After years working as an investigator with risk management firms like Kroll and FTI Consulting, Aaron Narva joined compliance software company Exiger, where he worked with a major international bank to oversee compliance after the bank’s involvement in a money-laundering scandal. His experience there, particularly with AI tools that analyzed public records for risk indicators, sparked the idea for his own startup, Conflixis.
Narva realized that hospitals and large medical practices face similar corruption risks as financial institutions. Pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers often form close ties with doctors, sometimes to the extent that conflicts of interest arise. To address this, physicians must disclose relationships like consulting fees, sponsored research, or paid travel, which are visible in the government-run OpenPaymentsData.com. However, disclosure alone does not eliminate these risks, which can lead to legal issues for hospitals under regulations such as the Stark Law and the Anti-Kickback Statute.
Narva saw the potential for an AI-driven software solution to help hospitals identify problematic relationships, providing insights into situations where partnerships with vendors or suppliers could present legal or operational risks. Conflixis’s software scans data from OpenPaymentsData.com, the hospital’s own procurement and claims data, patient outcomes, and conflict-of-interest disclosures to pinpoint specific relationships that may need further investigation.
For instance, within a large health system that might have 200,000 relationships between doctors and suppliers, Conflixis can identify which relationships could impact the hospital's compliance or financial health. Beyond highlighting regulatory risks, the software can also identify cost-saving opportunities. For example, it can determine if a hospital is paying more for equipment based on a doctor’s recommendation tied to a particular vendor, rather than choosing a less expensive, comparable option.
Narva partnered with Joseph Bergen, a friend and former director of engineering at BuzzFeed, to build Conflixis. Bergen was so convinced of the potential that he left his job to co-found the company. Founded in 2023, Conflixis has gained early traction with several clients and less than $5 million in revenue. It recently secured $4.2 million in seed funding from investors including Lerer Hippeau and Origin Ventures, with additional backing from mark vc, Springtime Ventures, and Cretiv Capital.
While Conflixis operates in a competitive space that includes companies like Compliatric and Symplr, it differentiates itself through a combination of investigative expertise and customized AI tools. The startup adapted off-the-shelf AI models to recognize specific patterns in healthcare data, leveraging the founders’ backgrounds in corruption and compliance investigations.
Conflixis aims to not only reduce hospitals’ regulatory risks but also to improve transparency and operational decision-making, enhancing trust with patients and helping healthcare systems manage costs more effectively.
