Episode 13: Visionary Voices with CLEAR

Larry Kaiser:
Hello, and welcome to this episode of Visionary Voices. Today’s guest is Alex Krinsky. He’s the Senior Director of Healthcare Business Development at Clear.

Alex is former Epic, has a great deal of experience in the healthcare space, and is currently working with health systems to rethink something that’s often overlooked but incredibly critical, which is identity.

Many of you probably know Clear from the airport as that security identity company with the special lane that you go through. But what you may not know is that Clear has expanded into healthcare, financial services, and other markets.

Today, we’re really going to focus on how Clear is bringing its technology into healthcare and how it is revolutionizing identity verification.

Alex, thanks for joining the podcast today.

Alex Krinsky:
Thanks so much for having me. Excited to be here.

Larry Kaiser:
It’ll be a lively conversation.

Our first segment of the podcast we like to call Bandwidth Banter, which is our little way of having icebreakers and helping the people who listen to our podcast understand who our guests are and know a little bit more about them. It adds a more human element to it.

As I mentioned in your intro, you are former Epic, so that’s a badge that gets carried around healthcare quite a bit.

I’d like to get a quick overview of what your experience was working with Epic and how that experience shaped your career in healthcare moving forward.

Alex Krinsky:
Yeah, absolutely.

Even before Epic, I would first mention that my dad is an infectious disease physician and practiced in Sarasota, Florida for many years.

So I think when I first got to the Epic campus, I was excited to work on a product and technology that would directly impact providers like my dad and the patients that he saw.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience.

I loved how closely I was able to work with really large, complex health systems that were really focused on providing the best patient care they could.

I spent a lot of time with Hartford HealthCare, which is an incredible organization in Connecticut.

As I moved on to the next phase of my career, I took away a relentless focus on how technology should really serve the workflows and the best interests of the provider and the patient.

And also just the project management expertise.

I know it’s been talked about more recently since the Acquired podcast about Epic — what implementation folks do at Epic — and I think the skills I took away in terms of organization and communication have proven valuable at Flatiron Health and also here at Clear.

Larry Kaiser:
Awesome.

That’s definitely a badge that gets carried around — “former Epic.”

I can’t begin to tell you how many LinkedIn profiles I see with people who have that background, and I think it really adds credence to experience in healthcare if you’ve spent time working for them.

They are the industry leader in the EHR space.

Alright, let’s shift to something a little more personal.

I’m a music buff myself, and I’d love to know what the last concert you went to was.

Alex Krinsky:
Yeah, I was looking at your Pearl Jam poster there behind you.

I love music and live music, and so does my wife.

Every year we go to Newport Folk Festival.

One thing we’ve revisited recently is that we love punk rock. We grew up with punk rock.

Last year, we went to Warped Tour, which came back after a multi-year hiatus. We had the best time seeing old bands we used to listen to and some new ones.

Recently, one of the bands we saw for the first time at Warped Tour, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, was playing in Brooklyn, so we went to the concert and it was incredible.

High energy. We had the best time.

Saturdays at Your Place — up-and-coming emo pop-punk band. Recommend everybody check them out.

Larry Kaiser:
I’m just asking — did they play at Rough Trade?

Alex Krinsky:
They did not play at Rough Trade. They played in Bushwick.

But I love that you brought up Rough Trade. Amazing venue in Williamsburg.

Larry Kaiser:
Yeah, several years before my wife and I moved, we saw The Church play there.

It was cool to walk in, shop for records, and then go right into the venue. I dropped my cup of water on the stage and was right in front of the guitarist the entire time.

I also got kicked in the face by the lead singer because he’s a kicker.

But it’s a great little venue down there.

Alex Krinsky:
One of my favorite things about living in New York City is all the music and different venues. There’s always something to see every weekend.

Larry Kaiser:
Yeah, I miss the access to all the concert venues now that I don’t live in New York anymore.

But hey, punk rock is good. It falls into my world.

I’m a big grunge guy, and those guys are in their mid-60s now, so it’s basically dad rock at this point.

Those punkers probably don’t move around as much as they used to.

Alex Krinsky:
That’s been a big realization for me as I’ve continued going to concerts.

I’m now in the older category of people seeing bands that were popular 20 years ago.

We went to Incubus at Madison Square Garden last year, and I think I was maybe the youngest person there.

I’ve definitely entered that next phase of life.

Larry Kaiser:
Yeah, it’s hard sometimes to realize you’re getting older.

Getting older stinks.

Alex Krinsky:
But the music is always good.

Larry Kaiser:
Music is always good.

We love live music.

