Simplee Gets Backing from Hospital-Focused VC and Adds a Client

Simplee, which provides a cloud-based patient payments system, received a $10 million investment led by Heritage Group, which represents the top hospital systems in the U.S.

Earlier investors The Social+Capital Partnership and Greylock IL also participated in the new round of funding.

"Rising patient responsibility is a significant challenge for many of our large hospital investors," says Paul Wallace, managing director of the Heritage Group, in a Sept. 24 press release. "The Simplee team is applying unique consumer engagement capabilities and deep technology expertise to generate impressive results. We are seeing strong demand for their solutions and are excited about working together to build a market leading company."

Wallace has joined Simplee's board of directors.

Simplee plans to use the investment to grow its team and increase sales and marketing activity.

Simplee has also begun working with Emergency Medicine Associates, a large provider of emergency room services in the Washington D.C. metro area. 

One of Simplee's first customers, El Camino Hospital near San Francisco, increased the number of patients using self-service bill pay from 2% to 33% with SimpleePay.

The health care industry is becoming a hot market for payments startups. Hospital billing can often be antiquated and confusing, leading patients to put off paying bills.

Patientco provides another patient engagement platform designed to modernize the billing process. It aggregates information about how patients pay to advise the hospital how to respond. 

And earlier this month, HealthcarePays partnered with technology developer StoneEagle to sell an electronic payment method to replace paper checks and Explanation of Benefits.