The Efficiency Blueprint: Using Automation to Drive Better Provider Network Management Outcomes

Two things can be true at the same time.

Provider operations have never been more critical to healthcare delivery.

Provider operations have never been more broken.

Teams are growing, networks are expanding and patient (and provider) expectations are rising. But the systems and workflows that support provider onboarding, credentialing and enrollment haven’t kept up.

As a result, outdated manual workflows continue to create bottlenecks for many healthcare organizations, creating friction, contributing to burnout and compliance risk—and millions in lost revenue.

Across the board, teams are forced to juggle:

The current state of provider operations

Friction, manual work and lost revenue

Provider operations are the backbone of healthcare, but outdated, manual workflows create operational drag at every level. 

The challenge isn’t just inefficiency—it’s scalability. 

The latest Medallion survey on the state of credentialing and payer enrollment finds out what’s broken and what’s possible—for example, one takeaway is clear: automation is no longer optional—it’s essential.

The top pain points today:

Disjointed systems and siloed data

Critical information is scattered across multiple spreadsheets, emails, and legacy platforms, leading to miscommunication and delays.

Manual verification processes

Credentialing and payer enrollment require time-consuming back-and-forth with providers, payers, and licensing boards, significantly slowing down provider readiness.

Lack of real-time visibility

Organizations struggle to track provider statuses, renewal deadlines, and enrollment progress, increasing the risk of compliance violations and revenue loss.

More healthcare organizations are reaching a tipping point—and beginning to rewire provider operations processes for a better way forward.

• They’re redesigning workflows with automation in mind.
• They’re embedding governance into every step.
• They’re gaining real-time visibility that helps mitigate risk and accelerate revenue.

As a result, they’re creating smarter systems. Less administrative burden. And operational models built to scale. The healthcare organizations that adopt automation see real, measurable impact:

The use of automation continues to build momentum: More than 45% say that their organization uses automation in their business functions. Organizations are starting to reshape their workflows as they deploy automation.

In healthcare, where revenue depends on timely enrollment and accurate credentialing, automation isn’t about convenience—it’s about survival.

In fact, operations roles and career paths are evolving—72% of respondents in a similar survey from Medallion say they spend less time on routine tasks, indicating the changing nature of credentialing or payer enrollment roles in organizations.

The blueprint for payer enrollment efficiency

Today’s experience:

Fragmented data, missing docs, and long delays

Without automation to power provider directory management, teams juggle disparate spreadsheets, missing documentation, and manual payer follow-ups.

As a result, this leads to months-long delays, increased administrative burden, and lost revenue due to providers unable to bill for services.

Equally as painful, onboarding gets delayed for weeks—or, in many cases, months. Medallion’s survey found that enrollment delays can cost organizations $250,000 to $1M per provider annually.

Multiply that across a network and the financial impact is staggering.

What's possible:

Modern provider operations: Clean data, faster apps, real-time data sync

With Medallion, payer enrollment workflows are streamlined through real-time data syncing and AI-powered automation. Its smart system handles the complexity of data and task orchestration—adapting to the unique rules of each payer, state, profession, and organization.

It tracks expirations, closed panels, delayed agencies, and missed emails, eliminating the need for spreadsheets and manual follow-ups.