Brightree buys Strategic AR

ATLANTA - Brightree has acquired Strategic AR Solutions, a provider of private-pay billing and collections solutions.

Kevin Winkley, founder and CEO of Strategic AR, will continue to lead the company, which will operate as a separate entity, according to a release.

For Brightree customers, the deal means additional integration, such as the automatic posting of payments back into the billing system, the release notes.

“In the past, many home care providers have chosen not to pursue the patient portion of an order due to the manual-intensive business processes required to collect the amount owed,” said Dave Cormack, Brightree president and CEO. “With greater adoption of high deductible plans and an increase in private pay patients, we believe patient collections must become a critical component to every HME provider's success in 2014. Based on these changing dynamics and increased demand from our customer base for a more tightly integrated payment solution, it made perfect sense for us to forge this deeper relationship with Strategic AR.”

Winkley agreed.

“We felt it was the right time to align ourselves more closely with Brightree as the dominant software vendor in the HME industry,” he said. “We look forward to continuing to deliver first-class solutions and customer service to all of our customers regardless of their billing system.”

It has been a busy few months for Brightree. It announced it bought competitor MedAct Software in November and formed a strategic agreement with athenahealth earlier this months.

Brightree's acquisition of Strategic AR is its first this year and sixth since 2008.