Rivet Health, a revenue cycle management and healthcare pricing transparency platform, has raised $8.25 million in Series A funding. Menlo Ventures headed the round, which also included prior investors Lux Capital and Pelion Venture Partners.
WHAT THEY DO
Rivet's technology platform helps providers give their patients a pricing estimate prior to their services, as well as the option to pay beforehand or shortly after receiving care. Rather than send these bills as traditional mail, the company's product reaches out to patients for payment through digital means such as email or text. Further, Rivet's reimbursement contract-management product features analysis tools that ease the burden on staff and maximize received payments.
"At its core, Rivet's cloud-based platform is modernizing an antiquated system that has been used for more than two decades and is ripe for innovation," said Croom Beatty, a principal at Menlo Ventures who is joining the Rivet board. "This is a massive breakthrough in an industry that loses 30-60% in patient revenue by being unable to collect debt. With Rivet, not only do patients know exactly how much they'll be paying for care and have an easier way to pay, but healthcare providers have better insight into their billing processes to make sure they are being compensated appropriately for their services."
WHAT IT'S FOR
The startup said that these new funds will help grow its workforce, strengthen the platform's cost-transparency capabilities and solidify its role as an end-to-end patient billing suite.
"The current healthcare system is clearly not working for either the patient or the healthcare providers. This investment is proof that our investors are committed to fixing a broken system," Ted Ferrin, cofounder and CEO of Rivet, said in a statement. "This funding will help us continue building products that can be seamlessly integrated in the current system to empower both healthcare providers and patients by improving transparency."
MARKET SNAPSHOT
A fair number of tech startups that seek to simplify patient billing or reimbursement have crawled out of the woodwork over the past few years. Recent examples include San Francisco-based Gentem, which looks to automate the full billing and revenue cycle processes for smaller practices in particular, and MedPilot, which works with a provider's billing department to engage patients via artificial intelligence-based messaging to secure their payments.
