The next decade for healthtech may look a lot like the last decade for fintech – TechCrunch

After the 2008 financial crisis, a new slate of regulations aimed at protecting consumers and businesses opened the floodgates for a surge of fintech companies to develop into household names over the last decade. Now, it might be healthcare’s turn.

Part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Consumer Reform and Protection Act, passed in 2010, stated that financial institutions were required to give consumers access to their financial data electronically either for personal or third-party use. This regulation is why we can link our bank accounts to Venmo or Zelle to send money to our friends or why Stripe and Plaid have been able to revolutionize payment infrastructure for so many businesses.

Now, healthcare is seeing a regulatory catalyst of its own. The 21st Century Cures Act, which passed in 2016 and will begin to be enforced this year, outlines information sharing guidelines, API standardization, and national infrastructure for sharing this type of information. An increase in healthcare innovation is listed as one of the act’s goals.

The question is, will healthcare startups tap into these regulatory guidelines with the same fervor that fintech founders have over the last decade?