We hadn't planned to lead with a piece on Epic two issues in a row, but that is exactly what we're doing. At the 2026 UGM event held on its Verona, WI campus in August, Epic reportedly announced Savvy, "a native payment platform without an external gateway, for a pay by bank option to reduce credit card fees" (per the HISTalk blog). There's little public information available, but we've spoken with some industry insiders and summarize what we've learned below.
Weave, Savista, and Waystar are all the subject of deals or deal talk in the last month (Waystar within the last couple days). See Deal News for more on those.
For anyone wishing to join the inaugural Healthcare Fintech Forum, we have only a few spots left (November 9-11 in Nashville). If you haven't received your invitation, you can request one here. This year's theme is “Embedded Finance” and we couldn't be more excited with our lineup of content, speakers, and participants! (click here to see list of companies attending the event)
Reach out to us here if you'd like more information about our firm, our consulting & advisory work, email marketing services (including newsletter sponsorship for 2027, distribution 20,000+), and sponsorship opportunities for the 2027 Healthcare Fintech Forum.
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.
FEATURE ARTICLE
Epic announces Savvy for MyChart payments
While a small item among a mountain of other announcements (see HISTalk's long list from UGM's "Executive Address and Cool Stuff Ahead" here), Epic's mention of Savvy caught many people by surprise. Speculation has long swirled about what - if anything - Epic would ever do within its own MyChart software to support patient payments. However, nothing has ever surfaced - until now.
Savvy is described by those at UGM as natively built into MyChart (no need for a third-party payment gateway) that offers patients easy payment options including pay by bank, and helps healthcare providers lower acceptance costs for patient payments. One of the features of Savvy is apparently an easy pay by ACH choice, which could potentially include other payment methods down the road (e.g., real time payments).
This development is significant for the players currently offering payment gateway integrations to Epic's MyChart patient portal. Until this news, Epic has steadfastly maintained a gateway-agnostic position for patient payments. Healthcare providers could work with any acquirer and processor they wished - as long as the gateway integrated with Epic (see list of current integrations here).
Payment Gateways Integrated with MyChart (2026)
Source: FinMed Partners
Now, the rumor (confirmed according to our sources, but not publicly disclosed) is that Epic has selected Fiserv as its payments partner for Savvy. What is not clear, again because so little information has been released by Epic, is what Fiserv's role will encompass. Fiserv's Commerce Hub is likely the orchestration layer for Savvy's native payments capability, which would include multiple forms of payment (credit/ debit card, digital wallets, pay by bank, BNPL), fraud mitigation, transaction monitoring, global currencies, and many other features.
Given the apparent emphasis on pay by bank as a capability, Fiserv makes sense as Epic's payments partner given First Data's long history of going to market via bank relationships (Fiserv acquired First Data in 2019). Other leading processors evolved with different go to market approaches that make them less well suited for a comprehensive bank connection strategy: Global Payments (ISOs), Vantiv/ Worldpay/ Mercury Payments (ISVs/ middleware), Chase Paymentech (eCommerce), and Elavon (strong in corporate travel, airline, hospitality verticals).
The key questions for incumbents currently serving as the MyChart payments gateway are:
In addition to pay by bank, what other payment options will be offered natively within MyChart to current Epic customers via the Fiserv platform?
How flexible will Epic be in allowing providers to bring their own merchant relationship?
It's hard to know how to assess this development without more information, and which players will be affected relatively more or less by Savvy (though we do have some ideas). Stay tuned as we learn more about this potentially tectonic shift in the patient payments ecosystem!
PAYMENTS NEWS
Visa imposes surcharge on Hims & Hers
Visa has placed San Francisco-based Hims & Hers Health in a monitoring program until the telehealth company can reduce its dispute rate. Visa’s penalty box, called the “Acquirer Monitoring Program”, was activated for Hims & Hers due to a significant increase in customer charge disputes in July. The existence of this program for Hims & Hers was first reported by Bloomberg in late August. This program is initially costing Hims & Hers $75,000 based on an $8 surcharge per challenge. To exit the program, Hims & Hers will need to keep its dispute rate below 1.5% of total transactions for three months in a row.
The Visa action comes on the heels of legal action being pursued against Hims & Hers by the FTC, the State of Utah, and the County of Los Angeles. The July 2026 federal complaint, joined by Utah and California, alleges that Hims & Hers has engaged in deceptive and unlawful subscription billing and cancellation practices, and has shared consumers’ health information with third-party marketing platforms despite representing itself as "private" and "discreet".
Weave taken private by Francisco Partners for $650 million
Lehi, UT-based Weave (NYSE: WEAV) announced in late August that it has reached a deal to be acquired by Francisco Partners for approximately $650 million in cash. Weave serves small and medium-size independent medical groups at over 40,000 locations throughout the U.S. The company was founded in 2008 and has grown into an "all-in-one customer experience and payments software platform" that helps practices "attract, communicate with, and engage patients and clients". Weave will continue to use the Weave name and operate out of its existing Utah HQ.
Alpharetta, GA-based Savista, a revenue cycle vendor for hospitals, health systems and medical groups, announced that it will acquire ABW Medical. Savista has 800+ clients across 49 states, addressing eligibility and enrollment, coding, denials, and accounts receivable services including for Epic software and cancer registries. ABW provides RCM services to community health centers, medical groups, rural health providers, and others in the ambulatory market. ABW is a preferred athenahealth partner, and also works with eClinicalWorks and Epic.
Reuters reported on September 15 that Lehi, UT and Lexington, KY-based Waystar (NYSE: WAY) has hired investment bank Evercore to explore strategic options including a potential sale of the company. Waystar went public in June 2024, and after seeing its stock price climb to $45 a share, it was recently at $24-25. The company provides RCM software and services to hospitals and medical groups. After a slight gain following the Reuters story, the company's market value is $5.1 billion.
We're excited to be hosting the first Healthcare Fintech Forum in Nashville from November 9-11, 2026. The inaugural event will bring together leaders across healthcare 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 impact opportunity for like-minded individuals to learn, network, and ultimately grow their businesses. The primary theme this year is the emergence of embedded financial services, including patient payments, patient financing, and practice lending/ working capital, plus new models of B2B payments (payer-provider reimbursement).
This year's event is capped at 80 people. If you have already received a personalized invitation and would like to register, click here. If not, to learn more and request your invitation click here. See you in Nashville this November!
Goodbye SaaS, Hello CAVA. Where the AI boom is headed in healthcare, and why the old athenahealth business model may look new again. (Carl Byers, Partner, F-Prime Capital Partners)
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, with some updates through August 2026, 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
