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LOVELAND -- The Innosphere Fund, a seed-stage venture fund that invests in Innosphere’s promising client companies, has announced the closing of a $1.75 million seed round in Loveland-based startup company, Epic River Healthcare, Inc.
The Innosphere Fund led the round and was joined by both current and new investors of the company. Epic River has built a software platform that enables medical providers to offer frictionless financing from local banks to help patients pay their unmet medical bills.
"Epic River has built a business providing software solutions to reduce transaction costs in the highly regulated banking industry,” said Mark Newhouse, Innosphere Fund general partner.
“They are now applying that same expertise to another regulated space -- healthcare -- to lower the cost of patient healthcare loans and extended patient payment plans.
“We’ve invested in Epic River because they’re addressing growing problems in the healthcare space, and we believe that reducing transaction costs in regulated industries remains a space rich in opportunity."
According to a study by West Health and Gallup, Americans borrowed an estimated $88 billion in the past year to pay for healthcare, while 65 million adults did not seek treatment for their health issues due to costs.
Epic River's solution pays healthcare providers in full, allows financial institutions to have stronger relationships with healthcare organizations, and allows patients to fit unexpected medical expenses into their monthly budgets.
"With the support of our investors, we are excited to expand our platform to ensure all healthcare providers have access to the most efficient and cost-effective means of solving the patient pay dilemma," said Jeff Grobaski, Epic River founder and CEO.
"This is a great opportunity for community and regional financial institutions to leverage our platform to help healthcare providers in their community address a growing problem."
The model of health insurance where insurance covers all but a small deductible is now being replaced by health insurance policies that do not cover all costs and have high deductibles. Now most patients, not just the very ill, accumulate thousands of dollars in medical bills that insurance will not pay, while medical providers are having increasing difficulty collecting these debts from their patients.
For more information on the Innosphere Fund, contact Joey Davis, principal of the Innosphere Fund, at 970.818.7008. For more information on Epic River, contact CEO Jeff Grobaski at 970.292.5048.
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