Chris Carpenter on the origin of ChartSquad

Here is a transcript of the video above, which focuses on why ChartSquad was created - to help people get access to medical records.

“My name is Chris Carpenter. I'm the founding CEO of Chart Squad. I have a solution to the attorney's number one pain point, which is obtaining medical records.

You don't have a case without records. You have to have the records. Attorneys are being charged hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars to obtain these records. I spent 20 years of my career building one of the largest nationwide companies that charge quite a bit of money. To release these records without any knowledge that the patients were paying these rates.

I met a young litigator and she explained to me, “Do you realize what you're doing? You're all these patients are paying the bill?” I said, “No. The attorneys make all the money. They're paying the bill.” And she said, “No. We passed those fees on to the patient,” and it was gut-wrenching.

Basically, you have an $8 billion-a-year industry that is holding these records for ransom. I've seen invoices range as high as $32,000. So, I looked throughout the industry and there was not a single voice for the plaintiff, not one. And at that moment, I decided I'm gonna fix this problem.

Most people think civil justice that happens in the courtroom. You know where civil justice happens? It starts with the medical record. Every single person in the US is entitled to… Is granted a civil right of access to their own records under federal law and under that civil right of access, you can obtain your own medical records for a fee of $6 and 50 cents.

You write the letter, you say, I want them, they must come back within 30 days. They shouldn't be charging more than $6 and 50 cents. A plaintiff can let the attorney request the records and be charged a lot of money. Or a plaintiff can request them themselves, share it with whoever you need to. And if that's a civil litigator, then so be it.

So, when I reference that $32,000 invoice, what did ChartSquad do for that plaintiff, we eliminated that fee and got it down to $6 and 50 cents. How much more is left in the settlement? You do the math…

When I discuss these matters with plaintiff attorneys, they immediately recognize the civil justice aspect of this. Your healthcare records are where it all starts, and that begins the journey. That journey then transfers through the whole case process. Empower the patient or the plaintiff first, transfer that empowerment over to the litigator, and then further empower the litigator with all the tools necessary to increase the value of the case so that whole equals whole. Not some fraction of it that the insurance company wants to give you this tiny check and say “Go away.”

If you're being made whole. How about we get to whole? How about we don't get to “Oh, but I had to pay all these people all this money to get my own records. I'm changing people's lives. I'm, I'm not pedaling widgets. We all have this right, and ChartSquad is here to empower you to utilize that right.”