Cedar deploys agentic AI for patient billing, financial experience

Patient collections company Cedar is going all-in on agentic AI with the launch of its Kora Platform, a system that's designed to close the loop on patient billing and financial experience.

Cedar said it built the agentic platform using its experience in the patient billing space. The system can make outbound calls, answer inbound calls and communicate via two-way text message. On the provider side, Kora can provide in-depth reporting about patient collections.

The announcement comes as patients increasingly bear the brunt of their medical costs. Nearly 40% of collectible dollars on Cedar's platform now come from patients without insurance coverage, the company said, up 54% from three years ago. Cedar anticipates this proportion to grow due to the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

At the same time, patients want a more closed-loop experience, meaning patient collections companies need to move away from static apps and call centers and into more sophisticated agentic tools.

"When patients are facing unexpected healthcare costs, they need clarity, flexibility, and empathy, not a rigid phone tree or transactional chatbot," Dugan Winkie, chief strategy officer at Cedar, said in the announcement. "With Kora Platform, we're providing health systems with an always-on advocate that builds trust and resolves balances seamlessly across every channel."

Kora's inbound autonomous voice is set up to complete a number of billing functions, ranging from patient verification, real-time eligibility checks and payment processing. It can also answer questions about balances, provide bill explanations, complete insurance capture and provide collections guidance.

The AI's outbound autonomous voice lets it proactively reach out to patients who need to complete action items, Cedar said. This includes capturing missing insurance, collecting payments, resolving coordination-of-benefits denials and assisting eligible patients enroll in Medicaid.

Kora is unique in that it can distinguish caller intent, Cedar added. For example, the AI can distinguish between patients who are confused about their bill, can't pay it right now or who need access to HSA funds. This enables Kora to engage with those users differently based on their unique needs.

What's more, Kora has a long-term memory. Cedar explained that the platform  can recall an interaction it had with an individual during a previous call or text message exchange.

This is essential, the company said, because patient billing is hardly ever resolved in just one step. For example, it can take weeks to resolve a denied claim because it requires multiple steps -- updating insurance or documentation, getting the claim reprocessed and then collecting the remaining balance. Kora's memory will streamline this process, meaning users will not have to re-enter information each time they engage with the system.

So far, Kora has been received warmly, Cedar reported. Its inbound calling has handled more than 600,000 patient conversations and attained a 40% inbound call containment rate. Kora has also seen a 7.4% increase in the number of patients attempting payment compared to live agents.

The system has also yielded a 20% pickup rate for its outbound calling capabilities.

That's turned into better patient financial experiences, Cedar reported. For example, patients rated Kora a 4 out of 5 in post-call satisfaction.

Sara Heath is an executive editor at Xtelligent Healthcare Media, where she covers patient engagement, healthcare policy and health IT.