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Payors

Why Health Plans Need Better Provider Intelligence

Dan Carr
July 8, 2026

Health plans are under growing pressure to build stronger networks, improve member access, reduce avoidable out-of-network utilization, and make smarter decisions about which providers belong in their network. But many payors are still relying on fragmented claims reports, static provider directories, and disconnected internal systems to guide some of their most important network strategy decisions.

That is where Doctivity Health can help.

Doctivity gives health plans a clearer view of what is actually happening in the market: where members are receiving care, which providers are driving volume, which organizations are influencing care patterns, and where network opportunities or gaps may exist. By combining claims intelligence, provider data, market analytics, and purpose-built provider relationship management, Doctivity helps health plans move from network administration to network strategy.

Seeing Beyond the Provider Directory

A provider directory can tell a health plan who is listed in the network. It does not always tell the plan which providers are most productive, which providers are performing specific procedures, which diagnoses they are managing, or where members are actually going for care.

Doctivity helps health plans answer deeper, more strategic questions:

Which providers are driving meaningful volume in a market?

Where are members seeking care outside of preferred channels?

Which specialties may be underrepresented in a specific geography?

Which providers should be prioritized for recruitment or contracting?

Where can stronger provider relationships support better steerage?

For health plans, this type of intelligence can be critical. A strong network is not simply a large network. It is a network that is aligned with member needs, market demand, access goals, and long-term growth strategy.

Supporting Smarter Network Steerage

Network steerage depends on visibility. Health plans need to understand where care is happening, which providers are influencing patient movement, and where members may be leaving the preferred network for services that could potentially be retained.

Doctivity helps identify patterns in patient and provider behavior that can support more informed steerage strategies. By analyzing market activity, referral patterns, provider productivity, and service-line trends, health plans can better understand where network leakage may be occurring and where stronger alignment may be needed.

This can be especially valuable for health plans with owned, affiliated, or preferred provider networks. When a payor is connected to a health system, medical group, or clinically integrated network, Doctivity can help show where owned or preferred assets may be underutilized and where opportunities exist to strengthen network performance.

Procedure-Level and Diagnosis-Level Insight

Not all provider activity is the same. For health plans, understanding activity at the procedure and diagnosis level can provide a much more practical view of network performance.

Doctivity helps health plans evaluate provider activity with greater specificity, including procedure-level and diagnosis-level visibility. This can help payors better understand which providers are active in high-priority service lines, which physicians are managing specific patient populations, and where market demand may point to access gaps or recruitment opportunities.

This level of detail can support a wide range of health plan priorities, including:

  • Network adequacy planning
  • Provider recruitment
  • Contracting strategy
  • Service-line analysis
  • Member access improvement
  • Population health strategy
  • Value-based care alignment

Instead of only knowing whether a provider is in the network, health plans can better understand how that provider is actually contributing to care delivery in the market.

Recruiting the Right Providers Into the Network

Health plans do not just need more providers. They need the right providers.

Doctivity can help health plans identify productive, strategically relevant providers who may strengthen the network. By analyzing provider activity, geography, specialty, procedure volume, diagnosis patterns, and market behavior, health plans can better prioritize which providers should be targeted for recruitment, contracting, or deeper engagement.

This allows network development teams to focus their time and resources on providers who can make a measurable difference.

For example, a health plan may want to know:

Which cardiologists are seeing the most relevant patient volume in a target market?

Which orthopedic providers are performing high-demand procedures?

Where are members traveling for care that could be delivered closer to home?

Which specialties need greater network depth in a specific region?

Which provider groups could help strengthen access or reduce out-of-network utilization?

Doctivity helps bring those answers into focus.

Giving Provider Relations Teams Better Direction

Provider relations and network development teams are often asked to manage complex relationships across large markets. Without the right intelligence, outreach can become reactive, manual, or difficult to prioritize.

Doctivity’s Physician Relationship Management platform helps teams organize provider outreach, track activity, manage relationships, and connect engagement efforts to market opportunity. For health plans, this means provider relations teams can better understand who to engage, why that provider matters, and what strategic opportunity may exist.

This is especially valuable for organizations where network strategy, contracting, provider relations, and market growth teams need to work from a shared view of provider activity and opportunity.

Turning Market Data Into Executive-Ready Strategy

Health plan leaders need clear, actionable insights that can support decisions across network strategy, growth, operations, contracting, and member access. Doctivity helps translate complex provider and claims intelligence into executive-ready reporting that can be used across leadership teams.

Rather than relying on multiple disconnected reports, health plans can use Doctivity to create a more unified view of market opportunity, provider productivity, patient movement, and network performance.

A Smarter Way to Build and Manage Networks

Health plans are operating in an increasingly competitive and data-driven environment. Network strategy cannot rely solely on static directories, legacy reporting, or assumptions about provider productivity.

Doctivity gives health plans the intelligence needed to see where care is happening, where members are going, which providers are most productive, and where stronger network alignment may be possible.

For health plans focused on network steerage, provider recruitment, procedure and diagnosis intelligence, and provider relationship management, Doctivity offers a smarter way to understand the market and strengthen the network.

Because the future of network strategy is not just about having more data.

It is about knowing what to do with it.

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