The journey building Rivet formally began in 2018 after conversations with my would-be cofounder, Andrew Harding, about the extremely complicated state of medical billing. Andrew had been a revenue cycle management consultant for the better part of a decade, and in that capacity worked with many medical practices and hospitals that simply weren’t getting paid (by insurance companies and patients alike). Virtually every patient in the country would agree that the cost of healthcare is frustratingly a black box, but what they don’t realize is that providers live in the dark just as much! Providers have no transparency on their own payments from insurance companies or patients, and they always write off significant amounts of revenue. I was absolutely stunned.
I always knew that “healthcare is broken” from the patient’s perspective, but I realized very quickly that it could only be fixed once a different break was fixed first: the one on the provider’s side, and that there was a huge benefit (and therefore motivation!) for providers to fix it.
Just like that, Rivet was born to bring price transparency to healthcare providers and patients. Our founding team of 3 became 6, then 12, and beyond. Our team spent the first two years busily building a tool that helps healthcare providers easily manage payer contracts, leverage rate transparency to provide upfront cost estimates to patients, and now the ability to complete patient payments in a text message. As Rivet continues to grow, we’re doubling down on our commitment to build the leading, and first patient-first billing suite that helps both patients and providers transact smoothly, happily, and successfully.
With that goal in mind, I’m excited to announce that we have partnered with Menlo Ventures, who has backed companies such as Uber, Warby Parker, and Roku, to lead our Series A round. Menlo Ventures, along with Lux Capital and Pelion Venture Partners (who have invested in Rivet from our inception), are collectively investing $8.25M of fresh capital to accelerate our efforts to bring price transparency to healthcare for providers and patients. These relationships and resources will dramatically impact Rivet’s ability to execute on our mission of clear and efficient healthcare transactions. Here is what you can expect:
Contract, Collect, and Beyond
Our payer contracts and negotiations product, “Contract”, was our initial product offering after we started Rivet. With Contract, Rivet gets providers their payer contracts, models their fee schedules, analyzes strengths and weaknesses in reimbursement, guides negotiations, and detects underpaid claims. Rivet is best-in-class at helping providers make sense of messy contracts, earning more money for the practice in the process. With this investment, we will continue investing heavily in an easy-to-use platform that makes the process of providers contracting with payers simple, and as mutually beneficial as possible so that payer networks are strong with sustainability of high-quality care built into the relationship.
Rivet’s newest product, “Collect”, enables providers to quote patients on their out of pocket costs in real-time, sometimes before care is even delivered, and then get paid by the patient easily. Collect allows providers to easily verify patient benefits, produce cost estimates, and then send them to the patient via text or email, including the ability to collect payment from the text message. To medical practices we say, “Collect up front or you’re doing it wrong!” This approach is better for both parties, providing upfront pricing transparency for patients and immediate collections for providers. Collect is already being used in practices nationwide to bring healthcare pricing transparency to the masses.
What excites us most is that all of this is just the tip of the iceberg to properly reimagining what modern Revenue Cycle Management will look like. Providers will be empowered to run well-oiled businesses. Patients will have price transparency and a fantastic customer experience. Insurers will look more like partners than adversaries to each of them. Using Rivet’s end-to-end patient billing platform, the patient experience will look more like an Amazon.com checkout than a mailbox full of old letters, and every participant in the process will be better off for it.
I hope you’ll join us on this important mission as a customer, employee, partner, or fan.
Ted Ferrin
Co-Founder & CEO
