Cedar
Cedar is a patient financial engagement platform that clarifies medical bills, lifts collections, and connects patients to coverage like Medicaid.
Overview
Cedar
Cedar is a patient financial engagement platform that helps hospitals and health systems clarify medical bills, collect more revenue, and connect patients to coverage. Cedar sits after the visit, replacing confusing statements with a guided digital experience that explains what is owed, offers payment plans, and screens for financial assistance. Founded in 2016, it now works with more than 35 provider organizations and has processed over $10 billion in patient payments since 2017. Its 2025 launch, Cedar Cover, adds Medicaid enrollment and renewal workflows. For revenue-cycle leaders weighing patient billing tools, it pairs consumer-grade design with measurable lifts in collections and satisfaction.
Production credibility: Founded in 2016 by Florian Otto, M.D., Ph.D. (ex-ZocDoc VP of Sales; founder of the deal site that became Groupon Brazil) and Arel Lidow (ex-Bridgewater, ex-AppNexus; Princeton). Cedar has raised approximately $425M total, capped by a $200M Series D in March 2021 led by Tiger Global Management at a reported ~$3.2B valuation; earlier rounds include a $102M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). Other backers include Thrive Capital, Concord Health Partners, Founders Fund, and SV Angel. Named provider customers include Novant Health, Yale New Haven Health, ChristianaCare, Baystate Health, The Iowa Clinic, and ApolloMD. Cedar reports supporting 50M+ patients and processing $10B+ in payments cumulatively since 2017, with providers citing a ~30% lift in patient payments and an 88% reported patient satisfaction score. Cedar Cover, launched at HLTH in October 2025, partners with Fortuna Health for Medicaid eligibility and enrollment. HQ: New York.
Key Features
- Itemized, plain-language bills that explain charges, insurance adjustments, and patient responsibility
- Configurable payment plans and pre-service estimates to reduce surprise balances
- Financial-assistance and charity-care screening built into the payment flow
- Cedar Cover: Medicaid enrollment, proactive renewal workflows, and medication assistance (via Fortuna Health)
- Denials-resolution support to recover revenue tied to coverage gaps
- Omnichannel outreach across text, email, and web tuned to patient propensity to pay
- EHR and revenue-cycle integrations spanning Epic, Cerner, and major billing systems
- Analytics on collection rates, self-service adoption, and satisfaction for finance teams
Ideal Use Case
A health system replaces paper statements and call-center collections with Cedar's digital experience, lifting self-service payments while routing eligible patients into Medicaid or charity care instead of sending them to collections.
How Cedar differentiates
Cedar is a patient-facing financial layer, not a full revenue-cycle suite like Waystar or the billing modules native to Epic and Cerner. Where Waystar emphasizes clearinghouse and claims throughput, Cedar concentrates on the post-visit consumer experience and bill resolution, and typically sits on top of an existing EHR rather than replacing it. Versus point solutions for financial assistance, Cedar Cover folds Medicaid enrollment and renewals into the same flow that collects payment, which can reduce vendor sprawl. The trade-off is scope: providers still run core billing and claims elsewhere, and Cedar's value depends on clean integration with that system of record.
FAQ
Q: What does Cedar do? A: Cedar is a patient financial engagement platform that turns confusing hospital bills into a guided digital experience, offering clear explanations, payment plans, financial-assistance screening, and Medicaid enrollment to lift collections and patient satisfaction.
Q: Who founded Cedar and when? A: Cedar was founded in 2016 by Florian Otto, M.D., Ph.D. (previously a VP at ZocDoc) and Arel Lidow (previously at Bridgewater Associates and AppNexus). Otto is CEO.
Q: How much funding has Cedar raised? A: Cedar has raised approximately $425M, including a $200M Series D in 2021 led by Tiger Global Management at a reported ~$3.2B valuation, plus a $102M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Q: What is Cedar Cover? A: Cedar Cover, launched in October 2025, is an add-on that screens patients for coverage and routes them through Medicaid enrollment, proactive renewals, denials resolution, and medication assistance, partnering with Fortuna Health for eligibility.
Q: Cedar vs Waystar: how do they differ? A: Waystar focuses on claims, clearinghouse, and broad revenue-cycle automation for providers, while Cedar focuses on the post-visit patient experience: clarifying bills, collecting payment, and connecting patients to coverage. Many systems run both.
tl;dr
Cedar is a patient financial engagement platform for hospitals and health systems, founded in 2016 and backed by ~$425M (peak ~$3.2B valuation). It clarifies bills, lifts collections, and—via Cedar Cover—enrolls patients in Medicaid, sitting on top of existing EHR and billing systems.
Related
Looking for more options? Browse the Healthcare directory or read our best AI healthcare tools listicle. Cedar is also tracked on Crunchbase.
Why Use Cedar
Editorial Review
Our take on Cedar.
Cedar is a patient financial engagement platform that automates medical billing transparency and connects patients to coverage assistance.
What works
- Addresses real pain in medical billing transparency and patient debt
- Connects patients to coverage programs, not just bill collection
- Measurable outcomes (collections lift, write-off reduction)
What doesn't
- Narrow domain applicability (healthcare admin only)
- ROI tied to provider organizational readiness, not just the tool
Cedar sits in the gap between healthcare providers and patients who are confused or overwhelmed by medical bills. The platform clarifies costs upfront, helps patients understand what they actually owe, and routes eligible patients toward Medicaid and other coverage programs. This is operational work—reducing patient debt write-offs, speeding collections, and lowering the friction that turns medical bills into bad debt.
The value proposition is clear where it lands: hospitals and health systems that deal with chronic billing friction and high uninsured-patient volume. Cedar doesn't eliminate the complexity of US healthcare finance, but it does make the patient-facing part less opaque and more navigable. The collections lift is real; the financial engagement part is where the ROI lives for provider customers.
One trade-off: the platform is vendor-specific to healthcare admin workflows, so it's not useful outside that context. Execution matters more than positioning here—whether Cedar actually reduces bad debt and improves patient experience depends on hospital implementation and patient adoption, not just the tool itself.
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