Patientco, a Patient Billing Management Platform with Over $30M in Funding, Files IPO to Become the 'PayPal of Healthcare'
Companies offering patient payment management services are experiencing unprecedented popularity in the United States. VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that Patientco, a technology company specializing in patient billing and payment management, announced last month the completion of a $28 million Series B financing round.
Currently, the total value of the U.S. patient payment market is estimated at approximately $50 billion. This capital will be utilized to help Patientco expand its market presence, increase sales, and drive continuous product innovation.
Joshua Silver and Bird Blitch co-founded Patientco in 2009. Reflecting on the impetus for their startup, Bird Blitch stated, “We both witnessed firsthand the difficulties patients face in understanding, managing, and paying for medical expenses. This became even more palpable to me after the birth of my first child. Although the clinical experience was excellent, we subsequently received a stack of complex bills—both understandable and yet surprising. As Joshua and I delved deeper into this issue, we uncovered some compelling data highlighting the rise of high-deductible health insurance plans and the increasing cost of healthcare. This indicated that patients’ financial responsibility would grow significantly in the coming years. We recognized this as a genuine problem that could be solved.”
Bird Blitch, CEO and Co-Founder of Patientco
“We are involved in two of the fastest-growing sectors: healthcare and financial technology. Did you know that healthcare expenditure accounts for 18% of U.S. GDP? We have found that consumer data can be leveraged to optimize patients’ medical payments and positively impact their payment experience. Moreover, we believe it is exciting to help make healthcare affordable for every consumer.”
Mike Hersh, Chief Operating Officer of Patientco, stated, “The healthcare sector is undergoing significant changes, with the proportion of medical costs borne by patients continuously rising. Most people focus on the burden this shift places on patients, but they fail to recognize that many patients simply do not pay their medical bills. This leads healthcare providers to write off these accounts. Consequently, many hospitals, particularly rural ones, are closing due to financial pressures. This means that a large portion of the population in rural America must travel long distances to access high-quality medical care, which is not in the public’s best interest. What sets Patientco apart is its ability to encourage patients who have the means to pay to voluntarily settle their bills. We help them understand their statements and offer diverse payment options, thereby improving their payment experience.”
Patientco helps healthcare providers communicate effectively with patients, enabling them to better understand their medical expenses. Patientco’s proprietary cloud technology generates easy-to-understand notifications, facilitates direct communication between healthcare institutions and patients, provides secure payment options, and automates traditional manual back-office processes, thereby improving efficiency and reducing costs. Patients can manage, track, and pay their medical bills through Patientco. Patientco’s technology ensures that healthcare institutions can integrate patient information into their health information management systems securely and accurately in an efficient and straightforward manner.
As of July 25, 2018, Patientco had completed three rounds of financing, with a total publicly disclosed funding amount of $31.8 million.
(Data source: Crunchbase)
It is reported that in the Series A financing round in August 2012, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries jointly participated in the investment. The funds were used to help Patientco improve its existing services and expand its market presence.
In 2016, Pamplona Capital Management made a strategic investment in Patientco. Through this investment, Pamplona and Patientco entered into a commercial agreement to integrate Patientco’s products into Pamplona’s MedAssets RCM system and Precyse business, thereby enhancing Pamplona’s integrated services and technologies in healthcare information management (HIM), patient payments, and accounts receivable. This integration positions MedAssets RCM and Precyse as the most comprehensive end-to-end solutions available on the market.
Regarding the company’s future development, Bird Blitch stated, “We are accelerating our pace of innovation. Consumers have increasingly high expectations for the retail and service sectors, and they question why healthcare remains so complex and expensive. Patientco is developing a suite of new products and services aimed at improving consumers’ billing and payment experiences in the healthcare sector, making medical care affordable for everyone. As we achieve this goal, it will drive greater revenue for healthcare providers.”
As a leading healthcare payment technology company, Patientco is dedicated to improving the patient payment experience and delivering greater value to healthcare providers by combining user-friendly consumer payment tools with world-class payment infrastructure. Currently, Patientco is focused on developing a smarter patient payment platform.
On June 7, 2018, Patientco was officially launchedSmartFinance™ Patient Self-Service Financial Management PlatformThis platform integrates diverse financial products with Patientco’s multichannel consumer engagement and payment tools, offering patients flexible, user-friendly, and tailored payment options. Healthcare providers can leverage SmartFinance™ to customize financial solutions according to varying patient needs, thereby accelerating the patient payment process, improving collection rates, and enhancing patient satisfaction.
