BGSU Falcon Flames create AI-powered resource to help cancer patients navigate healthcare costs

Drawing on their own experience, Irene '08 and Blake Martin '08 developed a resource to help cancer patients and families understand medical costs, insurance denials and financial assistance options

Irene '08 and Blake Martin '08 met at Bowling Green State University while working toward their graphic design degrees.

They started their careers, got married and started a family.

Then, in 2024, at the age of 38, Irene was diagnosed with breast cancer. The mother of two said the fear and uncertainty associated with a cancer diagnosis alone can be debilitating.

“When you hear that word, it kind of blindsides you,” she said. “At that moment, the situation can just feel like it is overwhelming you.”

“The word that comes to mind is helpless,” Blake said. “It’s a nightmare because you don’t know what to do, and it seems like you can’t do anything. You just hope – you hope the doctors and experts can do something.”

Following Irene’s initial diagnosis came a sequence of chemotherapy treatments, surgeries and other procedures that proved to be both taxing on her physically, while also placing the family’s finances under extreme stress. There were bills that the insurance company refused to pay, pre-approvals for treatments that were denied and coverage that did not extend to essential care.

During their cancer care ordeal, the Martins decided to create a lifeline to assist others going through a similar disruption to their personal world.

The Martins developed "Ask Irene," a free online advisory service that uses the power of artificial intelligence, built using Claude, to help cancer patients and their families by empowering them with information and a better understanding of navigating their Explanation of Benefits (EOB), when to question bills and how to negotiate the hospital and insurance system, as well as seek helpful, local resources.

As two well-educated and astute individuals, the Martins said they struggled to process the seemingly endless stacks of forms and paperwork.

“It hit home almost immediately that we were operating in the dark when it came to understanding most of this,” Blake said.

“I did a lot of reading right away and still did not understand what I was getting into,” Irene said.

Realizing they likely were battling a complex system, the Martins leaned into their creativity and Blake’s skill set in the use of AI.

“There is ample evidence that insurance companies have been using computer algorithms and artificial intelligence to automatically issue initial denials,” Blake said, so he decided to engage them with a similar set of armaments. “I have been working and building with AI tools for a while, and I came back to the point where I was looking for how we could help ourselves with this.”

Blake realized early on in Irene’s cancer care journey that he and his wife were spending an inordinate amount of time wading through paperwork during what had proven to be the most difficult emotional segment of their lives.

“I wanted to minimize or eliminate all of the built-in confusion,” he said. “People need help understanding the coding and descriptions on their healthcare bills.”

The Ask Irene website went live about six months ago and is primarily beneficial for individuals with less than $20,000 in existing medical debt. Blake stressed that the site does not offer medical or legal advice.

“Ask Irene exists just to help demystify the jargon and translate the complicated into something more understandable,” said Blake, who is the executive creative director at a Findlay-based marketing firm, AR Marketing. “There is no benefit in making things more complicated than they need to be.”

The Martins encourage everyone to use the cancer support groups available in most areas, patient advocates and patient navigators, as well as the Ask Irene website. "Ask Irene" is available at no charge and allows users to ask questions and communicate with the resource tool to find answers and a more comprehensive understanding of medical bills and EOBs.

The Martins also offer a paid option in which medical bills and Explanation of Benefits (EOB) forms can be uploaded for review and analysis.

“Nobody ever wants to deal with these issues, to fill out form after form, do appeals on top of appeals. It seems like you are stuck in an endless loop of fact-finding,” Irene said. “Our goal is simply to help people.”

With medical debt looming as the leading cause of bankruptcy in the U.S., the Martins hope that their experience, offered via “Ask Irene”, can help others facing the same journey into the unknown that a cancer diagnosis brings about.

“We just want to see people be more empowered and informed,” Blake said. “We don’t think you should need a finance degree just to understand your medical bills.”