Delta: HealthTech Innovators Fixing the $1 Trillion Healthcare Bottleneck with AI
In this episode, we sit down with Chuck Feerick, founder and CEO of Latitude Health, a MedTech startup tackling one of the most overlooked — yet critically expensive — problems in healthcare: prior authorization and utilization management.
Chuck shares how a personal experience in his early 20s inspired him to transform the way health plans make care decisions, using AI to reduce administrative burdens and accelerate patient access to treatment. With a background spanning health plan operations, venture capital, and startups, Chuck brings a 360° perspective on what it really takes to build a successful health tech company.
We dive into:
- The $1 trillion administrative crisis in U.S. healthcare
- Why prior authorization delays hurt patients and providers
- How Latitude Health uses AI to empower—not replace—clinicians
- The real challenges of selling to health plans
- What every health tech founder must understand about procurement, ROI, and building painkiller products
- The future of AI in care decision-making
Whether you're a health tech entrepreneur, investor, or healthcare executive, this conversation is full of practical insights on solving big, unsexy problems with massive impact.
00:00 – Intro: Can AI Fix Healthcare?
01:03 – Meet Chuck Feerick, Founder of Latitude Health
02:15 – A Personal Story That Sparked a HealthTech Mission
04:10 – The Broken Prior Authorization Process Explained
06:32 – Automating Utilization Management with AI
08:44 – What Latitude Health Actually Does
10:05 – How Patients, Providers & Payers Benefit
12:20 – Chuck’s Journey: Operator, Investor, Founder
14:15 – Lessons from VC for Startup Fundraising in MedTech
16:01 – How to Sell to Payers: Complex Sales in Healthcare
18:30 – The Role of AI vs. Human in Clinical Decision Making
21:04 – How Latitude Uses LLMs to Structure Medical Data
23:19 – Training AI with Clinicians: Nurses, Doctors, CMO Input
25:12 – Building a HealthTech Startup the Right Way
27:00 – Tackling Long Sales Cycles in Healthcare
28:42 – AI is Moving Fast — Building for Flexibility
30:18 – The Unsexy Problem That Needed Solving
33:07 – Why Utilization Management Is the Key to Controlling Costs
35:45 – Administrative Waste: The $1 Trillion Opportunity
37:02 – Why Latitude Focuses on High-Impact Painkiller Tools
38:49 – Consumers, Behavior, and the ROI of Innovation
41:00 – Closing Thoughts: What Founders Must Understand About Healthcare
Roupen Odabashian:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roupen-odabashian-183aaa142/
X: https://twitter.com/RoupenMD
Email: roupen@deltahealth.tech
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckfeerick
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