We went to a show a couple weeks ago — Gaelic Storm, which is basically Irish drinking music. A lot of fun.

I’m taking my wife to see Yungblud for her birthday, and we’re also going to see Alter Bridge.

It’s tougher now with a 6-year-old, but we still try to get to as many shows as we can because live music is fun.

Alex Krinsky:
Since you mentioned them, I have to shout out Fontaines D.C. Incredible Irish band. If you haven’t listened to them, you’ve gotta check them out.

Larry Kaiser:
I’ve heard them.

My dad got me into Celtic rock stuff.

What coincided really well was when we went to see Gaelic Storm, my daughter in kindergarten was learning about Celtic and Irish history.

We played her bands like Flogging Molly and Gaelic Storm, and she was dancing.

She specifically said, “My feet won’t stop moving to this music.”

Alex Krinsky:
I love that.

Larry Kaiser:
Me too.

Anyway, enough about music and punk rock and Irish music.

Let’s get into the meat of the conversation.

Like I said earlier, I would say that anybody listening to our podcast is probably familiar with Clear from the airport.

What I’d like to talk about is the company’s expansion into healthcare and why the decision was made to get into the industry.

Alex Krinsky:
Yeah, absolutely.

What’s really interesting about Clear and getting to know this organization is that the mission of Clear has always been bigger than the airport.

It’s about giving consumers the ability to leverage their identity in a really seamless way, whether they’re traveling through an airport, receiving healthcare, or banking with a financial institution.

We started in the airport.

We’ve been working in close partnership with the TSA for 16 years now, and we’re available in over 60 airport locations across the country.

As we’ve looked to expand beyond the airport, healthcare is a space where there’s a lot of friction and a lot of challenges when it comes to security.

It’s really paramount that you have a combination of a simple user experience while also delivering best-in-class, high-assurance identity.

So it’s been a really organic transition to move into healthcare and begin working with health systems, digital health companies, and plans.

As we talk about the different ways we work with healthcare organizations and support patients or providers, it’s under the umbrella of Clear1.

Clear1 is a secure identity platform that allows a user to verify their identity from a mobile phone in a matter of seconds.

With a simple selfie, we’re able to pull in different types of proofing checks and signals to ensure that Alex is really Alex in that moment.

Ultimately, what we’re trying to do as patients move through a healthcare journey, or as providers treat patients, is reduce the emotional burden and the administrative burden.

We’re trying to make it simple and secure.

It really comes down to that.

We’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of great partners across the healthcare ecosystem as we’ve moved into this space.

Larry Kaiser:
I think my first interaction with Clear in healthcare was the first year HIMSS came back after COVID, when they used the Clear platform to validate COVID vaccinations.

Was that the jumping-off point into healthcare, or were you already in healthcare before that?

Alex Krinsky:
We had started getting into healthcare just before that with the simple premise that you are you, and you should be able to reuse your identity with a selfie across those experiences.

COVID, as it did with many situations, threw a curveball.

What we found was that the ability to match an individual’s identity to their COVID vaccination and make it easy to demonstrate that at something like a HIMSS conference removed a lot of friction while also helping individuals feel more safe and secure.

It was really interesting to see the market respond to that.

Consumers trusted Clear as a source with that data.

As we came out of COVID, our ability to demonstrate how we build trust with consumers became really important to our customers in terms of how they interact with a patient digitally.

That HealthPass product existed during COVID, and now in the post-COVID era, Clear1 is the identity platform our partners are using across the market.

Larry Kaiser:
Very cool.

Last year, Optimum and Clear partnered together and used your platform in certain ways.

You guys have also built a relationship with Epic and signed onto the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem Initiative.

Can you dive into what you’re doing with Epic and what challenges are being addressed?

Are you directly integrated with Epic?

Alex Krinsky:
Yeah, exactly right.

Clear works in collaboration with Epic through its Toolbox program, which is a modern iteration of the showroom.

What’s been interesting for me, coming from Epic, is that both Clear and Epic are organizations that really listen to their customers.

As we began working with more health systems across the country, we jointly identified areas where there was a lot of friction for patients or providers and also some security risk.

Over the past several years, we’ve developed integrations where a patient can leverage Clear to create their MyChart account, reset their password, or check into a clinic via Epic’s Welcome product.

At the same time, we’re collaborating on products and use cases for providers as well.

In the February 2026 version of Epic, there will be Clear for EpicCare Link, which we’re really excited about.

At a high level, the showroom program and product have made it really simple for our mutual customers to turn Clear on and make sure they have the right level of identity in the moments that matter most.

Larry Kaiser:
So if someone uses the Clear platform, like myself, and the healthcare organization I go to uses Epic, then I can use that identity to create certain things.

