Aetna has spent the past several years investing in efforts to narrow trust gaps between payers and providers. The insurer points to a strategic pivot in mid-2024 that set goals including creating a “frictionless experience” for providers. That change in direction, Aetna leaders say, reframed how the company approaches relationships with clinicians and health systems.
A Morning Consult survey of 723 provider executives, conducted on Aetna’s behalf, found an average provider trust score of 6.1 on a 1–10 scale. A similar poll earlier in the year recorded a 5.4 score, suggesting movement in the direction Aetna is aiming for. In the more recent survey, 38% of providers gave health plans a score of eight or higher.
Katerina Guerraz, chief operating officer for Aetna, told Fierce Healthcare that the pivot meant the company needed to “work differently with providers” and that reducing friction in day-to-day operations became a central objective.
Providers consistently point to administrative tasks as their top operational challenge. In the survey, 58% of respondents said submitting prior authorization requests posed a significant burden, 42% identified re-entering patient information as a major pain point, and 41% singled out submitting claims.
Aetna says it has leaned on technology to tackle these problems. New solutions implemented by the insurer have led many providers to expect tangible time savings: more than 30% of respondents anticipate saving over an hour, and 80% expect at least 30 minutes saved on administrative work.
Guerraz described a practical sequencing to Aetna’s approach. Starting with day-to-day administrative hassles helped the company build credibility with providers. With that trust in place, Aetna said it could collaborate on more complex operational changes, such as bundling multiple prior authorizations that may arise along a single patient’s care path. The insurer also reports inviting providers into discussions about new prior authorization standards and even engaging them during contracting talks to explore ways to streamline claims management.
Beyond paperwork and workflows, the survey identified technology challenges as a major obstacle. Sixty-eight percent of providers told Aetna that interoperability and data integrity are the biggest technology challenges they face. Nearly 29% of those surveyed named real-time patient data as the most important action an insurer could take to support clinical work.
Respondents also estimated time savings tied to better data access. Close to half (47%) said having access to real-time patient data would save them at least 10 minutes per appointment.
Guerraz framed interoperability as a central industry issue. She said she views it as “the single thing that will transform the healthcare industry faster than anything else.” Aetna’s approach, according to Guerraz, is twofold: build standards and then work with individual providers to determine specific needs and implementation paths.
The insurer also cautioned that providers must invest resources to close data gaps. While Aetna is building standards and tools, the company says successful interoperability efforts will require investment and participation from provider organizations as well.
Aetna told Fierce Healthcare that it is convening leaders from major hospitals and health systems in forums designed to advance dialogue on where improvements are needed. These convenings are intended to surface priorities and practical fixes that can be tested and scaled.
The insurer’s strategy emphasizes collaboration at multiple levels: product and technology development, contracting negotiations, and operational workstreams that target everyday burdens for clinicians and staff. The company frames these activities as steps toward a more productive payer–provider relationship rather than one-off technical fixes.
Aetna’s stated objective is to have these operational and technological improvements be reflected in the patient experience. Guerraz said that improving the provider experience should, in turn, improve the patient experience.
Specific patient-facing outcomes were not reported in the source material. The available data in the survey focus on provider perceptions of trust, time savings on administrative tasks, and attitudes about interoperability and real-time data.
The source did not provide detailed descriptions of the specific technologies, vendors, or technical standards Aetna is deploying, nor did it report concrete, measured changes in clinical outcomes or patient satisfaction tied to the initiatives. The polling results reflect provider expectations of time savings rather than independently validated time-and-motion data.
Aetna’s next steps, as presented in the interview, center on continuing to set standards for data exchange and prior authorization, engaging providers and health system leaders directly, and encouraging shared investment where interoperability gaps exist. The insurer points to those combined efforts as the path to making improvements visible in clinicians’ workflows and ultimately in patient care.
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