Aetna provider survey reveals increased payer trust and tangible benefits of digital tools to improve patient outcomes

About this update from Cvs Health Corporation

HARTFORD, CT, July 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Aetna®, a CVS Health® company (NYSE: CVS) today announced findings from the second Aetna Provider Survey . The Aetna Provider Survey is a quarterly study that polls the U.S. provider market to better understand their perceptions on payers and the industry, today and into the future. This survey series is intended to solicit timely, objective feedback from the U.S. provider market so we can identify opportunities to change the provider-payer dynamic and deepen trust over time. The study revealed the average provider-payer trust score on a scale from 1-10 is now 6.1, up from 5.4 in the first quarter (Q1) , with 38% of providers ranking payers 8 or higher. Providers are also recognizing that payers are making strides in several areas: "Trust is a foundational element of health care today. To truly transform the system, we need to continue to deepen the provider-payer relationship," said Steve Nelson, Executive Vice President and President of Aetna, "At Aetna, we've invested significant time and resources to listen to our provider partners and take actions accordingly. I'm encouraged to see that these efforts are being acknowledged and, while there is more work ahead, we are heading in the right direction today and into the future." Reducing administrative burden to unlock more time for patient care Providers continue to rank administrative burden as their top challenge, pointing overwhelmingly to managing patient records or prior authorization as the single biggest contributor — together, 84% of responses. They identified submitting prior authorization requests  (58%), re-entering patient information (42%) and submitting claims  (41%) as key pain points that can be unlocked by technology.  By rolling out technology enabled solutions, providers saw meaningful time savings for clinicians that can be redirected to patient care. More than 30% of respondents expect to save more than an hour and 80% expect to save more than 30 minutes daily.  Improving interoperability to help improve patient care The majority (68%) of providers cited interoperability and data integrity as their top technology challenge, with almost a third (29%) stating that providing real time patient data is the most important action payers can take to help their clinical teams. In fact, almost half of respondents (47%) believe that having this data could save more than 10 minutes per appointment.

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