As administrative costs rise and reimbursement grows more complex, both health plans and providers are under increasing pressure to improve the payment experience. Faster payment remains important, and digital payment modalities such as standard ACH and virtual cards have helped modernize reimbursement. But modality alone does not solve the broader operational challenges both sides still face, including fragmented processes, limited visibility, and manual reconciliation. To reduce friction meaningfully, health plans must make it easier for providers not only to receive payments, but also to reconcile them, understand them, and act on them.
Becker’s Healthcare recently spoke with Jessica Gerow, senior vice president and general manager of provider network at Zelis, about what it takes for health plans to build — and sustain — payment confidence among providers, and why that effort delivers meaningful value for payers as well.
Why payment confidence starts with more than payment modality
Offering a digital payment modality alone — whether standard ACH, virtual card or another electronic option — is no longer enough to eliminate provider abrasion. If reimbursement and remittance still arrive through different channels, workflows remain fragmented, or denial reasons go unexplained, friction persists. In many organizations, especially hospitals and health systems, managing a fragmented, high-volume stream of claims payments, staff still spend valuable time manually connecting payments across systems, tracking down remittance information and determining what action comes next.
According to Ms. Gerow, providers have long memories when it comes to manual intervention — follow-up calls, appeals, cash-posting complexities and other administrative burdens that accumulate over time.
Like trust, payment confidence can be hard for payers to earn and easy to lose. Repeated suboptimal payment experiences lead providers to view a plan as unpredictable or difficult to work with, eroding confidence in every subsequent payment, remittance or communication.
“Provider abrasion isn’t just a service issue. It’s also a network issue,” Ms. Gerow said. “When providers choose plans to associate with, they look for competitive rates but they also look for operational simplicity. Outdated processes and tech can slow contracting conversations and weaken long-term network relationships.”
To generate payment confidence, health plans need more than a digital payment option. Providers are seeking simplification, and need solutions that reduce fragmentation, opacity, and back and forth. They need a single point of access to a growing payer network that delivers consolidated payments and data together on behalf of that network. That model helps reduce payer-by-payer fragmentation and gives providers a simpler, more unified way to match payments to claims and remittances, understand discrepancies through a clear explanation of payment and move efficiently from receipt to reconciliation. When that alignment is achieved, the payment experience becomes more predictable and low-friction for both parties. Providers do not just see money arrive; they know exactly what to do with it next.
“Payments must be processed in a way that aligns data and dollars at every step,” Ms. Gerow said. “That helps providers post cash faster, reduce staff time and resolve issues sooner. This is where we see the market moving.”
The next phase: aggregated payments, data and insight across the payer network
For health plans, improving provider adoption requires more than offering a payment modality or placing a link on a payer website. It requires making participation worthwhile for providers by simplifying how they access, reconcile, and manage payments across multiple payer relationships. Personalized outreach and education are often essential to increasing engagement, but the value proposition is strongest when providers understand they are not just connecting to one payer at a time. They are gaining access to consolidated payments and data through a single entry point across a broader payer network—delivering greater transparency, connection, and simplicity. That matters, especially as hospitals and health systems are being asked to do more with less.
Ms. Gerow sees one of the biggest opportunities in moving beyond basic digitization to a model that connects payments with remittances while also reducing fragmentation for providers managing high volumes of transactions across many payers. As Zelis aggregates dollars and data in a single portal across its network, the company is taking a more holistic approach — helping providers reconcile faster while also surfacing broader trends on top of the transactional data it processes every day.
“Rather than treating dollars and data as separate end points, we strive to bring it all together,” she said. “By aggregating payments and related data in one place across our payer network, we can help providers do more than receive funds. We can help them identify denial trends, pinpoint revenue leakage and take more informed action. Providing these insights is the next evolution of connecting payments with remittances.”
That visibility matters across the full payment lifecycle, not just when funds land. Providers want transparency from initiation through final posting, along with fewer handoffs, less rework and clearer next steps. For organizations managing a fragmented, high-volume stream of claims payments, aggregation is a critical part of that value. In that environment, speed still matters, but it delivers the greatest benefit when paired with simplification, insight and streamlined access across the payer network.
What health plans gain when providers trust the process
When health plans invest in a better provider payment experience, the benefits extend beyond provider satisfaction. Greater payment confidence can improve financial performance, reduce administrative friction and strengthen provider relationships.
Organizations that reduce payment-related friction may see lower post-pay recovery expenses, fewer avoidable overpayments and underpayments, fewer provider calls, lower dispute and appeal rates, faster resolution times and higher straight-through processing rates.
Zelis has built toward this vision with the Zelis Advanced Payments PlatformSM (ZAPP), an intelligent platform that connects payers and providers, and unifies payments, data, and communications in a single ecosystem. ZAPP EdgeSM extends this foundation with a premium experience that integrates digital payments and data with advanced data and analytics from a growing network of 550+ payers, reducing manual work and giving providers greater visibility and control over cash flow.
“Provider confidence will truly improve only when fast digital payment modalities are combined with processes that reduce the noise and rework surrounding payments,” Ms. Gerow said. “This is where Zelis helps. We serve as a bridge between payers and providers, limiting abrasion and strengthening relationships.”
As reimbursement complexity continues to grow, health plans have an opportunity to move beyond the idea that digital delivery alone is enough. The real opportunity is to create payment experiences that combine speed with consolidated access to payments and data across the payer network — giving providers the simplicity, transparency and insight they increasingly expect, while helping payers reduce abrasion and operate more efficiently.
At the Becker's 5th Annual Fall Payer Issues Roundtable, taking place November 2–3 in Chicago, payer executives and healthcare leaders will come together to discuss value-based care, regulatory changes, cost management strategies and innovations shaping the future of payer-provider collaboration. Apply for complimentary registration now.
