Cedar vs Paytient
Two Patient Payments & Billing vendors, side by side. Facts from public sources; judgments are ours.
At a glance
Derived from public facts · a rough scale, not a ranking
| Cedar | Paytient | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Percent of collections · SaaS base plus 1-4% of collections | Subscription (per user or PMPM) · Published per-employee monthly pricing, low single digits |
| Speed to go live | Deep EHR and billing system integration | Benefit enrollment plus payroll deduction setup |
| Automation model | Software platform · Consumer-grade patient billing experience | Tech-enabled service · Interest-free health payment card |
| Built for | Enterprise systems | Payers |
| Security posture | SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST, HIPAA | SOC 2 Type II |
| Company maturity | 10 yrs (est. 2016) | 8 yrs (est. 2018) |
| Financial backing | $350M+ · Series D | $63M+ ($55.5M equity plus debt financing) · Series B |
| Named customers | 5 named | 5 named |
| Published results | Specific numbers public | No public numbers |
| Documented integrations | 1 listed | None documented |
| Third-party validation | None found | None found |
Bottom line
- Pick Cedar if you are a large health system leaking self-pay revenue and want a consumer-grade billing experience with fees tied partly to collections lift.
- Pick Paytient if you're an employer or health plan trying to soften high deductibles with interest-free payment accounts your members actually use.
Cedar
Consumer-grade patient billing for health systems
- Founded
- 2016
- HQ
- New York, NY
- Stage
- Series D
- Raised
- $350M+
What it does
- Consolidated digital patient billing and payment experience
- Personalized outreach and payment options driven by ML
- Kora AI voice agent answers inbound billing calls
- Bill explanations and coverage context inside the bill
- Delivers billing inside Epic MyChart
Where it's strong
- The category leader for patient financial experience at large health systems, with reference customers like Novant and Yale New Haven and 300,000+ patient interactions a day.
- Deep Epic and MyChart integration means the experience shows up where patients already are, not in yet another portal.
- Its 2025 agentic AI line (Kora, Bill Navigator, Agent Copilot) attacks call center cost, projecting 30% of inbound billing calls automated.
What buyers should weigh
- Built for large health systems and physician enterprises; small and mid-size groups are not the target and should look at Collectly or similar.
- Commercial terms typically scale with patient payment volume, so model the effective take rate against your current cost to collect.
- It improves the patient-facing layer but is not a full RCM replacement; your billing stack stays.
Named customers
Novant Health · Yale New Haven Health · ChristianaCare · Summit Health/CityMD · ApolloMD
Integrations
Paytient
Health payment accounts to pay medical bills over time
- Founded
- 2018
- HQ
- Columbia, MO
- Stage
- Series B
- Raised
- $63M+ ($55.5M equity plus debt financing)
What it does
- Health Payment Account card usable at point of care
- Interest-free repayment plans members set themselves
- No fees or credit checks for members
- Covers medical, dental, vision, pharmacy, and vet expenses
- Sponsor dashboard and utilization reporting
Where it's strong
- Members get a way to afford care without interest-bearing debt, which supports plan designs with higher deductibles.
- Sponsor-paid model means employees pay nothing to use it, driving adoption.
- Proven with large sponsors: 700 enterprise partners including Centene and Cigna.
What buyers should weigh
- The sponsor pays the fees, so ROI depends on measurable gains in care access, retention, or plan migration.
- It smooths bills rather than lowering them; it does not address underlying prices or billing errors.
- Value is limited for populations with low deductibles or minimal out-of-pocket exposure.
Named customers
Centene · Cigna · Coupe Health · Beta Health · R.R. Donnelley
Compare against the rest of Patient Payments & Billing
Deciding between these two?
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