Digital health platform FuturHealth has overhauled its payment set-up through a partnership with San Mateo-based provider Gr4vy, following a period of high transaction failure rates and inconsistent checkout performance.
The US weight-loss company, which says it serves more than 1.5 million patients across 48 states, has implemented Gr4vy's cloud-based payment orchestration layer. The system sits between FuturHealth's front-end and its payment service providers and gives the business control over how each transaction is routed and retried.
FuturHealth reported that its previous payments infrastructure relied on rigid routing rules and had a limited ability to retry failed transactions. The company said this configuration led to lower authorisation rates and a weaker customer experience at checkout.
Since switching, FuturHealth has introduced dynamic routing across multiple payment providers. It has also activated automatic retries on failed payments. The company said these changes have increased payment approvals and provided a more consistent experience for users paying for its weight-loss services and subscriptions.
Reliability concerns
Digital health providers depend on uninterrupted access to treatment plans and recurring services. Failed payments can disrupt that access and can erode user trust in subscription-based healthcare products.
Gr4vy's platform allows merchants to configure how each transaction is routed based on defined rules. Merchants can also specify when and how to retry cards that receive soft declines or experience network issues across different payment service providers.
"Every failed payment is a missed opportunity. Our goal is to give companies like FuturHealth the tools to recover revenue, improve performance, and adapt quickly, without adding complexity," said John Lunn, Founder and CEO, Gr4vy.
FuturHealth selected Gr4vy in part for its orchestration features, which include dynamic routing, built-in retries and configuration options that can respond to changing payment needs. The two companies worked on an optimisation strategy that combines multi-provider routing with structured retries aimed at rescuing transactions that might otherwise fail.
Operational control
Gr4vy's system presents a no-code, drag-and-drop interface for payment teams. Business users can adjust routing strategies and add or remove providers without direct code changes. This structure gives FuturHealth the ability to respond to observed trends such as issuer outages, regional performance issues or changes in card network rules.
The company said this level of control has supported conversion at checkout and has also allowed closer management of processing costs across different providers and methods. The orchestration layer gives FuturHealth a single view of transaction flows and outcomes.
"Gr4vy gave us the flexibility and control we needed to fix our payments performance," said Luke Mahoney, CEO and Co-Founder at FuturHealth. "The improvements to our authorization rate were immediate, and the platform has made it easier for us to move quickly and adapt to changing needs."
Gr4vy mentioned its cloud-native infrastructure runs on dedicated cloud instances. The architecture is designed to remove a single point of failure and support scaling as merchants add volume or enter new markets.
The platform connects to a network of payment service providers and local payment methods. Merchants can use the interface to test new routing rules or providers, and can roll out changes without major engineering projects.
Competitive payments push
Payment orchestration has become a focus area for digital merchants that operate at scale across multiple regions and processors. Retailers, subscription businesses and digital health companies seek to raise authorisation rates and reduce so-called "false declines" of legitimate transactions.
FuturHealth has expanded quickly and now works with a network of more than 350 providers across most US states. The company combines prescription weight-loss medications with dietitian and doctor support. It delivers clinical programmes that rely on regular payments, which has increased the importance of a stable and predictable billing experience for patients.
Gr4vy said it aims to give merchants more control over revenue that is already in the pipeline. The company focuses on turning preventable declines, such as network glitches or configuration errors, into successful approvals. It shows Gr4vy's broader goal to help merchants capture more of the revenue they've already earned by turning preventable declines into approved transactions.