Build vs. buy: eligibility data ingestion for digital health companies

Last reviewed

October 23, 2026

TL;DR

Data Nexus by Dart Health takes on the part of eligibility ingestion that keeps costing money after launch: validation, exception handling, identity matching, history, compliance, and keeping every client's feed current as layouts change. For up to 50 feeds, it costs less than half of one full-time engineer, and adding a feed within a tier costs nothing more. You can still build the parser yourself, since AI has made that part cheap.

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Less than half

of one engineer's cost, up to 50 feeds

to add a feed within your tier

HIPAA

SOC 2 Type II

What you own if you build

Intake over SFTP, webhook, and API, with hosting and server maintenance
A mapping for each client's layout, updated whenever the client changes systems
Validation of both schema and content, plus a comparison against each source's prior file
Exception triage and the conversations with senders when a file is wrong
Identity resolution across eligibility, claims, and program data without a shared ID
History and an audit trail that survive retroactive changes
HIPAA safeguards, BAAs, and SOC 2 Type II controls and audits

You keep doing all of this after launch, and each new client adds another feed to maintain. So your cost of building grows with your client count.

Price it against one engineer

Data Nexus pricing is flat within each tier and grows in steps you can plan:

Validation: $2,990 a month for the trial, 3 feeds, 500,000 monthly record updates
Starter: $4,990 a month on a 1-year commitment, 15 feeds, 1,000,000 monthly record updates
Pro: $6,990 a month on a 1-year commitment, or $83,880 a year, 50 feeds, 3,000,000 monthly record updates
Enterprise: quoted, with unlimited lookback, 834 intake, leave data, and a dedicated onboarding lead

Set the Pro figure beside your own fully loaded cost for one engineer.

When building in-house is the right call

Eligibility handling is part of the product you sell.
You have a data engineering team with spare capacity, and your client count is stable.
You want to run eligibility operations yourself with better tooling. A configurable importer such as OneSchema fits that. See how the options compare.

Test it on one employer's files first

Run one real employer's files through the Validation plan. Measure the result in units your team already uses: the share that processed with no human touch, the share that needed a quick review and confirm, and the share that needed a real conversation with the sender.

Then set your team's current numbers beside them.

What it looks like at Handpicked Health

Handpicked Health took on a Fortune 50 employer at launch. Its latest Fortune 50 feed went from first test file to production-ready in 1 day, and its new feeds go live in under 7 days. Read the case study.

Dart's founders built the benefits data platforms at Mercer and Reed Group before starting Dart.

FAQ

Is Data Nexus priced per covered life?

No. Plans are priced by the number of feeds and monthly record updates.

What does the Validation plan include?

The Validation plan is $2,990 a month during the trial. It includes 3 feeds, 500,000 monthly record updates, built-in SFTP, and the real-time API.

How do we know if it's working?

Track the share of records processed with no human touch on your side, the time from a signed client to a live feed, and the hours your engineers spend on eligibility each month.

What this doesn't do

It isn't a CSV importer embedded in your own app. Use OneSchema or Flatfile for that.
It doesn't replace your product's data model. Your engineers still build against the Data Nexus API.
It doesn't analyze employer claims for you. Use a platform such as Springbuk for that.

Bring your current eligibility workload to a 30-minute call.

Learn how to get your team's time back.

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