We founded FinMed Partners two years ago because no one was providing dedicated consulting and advisory services at the intersection of healthcare, banking and payments. Since then, we have also noted 1) an absence of content focused in this area, and 2) very limited opportunities for industry participants to get together to share perspectives, develop ideas, expand their network, and perhaps spark a deal or two.
So after starting the firm, we launched this newsletter and our CEO Chat feature to bring original perspectives and aggregate industry news and deals. Then we wrote a healthcare banking report (benchmarked top players) and published two deep dive white papers (our newest is profiled below).
Now we have gone all-in, and decided to host an event to convene like-minded people across healthcare banking, payments and fintech. We hope with the support of our sponsors and the high level of interest we're received so far that this will become an annual event. This theme of this year’s Healthcare Fintech Forum, November 9-11 in Nashville, is “Embedded Finance”. More on this below as well.
So what we thought would be a “simple” consulting business has expanded to include more thought leadership, digital marketing campaigns for our clients (email here to learn more), and an annual conference!
We are probably a little crazy to take all this on, but we do truly appreciate those of you who have encouraged us along the way. Thank you, and we hope to see many of you in Nashville this fall!
PNC Healthcare offers a fully integrated suite of tools, solutions, and advisory services to help the healthcare ecosystem maximize working capital, streamline administrative processes, mitigate financial risk, and access capital for investment and growth. Learn more here.
NEW WHITE PAPER
Payments: The New Competitive Frontier for Healthcare Platforms
Regular readers of this newsletter know that we have covered some findings (see here and here) from the 2026 ProviderPay study we fielded recently in partnership with Adyen. We surveyed 199 medical, dental, and veterinary practices in January/ February 2026 to learn more about their payments models, preferences, and interest in benefits offered by embedded financial services.
We have now published a new white paper that takes a comprehensive look at the study’s results and implications for healthcare platforms. Payments: The New Competitive Frontier for Healthcare Platforms highlights providers’ desire to expand beyond integrating payments to embedding finance offerings within healthcare platforms. Topics include:
Review of the manual work that burdens healthcare providers
Providers’ purchase criteria for new payment solutions
How embedded payments improve practice efficiency
Where healthcare platforms can offer value from embedded lending and patient financing
Download the white paper by visiting our website here.
COMING THIS FALL
First event combining healthcare banking, payments & fintech
Healthcare has HIMSS, HFMA and HLTH. Banking, payments and fintech has Money 20/20, ETA Transact, and Fintech Meetup. But it's a classic "never the twain shall meet"! Healthcare shows don't do a good job bringing in payments and financial services, and vice versa. So this fall, we're launching the first event to finally combine the two.
The inaugural Healthcare Fintech Forum will bring together leaders across EMR/ practice management platforms, RCM services, banking, payments, capital markets and other areas to discuss the changing landscape for payments and financial services in healthcare. Our goal is to create a bespoke, high quality, high impact opportunity for like-minded individuals to learn, network, and grow their businesses. This year's event will be held at the Thompson Hotel in Nashville from November 9-11. The primary theme is the emergence of embedded financial services, including patient payments, patient financing, and practice lending/ working capital, plus new models of B-B payments (payer-provider reimbursement).
The agenda will also include:
The policy agenda in Washington and its impact on healthcare payments
What investors are seeing, and where the smart money is going in healthcare payments
PayPal case study taught by a Vanderbilt Owens business school professor
Keynote from Paul Kusserow, former senior executive of multiple healthcare companies and author of The Coming Healthcare Revolution: 10 Forces That Will Cure America's Health Crisis
Dinner with one of Nashville's leading real estate developers, with perspectives on the city's rapid transformation
Participation in the Healthcare Fintech Forum is limited. Visit the event page and request an invitation here.
PAYMENT TRENDS
Commercial health costs expected to rise 9% in 2027
A new PwC report projects medical costs to rise 9% in 2027, based on the consulting firm's annual survey of health plans (see chart). There are five major factors continuing to drive costs higher, according to the report authors:
AI-enabled tools are helping providers capture more revenue
Inflation and provider consolidation are driving up reimbursement rates
Pharmacy costs are continuing to increase
Behavioral health utilization keeps growing as mental health claims rise
The No Surprises Act arbitration process is adding a new source of out-of-network reimbursement (providers are winning 88% of disputes)
As health insurers, employers, and individual buyers of coverage grapple with the continued premium and out-of-pocket cost increases, one thing is for sure. Patients will yet again owe an even greater percentage of their medical bill in 2027.
