John Caruso, FSA, MAAA — Founder
← Back to Cost KitsI'm John Caruso, a healthcare actuary and the founder of CostKits. For over 20 years I've worked inside the systems that set the prices families eventually see on their medical bills — pricing plans for national insurers, building analytics for technology-enabled medical groups, and designing consumer tools at healthcare startups.
Along the way, one thing kept bothering me: the people making the biggest financial decisions of their lives — whether to schedule a procedure, which provider to choose, how much to set aside for a deductible — almost never have access to the pricing data that insurers and providers use every day. CostKits exists to close that gap, using the same actuarial rigor I've applied on the industry side, pointed instead at helping families understand what care actually costs before the bill arrives.
I hold the Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA) designations — credentials earned through rigorous exams in healthcare pricing, reserving, and risk modeling. My career has spanned three sides of the healthcare system:
That combination is unusual — most people in healthcare see one side of the transaction. Having priced the risk, analyzed the claims, and built the consumer tools gives CostKits a vantage point most cost-comparison sites don't have.
Connect on LinkedInI'm personally responsible for the accuracy of what CostKits publishes. Every cost figure, coverage explanation, and educational article is grounded in data from sources like CMS, KFF, and AHRQ, and reviewed against my own actuarial and industry experience before it goes live. Where we use AI to help with research or drafting, a human — usually me — fact-checks and approves the final content. The full detail on how we source, review, and update our content lives in our Editorial Policy, and the specifics of how we price procedures and match facility data live in our Data & Pricing Methodology.
CostKits does not accept payment from insurers, providers, or health systems in exchange for coverage. Some pages include affiliate links to services we believe are genuinely useful, clearly disclosed per FTC guidelines — but those relationships never influence what we say about pricing or coverage.
| Value | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Clarity over confusion | We translate insurance and billing jargon into plain English. |
| Empowerment through knowledge | We give families the same data insurers use internally. |
| Integrity above all | No hidden fees, no pay-for-placement, no conflicts of interest. |
Explore our guides in the CostKits Learn center on managing medical bills, understanding insurance claims, and reducing healthcare costs. CostKits is currently in beta — if you spot an error or have feedback, I want to hear it directly at hello@costkits.com or on LinkedIn.
