Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Epic River CEO Jeff Grobaski (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: As I am listening to you, what strikes me in the situation is that there isn’t much awareness in consumers that they can do this and such a facility exists in community banks and credit unions. That awareness probably doesn’t exist.

Jeff Grobaski: We are trying to drive that awareness through the healthcare providers because we don’t want them to call people and say, “Cash, check, or credit card?”

We want them to introduce this option because it’s better for everyone. The healthcare provider gets paid so that they could continue operations and the patient gets to sign up and pick their payment plan. 

Sramana Mitra: Is there any healthcare provider that has come on board as a partner for you? 

Jeff Grobaski: We have quite a few. We have one here in Colorado – UC Health. They are a large healthcare provider affiliated with the University of Colorado. They have been doing an amazing job of educating their consumers. 

Sramana Mitra: I wish you all the success. It sounds wonderful. I’m deeply concerned about what is happening in the lower ranks of the economic pyramid right now. People are in dire straits and this is going to take many years for things to stabilize and get a lot better. Every possible way that you can help people in those positions is welcomed. 

Jeff Grobaski: Especially when you combine financial with healthcare. It’s something that people need. 

Sramana Mitra: The deductibles are so high for normal people. 

Jeff Grobaski: They sign up for those deductibles because they don’t have the money to pay higher premiums. The concept that you sign up for a higher deductible to lower your monthly premium but to have that money is unrealistic.  

Sramana Mitra: Switching gears, you have been in this industry for a while. What are some problems that you have observed from your vantage point? What are some problems that you think new entrepreneurs should attack?

Jeff Grobaski: I would love to see a FinTech startup that sets its sights on the health insurance concept and create a competitor – a completely different concept of health insurance. Health insurance has been the same for decades now. It just feels right for disruption.

If someone can figure out a different way to make the math work and build it from the ground up for healthcare providers, that would be great. This needs to be fast, automated, and efficient. There would be a vast amount of savings on the healthcare provider side.

You could create a model that costs you money when you need it versus needing everybody to pay in for it to work. Does that make sense?

Sramana Mitra: It makes sense. That is fundamentally reengineering of the insurance industry. When something like that has not been done, I always want to put on an investor’s hat and ask the question, “Why hasn’t this been done yet? What am I missing?” I’m not a domain expert in this, so I wouldn’t know what I’m missing. 

Jeff Grobaski: It’s an interesting question. When there has been something that everyone is not a fan of but continues, it leads me to wonder the same thing. What is the invisible hand that is keeping that from happening? Part of it is that it has been that way for a long time. You need some seismic shift.

Second, the health insurance market has done an exceptional job of capturing data and utilizing it. They have a big lead where they have a tremendous amount of data to make decisions out of. It creates a tough barrier for entry.

In our current world with telehealth and all the different components that are available for use like surgery centers that are more efficient at performing procedures than hospitals, somebody should be able to put together a model that is pay-as-you-go versus a buy-in-case-you-need-it. 

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Thought Leaders in Financial Technology: Epic River CEO Jeff Grobaski
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