Cedar Announces Agreement to Acquire OODA Health to Revolutionize the Consumer Financial Experience in Healthcare

NEW YORK, May 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cedar, an innovative healthcare financial technology platform, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire OODA Health, a healthcare technology company focused on improving the healthcare administrative experience with payers and providers, for $425 million. By bringing together providers and payers onto one healthcare financial technology platform, Cedar will be the only complete solution to address the full set of challenges consumers face when paying for healthcare. 

This acquisition comes at a time when consumer-friendly, digital-first experiences have become a hallmark of the healthcare experience, especially given healthcare consumers are getting more exposure to the billing process, and their financial burden has skyrocketed in recent years. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how technology can transform healthcare, yet healthcare billing and administration is still a huge pain point for consumers — 84% of U.S. adults are worried about paying their medical bills in the next year, and one in 10 consumers simply won't pay their bill if they don't understand the administrative process. Ultimately, the provider and payer billing process remains fragmented with consumers often caught in the middle, leading to high costs, confusion and potentially delayed care. With Cedar's category leadership in the provider space, combined with OODA Health's payer-integrated offering, the company is uniquely positioned to solve many of the problems that often lead to poor consumer financial experiences and administrative waste in healthcare.   

"Cedar's mission has always been to transform healthcare and deliver the best possible financial experience for consumers," said Florian Otto, CEO and co-founder of Cedar. "We've made great progress toward that goal, but consumers still need greater financial clarity and more affordable healthcare — and the experience with one's provider or one's payer is just part of the issue. Both Cedar and OODA Health are forward-thinking when it comes to putting consumers first, and we believe that by bringing our companies together, we can identify new opportunities to help consumers — as well as payers and providers — navigate an increasingly complicated healthcare system, leading to better outcomes for all parties involved."

Over the past year, Cedar has experienced significant growth as the shift to digital health has taken hold. Through its recent $200M Series D funding, and now its agreed acquisition of OODA Health, Cedar will focus on empowering consumers with more transparency and assurance when it comes to the financial experience in healthcare, broadening its product roadmap to prioritize features that are powered by integrations with providers and payers, as well as automation use cases that advance the consumer financial experience and healthcare affordability. 

"Payers and providers recognize the importance of working together to fix the broken consumer financial experience, and are more committed than ever to unlocking administrative efficiencies that drive accessibility and affordability," said Seth Cohen, co-CEO and co-founder of OODA Health. "We're tackling healthcare administration and billing head-on by building the most comprehensive technology and services platform for providers and payers. We're thrilled to unite our two teams with that goal in mind and are excited to make a more positive and meaningful impact on the lives of consumers."

With the acquisition of OODA Health, Cedar is further positioned to lead the industry as the most comprehensive healthcare financial technology platform, already engaging with more than 300,000 consumers a day. OODA Health's platform connects payer workflows for nearly 20 organizations, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, CommonSpirit Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and Cedar currently partners with more than 35 healthcare providers across the United States, including Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), Summit Health, Novant Health and ChristianaCare.

Florian Otto will continue to serve as CEO for the combined company, and OODA Health's Seth Cohen will become President of Cedar, in addition to joining Cedar's board of directors. Additionally, Cedar co-founder Arel Lidow and OODA Health co-founder Anshul Amar will serve as Co-Chief Makers within the executive team. The company will be headquartered in New York City and will expand its footprint as a result of the transaction with additional offices in San Francisco and Salt Lake City.  

The boards of directors of Cedar and OODA Health and the stockholders of OODA Health have approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close this month, subject to receipt of required regulatory approvals and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Cooley LLP acted as legal counsel to Cedar in connection with the transaction. Fenwick & West LLP acted as legal counsel to OODA Health in connection with the transaction.

About Cedar
Cedar is a healthcare financial technology platform for hospitals, health systems and medical groups that clarifies and simplifies the financial experience for consumers, improving bill resolution and payment outcomes for providers. Recently recognized as a leading solution provider in the patient financial experience space by KLAS Research, Cedar facilitates consumer-centric financial experiences across the care journey. To learn more, visit www.cedar.com.

About OODA Health
OODA Health's mission is to transform healthcare administration by enabling real-time interactions between consumers, providers and payers. OODA Health is focused on eliminating the friction and delays in current payment processes that will save $400 billion of wasted spend, improve the member experience and inspire greater collaboration between providers and payers. Leveraging an innovative technology platform, OODA Health partners with leading health plans and providers including Anthem, Dignity Health, a part of CommonSpirit Health, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Blue Shield of California and others. To learn more, visit www.ooda-health.com.

Contact
Jenny Fiegoli
847.975.7888
[email protected]

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SOURCE Cedar

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