Trek Health's Founder and CEO, Dilpreet Sahota, was recently featured on HIMSS TV's Digital Checkup to discuss one of the most persistent pain points in healthcare finance: payer negotiations.
Here's a breakdown of the key topics he covered.
The core stack: three non-negotiables
Dilpreet outlined three foundational components of an effective payer negotiation tech stack:
- Contract Management Software: A centralized system for tracking contract terms, timelines, and renewal windows. Without it, providers are perpetually reactive.
- Transparency in Coverage (TiC) Data: Federal price transparency mandates have unlocked something genuinely powerful: the ability to benchmark against specific market competitors rather than opaque national averages. Providers can now see what payers are actually paying peers across the street, as opposed to just a broad national range.
- Contract Modeling: The ability to run scenarios. What happens to revenue if reimbursement schedules shift? How does a change in billing methodology ripple across service lines? Contract modeling turns negotiations from a static exercise into a dynamic strategy session.
The challenges haven't gone away, they've just evolved
The opacity of the provider-payer relationship remains the central friction point. Providers historically lacked the market-level context to push back effectively. TiC data has addressed part of that gap, but new complexity has emerged: contract language is increasingly convoluted, and implementation timelines are often insufficient for providers to prepare operationally. Meaningful runway between a contract change announcement and its effective date is now necessary with the degree of complexity.
AI has a role — but trust needs to be earned
Dilpreet spoke candidly about the role of AI in contract intelligence. Running payer metadata and complex contract terms through AI models can surface structured insights in seconds that would otherwise take analysts hours to parse. But provider hesitancy around AI is real and legitimate. His framing was measured: use AI, but trust and validate. Security architectures are maturing, and the path forward is thoughtful adoption, striking the balance of adoption without blind trust.
Our takeaways
The providers winning at the negotiating table aren't the ones with the largest legal teams, they're the ones with the best data infrastructure. A well-built payer negotiation tech stack doesn't just support negotiations; it changes the power dynamic entirely.
Watch Dilpreet's full interview on HIMSS TV's Digital Checkup here.
