PlexPay goes live for Panacea's doctor-owned practices
PlexPay is live for doctor-owned practices, pairing cards, ACH and patient finance with Panacea's Primis deposits. The $7 billion volume still needs a split.
PlexPay is now live for doctor-owned practices, and the balance sheet behind the checkout is what a payments lead should price first. Panacea Financial said on November 2, 2026 that it was expanding payments with PlexPay, joining merchant processing, digital payments, patient financing and automated posting to its banking and lending for doctors. Software firms usually add payments after they own the workflow. Panacea is moving the other way, from a doctor deposit franchise inside a bank toward the card ticket and the financing decision.
The Little Rock company said PlexPay is live with practices nationwide. Panacea Financial Holdings, Inc. works with thousands of doctors and doctor-owned practices in all 50 states that together care for more than 3 million patients a year, the Business Wire release says. As of September 30, 2026, the platform supported about $7 billion in annualized transaction volume, up more than 100% from a year earlier. Digital Transactions reported the same launch that day, with about $7 billion of volume and a 100% year-over-year increase.
What PlexPay switches on
Practices can take credit cards, debit cards, Automated Clearing House (ACH) transfers and other digital payments on a terminal or by a secure link in a text or an email. Stored credentials, recurring charges and balances owed after insurance sit in that flow. PlexPay Sync posts each receipt into more than 120 electronic medical record (EMR) and practice-management systems the clinic already runs. A patient can pay at once by card or ACH, or apply through one financing application that the release says can review more than one option.
The wire subhead calls the platform AI-enabled, and the operating description under it is the rail: cards, debit, ACH, links, stored credentials and automated posting, with reporting across locations. PlexPay's site calls this a patient-finance and payments platform under one partner, and practices can add Panacea banking and lending as the group grows.
Who holds the deposits
Brendon Kensel, head of PlexPay, previously founded and ran a dental support organization (DSO) and a national patient-finance platform, Panacea said. "We've brought together embedded payments, patient financing, and deep practice-management integrations into one platform that will further enhance the experience," Kensel said in the release. Chief executive Tyler Stafford, a Chartered Financial Analyst, said healthcare practices have "increasingly complex financial needs, yet the infrastructure supporting them remains highly fragmented," and he called PlexPay "a major step toward that vision" of "one trusted financial partner instead of a collection of disconnected services."
President and co-founder Michael Jerkins practices in Little Rock, the company's about page says. Deposit products run through Panacea Financial as a division of Primis Bank and are FDIC-insured. Merchant acquiring and patient finance sit outside that deposit promise even when both carry the Panacea brand.
Where the front desk already sits
Phreesia tells practices to collect copays before the visit, and its site says the software talks natively to 16-plus practice-management and electronic health record systems. PlexPay Sync's count above 120 is larger on paper, and the jobs differ, since Phreesia sells intake while PlexPay sells the payment and the financing choice. A clinic that already paid for intake will replace it only if posting, financing and the operating account show up together. Sezzle's filing for Sezzle Bank and nbkc's request that the FDIC assume the LSBX consumer book are two recent paths for payments firms seeking a balance sheet. Panacea already holds doctor deposits through Primis, so this launch attaches acquiring and financing to a charter relationship that exists.
What the $7 billion line still has to show
The September 30 figure is a platform-wide annualized total. A rise of more than 100% to about $7 billion puts the prior-year base below about $3.5 billion, with cards, ACH and financed care inside one number. Those rails price off different schedules, so the blend says more about platform growth than about take-rate. PhotonPay's Series C for card issuing and ScribeUp's raise to embed bill tools in banks show capital still funding rails around deposits, the side of the market PlexPay entered from the bank rather than from intake software.
A buyer's model changes if that $7 billion is split, and if the merchant discount, the ACH fee and the chair-side financing terms are published. Clean posting through PlexPay Sync would let Panacea sell payments without a rip-and-replace against intake vendors. A separate financing button would leave the single-partner line as a brand claim and the volume figure as a platform total.
This article is informational analysis only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. Volume figures, practice counts and product descriptions are taken from Panacea Financial's November 2, 2026 Business Wire release, the company's own pages, and the Digital Transactions brief that reported the launch.
Reporting by Rick Steves. Filed 3 November 2026, 20:32 GMT.
Senior Reporter, Regulation and Fintech
Rick Steves has seen business and economics through many lenses. He joined the financial services industry in 2009, and has been a financial journalist since 2011.
