New: InstaMed User Conference 2017 in Philly this week; What the well-funded company is all about http://goo.gl/lEVqVf

Tom Paine

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The InstaMed User Conference 2017 will be held next week, March 27-29, at the Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia followed by the Annual InstaMed Network Bash at the Down Town Club.

InstaMed is a leading health care payments network, connecting providers, payers and consumers on one platform. Its network connects over two-thirds of the market and processes tens of billions of dollars in health care payments annually. Founded in 2004, its headquartered in Philadelphia with technology operations based in Newport Beach.

InstaMed once published the amount of annual billings processed through its platform. The last figures I've seen were $30 billion in 2012. The pie is growing; direct consumer expenditures on healthcare are expected to approach $600 billion in a few years, InstaMed tells me, as deductibles rise along with other factors, including heath savings accounts. Changes to health care law now being considered in DC could further accelerate this trend.

InstaMed has raised $126 million in venture funding according to CrunchBase, the most recent being $50 million late last year from Carrick Capital Partners, which also happens to be a major investor in Plymouth Meeting & Seattle-based Accolade Health, which again fits into the theme of consumers managing and paying for more of their own health care. There are also local investors, including Osage Ventures Partners, Actua (formerly ICG), Ben Franklin, NJTC, and Josh Kopelman from a personal fund. InstaMed is likely one the Philly area's highest valued venture-backed companies, though I don't have a clue as to actual valuation. InstaMed's been quiet on the subject.

And there are several Penn connections; not institutionally as far as I know, but in terms of people. Go to a Penn basketball game and an InstaMed board meeting might break out.

I thought this recent interview the website HISTalk conducted with InstaMed CEO Bill Marvin gave a clear picture of what InstaMed is trying to accomplish as the market for health payments changes.

Joseph A. Michelli, a New York Times #1 best-selling author and consumer experience expert, wiil be the keynote speaker at InstaMed User Conference 2017, with the theme 5 Things Healthcare Can Learn From Zappos and Starbucks,' on the simplification of the experience. There will also be an Innovation Lab, demoing how payments will work in The Hospitals and Health Systems of the Future.

There will be presentations from prominent users - both regionally (Lehigh Valley Health Network, Geisinger Health Plan) and nationally. And InstaMed will also release its "Trends in Healthcare Payments Seventh Annual Report'.

InstaMed seems completely focused on enhancing its unified private cloud platform for health care consumers, payers and providers. It believes it is helping to drive down transaction costs, helping providers recoup more fees and helping consumers by providing more payment options and plans as well as simplifying the process and making it more secure. I've been curious to learn of any longer term strategies, including perhaps one built upon leveraging the aggregate information it collects, but InstaMed hasn't wandered far from its main goal.

Registration for the conference, open to anyone with an interest in health care payment systems, costs $149.