For decades, the value proposition of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) was simple: digitize the clinical note. If a platform could successfully move a doctor from a paper chart to a tablet, it won the market.
But the frontier has shifted. To explore this new reality, Adyen invited ModMed to speak on their Embedded Finance podcast to discuss how the industry’s leading platforms are moving beyond clinical data to own the "financial layer" of the practice.
According to Ash Forsyth, General Manager at ModMed, the EHRs that last won’t just be repositories for health records—they will be the primary financial operating systems for the practices they serve.
The “paper file” competitor
Despite the digital revolution, the greatest competitor for many healthcare platforms isn't another software company—it's legacy manual processes.
“You’d be surprised at the number of practices that still literally use a paper file,” Forsyth explained during the episode. For these practices, moving to a digital solution is about more than just clinical efficiency; it’s about business survival. As healthcare becomes more complex, the administrative burden of manual reconciliation and fragmented payment systems is reaching a breaking point.
Behind the mic: the strategy of Embedded Finance
The podcast episode brought together two distinct perspectives on this shift: the platform builder and the infrastructure provider. Forsyth was joined by Mariëtte Swart, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at Adyen, to pull back the curtain on how ModMed transformed from a "per provider per month" SaaS tool into a comprehensive financial partner.
By embedding payments directly into the clinical workflow, ModMed moved beyond being a utility. “We’ve really thought about how we build value for the practice to reduce their accounts receivable over time and improve their speed to pay,” says Forsyth.
Compliance as a competitive moat
In healthcare, the elephant in the room is always regulation. Whether it’s HIPAA, KYC (Know Your Customer), or DEA registrations, the barrier to entry for financial products is incredibly high.
On the podcast, Swart noted that compliance shouldn't be viewed as a "box-ticking exercise," but as a strategic differentiator. “If you do this really well, then it can truly be a differentiator,” Swart notes. “Regulators are now broadening their scope... they really expect platforms to be able to take responsibility.”
For ModMed, leveraging Adyen’s global financial licenses allowed them to bypass the arduous process of becoming a licensed money transmitter themselves, while still maintaining full control over the user experience.
The future: lending, cards and beyond
So, what happens once a platform reaches "saturation" with payments? For ModMed, the horizon is wide. Forsyth told podcast listeners that the next steps involve looking at the AP (Accounts Payable) side of the practice—integrating payments into procurement, and exploring embedded financial solutions like business lending and card issuing.
The goal is to provide a "single solution" that tracks a claim from the moment it's submitted to insurance until the final balance is collected from the patient—and even helping the practice reinvest those funds via business loans.
The takeaway for SaaS leaders
If you are building a healthcare software platform today, Forsyth’s advice is clear: Focus on the workflows that make a difference.
“If you just approach it from a super generic, ‘our competitors are doing payments, so we need to do it,’ you’re not really going to add value,” Forsyth warns. Instead, platforms must think through how to automate the "human bottleneck"—the office manager chasing paper statements or the doctor followed by a scribe.
The EHRs of the next decade won't just help doctors record a diagnosis; they will help them run a more profitable, compliant and efficient business.
