September 28, 2026

What’s Really Driving Provider Payment Experience?

By Jess Gerow, SVP & GM, Provider Network, Zelis®

A better provider payment experience goes beyond how a payment is delivered. It helps providers get paid quickly, simplifies workflows, delivers meaningful financial insights and addresses top-of-mind challenges like margin pressure and administrative complexity.

By reducing the manual work and complexity surrounding each payment, providers can operate more efficiently. Payers benefit, too, through fewer questions and disputes, lower administrative costs and stronger provider relationships.

Watch the video to see how a better provider payment experience can reduce friction and create value for both sides.

Key Takeaways

  • Give providers one connected, streamlined and transparent experience to reduce complexity, costs and calls.
  • Turn payment and denial data into insights providers can act on, not just react to.
  • Reduce provider friction to help payers see fewer disputes and build stronger relationships.

This is Part 1 of our payer value series. Read Part 2 →

Jess Gerow: Payments Built for Both Sides

See how provider insights and payment innovations create a better financial experience for providers while delivering value to payers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Payment friction is the manual work and back-and-forth required to get a claim paid and reconciled. For providers, that often means logging into multiple portals, matching remittance formats and calling payers for payment status updates or answers. The friction comes not only from the speed of payment, but also from all the effort surrounding it.

Not entirely. Digital payments can make payments faster, but much of the manual work remains. Among providers, 93% say digital payments are faster, but only 4% say they reduce manual effort.¹ Payers report a similar gap: 88% say digital payments improved speed, but only 12% say they significantly reduced manual effort.

When providers have to work through slow, fragmented or unclear payment processes, they need more help resolving issues. That can drive more calls, disputes and appeals for payer teams. The friction may begin on the provider side, but the resulting administrative burden affects both payers and providers.

ZAPP Edge℠, the provider-facing experience layer of Zelis Advanced Payments Platform℠ (ZAPP), brings electronic payments, remittance data and financial insights into one provider experience. It connects providers to 485 payers, and 92% of the top 100 hospitals and health systems are enrolled.²

Zelis brings electronic payments, data and financial insights together across 485 payers, helping reduce fragmentation and the administrative burden that comes with it. Our provider roadmap is shaped directly by provider feedback and market research, with a focus on addressing the manual effort digital payments alone have not eliminated.

1. Zelis Provider Abrasion Study: Payment Integrity & Claims Processing Challenges (Commercial Payer Focus). Telephonic interviews with n=200 U.S. healthcare providers. February 11–16, 2026.
2. Zelis internal data. ZAPP Edge℠ payer connections and top-100 hospital and health system enrollment.

About Zelis

Zelis is modernizing the healthcare financial experience across payers, providers, and healthcare consumers. We serve more than 725 payers, including the top 5 national health plans, regional health plans, TPAs and millions of healthcare providers and consumers across our platform of solutions. Zelis sees across the system to identify, optimize, and solve problems holistically with technology built by healthcare experts – driving real, measurable results for clients. Learn more at Zelis.com and follow us on LinkedIn to get the latest news.