9 Missteps Digital Health Startups Make When Approaching Payers and Health Systems
It's not always the strongest solutions that make it through the door, stay in, and grow with payers and health systems. After years inside these organizations — at the forefront of conversations that happen behind closed doors — here are nine missteps we've seen solid digital health companies make.
"Is this really going to yield savings?"
"They keep telling us they're delivering. Not buying it."
"We'll only use them if we can acquire them in two years."
These are the conversations happening inside payers and health systems. I sat in that seat — hearing these comments, at times making them and spending political capital to push some companies through while others stalled. What I noticed: it's not always the strongest solutions that make it through the door and stay in.
Here are the nine missteps I saw solid digital health companies make. To dive deeper into this and get tips on how to avoid these missteps, download the full guide.
1. Relying too heavily on C-suite influence: Executive buy-in gets you attention. Ground-level resistance is quiet, and powerful.
2. Finding believers but not champions: The person who makes you feel great may not get you to the finish line. A champion risks professional capital on you.
3. Assuming shared urgency: Belief in your product does not mean urgency. Many great products end up in the "when we get around to it" bucket.
4. Neglecting the second sale: The person you pitch has to turn around and sell you to numerous other people. Make their internal job easier.
5. Underestimating the forces that keep incumbents in place: Your gains must exceed not just what the incumbent offers, but the full cost of the switch.
6. Pitching without a clear path to readiness: Full readiness isn't a prerequisite to pitch. Knowing your gaps, and having a credible plan to close them, is.
7. Forgetting the organization is the co-author of your success: Their customers, workflows, and credibility drive your results. Pitch the combined value story.
8. Fumbling the ROI question: Align your ROI story to your product's maturity, your customer's expectations, and what you can credibly claim today.
9. Treating the human story as the opening or closing act instead of the through line: Patient stories aren't icing on the cake. The human story should be evident in everything you pitch.
In the end, it comes down to trust. Those who treat partnership as a day-one strategy position themselves best to get through the door — and grow together.
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