4 Insights Payers and Providers Should Know About Modern Health Tech

In the evolving landscape of healthcare, modern technology holds incredible promise. Today, it’s driving advances in diagnostics, improving cost efficiency, and transforming administrative processes. The potential to enhance patient outcomes, reduce waste, and create a more connected, efficient healthcare system continues to grow, pointing to a future that’s smarter and more sustainable.

Unfortunately, the promise of technology is often overshadowed by the realities of budget constraints, complex and lengthy implementations, and organizational nuance. The healthcare ecosystem is vast, intricate, and heavily regulated, making it difficult for even the most advanced innovations to gain traction. Between legacy systems, siloed data, and cumbersome administrative processes, the path to modernization can feel less like a transformation and more like navigating a maze.

The challenge isn’t in recognizing why technological innovation is needed, but in knowing how to apply it effectively. Too often, investments in new tools focus on surface-level upgrades or short-term fixes rather than the deeper structural improvements that drive lasting impact. That’s why we’ve outlined four key insights every payer and provider should understand about modern health technology, and how it can truly shape the future of healthcare.

Insight #1: Technology is a Key Solution to Rising Costs

Healthcare costs have been climbing rapidly for decades, consistently outpacing inflation. Since 2000, the Consumer Price Index has risen by roughly 50%, while healthcare spending has more than doubled. As costs continue to grow, payers and healthcare systems are seeking solutions that can genuinely slow the trend.

Modern health technology presents a powerful opportunity to address this challenge. By automating and streamlining administrative tasks, technology reduces staff burden, minimizes errors, and drives efficiency. Estimates suggest that automation alone could save the healthcare system as much as $122 billion annually.

While cost-saving opportunities exist in other areas, implementing modern administrative technology offers some of the greatest potential to reduce expenses. By optimizing workflows and creating more efficient systems, healthcare organizations can save billions of dollars while improving operations across the board.

Insight #2: Barriers to Adoption Loom Large

While it’s clear that most health plans and healthcare systems stand to gain from adopting modern technology, several barriers continue to slow progress. These challenges (though not insurmountable) often cause organizations to hesitate or delay implementation.

The most significant obstacle is cost. Acquiring, integrating, and maintaining new technology requires substantial investment, which can be difficult for organizations already grappling with rising expenses. When budgets are tight and operating costs continue to climb faster than in other industries, the idea of spending more, even for likely long-term savings, can feel counterintuitive. While modern solutions typically deliver financial and operational benefits over time, the initial implementation phase can be costly, adding short-term pressure to a system that is already under significant strain.

Beyond cost, tech modernization introduces additional complexities. Many organizations rely on deeply embedded processes that are difficult to change. Restructuring or completely redoing these systems is a process in and of itself. At the same time, healthcare’s stringent regulatory environment adds another layer of challenge. Ensuring compliance with standards like HIPAA demands careful planning, adequate resources, and a thoughtful approach to integrating new systems without disrupting care.

Insight #3: Resistance Isn’t Necessarily a Bad Thing

Healthcare organizations often report internal resistance to change as a significant barrier to adopting new technology. Many assume their teams are too attached to established workflows or lack the digital fluency to navigate modern systems. While this resistance can slow down or even stop implementation, resistance isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The reality is that the healthcare workforce is highly skilled—and essential. Even as technology becomes more advanced, it still can’t replicate human reasoning or clinical judgment. Doctors are needed to make nuanced treatment decisions, nurses to provide compassionate care, and administrators to manage the systems that technology helps streamline.

In short, the healthcare system depends on both technology and people. It would falter without innovation, but it would also fail to deliver the necessary standard of care without the educated, capable professionals who make that innovation work. Resistance to new technology shouldn’t be seen purely as an obstacle, but as part of the necessary balance that ensures the right blend of human expertise and technological efficiency.

Insight #4: Administrative Infrastructure Supersedes Even the Coolest New Devices

The past decade has ushered in remarkable innovations in health tech. From AI-powered diagnostic tools that are transforming clinical decision making to advanced imaging analysis tools helping public health leaders monitor disease patterns and allocate resources, the pace of progress is extraordinary. Like many across the industry, we’re energized by how these breakthroughs are reshaping patient care.

Yet, despite these headline-grabbing innovations, many experts agree that the most transformative technologies aren’t always the ones that everyone is talking about. The real impact often comes from solutions that simplify operations and reduce friction. With administrative demands growing more burdensome each year, the technologies that streamline workflows and eliminate inefficiencies are the ones truly moving the healthcare system forward.

The Health Tech to Power the Future

As health tech continues to evolve, we are embracing technology not as a shiny add-on, but as a foundation for smarter, more connected care. A true modern tech stack includes an investment in systems that remove friction, empower clinicians, and create efficiency at scale.

It’s about using technology to do what it does best—simplify complexity—so that people can do what they do best: deliver exceptional care. That’s why we built the CertifyOS platform to address one of the most pressing administrative pain points, provider data management, in a way that’s both tech-forward and seamless.

In the next few years, we predict that healthcare won’t be defined solely by innovation itself, but by how well we integrate it into the system as a whole to improve outcomes, lower costs, and enhance the system's effectiveness for everyone. From there, systems and payers have the opportunity to build an infrastructure that is both tech-forward and innovative, one that will lead them into the future of healthcare.