RedCard, Zelis Merge To Optimize Healthcare Payments

Zelis Healthcare and RedCard Systems have announced they will be merging their organizations to create a healthcare payments optimization platform.

The platform will utilize market-leading technology and solutions to price, pay and explain claims. Combined, Zelis and RedCard serve over 700 payer clients, including the top five national health plans, and more than 600,000 providers. The companies boast approximately $5 billion of claim savings, $50 billion of provider payments and more than 500 million payment data communications annually.

The merged company will be led by the existing management teams, with Doug Klinger serving as chief executive officer and Joe DiMartini and Eric Schaefer appointed to senior executive roles. The company will stay in its existing key locations in Bedminster, NJ; St. Louis, MO; Clearwater, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Overland Park, KS.

“The key focus of this combination is to deliver deeper electronic penetration, best-in-class claim cost savings performance and a transformational billing and payments experience, all for the benefit of payers, providers and consumers,” said Klinger, who currently serves as CEO of Zelis. “Zelis and RedCard have both been disrupting the industry status quo, and we are thrilled to join forces to bring leading-edge payment optimization technology and solutions to our clients and the market broadly.”

DiMartini, chairman of RedCard, added, “The combined company’s payment optimization solution combines the three critical activities along the payment value chain: the payment data platform or software ‘brain’ to manage and communicate payment data, a highly attractive payment network and payment execution technology, and proprietary processes and expertise to organize every step required to efficiently and effectively take a complete payment file from start to finish. RedCard has worked in partnership with Zelis for many years with many clients, and we are ecstatic to be formally joining forces to change the future of our industry.”

The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter of 2019.