What we talked about
Ken Pickering, CTO of Scripta Insights, joins Federico to unpack how his team is using AI and large-scale data to tackle the opaque, often unfair U.S. pharmacy pricing system. Ken explains why drug costs vary wildly person-to-person, how that opacity drives prescription “abandonment,” and where Scripta intervenes: ingesting messy plan documents, inferring benefits and conditions, modeling deductibles, and recommending clinically sound, lower-cost alternatives (including cash-pay options). He draws a surprising parallel to his work at Hopper: much like airfare, drug pricing is non-deterministic to consumers, so the real job is reducing ambiguity with clear UX and trustworthy recommendations.
Show notes
Today on the PreVetted Podcast, we’re joined by Ken Pickering, CTO of Scripta Insights, where he’s tackling the broken U.S. pharmacy pricing system with the power of AI and large-scale data. Over the past 20 years, Ken has led engineering teams through hypergrowth, platform rebuilds, and industry disruption at companies including Hopper, Starburst, Going, and Rue La La. Throughout his career, his mission has remained consistent: leveraging technology and data to make complex systems simpler, fairer, and better for the people who depend on them.