Three months ago, Niall Brennan was appointed president and executive director of the Health Care Cost Institute, a not-for-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on improving price transparency through the use of insurance data. He succeeds David Newman, a health policy expert who had led the organization since its founding in 2011. Brennan was the CMS first chief data officer. Appointed in 2014 during the Obama administration, he is credited with significantly improving data transparency at the agency. Brennan also led advancements in data collection and increased the amount of CMS data available to outside sources. He recently spoke with Modern Healthcare reporter Maria Castellucci to discuss his plans for HCCI, the future of transparency in the industry and how consumerism is changing healthcare.