NASHVILLE--How do you empower consumers in the health careindustry?

Well, for one thing, you give them access to simple bloodtesting that can change their health and tell them exactly how much it costs.

That's the mission of — and the message from — Elizabeth Holmes,founder and CEO of Theranos, who spoke Thursday during America'sHealth Insurance Plans Institute 2015 in Nashville.

"We need to engage and empower consumers," Holmes said. "Wecannot deny the individual the basic role to know about theirhealth."

Her biotech company's goal is to enable early detection byoffering blood tests that are transparent in cost, easy to get andinexpensive.

Theranos, valued at about $9 billion, performs blood testsdifferently: Rather than taking vials of blood from a needle andsyringe, it requires only a few drops of blood, drawn from thefingertips. And, perhaps most importantly, it costs significantlyless, usually one-quarter to one-10th of the usual cost. And thereis no confusion over cost; prices are listed on Theranos' website.Results are faster (often within hours) and more accurate, too.

The company has been growing rapidly and has partnered withWalgreens, which hosts wellness centers at more than 40 of itsstores in Arizona and California.

READ: Where healthcare consumerism isheaded

Labs, Holmes said, have been "tremendous impediments to criticallife-saving data. Until recently, people couldn't get copies oftheir own lab results. I can go out and buy a weapon, a poisonoussnake ... yet in too many states it's illegal for me to get an[over-the-counter] allergy test, a blood-based pregnancy test or aVitamin D test."

"There's this massive barrier to our own health information. Toengage an individual, we must put them in the driver's seat oftheir own car," Holmes said.

That begins with engaging with physicians, understanding--andhaving access to--health care costs, and of course, increasingaccess to simple blood tests that can save lives, sheexplained.

READ: Kids missing out on preventativecare

Holmes cited diabetes as one example. The No. 7 killer in theUnited States, diabetes is very simply detected by a blood test.But, Holmes said, nearly 90 percent of people with diabetes areunaware of it. Adults with undiagnosed diabetes are 50 percent morelikely to die than those who are diagnosed in time.

The bottom line? "Routine blood testing could save lives," shesaid. "If we want to build a health care system where earlydetection and prevention is the model, we must take downbarriers." Access to blood testing for important healthmeasures, including cholesterol, cancer and heart disease, shesaid, is a "basic human right."

It's a small part of Holmes' bigger mission, and vision, forhealth care: empowering consumers so that the health care systemcan change for the better.

"Health care is arguably the most important industry toeveryone--yet there's a lack of transparency," Holmes said. "Ourcurrent system is based on a model to treat costly health disordersonly after people are sick."

She argued that increasing transparency in the health marketwill engage consumers and thus, drive health prices down. Itwill drive market competition, which will result in "betterproducts and better prices."

"The lack of engagement of the consumer has a profound effect onthe market itself: There is no pressure for prices to drop," Holmessaid. "Every person should know how much a test will cost thembefore that test is done."

When individuals are engaged and informed, she argued, they alsowill engage better with health care providers.

Holmes urged the thousands of attendees to join her to call for"change and disruption" within the industry.

"We're at a great time where great change is possible. It's timeto achieve a new paradigm," Holmes said. "This is the moment, and Ihope today you will join us."