Klara Alternative for AdvancedMD | Curogram

AdvancedMD has had four owners since 2011. ADP bought it that year, and Marlin Equity Partners took over in 2015. Global Payments paid $700 million in 2018. Francisco Partners closed its purchase in December 2024.

If your practice has used AdvancedMD that whole stretch, the company behind your invoices has changed four times. You've likely signed at least one renewal under an owner that wasn't there when you started.

Klara has a shorter story with the same shape. ModMed bought it in 2022, and Clearlake Capital took majority control of ModMed in 2025. A practice running Klara on top of AdvancedMD now pays two vendors. Both are backed by private equity, and both were sold within the last five years.

That history shows up at renewal. A practice manager opens the new order form and has to work out which company is on the other side of the contract this year.

For an AdvancedMD practice that's leaving Klara, the choice comes down to two paths. You can buy the AdvancedMD patient messaging add-on your rep has likely quoted already. Or you can add an independent texting layer that also collects balances and books recalls.

We think one number should decide it: patient balances over 60 days that your team chased only by phone. Your billing manager can build that list from an AdvancedMD aging report. It says more about fit than any feature grid.

Vendor Stability, Asked Honestly

Marlin Equity Partners is the easiest owner to forget. Its 2015 purchase is also when AdvancedMD started running as a standalone company.

Four Owners Since 2011

ADP bought AdvancedMD in March 2011. Marlin closed its purchase from ADP on September 2, 2015. Three years later, Global Payments' 2018 acquisition cost $700 million in cash.

Then came a return trip. Francisco Partners had owned AdvancedMD from 2008 to 2011. It signed a new deal in October 2024 and closed it on December 16.

The $1.125 billion price breaks into $1 billion paid at closing and up to $125 million tied to future returns. Fortune reported in March 2024 that Global Payments had hoped for $3 billion. The final number came in at just over a third of that.

The customer base kept growing across those sales. At the ADP deal in 2011, AdvancedMD served more than 10,000 physicians in 4,100 practices. By 2024, the company reported about 40,000 practitioners across 13,000 practices, plus 850 billing companies.

Each buyer ran a different kind of business. ADP sells payroll services. Marlin is an investment firm, Global Payments processes card payments, and Francisco Partners invests in tech companies.

What the 2024 Sale Kept in Place

Francisco Partners' acquisition of AdvancedMD left the team in place. Amanda Sharp, already president, added the CEO title. Global Payments stayed on as a long-term partner behind payment acceptance.

AdvancedMD shipped its Fall 2024 release, with new two-way messaging, on October 8. The sale was announced three weeks later.

The Global Payments tie matters in a billing office. Your software has one owner, and your card processing runs through a partner that used to own it. When you renew, ask which company's name sits on each agreement you sign.

The new owner has framed AdvancedMD as a standalone company with room to invest. That may well help the product. For context, Francisco Partners held AdvancedMD for about three years the first time before it sold to ADP.

And on the Messaging Side

Klara went through its own sale first. ModMed announced on February 8, 2022, that it had acquired Klara. Today ModMed sells it as ModMed Patient Engagement, powered by Klara.

ModMed builds its own specialty EHR. So Klara's roadmap is now set by a company that sells a rival to the system you use every day. Klara connects to AdvancedMD, which is how it runs next to your schedule today.

ModMed changed hands too. Warburg Pincus sold a majority stake to Clearlake Capital, in a deal Axios said valued ModMed at $5.3 billion. Clearlake closed it on April 30, 2025.

Neither vendor is independent of a larger parent. Between December 2024 and April 2025, both your EHR vendor and your messaging vendor got new controlling owners, about four months apart.

Questions to Ask at Renewal

Signed contracts usually carry over after a sale. Renewal terms get written by whoever owns the vendor that year. Put these questions to both reps, in writing, before you sign again:

• Which legal company is named on the order form, and has it changed since your last renewal?
• Can the price rise at renewal, and is there a cap on the increase?
• If the product gets sold, renamed, or folded into another brand, how much notice do you get?
• Who owns your message history, and in what file format can you export it?
• Will your texting number stay yours if you leave?

