How are we free?
$0 to the patient. $0 to the doctor. The math, in public.
We don't charge for clinical visits, software, identity, the data vault, or the AI scribe. Not because we're philanthropy — because we monetize the parts of healthcare that were already monetized, just by people who weren't you. Researchers pay for de-identified, consented data. The chain settles every transaction in the network. The exchange takes a fee on trades that already happen. We get paid by the system. You don't.
Click any underlined line — or the Orb — to verify it on the chain
The unit economics
We don't tax the bedside. We tax the system.
A patient encounter has four economic shadows: the data it produces, the prescriptions it triggers, the care it routes, and the trust it accrues. We monetize the shadows, not the encounter. That's the whole trick.
Marketplace fee — 12%
Pharma, academic, and public-health researchers pay HCC for cohort access. We take a 12% platform fee. Patients keep 88%. Nobody gets data without a signed, revocable consent on file.
Trading + custody — 0.1–0.3%
hc.exchange charges a tier-laddered fee per executed trade on HCR/HCC/USD-backed pairs — Treasury custody, KYC, FinCEN-registered MSB. Most patients never trade and pay nothing.
Settlement margin — ~0.4¢
chain.conceptualhealth settles every claim, refund, prescription, and disbursement in the network. We earn a thin margin on the average settled transaction — money that today goes to clearinghouses you've never heard of.
Mining + ops — 12% gross
Network Clinics that opt into mining earn HCC by attesting axis lifts and validating clinical events. We retain 12% of gross mining yield as operating margin. Clinics keep the other 88%.
Finance, health, corporations, law
The same separation-of-duties governance and chain-stamped change control runs across every domain we operate. Health is where it's proven first — the economics above are what that proof funds.
Steady-state target
A picture of the whole company.
We're founder-funded and founder-held; this is the steady-state shape we're building toward — not a current report. Revenue mix: Researcher fees 44%, Exchange fees 28%, Chain settlement 18%, Mining / ops margin 7%, Enterprise 3%. Cost mix: Compute + AI inference 32%, Engineering payroll 28%, Clinical staff (free care) 16%, Compliance + legal 12%, Custody/audits/licenses 6%, Reserves (HCR/HCC backing) 5%. Target net operating margin ≈ 14%.
Things we will, things we won't
The covenant, in two columns.
The promise
Clinical care will always cost the patient $0 at point-of-service; any insurance reimbursement we receive flows to clinic operations, not patient bills. Patient software is always free — Guardian Orb™, the chart, the wallet, the AI concierge — no tier, no upsell, no premium account. Data is the patient's, always: we host the chart, we don't own it, and export-on-request returns full USCDI + raw FHIR. Researchers can't see your data without your signed, per-study, revocable consent — you earn HCC, we take a 12% platform fee, nothing happens silently. Doctors aren't billed by us: Network Clinics keep 100% of insurance reimbursement plus 88% of mining yield. Token economics are public, audited, and reserve-backed — no off-balance-sheet deals, no related-party trades.
The line we don't cross
We will never sell ads against your data — we don't run ad networks, broker behavioral profiles, or pixel third parties. We won't resell your data to insurers, employers, brokers, or data vendors; the marketplace requires IRB-approved, consented research uses only. We won't charge a "premium" patient tier — there isn't a Pro plan, and there never will be. We won't take equity-style upside in clinics; Network Clinics keep their independence and we are not a private-equity rollup. We won't touch patient escrow or reserve funds for company operations — reserves are custodied separately under fiduciary trust.
How we compare
The other "free" isn't free.
Most "free" healthcare products monetize you somewhere — ads, data resale, surprise bills, in-network upsells, or shareholder pressure that becomes formulary pressure. Patient cost at point of service: big-tech health is $0 + co-pays + ads, insurer portals are $0 + co-pays + denials — ours is $0, period. Data ownership: the platform owns it under big-tech TOS, the payer holds it under insurer HIPAA-sharing — with us the patient owns it cryptographically. Ads / behavioral targeting: yes for big-tech, sometimes for insurer portals — never for us, not now, not later. Data sold to researchers: aggregated with no patient cut elsewhere — per-consent with 88% to the patient here. Doctor pays for the EHR: ~$400–$1,200 / provider / mo elsewhere — $0 in Network Clinics. Surprise bills: routine in insurer portals, out of scope for big-tech — architecturally impossible here.
Frameworks & the close
If the math is good, the rest is just discipline.
We operate under SOC 2 Type II (annual), HITRUST CSF r2, HIPAA (Covered + BAA), FinCEN (MSB · MTL), FIPS 140-3 validated crypto, and WCAG 2.2 AA (annual audit). Each framework has a per-control state of Architected, Active, or Audited on the compliance posture — we won't claim a credential here that the posture doesn't show as Active. Watch the model run against your own contributions and decide for yourself whether the numbers add up.