Healthcare payments may be one of the last frontiers in fintech—confusing, fragmented, and still bogged down by legacy systems. PayGround, a healthcare payment platform looking to simplify that mess, just made a key move to sharpen its edge: hiring Joshua Cooper as its new Head of Product.

Why This Hire Matters

Cooper isn’t a newcomer. With more than a decade in healthtech and fintech, he’s led product at high-growth firms including Relatient and Allscripts. His resume is heavy on integration know-how and scaling product lifecycles—skills that PayGround will need as it tries to expand from being a promising platform into a category-defining player.

“Josh’s unique combination of healthcare industry knowledge, experience in leading teams and product life cycles, and his hunger to innovate the status quo in healthcare makes him an incredible fit for our team,” said Drew Mercer, co-founder and CEO of PayGround.

Translation: PayGround isn’t just looking for incremental updates; it wants to reshape how providers and patients experience healthcare billing.

Payments That Don’t Feel Like Healthcare Billing

Cooper has a clear vision of where things are going. “Just as Uber reshaped how we move and OpenTable transformed how we dine, PayGround is reimagining how healthcare payments should work: simple, modern, and unified,” he said.

It’s a bold analogy. Healthcare billing is notoriously opaque, and attempts at modernization have often been patchy. PayGround believes its platform can change that by creating a patient-first experience while streamlining provider adoption—a model that could prove sticky if it truly reduces friction on both sides.

The Bigger Picture

Healthcare fintech has been heating up, with startups like Cedar, Waystar, and Flywire racing to tackle payments and patient engagement. The opportunity is massive: the U.S. healthcare payments market processes trillions annually, but patients often encounter clunky portals, unexpected bills, and limited payment options.

PayGround’s bet is that a modern, unified platform can win over both patients and providers by being the simplest option in a system notorious for complexity. With Cooper steering the product roadmap, the company is clearly gearing up for its next growth sprint.

For PayGround, the hire is less about filling a leadership role and more about doubling down on product-led growth in one of the toughest—and most lucrative—corners of fintech.