STAT+: This health tech exec is in charge of Medicare, and he has big ambitions
A close look at Chris Klomp's path to the top of Medicare, which pays for the health care of 68 million Americans.
In keeping with the Trump administration’s quest to slash spending at the federal health department, it’s hired a famously thrifty technology entrepreneur to lead Medicare.
As the CEO of health IT company Collective Medical, Chris Klomp flew bargain-priced Frontier Airlines and once boasted about sleeping in rental cars and crummy motels on business trips. The office snacks were from Costco. The penny-pinching didn’t stop after the bootstrapped company raised nearly $50 million from blue chip investors like Kleiner Perkins. One morning, Klomp arrived at the company’s headquarters just outside Salt Lake City, his 1960’s teal Ford pickup loaded full of printer paper that was on sale at Staples.
“We all had Chris Klomp cheap-o stories,” said Ben Zaniello, the former chief medical officer of Collective Medical, who at one point had to plead with Klomp so employees didn’t have to share hotel rooms. “He definitely wanted people to save money in any way possible.”
