Relentless Health Value EP497: What You Don't Know About Healthcare Transactions and Clearinghouses Could Cost You, With Zack Kanter
Jan 15, 2026
Zack Kanter, Founder and CEO of Steady, dives into the world of healthcare transactions. He reveals that transaction costs in healthcare reach $5–7 billion annually, highlighting a stark contrast to lower costs in other sectors, like email. Zack discusses how legacy processes lead to frustrating delays, harming patient experiences. He emphasizes that many validations should occur in real-time but often don’t, resulting in inefficiencies. By modernizing clearinghouses, organizations can cut waste and improve care, urging stakeholders to reevaluate their current systems.
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Clearinghouses Are Costly Yet Central
- Clearinghouses route provider transactions to many payers so you don't build thousands of direct connections.
- Yet they charge roughly 10–15¢ per eligibility/claim round trip, creating $5–7B of annual waste.
HIPAA Made Healthcare More Standardized
- HIPAA standardized administrative transactions, so healthcare data is comparatively ordered.
- That standardization implies transaction costs should be much lower, not higher.
Healthcare Transactions Are Economically Out of Line
- Sending a claim costs about the same as sending a single email multiplied by 1000.
- Other industries pay a tiny fraction for similar data transfers, so healthcare is an outlier.