Keep the written answers in the same folder as the contract, where the next office manager can find them.

All of this comes back to one question worth asking out loud: which company is on the other side of this contract now? For the product side of the comparison, see our Curogram vs Klara head to head.

The Add-On You are Probably Already Quoted

Tell your AdvancedMD rep you're pricing a Klara AdvancedMD replacement, and the first quote back will likely include the Patient Messaging module. It's the easy sale for them, and for some practices it's the right one.

What AdvancedMD Patient Messaging Does

AdvancedMD Patient Messaging is one module inside the wider Patient Engagement suite. It sends automated texts and emails, and each patient picks the channel they prefer.

Staff can split the patient list into groups and send targeted notes. AdvancedMD lists uses like recall visits, office closures, new providers, and changes to payment methods. The wider suite adds a patient portal, reminders, intake forms, and reputation tools.

The 2024 Two-Way Upgrade

AdvancedMD's Fall 2024 release added a two-way messaging platform. It tracks calls, texts, and web leads in one dashboard.

It can send automatic texts from the main office number, and it includes a chatbot for common questions. Patients can also text in photos of insurance cards and send medical histories.

If your team last looked at AdvancedMD messaging before October 2024, book a fresh demo. The product has changed.

A Setting to Check in the Review Survey

AdvancedMD's reputation page explains how its post-visit survey works. Patients who give 4 or 5 stars get an invite to post on Google. Patients who give 1 to 3 stars get a private feedback prompt instead.

Google's review policy bars businesses from selectively asking happy customers for reviews. Ask your rep whether that routing can be switched off before you turn the survey on.

Where Per-Provider Add-on Pricing Bites

The 2024 customer figures above work out to roughly three providers per practice on average. Those 850 billing companies also show how much of AdvancedMD's base is built around billing work.

Per-provider pricing grows with headcount. Each new hire raises the messaging bill, even if the number of patients you text stays flat. A part-time provider who sees patients one day a week can cost the same seat as a full-time one, so check how the quote counts them.

Some quick illustrative math shows the effect. At any per-provider rate, a 10-provider group pays ten times what a solo doctor pays. Add two providers, and that group's messaging bill rises by 20% overnight.

Neither AdvancedMD nor Klara posts a public price for its messaging tools, so we won't guess at either number. To compare quotes fairly, ask every vendor to price the same case: your current providers, plus two new hires, across your current locations.

To see what reminders are worth on your own schedule, run your numbers through our no-show ROI calculator. It gives you a dollar figure to hold up against any quote.

What the Add-on Quote Usually Excludes

A quote covers only what it names. Before you compare it with anything, ask the rep to mark every line as per provider, per location, or flat. Then work through these:

• What's priced per provider, and what's priced per location?
• Is there a monthly cap on texts, and what does going over cost?
• Is the reputation tool part of this quote or a separate line?
• Which phone number will patients see on automated texts?
• What changes at renewal, and how much notice comes with it?

Balance texting needs its own line on that list. AdvancedMD's text and email bill-pay reminders sit in its ePayments suite, which is a separate product from Patient Messaging. Ask whether balance texts are in the messaging quote at all.

Card processing fees also tend to be billed apart from software, so ask who processes payments and at what rate.

The phone number question has a clear answer on record. AdvancedMD's release notes list 1-855-730-1564 as the sender on automated Patient Engagement texts, including reminders, recalls, and reputation requests. A patient who saved your office number will see an unfamiliar toll-free sender.

Texting That Touches the Ledger

ake an illustrative $85 balance from a routine follow-up. Your office mails a statement at month end. On Friday, the patient calls with a question and reaches voicemail. That callback sits in a queue nobody works until Monday.

Balance Collection by Text

With text-to-pay, the same balance moves in four steps:

1. Curogram picks up the open balance from AdvancedMD.
2. A text goes to the patient with the amount and a secure payment link.
3. One tap opens the payment page, and the patient pays with no portal login. The link works on any phone that can open a web page.
4. A confirmation text goes out, and the request shows as paid in the Curogram dashboard.

