Cedar Unveils Year in Review and Vision Ahead Report, Showcasing Bold Advancements in Tackling Healthcare Affordability

As the only platform unifying all elements of the patient's financial journey—including HSA banks and financial assistance programs—Cedar is uncovering unique pathways to affordability for patients

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Cedar, the leading financial experience platform, has released Our Year in Review and Vision Ahead: Cedar's Journey to Solving Healthcare's Affordability Crisis, underscoring the company's evolution from a patient engagement, billing, and collections platform to a comprehensive affordability solution. Through new investments in GenerativeAI and an expanding ecosystem of partnerships, Cedar is uniquely positioned to address affordability and define excellence in patient financial experience.

"We started with a simple belief: paying medical bills should be as easy as an online purchase. That vision helped us revolutionize medical billing for nearly 50 million patients. But, the rapidly increasing cost of care is preventing too many of these patients from receiving the care they need," said Florian Otto, CEO and Co-founder of Cedar. "Our 2024 initiatives, from AI-powered solutions to comprehensive affordability pathways, demonstrate that we can make healthcare financially accessible while supporting providers' sustainability."

Key milestones from the report include:

• New affordability pathways: Cedar's intelligent matching engine uncovers new sources of funding and pathways to affordability that most patients never knew existed. This includes technology-enabled applications for Medicaid enrollment with 50 state agencies and access to provider charity care programs. Additionally, through direct connections to HSA providers like HealthEquity and insights from 250+ payers, Cedar is helping patients understand and use their existing accounts and funds to make healthcare more affordable.
  
  
• Investments in automation: With a focus on automation across three horizons—self-service, conversational AI, and staff efficiency—Cedar announced the introduction of Cedar Support into its platform at the 2024 HLTH Conference. Cedar Support integrates AI-enabled live voice agents, AI-powered chat, and an LLM-driven help center to blend advanced automation with empathetic services, paving the way for a transformative improvement in patient support and a projected 30% reduction in call volume through digital self-service and AI-driven agents.
  
  
• PFX Benchmarks: Providers often struggle to define a "good" financial experience. Without a universal standard, they're left in the dark about whether they're truly meeting patient and organizational needs. Cedar's PFX Benchmarks offer healthcare's first objective measure of the patient financial experience. Unlike traditional metrics focused on collections or EHR system usage, PFX Benchmarks assess financial and human impact, such as the number of patient complaints or digital payment rates. Since launching at the 2024 HFMA Annual Conference, Cedar has completed assessments for 42 providers, helping them prioritize investments and celebrate successes.

Looking ahead to 2025, Cedar will continue investing in new affordability pathways—including ACA coverage and Medicare Advantage supplemental benefits—and AI-driven patient support to further ensure that paying for healthcare never compromises health.

Our Year in Review and Vision Ahead: Cedar's Journey to Solving Healthcare's Affordability Crisis is available to download at www.cedar.com.

About Cedar
Cedar is the leading financial experience platform for healthcare providers who prioritize patients. Cedar delivers healthcare's top patient financial experience platform for modern revenue cycle teams. Starting with consumer-grade technology, we offer the only platform that integrates a patient's billing and benefits information in one simple payment experience. Our platform is a must-have for finance leaders to increase patient payments while boosting patient loyalty. To learn more, visit www.cedar.com and join us on LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.

Contact

For Cedar
Jenny Fiegoli
[email protected]

SOURCE Cedar