Rhyme

Connecting payers and providers for touchless auths

Our take

Rhyme runs a prior authorization connectivity network that puts payers and providers on the same rails. Founded in Columbus, Ohio in 2014 as PriorAuthNow and rebranded to Rhyme in 2022, the company lets provider staff initiate, submit, and monitor auths from inside their existing EHR workflow while payers receive structured requests and return decisions in real time. Its two differentiating ideas are touchless processing, where clean requests move through without human touches on either side, and gold carding, where payers use Rhyme's performance data to waive prior auth requirements for providers with strong approval histories.

Rhyme's traction is the network itself: it cites 80 to 90 of the largest US health systems and more than 300 payers processing 4 to 5 million authorizations a year. Backers include Insight Partners, BIP Ventures, Health2047 Capital Partners, and Panoramic Ventures, with about $57M raised. Its June 2024 three-way partnership with Medical Mutual of Ohio and Cohere Health showed where it sits in the stack, providing the provider-to-payer connective tissue while a clinical engine handles review, and an October 2025 collaboration with Microsoft's Dragon Copilot points at auths initiated ambiently during the patient visit.

What it does

Submits and tracks prior auths inside provider EHR workflows
Connects providers and payers on one shared auth network
Touchless auth processing with real-time payer decisions
Gold carding programs that waive auths for trusted providers
Shared payer-provider dashboard for auth status and collaboration

Where it's strong

A working two-sided network: 80 to 90 of the largest health systems and over 300 payers processing 4 to 5 million auths a year.
Auths run inside the EHR workflow staff already use, so adoption requires little retraining.
Its gold carding model removes prior auth entirely for high-performing providers rather than just speeding up submissions.

What buyers should weigh

Rhyme is connectivity and workflow, not a clinical decision engine; payers still need their own UM review stack (its Medical Mutual deal paired it with Cohere for exactly that reason).
Value depends on payer overlap; auths for payers outside the network fall back to portals, fax, and phone.
At roughly $57M raised and a modest team, it is a smaller vendor than RCM incumbents like Availity or Waystar, so weigh long-term durability and roadmap capacity.

Latest

In October 2025 Rhyme announced a collaboration with Microsoft to demonstrate touchless prior authorization at the point of care through Dragon Copilot's ambient AI.