Cedar vs InstaMed (J.P. Morgan)
Two Patient Payments & Billing vendors, side by side. Facts from public sources; judgments are ours.
At a glance
Derived from public facts · a rough scale, not a ranking
| Cedar | InstaMed (J.P. Morgan) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Percent of collections · SaaS base plus 1-4% of collections | Per-transaction / per-chart · Custom transaction and card processing fees |
| Speed to go live | Deep EHR and billing system integration | Integration project with your EHR and PM systems |
| Automation model | Software platform · Consumer-grade patient billing experience | Data / network utility · Healthcare payments network |
| Built for | Enterprise systems | Small practices, Mid-size groups, Enterprise systems, Payers |
| Security posture | SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST, HIPAA | SOC 2 Type II, HITRUST, PCI DSS, HIPAA |
| Company maturity | 10 yrs (est. 2016) | 22 yrs (est. 2004) |
| Financial backing | $350M+ · Series D | Subsidiary of J.P. Morgan (acquired 2019) |
| Named customers | 5 named | 4 named |
| Published results | Specific numbers public | Specific numbers public |
| Documented integrations | 1 listed | 5 listed |
| Third-party validation | None found | None found |
Bottom line
- Pick Cedar if you are a large health system leaking self-pay revenue and want a consumer-grade billing experience with fees tied partly to collections lift.
- Pick InstaMed if you want bank-grade payment rails backed by J.P. Morgan connecting patients, providers, and payers at any scale.
Cedar
Consumer-grade patient billing for health systems
- Founded
- 2016
- HQ
- New York, NY
- Stage
- Series D
- Raised
- $350M+
What it does
- Consolidated digital patient billing and payment experience
- Personalized outreach and payment options driven by ML
- Kora AI voice agent answers inbound billing calls
- Bill explanations and coverage context inside the bill
- Delivers billing inside Epic MyChart
Where it's strong
- The category leader for patient financial experience at large health systems, with reference customers like Novant and Yale New Haven and 300,000+ patient interactions a day.
- Deep Epic and MyChart integration means the experience shows up where patients already are, not in yet another portal.
- Its 2025 agentic AI line (Kora, Bill Navigator, Agent Copilot) attacks call center cost, projecting 30% of inbound billing calls automated.
What buyers should weigh
- Built for large health systems and physician enterprises; small and mid-size groups are not the target and should look at Collectly or similar.
- Commercial terms typically scale with patient payment volume, so model the effective take rate against your current cost to collect.
- It improves the patient-facing layer but is not a full RCM replacement; your billing stack stays.
Named customers
Novant Health · Yale New Haven Health · ChristianaCare · Summit Health/CityMD · ApolloMD
Integrations
InstaMed (J.P. Morgan)
Healthcare payments network connecting providers, payers, and patients
- Founded
- 2004
- HQ
- Philadelphia, PA
- Stage
- Subsidiary of J.P. Morgan (acquired 2019)
- Raised
- n/a
What it does
- Patient payment collection online, mobile, and point of service
- Epic MyChart bill pay integration
- Payer-to-provider electronic payments (ERA/EFT)
- Digital wallets and saved payment methods (Secure Token)
- eStatements and paperless billing
- Real-time eligibility and claims connectivity
Where it's strong
- Combined gateway, processor, and sponsor bank in one vendor, backed by J.P. Morgan's balance sheet and payments infrastructure.
- One of the deepest Epic payment integrations on the market, with documented results like Mercy's 143% jump in online payment adoption.
- Network scale: over half of US provider organizations touch the InstaMed network, which helps with payer connectivity.
What buyers should weigh
- Post-acquisition, InstaMed is a product line inside a giant bank, so roadmap pace and support attention can feel corporate rather than startup-responsive.
- Best economics and experience assume you consolidate processing with J.P. Morgan; mixing acquirers gets less attractive.
- Contract pricing is negotiated and opaque; smaller groups have less leverage than the enterprise health systems the sales motion favors.
Named customers
Mercy Health System · University of Rochester Medical Center · Boston Children's Hospital · Catholic Health
Integrations
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