Goodroot Merges Medical Cost Advocate into Benefit Navigation Company Emry Health

COLLINSVILLE, Conn., Aug. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Goodroot, a community of companies dedicated to improving access and affordability in healthcare, has merged Medical Cost Advocate (MCA) into its benefit navigation company, Emry Health. The combined companies are now a center of excellence for helping clients successfully navigate the complexities of the U.S. healthcare system.

MCA was founded by Derek Fitteron in 2006 to help clients gain more value from their healthcare. The company specializes in personalized healthcare concierge services tailored to meet the unique needs of clients and their families. In 2022, Goodroot launched Emry, leveraging Fitteron's expertise to develop a solution that assists employers and their employees in maximizing the value of their healthcare investments by addressing the underlying causes of high healthcare costs.

"When I partnered with Goodroot to establish Emry Health, our vision was to make healthcare more affordable by helping employees navigate the cost and complexity of their health benefits," says Fitteron, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Emry. "We believe this merger will not only allow us to expand our offerings to our concierge and corporate clients – but also allow us to bring our expertise in reducing healthcare costs to a broader group of people, including employers to make meaningful change industry-wide."

Emry has grown rapidly making a significant impact on healthcare costs for employer groups and their employees in under two years. BenefitsPRO recognized Emry in the Humanizing Benefits category of its 2023 Luminaries Awards saying, "Imagine a healthcare system in which every patient has a personal advocate looking out for them to ensure they receive the best care and avoid medical debt. That's Emry Health's vision."

Emry helps employees understand their benefits, utilize them appropriately and make cost-effective healthcare choices with better care outcomes. Through its best-in-class member engagement technology, Emry provides live benefit navigation experts as well as virtual assistants that help patients compare pricing in advance of procedures and diagnostics, resolve billing errors, apply for financial assistance programs, negotiate lower cost bills and more.

On average, Emry services produce cost savings of over $1,700 per year per employee, though often much more on an individual basis. A recent report from Goodroot shows that care navigation is one of the most powerful tools available to prevent medical debt.

MCA proudly serves a distinguished clientele, including corporate executives, individuals transitioning out of corporate life and their families, along with the largest private insurance exchange in the United States. The expert team at MCA delivers a comprehensive suite of healthcare concierge and healthcare navigation services to over 80,000 members, including initial pretreatment guidance, post-care bill review and negotiation, pharmacy guidance and more. Over the past three years, these efforts have resulted in over $5 million in client healthcare savings.

With the merger, the Emry team gains the robust capabilities of the MCA team, including seasoned experts with 20 to 30 years of healthcare experience each, with expertise ranging from health insurance and benefits navigation to medical claims review and negotiation. The team includes multilingual advocates, licensed brokers, and legal experts all dedicated to enhancing our services and delivering unparalleled value to concierge clients.

"The combined expertise of Emry and MCA, backed by our team of healthcare experts across the Goodroot community are uniquely equipped to guide members to the highest quality of care at the lowest cost, ultimately reducing healthcare costs and making complex health benefits easier to use and understand," says Goodroot CEO Mike Waterbury. "I'm thrilled to merge these companies under the Goodroot umbrella to continue to innovate in the benefit navigation space."

About Goodroot

Goodroot is a community of companies reinventing healthcare one system at a time. With a shared mission of increasing affordability and access in healthcare, Goodroot provides business infrastructure to help visionary healthcare professionals launch their own companies to fix chronic problems in the system. Goodroot's community companies — AlignRx, Breez, CoeoRx, Empara, Emry Health, Nuwae, Penstock and Sola — offer innovative services and strategic guidance for healthcare stakeholders such as employers, brokers, PBMs, health plans, third-party administrators and hospitals. Goodroot was named a 2024 Top Impact Company by Real Leaders. goodrootinc.com

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SOURCE Goodroot