expect to be up by 400% by the time we finish 2014. We started out, obviously, with a lot less than that in 2012. We’ve grown from 12 employees to 170. We have grown our client list from six signed contracts, at the time we launched as a separate startup, to 70 contracts today. They run the gamut from regional health plans to large national carriers.

Sramana Mitra: Very good. You’re based on Portland, Oregon?

Torben Nielsen: We’re based in Oregon. In our tenure of two years, we actually acquired a company in Dallas back in January of 2014. Now we have two offices. The majority of folks are based in Portland and then we have some 40 people in Dallas as well.

Obviously, one of the missions that we have as a company is we really want to be a catalyst and hopefully, show that we can change healthcare. We want to bring it up to a national level and we are hoping that other companies are going to join that conversation and say, “How do we all collaborate to create this end-to-end experience that is much more consumer friendly and consumer-oriented.”

This segment is part 5 in the series : Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Torben Nielsen, Co-Founder of HealthSparq
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