This piece is part three of our HLTH 2025 Recap Series, where we unpack the trends driving real change in healthcare. If AI and retail are redefining innovation and access, trust is redefining credibility. At HLTH, transparency wasn’t just a value — it was a business imperative.
Mark Cuban lit up the HLTH mainstage by calling out pharmacy middlemen and drug pricing opacity. He spent 10 minutes breaking down the PBM model in plain English. And along the way, his message was LOUD: “Everyone in the industry has been complicit in propping up a broken model. Transparency is how you rebuild trust. And trust = transparency / self-interest.” And the room erupted in applause over and over again… signaling that the industry is excited and ready for this kind of disruption.
The announcement of a Cost Plus Drugs partnership with the federal TrumpRx program upped the stakes. It signals that cost transparency isn’t just a consumer play; it’s a regulatory mandate and competitive wedge.
In parallel, Optum unveiled Optum Real: a real-time, AI-powered claims engine meant to eliminate billing friction between providers and payers. This kind of backend transparency is the backbone of patient-facing trust.
For marketers, trust is critical. Consumers are done tolerating opacity. Transparency in pricing, access, and even tech usage (think: AI explainability) is the new expectation.
Transparency may rebuild trust, but it’s also bringing uncomfortable truths to the surface — especially when politics enter the picture. In our final piece, we’ll explore how policy, prevention, and power collided on the HLTH stage.
