Episode 8 - Ron Urwongse - (Defacto Health) Building a Real Provider Directory

🎙️ Episode 8 – Why Provider Data Is Still Broken (And How to Fix It) | Guest: Ron Urwongse

In this episode of Out of the FHIR, Gene sits down with Ron Urwongse founder of Defacto Health, a self professed Provider Data Nerd, health tech strategist, and one of the sharpest minds in provider data infrastructure to unpack why provider data remains stubbornly inaccurate, fragmented, and operationally painful across the healthcare ecosystem.

💡 Ron exposes the root problem: most healthcare APIs are still glorified databases with business logic missing from the stack. He explains how data accuracy isn’t just about syncing directories it's about rebuilding the underlying operational model with intention, alignment, and contextual relevance.

🔎 Featured Topics:

* Why provider data is only 50% accurate and why that state hasn’t changed in a decade

* The myth of a universal provider directory and why a national directory won’t solve what’s fundamentally a business logic problem

* How plans, vendors, and digital health players are stuck pushing CSVs and duct-taping endpoints

* What it would take to build an AI-native, agent-based model for provider data stewardship

* The limits of FHIR and the opportunity to use it as an orchestration layer, not just a data exchange format

💥 Key Quote:"You can’t clean up provider data until you change the incentives, rebuild the system logic, and stop pretending it’s just a data formatting issue."

This episode is a must-listen for anyone touching provider directories, network management, quality measurement, prior auth, or digital health operations. Ron doesn’t hold back and it’s the perspective the industry needs to hear.

🎧 Listen now and rethink what it really means to fix provider data.