Cedar today announced its entry into the health technology market with a smarter way to manage the patient payment ecosystem. The Cedar platform, which powers solutions for hospitals, health systems and medical groups, delivers modern intelligence to alleviate collections challenges, dramatically improve billing operations and ensure an elevated, personalized billing experience for patients.

In support of Cedar's efforts, the company has raised $13 million in Series A funding from investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Martin Ventures and SV Angel.

Patient collections are a critical, yet often overlooked component of the revenue cycle. With patient payments now accounting for 35 percent of provider revenue (the third largest source behind only Medicare and Medicaid)1, it is clear that a better system is needed -- which inspired Cedar's founders, Florian Otto and Arel Lidow, to form the company.

"At Cedar, we study everything from a patient's billing history, to their level of engagement with previous communications and general payer and demographic information. Putting all of these signals together, our platform provides data-driven recommendations for providers to optimize all interactions with patients," said Florian Otto, co-founder and CEO of Cedar. "We are excited to work with innovative, consumer-centric healthcare providers that see patient billing as an opportunity to vastly improve the patient experience and their own operations."

A Data-Driven Payment Solution for Hospitals and Medical Groups

Today, the majority of revenue cycle offerings look at one or two transactional aspects of patient billing. Cedar instead offers a comprehensive view of the overall patient payment ecosystem, leveraging millions of internal and external data points to inform the communication method, messaging and payment options that an individual patient may see. These are optimized over time via machine learning algorithms to continually ensure the best possible response from patients.

"The consumer experience in healthcare lags behind nearly every other industry -- this is painfully obvious when you look at the current patient billing process," said Kareem Zaki, Thrive Capital. "We see Cedar doing much more than providing a Band-Aid solution to this problem. They're approaching the patient billing experience from a completely different viewpoint than other vendors, and creating a new standard for revenue cycle operations."

Through the Cedar platform, providers can consolidate billing information across multiple caregivers while delivering clear invoices detailing exactly what patients owe, with personalized click-to-pay options. In parallel, provider billing teams can keep track of all activities via a powerful patient CRM and financial dashboards. The Cedar platform can be integrated with any electronic health record (EHR) or practice management system (PMS), and implemented in ten weeks or less.

In initial testing, providers using the Cedar platform saw an average of:

22 percent increase in collections;
33 percent reduction in A/R days;
62 percent increase in self-serve payments; and
>90 percent patient satisfaction when using the Cedar platform.

"With patient payments being a critical component of the revenue cycle, it is necessary that hospitals and health systems provide patients with the best possible experience," said Joel Perlman, advisor to Cedar and former EVP/CFO, Montefiore Health System, New York. "Cedar truly understands what it means to bring a patient-first approach to healthcare technology, and will allow providers to improve on the often confusing and emotional process of patient payment. In turn, hospitals and health systems will not only see an improvement in collections, billing operations and days in AR, but receive better patient satisfaction scores across the board."

About Cedar

Cedar provides a smarter way for hospitals, health systems and medical groups to manage the patient payment ecosystem. Our platform delivers modern intelligence to dramatically improve billing operations and ensure a personalized billing experience for patients. To elevate your patient experience, visit cedar.com.