Modernizing Senior Living Finance: Sunbound’s Vision
Founded by Manny Corminsky and Stuart Mason who had each witnessed the challenges of senior living firsthand, Sunbound emerged with a clear mission: to modernize the financial operations of an industry stuck in the past. With roots in Utica, New York, where Corminsky’s family helped found an assisted living nursing home, Corminsky saw both sides of the senior living experience – the operational pain points facilities faced with making payments and the frustrations families encountered during the transition process.
Sunbound’s platform automates revenue processes across both private pay and insurance claims, improving profitability and cash flow speed while creating a seamless payment experience for families. Their ability to scale depended heavily on having reliable, flexible, and user-friendly payment integration that matched the complexity of senior living. Today, Sunbound serves regional and national senior living operators across the full continuum of care.
The Challenge: What Happens When Your Payments Infrastructure Can’t Scale With You?
Senior living facilities face unique payment complexities: over 50% of families still pay by check, financial processes are heavily paper-based, and operators navigate a complex mix of private pay, Medicare, and Medicaid on thin margins. Adding further complexity, a majority of payments come from third parties (relatives, friends, or trusts), creating friction around accessibility and security.
When Sunbound launched embedded payments in June 2023, they integrated to Stripe combined with JP Morgan’s ACH collections. But their initial payment integration wasn’t designed for the volume, variability, or user needs of the senior living market.
Within just three to four months, critical payment challenges emerged:
Rigid Transaction Thresholds: Despite providing detailed projections and advance notice, Stripe consistently failed to adjust processing limits proactively. Sunbound experienced some months where 20-30% of transactions were blocked, forcing emergency escalations to get final batches approved.
Customer Interface Barriers: Approximately 50% of Sunbound users couldn’t adopt Stripe’s OAuth-style login – particularly third-party payers without online banking access. This forced Sunbound to maintain a separate manual ACH process through a separate processor.
Operational Drain: With payments fragmented across two systems, Corminsky and his co-founders spent upwards of 50% of their time on payment reconciliation and crisis management.
Additional Pain Points: 5-7 day settlement times created cash flow strains, and the manual ACH process introduced compliance risks around sensitive banking information.
By Fall 2023, just months after launch, Sunbound knew they needed a new embedded payments solution that could scale with them. Payments were too core to their business to continue struggling.
The Payabli Solution: Embedded Payment Infrastructure and True Partnership
Recognizing the need for more flexible and reliable embedded payment solutions, Sunbound turned to Payabli for their unified API, modular payment components, and powerful documentation. What stood out most wasn’t just Payabli’s robust payment infrastructure – it was the partnership mentality.
“We were impressed by co-founders Jo, Will, and the Payabli team,” Cominsky shared. “They didn’t just sell us a platform. They became advisors, guiding us through onboarding, compliance, and scaling best practices.”
Together, Sunbound and Payabli designed an embedded payments experience that integrated seamlessly into Sunbound’s platform. Key improvements included:
- Flexible ACH and card payments on a single API designed for both families and operators.
- Accelerated payout times that improved cash flow reliability.
- Proactive monitoring and flexible adjustments to navigate transaction limits with minimal disruption.
- Simplified compliance and KYC processes recognized by operators for its ease and reliability.
Implementation with Payabli was quick and seamless, with Sunbound processing payments in under two months.
“The Payabli team was quick to hop on calls, troubleshoot issues, and help us think through every detail,” said Cominsky. “They offer a true partnership invested in our growth.”
The Impact: From Crisis Management to Peace of Mind
Since partnering with Payabli for embedded payment solutions, Sunbound has grown from a five-person startup processing hundreds of thousands monthly to a 35-person company processing over $1 billion annually in payments and claims.
“We haven’t had a single issue with payment limits or scaling since switching to Payabli,” said Cominsky. “Payabli gives us peace of mind and allows us to focus on what makes us unique, while Payabli handles the payment side they specialize in.”
The results:
- Zero payment disruptions during rapid growth phases.
- 50% reduction in operational workload for reconciliation and manual payment management.
- Faster customer onboarding and improved family satisfaction.
- Seamless compliance experience through Payabli’s guided KYC processes and implementation support.
Today, Sunbound’s customers benefit from streamlined payment experiences that improve cash flow and operational efficiency. Families can pay seamlessly regardless of tech comfort level, operators have complete transparency, and Sunbound has reclaimed valuable time to focus on innovation rather than payment crisis management.
Looking Ahead: Scaling Financial Solutions for Senior Care
Sunbound’s vision extends beyond revenue processes – they’re building the complete financial operating system for senior living. Next on the roadmap: payout API and account payables functionality to manage vendor payments, subcontractor disbursements, and other money-out operations that are just as critical to operators’ cash flow.
Payabli’s platform breadth makes this expansion seamless. “What’s really nice is when we move into accounts payable, we can already just turn on the AP module with them,” Cominsky explained. “Payabli built such a robust platform that enables us to easily add on value-added services to double or triple our growth rate without needing a new vendor or partner.”
By leveraging Payabli’s payout API, Sunbound will close the loop on senior living financial operations – from collecting payments to disbursing funds – all within a single, unified platform.
A Partnership Built on Trust and Support
Payabli has proven to be more than payments infrastructure for Sunbound – they’re a trusted partner that provides the support and peace of mind essential to every stage of their growth journey. Their embedded payments technology is the foundation that allows Sunbound to eliminate operational bottlenecks and enable billion-dollar payment volumes without friction.
Whether onboarding new clients, managing complex payment mixes, or troubleshooting unique customer scenarios, Sunbound’s team knows they can rely on Payabli’s proactive partnership and customer-centric approach. In an industry where trust and reliability are paramount, that partnership is the ultimate differentiator.
