Reports

The REAL Health Providers Act Is a Preview of Network's Next Decade

A public grade is coming for provider directories. Here's what it reveals about the next decade of network management.

Key Takeaways

  1. Directory accuracy is about to go public. Starting in 2029, every Medicare Advantage plan's directory accuracy will be published as a consumer-facing score, and network quality becomes visible at the moment someone enrolls.
  2. The ecosystem isn't built for this pace yet. Only 18–33% of hospital directory updates actually flow through to the directories members search, and the industry's default verification method (the phone call) breaks down past five or so clinicians per office.
  3. The old compliance playbook won't survive tighter margins. Adding a new vendor for every new requirement worked when margins were forgiving. In today's environment, the network teams pulling ahead are consolidating vendors and automating verification instead.

Download the eBook to find out what a public accuracy score means for your network!

Latest Posts

Reports
A look at what the REAL Health Providers Act, the first national law to grade provider directory accuracy, reveals about the operational, regulatory, and budget pressures shaping network management for the next decade.
Blog
Provider directories are implicitly built around two different users, the New Patient seeking first access to care and the Existing Patient checking network status, and regulations like the REAL Act rarely state which one they're actually serving.
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Testing four hypotheses for why hospital roster removals propagate to payer directories nearly twice as often as additions, J2 Health found credentialing lag, availability filtering, cost steerage, and network sculpting each explain only a small piece of the "hidden network" puzzle.
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