Flywire vs PayZen
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
| Flywire | PayZen | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-transaction / per-chart · Payment processing fees, quote only | Percent of collections · Provider pays discount on funded patient balances |
| Speed to go live | Deep Epic payment workflow integration | Live in about four weeks, no IT costs claimed |
| Automation model | Software platform · Patient payments embedded in MyChart | Tech-enabled service · AI-underwritten patient financing |
| Built for | Enterprise systems | Mid-size groups, Enterprise systems |
| Security posture | SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS, HITRUST, HIPAA | SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA |
| Company maturity | 17 yrs (est. 2009) | 7 yrs (est. 2019) |
| Financial backing | Public (NASDAQ: FLYW) | $230M+ incl. debt facilities · Series B |
| Named customers | 2 named | 3 named |
| Published results | Specific numbers public | Specific numbers public |
| Documented integrations | 1 listed | 2 listed |
| Third-party validation | KLAS / analyst cited | KLAS / analyst cited |
Bottom line
- Pick Flywire if you're a health system on Epic that wants patient payments and affordable payment plans embedded directly in MyChart and Resolute.
- Pick PayZen if patient balances are turning into bad debt and you want non-recourse financing that pays you upfront while patients pay zero interest.
Flywire
Public payments company with a healthcare affordability arm
- Founded
- 2009
- HQ
- Boston, MA
- Stage
- Public (NASDAQ: FLYW)
- Raised
- $263M pre-IPO
What it does
- Digital patient billing and payment portal
- Analytics-driven patient outreach and engagement
- Self-service payment plans, provider-funded or financed
- Integrated non-recourse financing up to 60 months
- Cross-border payments in 140+ currencies
Where it's strong
- Public-company scale and financial transparency, with proven deployments at very large systems like Banner Health and CommonSpirit.
- The affordability suite lets providers offer long payment plans without carrying receivables, since financed plans are funded non-recourse.
- A Forrester Total Economic Impact study commissioned by Flywire found clients can reach a 269% ROI.
What buyers should weigh
- Healthcare is one of four verticals alongside education, travel, and B2B, and recent capital went to travel (the $330M Sertifi deal), so healthcare is not the company's center of gravity.
- It covers patient payments and engagement, not claims, denials, or payer-side revenue cycle work, so you still need other RCM tooling.
- Best suited to large systems with high patient-pay volume; smaller groups may not justify the platform.
Named customers
Banner Health · CommonSpirit Health
Integrations
PayZen
Affordability platform with pay-over-time for care
- Founded
- 2019
- HQ
- San Francisco, CA
- Stage
- Series B
- Raised
- $230M+ incl. debt facilities
What it does
- AI underwrites every patient for an affordable plan
- Zero-interest, no-fee installment plans for patients
- Pays providers upfront and takes on repayment risk
- Care Now, Pay Later financing before treatment
- Embedded in Epic and other EHR billing workflows
Where it's strong
- Converts aging self-pay balances into upfront cash for the health system while patients get zero-interest plans, a genuinely different model from statement optimization vendors.
- Approves every patient regardless of credit, which protects the patient experience and avoids the reputational problems of medical credit cards.
- Serious capital behind it: an NEA-led Series B with $200M in credit warehouse capacity, plus about 60 health system and physician group clients including Geisinger and CommonSpirit.
What buyers should weigh
- The provider pays for the upfront cash through program economics, so model the effective discount against your current self-pay recovery rate.
- It addresses affordability and financing, not the whole billing experience; many systems pair it with a broader engagement platform.
- Patient financing is credit-adjacent and drawing regulatory attention, so review compliance, disclosures, and collection practices carefully.
Named customers
Geisinger · CommonSpirit Health · Appalachian Regional Healthcare System
Integrations
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