Brendon Kensel, who we previously profiled in our CEO Chat when he ran a patient financing company, introduced us recently to Panacea Financial.We're delighted to get to know Panacea, which bills itself as "Banking built for doctors, by doctors". It grew out of the experience of medical residents who found it difficult to cover costs of training and interviewing, including finding lenders willing to account for their high debt burden, low salary, and limited credit history.
We recently welcomed Tyler Stafford, CEO & Co-Founder, to talk about the company's mission and next steps. Click here for Tyler's comments on what problem Panacea is solving for providers, and goals for the next year.
DEAL NEWS
Healthcare PE firm buys MatrixCare from ResMed
ResMed (NYSE: RMD) announced that it is selling Bloomington, MN-based MatrixCare to Frazier Healthcare Partners for $490 million in cash. MatrixCare is a provider of cloud-based EHR software to more than 15,000 providers supporting skilled nursing, senior living and long-term care, and home health and hospice care. Frazier apparently has been looking at investment opportunities in the post-acute care technology space for some time and plans to "invest aggressively in product innovation" according to Clarissa Berman, Principal at Frazier Healthcare Partners.
Matthew Holt's Thoreau makes investment in Ensemble
Matthew Holt left New Mountain Capital in 2025 to pursue a health technology roll up opportunity through his investment company Thoreau, which did not end up happening. Cincinnati, OH-based Ensemble Health, the large RCM outsourcing company, hired bankers in 2025 to either sell the company or go public, reportedly at a $13 billion valuation. It seems that by mid-2026, Ensemble decided to do a deal with Thoreau, but not entirely sell the company.
Not much detail has emerged regarding Thoreau's investment in Ensemble, except that it is a "strategic growth investment". Current investors Berkshire Partners, Warburg Pincus, and Bon Secours Mercy Health will remain owners along with Thoreau.
Chicago-based Experity, a healthcare platform used by almost half of urgent care clinics in the U.S., has acquired Exdion Healthcare. Exdion brings an AI-based platform to enhance Experity’s “chart to cash” lifecycle, with expertise in coding, billing, compliance, and revenue cycle automation. Experity is attempting to shift more work away from labor-intensive approaches to automated workflows, and this acquisition helps this transition. Terms were not disclosed.
AI company Assort Health raises $120 million Series C
San Francisco-based Assort Health, which claims “the most widely-used AI agents platform for the patient journey”, announced a $120 million Series C led by Menlo Ventures and $1.2 billion valuation. Total funding now stands at $222 million. Additional participation came from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis, First Round Capital, Chemistry, Joe Montana, Tau Ventures, and Quiet Capital.
After starting as a voice AI agent scheduling appointments (Assort has handled over 190 million patient voice interactions to date), the company now has a platform covering scheduling, intake forms, referrals, document processing, medication refills, real time eligibility, lab requests, and payments.
Prosper AI raises $30 million Series A for patient journey
Another AI company just raised money to support the "full patient journey" (including billing and payments). New York-based Prosper AI announced a $30 million Series A financing led by Andreessen Horowitz. Base10 also participated (new to this round), and Emergence Capital, Y Combinator, and Company Ventures continued their investment.
Prosper’s clients include medical groups, health systems, and healthcare platforms such as EMRs. Its AI-based platform handles patient calls, schedules directly in the provider’s EMR, verifies insurance benefits, automates patient billing, and contacts insurers by phone to get needed information. The company says it has handled $1.3 billion in patient revenues for customers, and that it has grown its revenues by 5x in the last six months.
Demystifying Healthcare Payments: A Practical Overview. White paper co-authored by FinMed Partners and TrustCommerce (now part of RevSpring) designed to help navigate the increasingly complex patient payment ecosystem.
Conference List. Rolling twelve month look ahead at conferences and other events covering healthcare payments, revenue cycle, fintech and related areas. Updated through June 2027.
FMP Blog. Thoughts from healthcare payments CEOs and investors on their right to win and goals for the year ahead, as well as data and perspectives on healthcare payments.
Newsletter Archive. News, trends, and insights from the healthcare payments industry compiled in our bi-weekly newsletter. Last six months of newsletters.
Epic MyChart. Excel sheet with full listing of all Epic MyChart instances as of May 2024, categorized by state, provider type and specialty.
All of these resources can also be accessed at the FinMed Partners Insights page.
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FinMed Partners is a management consulting and advisory business focusing at the intersection of payments/ fintech and healthcare. Our founders have developed deep expertise from decades of experience with health IT companies, healthcare providers and many players within the payments ecosystem. Investors, boards and executive teams work with us to maximize business value through strategic input and tactical execution.
FinMed Partners LLC, 34 Long Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478, United States