If the patient has a question, they reply to the same text. Curogram's Smart Routing sends that reply to billing, so it doesn't pile up at the front desk. Nobody has to return a Friday voicemail on Monday morning.

All of this runs through our AdvancedMD integration. Balances, appointments, and patient details come from the same records your team already works in, so nobody types them twice.

Reminders That Hold Up Across 10 Providers

Ten providers means ten sets of visit types, prep steps, and cancellation habits. One reminder template can't serve a new-patient physical and a 10-minute med check with the same wording.

Three setup choices keep automated appointment reminders accurate at that size:

• Reminder wording matches the visit type, so prep steps only reach the patients who need them.
• Messages carry the right location, so a patient booked at your second office isn't sent to the first.
• A manager assigns replies from a shared inbox, so "running late" lands at the front desk and "what do I owe" goes to billing.

Groups with several sites can see how this works for multi-location and large group practices.

Based on our internal data, Curogram clients average an appointment confirmation rate above 75%. Their no-show rates run 53% below the industry average.

Two client results show what that looks like at the practice level. Atlas Medical Center cut its no-show rate from 14.20% to 4.91% in three months. Covina Arthritic Clinic averages more than 1,100 confirmed appointments a month through automated confirmations.

Statements That Actually Get Read

Timing drives collections in a billing-heavy practice. A text sent within 72 hours of the visit can name the date and the amount while the patient still remembers the appointment:

"Hi Maria, your balance from your March 4 visit with Dr. Patel is $85. Tap to pay securely: [link]"

A paper statement mailed on the 30th reaches the patient weeks later. It often lists procedure codes most people can't read, and paying means finding a website or calling in. By then, the visit is a blur.

Curogram lets your billing team attach a PDF of the bill or the EOB to the text. Patients can check the charge first, which heads off the "what is this for?" call. If the link sits unopened, an automated reminder follows, so your team isn't tracking who still owes by hand.

Across five daily workflows, the add-on and Curogram line up like this:

Who Should Stay on the Add-On

Some AdvancedMD practices should keep the add-on and skip the switch. We'd tell them so on a sales call.

Two Cases for Staying Put

The first is a practice already inside an AdvancedMD bundle discount. AdvancedMD sells its full software set as a discounted bundle. If Patient Messaging is already in yours, paying for a second texting tool makes little sense.

Single-provider practices with low message volume make up the second group. One doctor and a few dozen texts a week don't need department routing or bulk balance requests. Reminders and group texts from the add-on cover that load.

The Number That Settles It

Every other AdvancedMD practice should decide with one figure: the count of patient balances over 60 days that your team chased only by phone.

That figure measures work your staff is already doing by hand. Each of those accounts stands for at least one call, and often a voicemail that never got returned.

It also points you to the tool that matters most. If the phone-only list is long, your biggest gap sits in collections, and reminders alone won't close it. Your billing manager already has the data to check.

The 60-Day Balance Exercise

Pull the number in four steps:

1. Run your patient aging report in AdvancedMD and filter to patient-owed balances older than 60 days.
2. Count the accounts and note the total dollars.
3. Check the notes on each account, and mark the ones worked only by phone calls or mailed statements.
4. Divide the phone-only count by the total.

Take an illustrative case. A three-provider practice finds 180 accounts over 60 days, worth $21,600. Notes show that 126 of them got only calls and statements. That's 70% of the aging list running on phone tag.

Conclusion: Choosing a Klara Alternative for AdvancedMD Practices

AdvancedMD and Klara both have new controlling owners since late 2024. A practice that has now worked under four AdvancedMD parents has good reason to keep its patient texting portable, with its own contract and its own export rights.

We'd let the aging report make the call. Every vendor in this comparison sends reminders. Balance texting is where the tools differ most for an AdvancedMD billing office, and it's the work your staff is doing by phone right now.

If the phone-only list is short and your bundle already covers messaging, keep the add-on. Save the switching work for something that pays back.

If the list is long, that backlog is money your team is chasing one voicemail at a time. Book an AdvancedMD-specific demo with Curogram. Bring your 60-day count and your Klara end date. We'll show you how reminders, text-to-pay requests, and reply routing would run on your AdvancedMD schedule.

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