CINCINNATI, OH + New York, Sept. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ensemble, the nation's leading end-to-end revenue cycle partner for healthcare organizations, today announced at its Healthcare Leadership Exchange, a gathering of clients and top healthcare industry leaders, a strategic partnership with Penelope Health ("Penelope"), a real-time healthcare policy intelligence platform. Together, the companies will make policy transparent and accessible at the point of care. Through the partnership, Ensemble will integrate Penelope's structured, continuously updated view of policy into its unmatched intelligence engine, and Penelope will draw on Ensemble's operating scale and revenue cycle expertise to accelerate development of its platform for health systems nationwide.
Payer clinical policies have always existed, but they live in a different place for every payer, in different formats, and are applied differently by line of business. Providers want to follow the guidelines, yet finding and interpreting them is cumbersome, and today much of that work happens manually, inconsistently and late, after a claim has already been denied. Penelope's platform converts those disparate sources into a single structured reference, with access to policies covering more than 200 million Americans and spanning more than 15,000 procedure and drug codes.
Ensemble manages end-to-end revenue cycle operations for health systems nationwide, including more than 200 hospitals, spanning patient access, coding, claims management, denial prevention, accounts receivable follow-up and the patient financial experience. Denial prevention, prior authorization and appeals are where clinical policy meets Ensemble's daily work, and the partnership is designed to move more policy and coverage nuances upstream, so that requirements are understood before care is delivered rather than after a claim is denied.
"Providers want to follow payer guidelines, but transparency and access to those guidelines have never been part of the system," said Judson Ivy, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ensemble. "Penelope has built out a critical layer, a dependable, real-time view of clinical policy that will be additive to our proprietary end-to-end intelligence layer. Embedding that intelligence into the work our teams do every day means fewer denials, faster authorizations and stronger appeals for the health systems we serve, and more time returned to clinicians and patients."
"Ensemble operates at a scale, and with a depth of claims data and denial expertise, that makes them a natural partner," said Dr. Sohum Patel, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Penelope Health. Mattijs De Paepe, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Penelope Health, added, "working alongside Ensemble’s platform and data teams lets us sharpen our build for the realities of the revenue cycle, by expanding the feedback loop between realized payer behavior and the rules codified in policies. This partnership accelerates our mission to turn the rules that govern coverage into infrastructure the whole system relies on."
About Ensemble
Ensemble manages end-to-end revenue cycle operations for health systems nationwide. Through a combination of certified revenue cycle operators, data-rich intelligence and advanced AI, Ensemble helps healthcare organizations sustain best-practice revenue cycle operations and maximize their current technology so providers can focus on delivering exceptional care in their communities. For more information, visit EnsembleHP.com.
About Penelope Health
Penelope Health tracks the coverage rules U.S. health insurers publish and turns them into structured data that providers and payers can use directly, through an API and through endpoints that AI assistants can query. Penelope gives both sides instant access to the rules governing coverage for the majority of insured Americans, removing administrative burden from both sides of the provider-payer ledger. For more information, visit https://penelope.health/.
About Thoreau
Thoreau is a technology platform that creates, invests in, and acquires platforms across provider, payer, employer, life sciences, and government markets. Focused on building healthcare’s core compute, rules, and research infrastructure, Thoreau’s initial platform partnerships include Ensemble Health, which manages over $55 billion in net patient revenue, and Penelope Health, which is the real-time policy intelligence platform with access to policies covering more than 200 million Americans. Thoreau’s mission is to simplify the administration of healthcare, and improve and extend the lives of patients in the U.S. and globally.
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Contacts
For Ensemble:
Sarah Joyce
Sarah.Joyce@ensemblehp.com
(626) 379-9829
For Penelope Health:
Penelope Health
press@penelope.health
For Thoreau:
Jonathan Gasthalter/Nathaniel Garnick
Gasthalter & Co.
Thoreau@gasthalter.com
Q + A:
How does this partnership enhance Ensemble’s intelligence engine?
The partnership adds Penelope’s comprehensive, continuously updated payer policy intelligence as a supplemental rules layer within Ensemble’s broader intelligence engine. This means Ensemble can bring more timely clinical policy, coverage criteria and reimbursement guidance into the operations where revenue cycle teams make decisions every day.
What makes Penelope’s policy intelligence different?
Penelope focuses specifically on mining, organizing and structuring published payer policies, clinical criteria, regulatory guidance and provider manuals. Because that is its core focus, Penelope can help Ensemble access a more comprehensive national policy set and reflect payer updates more quickly through an API-based connection.
How does this create value for Ensemble clients?
Clients have stronger support for understanding how payer policy changes may affect authorizations, utilization review, appeals and claims resolution. By identifying relevant policy requirements earlier, Ensemble can help clients anticipate impact, adapt operations when needed and make faster, more informed decisions.
What changes for Ensemble associates using the platform?
For many users, the experience feels like an enhancement to the intelligence already embedded in their operations. When a case involves a specific payer, code, service or coverage requirement, the platform can surface the relevant policy intelligence so teams do not have to manually search across payer sites or interpret disconnected sources.
How does this help Ensemble respond to payer policy changes?
Payer policies often include an effective date, which creates an opportunity to assess potential impact before a change takes effect. With faster access to structured policy updates, Ensemble can analyze which clients, codes or systems may be affected, prepare operational responses and engage payers with clearer information when appropriate.
How does this sharpen Ensemble’s broader intelligence strategy?
Penelope will help structure the published policy information payers make available, while Ensemble can continue to focus its expertise on payer behavior, claims data, operational patterns and unpublished rules that emerge in real-world adjudication. Together, that combination gives clients a more complete view of what payers say, what payers do and how to act on it.
Sarah Joyce Ensemble 626-379-9829 Sarah.Joyce@ensemblehp.com
