Cedar: Pioneering A New Era in Healthcare Payment Solutions

A medical bill can feel like a puzzle with no answer key. Often, the codes make no sense. Furthermore, the amount seems random. Worse, no one can tell you why you owe what you owe. Cedar witnessed this issue firsthand, prompting the company to take action to resolve it.

Today, Cedar is one of the biggest names in healthcare payment technology. What distinguishes Cedar from its competitors? Let’s find out.

What Is Cedar, and Why Was It Founded?

Cedar is a health tech company, and it helps patients understand and pay their medical bills. Florian Otto and co-founder Arel Lidow started Cedar in 2016. He built it after a rough personal experience. Specifically, his wife got a hospital bill in pieces.

• First, she paid a copay by card.
• Then, weeks later, a paper bill came in the mail.
• Thereafter, a bill for an MRI showed up, and she had to fax in the payment.
• Finally, a collections call came for a bill she never even understood.

As a result, that chain of frustration sparked Cedar.

Otto used to be a doctor, and he also worked at Zocdoc. So, he knew the system well from both sides. Because of his experience, he believed it was broken but fixable. Therefore, he built Cedar around one simple idea: clear bills are paid faster.

Thus, the team built software that turns confusing codes into plain words. It also treats each patient’s bill as unique, instead of using one generic template for everyone.

This idea worked fast. In fact, Cedar found its first two clients in early 2016. Then, the team built its first product in just nine months. From that point on, growth accelerated rapidly. By late 2022, Cedar reached 22 million patients a year, which was a 120% jump since 2021.

Today, Cedar works with over 55 health systems, including well-known names like Novant Health and Yale New Haven Health. This backstory matters because it shows what drives Cedar.

Clearly, the company never wanted to build just another billing tool. Instead, it wanted bills to feel simple rather than scary. That same goal continues to influence every product Cedar produces today.

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How Cedar’s Healthcare Payment Solutions Work

Cedar’s main product is called Cedar Pay, and it covers the full patient money journey. This journey starts before a visit, and it also continues long after the visit ends. Before a visit, for instance, Cedar sends reminders and digital forms.

Patients can even snap a photo of their insurance card, so no manual typing is needed. Because of these features, one small step saves busy patients real time. After a visit, Cedar Pay takes over the billing part. It explains each charge in plain English, so there are no more confusing codes to decode.

It also studies why a patient might delay payment. For instance, some patients worry about cost, while others simply don’t get what they owe. Because of this, Cedar changes its message, timing, and channel to fit each patient’s exact situation.

The results are strong. Provider clients, for example, see up to a 30% lift in patient payments. Furthermore, 95% of payments now happen online, which easily beats mailed checks or slow phone calls. On top of that, 89% of patients report a good money experience with Cedar, according to the company’s own numbers.

Cedar did not stop there, though. In 2021, it bought a company named OODA Health for $425 million. This move helped Cedar handle the insurance side too. As a result, Cedar built the Payer Intelligence Layer. This tool blends data from insurers and providers.

So, patients now see one clear picture. They no longer face two mixed-up stories from separate sources. This full journey is Cedar’s real edge. Many billing firms, after all, handle just one small step in the process.

Cedar, though, links every step into one smooth ride from start to finish. That is precisely why so many hospitals now call Cedar Core infrastructure, not just another app.

Cedar’s AI initiatives include Kora and Cedar Intelligence.

Healthcare billing has a people problem. In summary, call centers remain busy while staff levels are low. Cedar spotted this gap early, so it turned to AI to help close it. In April 2025, Cedar launched Kora, an AI voice agent built together with Twilio.

Kora can sense a caller’s tone, and it also speaks several languages fluently. Because of Kora’s capabilities, it answers billing questions with no hold time at all. Still, when a call gets tricky, it passes the patient to a real person right away.

Kora worked so well that Cedar grew the idea even further. By August 2026, Kora became the Kora Platform, a full team of AI agents rather than just one voice bot. Now, the platform handles inbound and outbound calls, and it also runs two-way text chats.

Furthermore, it can check who a patient is, confirm insurance in real time, and take payments directly. Because it plugs into a hospital’s existing systems, no one needs to rip out old tools just to use it.

Cedar Intelligence

Alongside Kora, Cedar also built Cedar Intelligence. This is a smart engine. It powers several other tools at once. Bill Navigator, for example, gives patients clear answers about their bill, right inside the app.

Meanwhile, Agent Copilot gives support staff quick notes, so they can help faster. Kora Outbound also makes contact with patients who are difficult to reach. It does this through calls built just for them.

So, why does this AI push matter so much? Simply put, patients now pay more of their care costs each year, yet most billing tools stay stiff and generic. Cedar’s bet, therefore, is that a system that learns from each chat will keep getting better over time.

This is a real shift, since it moves billing from a flat tool toward a helper that adapts to each person. On paper, it looks like a small shift. In reality, though, it is a big shift in how a bill actually feels to the person paying it.

