SwervePay, a Chicago-based company that lets patients pay medical bills through text messages, has acquired a local startup to help patients estimate those bills sooner.
The company bought StatPayMD, a startup based at Merchandise Mart health tech incubator Matter. StatPayMD uses technology and partnerships with insurance companies to calculate customers’ out-of-pocket costs before and when customers receive care.
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StatPayMD’s analytics engine uses eligibility data, health care provider contracts and a patient’s claim history to estimate costs.
The company is one of the first to be acquired out of Matter, which opened in February 2015.
Up until now, StatPayMD has worked with hospitals, urgent care centers and imaging centers, which paid the startup on a subscription basis and offered the service to patients.
Terms of the March 28 sale were not disclosed.
“Our core mission was to improve cost transparency between providers and consumers,” StatPayMD founder and CEO Piyush Kedia said.
SwervePay, founded in 2010 by CEO Jaeme Adams and president Brad Bialas, helps health care providers and health systems communicate with patients via text — letting patients submit payments and confirm appointments.
Adams said providers using SwervePay typically see an increase of 20 to 30 percent in the rate of paid bills. The app integrates with patient records before, during and after a visit, so patients can see what they owe and pay via text.
But until now, the company said, it didn’t have a way to estimate costs for a visit. Adams said that’s where StatPayMD fits into SwervePay.
“Like any other industry, if we’re going to pay for it, we’d like to have an idea of what it’s going to cost upfront,” Adams said.
StatPayMD’s five employees will join SwervePay’s team of 15, which the company plans to double this year.
Matter CEO Steve Collens ? said both companies are going after a problem in health care.
“There really isn’t another industry that has less transparency in the payment process,” Collens said.
He said the acquisition is a mark of a successful first year for Matter companies.
“We’re seeing a number of companies get financing, a number of companies enter into some really significant contracts, seen a lot of companies hiring, in some cases, fairly significantly,” Collens said. “It’s been a fantastic first year.”
Twitter @megancgraham