On June 13, Patientco andAccessOnePartnering to jointly build the SmartFinance™ platform, AccessOne is a leading provider of patient financial solutions dedicated to creating a comprehensive suite of financial options for the consumer-driven healthcare market. This collaboration will help healthcare organizations accelerate cash flow, increase net collections, and improve patient satisfaction.
Alan Nalle, Chief Strategy Officer at Patientco, stated, “At Patientco, we believe that patients should be able to choose payment methods based on their unique needs and preferences. Through this partnership with AccessOne, we can rethink how to integrate financial communication and payment technologies to enhance the affordability and sustainability of healthcare.”
Subsequently, on June 25, Patientco announced its partnership withCuraeCollaboration to leverage non-recourse loans for the development of its patient self-pay financial management platform, SmartFinance™. This partnership will enable healthcare systems to deliver high-quality financial services, thereby enhancing patient engagement, loyalty, and bill payment rates.
The partnership between Patientco and Curae comes at a time when patient out-of-pocket costs continue to rise. Data from Patientco shows that nearly 50% of patient medical receivables fall between $1,000 and $10,000. Meanwhile, studies indicate that most Americans have less than $1,000 in their bank accounts. Therefore, companies like Patientco and Curae need to provide financial solutions and flexible payment options to help patients access the medical care they require.
(Image source: Patientco)
In addition to building its payment management platform, Patientco is also committed to collaborating with various organizations. For instance, in June of this year, Patientco announced a partnership withPiedmont HealthcareExpand collaboration to deliver a more patient-friendly and efficient payment experience. Piedmont Healthcare, a private nonprofit organization serving nearly 2 million patients in Georgia, has partnered across its network of 11 hospitals, 24 urgent care centers, 28 Piedmont QuickCare centers, and 555 Piedmont physician practice locations.
Patientco’s solution integrates directly with Piedmont’s Epic system, providing patients with a comprehensive suite of payment tools. Furthermore, Patientco’s state-of-the-art payment infrastructure and enterprise analytics capabilities will enable Piedmont to continuously monitor and enhance the patient financial experience.
According to a recent Federal Reserve report, 44% of consumers stated they would be unable to cover an unexpected $400 expense, posing financial challenges for the entire healthcare system. Data from Patientco indicates that approximately 50% of medical expenses fall between $1,000 and $10,000. Furthermore, the rate at which patients pay their bills in full drops sharply when medical costs approach $500. However, many patients have expressed willingness to pay but are unable to do so in full.
Bird Blitch, CEO and Co-Founder of Patientco, stated, “We are addressing an unprecedented burden crisis in the healthcare sector. The healthcare system is poised to leverage smarter technologies to transform patient payments into an engine for economic growth, thereby enhancing the patient payment experience. We are delighted to partner with Accel-KKR to continue our expansion and help more healthcare systems tackle this challenge.”
Prior to this financing round, Patientco had already achieved significant milestones in the medical billing and patient payment sectors: it served 10 million patients, processed $1 billion in medical expenses, and provided services to over 2,000 healthcare institutions across the United States. Patientco will continue to leverage advanced innovations in fintech and healthtech to enhance the patient financial experience and deliver greater value to healthcare providers.
(Image source: patientco)
David Cusimano, head of Accel-KKR, stated, “Patientco takes a different approach to solving patient payment issues by leveraging its end-to-end platform to progressively enhance the patient payment experience. We believe Patientco will have a lasting positive impact on the healthcare industry, benefiting both patients and healthcare providers.” Greg Williams, Managing Director at Accel-KKR, added, “No other payment company in the market can deliver a seamless patient experience while handling the diverse operational demands of large-scale healthcare systems. We are thrilled to partner with Patientco to help it achieve its goals.”
Tom Hawes, Managing Director at Sandbox Industries, stated on behalf of Blue Cross Blue Shield, “Patientco has experienced rapid growth, with its management team continuing to execute a compelling strategy that delivers differentiated outcomes for healthcare systems, while 95% of patients report positive feedback regarding their payment experience. We are delighted that Accel-KKR is also joining the partnership with Patientco.”
Reference: 1. https://www.patientco.com/
2.https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180619005843/en