Why Cedar Matters for Patients, Providers, and the Industry

Cedar’s impact, overall, reaches three groups at once, and each group gains something different.

First, patients gain clarity.

Instead of facing a cryptic bill alone, they receive plain answers and flexible plans. This matters because confusion, not stubbornness, causes many missed payments. Thus, when people know what they owe and why, they tend to pay it much faster.

Second, providers gain steady cash flow.

More than half of hospital bills, unfortunately, go unpaid across the industry, which creates real strain on health systems. However, Cedar lifts patient collections while also cutting manual billing calls by about 30%. As a result, it has a direct impact on a hospital’s financial performance.

Sanford Health, the largest rural Epic health system in the U.S., recently teamed up with Cedar for exactly this reason. Their specific goal is to enhance financial care in rural areas, where profit margins are already low.

Third, the wider industry benefits from a clear example.

Cedar competes with firms like PayZen, Cherry, and Zelis Healthcare. Still, Cedar has raised $351 million in total funding. Its valuation now sits at $3.2 billion. That scale, in turn, shows real investor trust.

It proves people believe in this exact solution. It swaps paper-heavy billing for something smoother and more modern. There is also a people angle worth noting here. As Kora takes on routine calls, human staff can then focus on harder talks.

For instance, think of a patient facing money trouble after a tough diagnosis. That is a far better use of a person’s time than repeating a balance all day long. So, Cedar’s AI plan is not just about cutting costs. Rather, it is also about sending human care exactly where it is needed most.

Cedar’s Growth in Numbers

A few clear numbers side by side make it easier to grasp Cedar’s story. Together, these figures show how fast the company has scaled since 2016.

• Founded: 2016, by Florian Otto
• Patients reached: More than 22 million a year, as of late 2022
• Health system partners: Over 55, including Novant Health and Yale New Haven Health
• Payment lift: Up to a 30% rise in patient payments for provider clients
• Digital adoption: 95% of payments now happen through self-service channels
• Funding raised: $351 million in total, across multiple rounds
• Valuation: $3.2 billion, as of its most recent round
• Call automation: A 30% cut in inbound billing calls, thanks to Kora

These numbers, taken together, tell a clear story. Cedar did not grow by chance. Instead, it grew because its core fix, plain and personal billing, actually works at scale.

Challenges and Criticisms Worth Considering

No company grows this fast without trade-offs, and Cedar is no different.

First, its best-fit customers tend to be mid-sized health systems.

Large hospital networks, after all, often build their own tools, since they have bigger IT budgets. Smaller clinics, on the other hand, may not afford Cedar at all. Consequently, the disparity leaves a real gap that Cedar has not fully closed yet.

Second, heavy use of AI voice agents raises fair questions about trust.

Some patients, understandably, want to talk to a real person about money worries. This is true, especially during a challenging health moment. To address this, Cedar has Kora hand off tricky calls to a human agent. Still, the balance between AI and human care will always need close, careful tuning.

Third, medical billing touches sensitive personal data.

Because of these factors, any platform at Cedar’s size needs strong security in place. Otherwise, a single data slip could hurt patient trust across a whole health system, not just one clinic.

Even so, these points do not erase Cedar’s progress. Rather, they are simply worth naming clearly, because real progress always comes with real limits attached.

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Conclusion: What Cedar’s Rise Tells Us About the Future of Healthcare Payments

Cedar began with one couple’s messy billing story, and it has since grown into a platform that touches millions of patients each year. Along the way, Cedar proved one simple point: clear bills get paid faster, and everyone wins from that outcome.

From Cedar Pay’s plain-language bills to the Kora Platform’s AI-driven calls, Cedar is building toward a single, connected money experience for payers, providers, and patients alike.

What comes next will test how far AI can go in healthcare finance. Even so, it must never lose the human touch that patients still need during stressful times.

Still, Cedar has already proven one thing clearly: healthcare billing does not have to stay broken. Instead, it can be simple, clear, and even reassuring for the people who need it most.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What problem does Cedar solve in healthcare billing?

Cedar turns confusing medical bills into plain language and builds custom payment plans. This helps patients understand costs and pay faster through easy digital tools.

2. Who founded Cedar, and when did it start?

Florian Otto founded Cedar in 2016. His wife’s messy medical billing experience pushed him to build a clearer, more patient-friendly payment platform.

3. What is Kora, Cedar’s AI billing assistant?

Kora is Cedar’s AI voice and text agent. It handles billing calls, checks insurance, and takes payments, which cuts manual call volume by a wide margin.

4. How does Cedar help hospitals collect more payments?

Cedar Pay lifts patient collections by up to 30%. It also moves 95% of payments online, cutting paperwork and slow phone-based billing calls.

5. Is Cedar only for large hospital systems?

No, Cedar mostly serves mid-sized health systems. Still, it also partners with large networks, including Sanford Health’s rural care operations.