It’s not necessarily that the hospital itself needs to have a separate system — it’s still the individual user using the platform.

Alex Krinsky:
That’s exactly right.

You bring up a great point.

Clear is a reusable identity.

If you use Clear in the airport or if you’ve verified with Clear on LinkedIn, you can reuse that identity with a simple selfie across different experiences.

For me as an airport member, when I go to my provider’s MyChart and need to reset my password, it’s as easy as a selfie.

With the proper consents, of course, consenting to share my data with that provider, it’s a really simple process.

I can reuse that identity across all of Clear’s ecosystem partners.

Larry Kaiser:
Very cool.

I haven’t used it from a healthcare perspective yet, but I recently used it in the airport over the holidays.

I actually had to call Clear customer support because my daughter is 6, and she was able to go through with me.

There are some airports where it’s not necessary to use Clear, but in this case we were flying out of LaGuardia two days after Christmas, so it was going to be packed.

And it was boom, boom, boom.

Alex Krinsky:
Good, I’m glad to hear it.

We recently rolled out eGates in the airport, which allow a traveler to take a selfie and then simply walk through the gate.

It’s been tremendous.

We’ve gotten a lot of really positive feedback.

As a frequent traveler myself, I absolutely love it. It makes it really easy to get through security.

Larry Kaiser:
I’m looking forward to the point where I can use it more in healthcare.

If it’s going to save me clicks on a keyboard or check-in time and I can just take a picture and go, that makes life easier.

We only have so much time in a day, and saving seconds and minutes matters because it gives you more time with family, rest, or recharging.

Most of the hospitals I go to are Epic hospitals, so I’m looking forward to using it.

So the other piece is the CMS Health Tech Initiative.

Can you tell us a little bit about that and the goal of the initiative?

Alex Krinsky:
Absolutely.

The CMS Health Tech Ecosystem, announced last summer in July, is a really innovative and forward-thinking program with a couple major goals.

First and foremost, the administration wants to empower patients and individuals to access their own data and promote modern technologies applied to that data.

Some exciting examples we’ve seen recently are OpenAI Health and Claude Health through Anthropic.

It’s still early, but it’s exciting to see what can happen when patients can bring in their data and ask AI questions about it.

Another part of the initiative is focused on a national provider directory to refine how we manage provider data across the country.

As part of these initiatives, modern identity is considered foundational to enabling organizations to meet these goals.

To keep it simple, in order for me — Alex — to pull in my data and do interesting things with it or apply AI to it, we first need to make sure that I’m really Alex.

As these programs and products come to life, Clear provides IAL2 identity, which is a NIST certification.

Essentially, it means we build a multi-layered identity across biometrics, government documents, database corroboration, and signals to make sure with very high assurance that I am who I say I am.

That allows me to pull in data from various CMS-aligned networks with the proper consents.

What’s also really important is that exchanging data is sensitive.

You need to make sure the right data is getting to the right place.

Clear is excited to help build trust, accountability, and transparency into the process.

As more data is exchanged, we want to help contribute to the infrastructure to make sure it’s done safely while allowing patients to interact with their healthcare data the same way they interact with their music data or shopping data.

We’re really excited about what’s ahead.

Larry Kaiser:
That segues perfectly into my next question.

Three to five years from now, identity is going to play a much bigger role than it does now.

What do you see that becoming?

Healthcare loves data, and identity in healthcare still feels like it’s in its infancy.

Alex Krinsky:
We believe — and CMS and other entities believe — that identity is going to be foundational to how we innovate in healthcare over the next several years.

Based on how our partners are leveraging identity and leaning into TEFCA individual access services and the CMS Health Tech Ecosystem, we’re really excited about what’s ahead.

We think there’s a lot of opportunity to make it easier for patients to aggregate their data.

I live in New York City, go to four different providers, and I’ve worked in healthcare my entire career.

Even for me, it’s really challenging to request records and pull data from different organizations when I need it.

It’s a problem the market has been trying to solve for a long time, and I think we’re finally at a point where there’s regulation and incentive to make it happen.

But identity is foundational because there are many moments where you need to make sure you have the right person and verified, accurate data matching across different data sets.

As we look ahead, we’re going to see more data sharing.

What Clear is working on alongside our partners is making sure everyone understands how to do it right.

How to make sure it’s safe and secure.

How to make sure patients benefit while health systems also feel comfortable with what’s being asked of them.

It’s going to take the right incentives and protections across all stakeholders.

I think we’re getting there.

Clear’s role — and identity’s role more broadly — is making sure that security and accountability remain tangible and paramount as this continues to evolve.

