Fixing the $300 Billion Medical Billing Problem

Candid Health is rebuilding the medical billing stack for healthcare providers, automating the work required to get claims submitted correctly and providers paid. Medical billing is a $200–300 billion market, and much of it still runs on decades-old software and manual processes. Today, Candid serves more than 200 healthcare organizations, processes about $7 billion in claims each year, and recently raised a $120 million Series D to keep expanding into the broader healthcare market. In this Founder Fireside, co-founder and CEO Nick Perry joins YC's Gustaf Alströmer to share how Candid went from manually reviewing every claim to building the automation layer behind the business. He also explains where AI and agents fit into medical billing, and why the goal is to prevent denials before they happen. Chapters: 00:00 — What Candid Health Does 00:26 — Why Medical Billing Is So Complicated 02:13 — How Medical Claims Actually Work 07:27 — The $300B Medical Billing Market 09:14 — Finding Candid’s Wedge 11:00 — Winning the First Customer 13:00 — Doing Things That Don’t Scale 15:33 — Automating RCM With Software and AI 17:55 — From Palantir to Candid Health 19:25 — The Moment They Hit Product-Market Fit 20:44 — Building the Team and Culture 23:39 — From the First 10 Customers to Scale 27:24 — Where AI Agents Matter Most 30:14 — Raising a Series D and What Comes Next 37:33 — The Startup Lesson Nick Wishes He Knew

Gustaf AlströmerhostNick Perryguest

Oct 27, 202638mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: October 27, 2026
Duration: 38m
Channel: YC Root Access
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Candid Health is rebuilding the medical billing stack for healthcare providers, automating the work required to get claims submitted correctly and providers paid. Medical billing is a $200–300 billion market, and much of it still runs on decades-old software and manual processes. Today, Candid serves more than 200 healthcare organizations, processes about $7 billion in claims each year, and recently raised a $120 million Series D to keep expanding into the broader healthcare market. In this Founder Fireside, co-founder and CEO Nick Perry joins YC's Gustaf Alströmer to share how Candid went from manually reviewing every claim to building the automation layer behind the business. He also explains where AI and agents fit into medical billing, and why the goal is to prevent denials before they happen. Chapters: 00:00 — What Candid Health Does 00:26 — Why Medical Billing Is So Complicated 02:13 — How Medical Claims Actually Work 07:27 — The $300B Medical Billing Market 09:14 — Finding Candid’s Wedge 11:00 — Winning the First Customer 13:00 — Doing Things That Don’t Scale 15:33 — Automating RCM With Software and AI 17:55 — From Palantir to Candid Health 19:25 — The Moment They Hit Product-Market Fit 20:44 — Building the Team and Culture 23:39 — From the First 10 Customers to Scale 27:24 — Where AI Agents Matter Most 30:14 — Raising a Series D and What Comes Next 37:33 — The Startup Lesson Nick Wishes He Knew

SPEAKERS

Gustaf Alströmer
host
Y Combinator partner and podcast host/interviewer.
Nick Perry
guest
Co-founder and CEO of Candid Health, focused on medical billing and revenue cycle management automation.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of YC Root Access, featuring Gustaf Alströmer and Nick Perry, Fixing the $300 Billion Medical Billing Problem explores candid Health automates medical billing by getting claims right first time Nick Perry says Candid Health automates revenue cycle management (RCM) by rebuilding the medical billing stack to be automation- and AI-first for healthcare providers billing insurers and patients.

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