U.S. Anesthesia Partners Proves the Best Patient Financial Experience and Customer Service Win

“Easy!”

It’s not a word U.S. Anesthesia Partners (USAP) expected to hear about their patient financial experience—especially not back in 2018, when they first partnered with Cedar.

As a leading anesthesia provider working with hospitals and health systems across the country, USAP sometimes cares for patients who don’t learn their brand until weeks later, when the bill arrives. This poses a unique challenge for USAP patient billing.

“Confusion was almost inevitable,” says Trish Donohue, Vice President, Shared Services at USAP. “We wanted to remove that stress and make it easier for patients to understand and pay their medical bills.”

USAP already had sophisticated internal processes and analytics across their revenue cycle platform and teams, which meant they needed a partner who could help optimize the process further. One that made the patient’s financial experience clear, trustworthy, and yes, even easy.

"Easy" is now the most common word USAP patients use to describe their billing experience—from the portal and statements to emails and texts. With Cedar’s consumer-first approach to patient financial experience, patients clearly understand (and more often) pay their bills.

Getting the best from every partner

Eight years later, USAP still uses Cedar’s patient billing and call center solutions—not because they’ve settled, but because Cedar keeps winning. Through ongoing competitive testing by USAP, Cedar consistently delivers outstanding results.

“Our champion/challenger model ensures we’re providing a best-in-class patient financial experience, on par with our best-in-class clinical care,” explains Frank Burns, Chief Administrative Officer at USAP. “It also keeps us nimble, so we can partner with the most innovative companies.”

That’s how Cedar first entered the picture—as a challenger. At the time, they weren’t the obvious choice, but they quickly stood out. USAP and Cedar were aligned in their vision to drive healthcare forward and make it easier for patients to manage their financial responsibility.

“We talked to more than 25 vendors,” Donohue recalls. “Cedar was one of the few thinking about machine learning and AI, and how it could actually improve the patient journey.”

That focus on innovation—and alignment with USAP’s values—ultimately pushed Cedar into the champion position. And they’ve stayed there ever since, helping to drive the patient experience at USAP to an exceptional level of quality and service.

The proof is in the performance

USAP uses a clear, data-driven approach to evaluate solution providers, focused on multiple metrics, including patient satisfaction and overall program quality.

“Cedar consistently outperformed the other solutions we tested,” says Burns. “At a certain point, it becomes simple math.” 

Since the beginning of USAP’s journey with Cedar, they have been a top performer in patient satisfaction and their metrics reflect that their collection rate is more than 20% the industry average. Whether patients prefer to pay online in full or spread payments over time, they make both options convenient and effective for patients.

For Donohue, though, the most telling sign comes from patients themselves: “We hear things like, ‘I wish every hospital did it this way,’ multiple times a month.”

A partnership that keeps improving

With Cedar, USAP communicates with patients via text, email, and paper statements, provides a consumer-centric payment experience, and delivers high-quality customer service. But that's not what drives eight years of partnership.

"Cedar is always bringing us ideas rather than the reverse, and we value that," says Donohue. "It fits perfectly with how we operate—we're always looking to innovate across our revenue cycle."

One example: Cedar suggested educating patients about how to use HSA or FSA funds they didn't realize they had. This seemingly simple solution, which was also easy to implement, helped patients pay more efficiently and affordably. 

But innovation isn't just about new features—it's also built into the technology itself.

"There's something foundational in the machine learning and AI Cedar has developed," Donohue explains. "Other companies either over-communicate, overwhelming patients, or under-communicate, leaving them confused. Cedar has found that sweet spot."

The result: patients get the right message at the right time through the right channel, and the platform keeps optimizing what “right” means.

Bringing the best to every client

Perhaps the ultimate validation of Cedar’s performance came when USAP launched Elevated Practice Solutions (EPS). For their new business services division, they named Cedar their exclusive patient financial experience partner. 

“We’re committed to giving EPS clients the very best,” says Burns. “Cedar’s culture aligns with ours, and their technology delivers on both innovation and experience. It was a natural fit for the offering.”

Florian Otto, CEO of Cedar, adds: “For over eight years, USAP has set an incredibly high bar for patient experience and in turn financial performance. We're excited to expand our strategic partnership to deliver that same level of service to EPS.”

What USAP spent years validating through rigorous testing, EPS clients now access from day one—with a seamless Cedar implementation.

Making payments easier—for everyone

For USAP, the next frontier is understanding how to better support the growing number of patients facing affordability challenges.

“Connecting patients to HSA and FSA dollars was a big deal,” says Donohue. “But Cedar also introduced us to ALICE [Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed]—people who are working but still struggling to afford basic needs. That was eye-opening.”

As patient financial strain grows, USAP sees real potential in the solutions Cedar is building to uncover untapped funding sources and payment solutions for ALICE and other underserved populations.

“We’re eager to empower the patients who need it most," Donohue says. “That’s where we see the opportunity for exponential impact—making even the hardest bills feel a little easier.”