Larry Kaiser:
Do you feel that health systems may be underestimating some specific risk areas today when it comes to identity?

And with over 5,000 provider organizations in the United States, what can Clear do to combat those risks?

Alex Krinsky:
I don’t think health systems are underestimating it.

Our health system partners understand the risk.

I enjoy working with CISOs and CIOs across the country who are really focused on protecting patient data while also protecting the experience for patients and providers.

What’s challenging is that often the risk is not a sophisticated attacker or hacker.

It’s someone using a simple social engineering technique.

For example, calling a call center, providing a different phone number for MFA, and then getting access to someone’s data.

It’s a really simple technique that CISOs are very aware of.

Where Clear helps is making sure organizations can verify the individual at the device in that moment.

Historically, identity has relied on archaic tools.

One example is knowledge-based authentication.

A credit bureau might ask, “Larry, what street did you live on 23 years ago?”

That has really low conversion, and a lot of that information is available online.

Another common tactic is MFA to email or phone.

But if someone changes the number or email, it’s easy to take over the account.

What Clear does is allow an organization to really know who is trying to access a system in that moment.

Because of our multi-layered identity approach, we’re able to provide valuable signals and data about the individual trying to access the system.

I’m consistently impressed with our CISO partners and how forward-thinking they are.

Healthcare is unfortunately a target, so they have to stay ahead of how bad actors are trying to access data.

Larry Kaiser:
One word you’ve used multiple times is trust.

Trust is a huge part of healthcare.

Whether you’re a patient trusting your provider, a health system trusting a vendor, or a vendor trying to become a true partner.

Reflecting on trust, from Clear’s perspective, is the focus on building trust with consumers to use the platform in healthcare?

Or is it building trust with health systems that this is the tool they need to earn the trust of their patients?

Alex Krinsky:
Can I say both?

Going back to the airport, what we found from our success there is that trust boils down to making a really challenging experience simple and secure.

That’s what we did for travelers.

We simplified the process and made it seamless.

As we think about expansion into healthcare and working with our partners, what historically required typing demographic data and doing MFA or knowledge-based authentication gets replaced with a selfie.

We’ve made it quicker and more secure.

For the health system partner, we’ve given them greater confidence and visibility into who is accessing their systems.

Some of our partners, like Community Health Network, have shared amazing results.

They’ve seen 1.5x more conversion in MyChart.

They see over 90% pass rates with Clear compared to their legacy solution, which was around 50%.

If you can simplify and make something easier while keeping it secure, that’s when consumers trust and want to keep using it.

We try to bring that to all the healthcare use cases we power for our partners today.

Larry Kaiser:
I kind of thought that was the angle you were going to go with because you’re really both a B2C and B2B business.

I’ve said the same thing about Optimum for years.

Yes, we sell to health systems, but ultimately you’re selling to individuals within those health systems before you ever get to the organization.

So at the most basic level, we’re technically B2C as well.

Our goal is to build trust with our contacts and then with the health system as a whole.

In your case, you’re building trust with consumers who then use the product with your corporate clients.

Alex Krinsky:
Absolutely.

And personally, coming to an organization like Clear, which hasn’t historically been a healthcare company, it’s been really refreshing to bring a direct-to-consumer user experience into healthcare because we so desperately need it.

What excites me about the work we’re doing here is that we’re bringing a delightful product that people already love in their day-to-day life into healthcare, which generally has a lot of friction.

We’re excited to continue expanding that presence.

Larry Kaiser:
That’s awesome.

Well, that concludes our discussion today.

I want to thank you, Alex, for joining the podcast and sharing some insight.

I’ll ask one final question — if you have any additional insights or comments to make, whether to consumers who may not have used Clear yet or to the healthcare executives listening to our podcast today.

Alex Krinsky:
Well, Larry, first of all, thank you for having me on.

Optimum Healthcare IT has been a tremendous partner to Clear, so we appreciate it.

What I’ll leave you with is that we’re excited to keep growing in the space.

We’ve driven a lot of strong outcomes in partnership with health systems and plans across the country.

And to the point made earlier, identity is really foundational.

There are more moments where we can reduce friction and make experiences safer.

You and I were talking before we started about attending conferences coming up, and we’re always excited to meet more individuals and organizations and learn how we can help them.

Always feel free to reach out, and we’re excited to talk.

Larry Kaiser:
Awesome. Well, thanks, Alex.

To our listeners, thanks for tuning in today to this episode of Visionary Voices, powered by Optimum Healthcare IT.

Remember that the future of healthcare IT starts with your vision.

We’ll catch you next time on Visionary Voices.