This post was written by Kalyn Gigot, SVP of Customer Success at Redox, as part of our monthly “Connections” series.
A few weeks ago, I sat across the table from a longtime health system partner who said something that’s stuck with me: “We used to bet on transformation. Now we’re betting on survival.”
As someone who’s spent the last decade helping health tech vendors navigate health system, hospital, and provider IT environments (collectively referred to as “provider IT”), I’ve never seen a moment quite like this one. The playbooks that used to guide digital health partnerships (selling top-down, planning for long timelines, building around future-state innovation) are no longer enough.
Today’s provider IT leaders are in triage mode. Capital is tight. Priorities are shifting. And what used to be a greenfield opportunity now comes with a demand for clear value, fast.
We’ve learned over the past decade that tech integration timelines are often shaped more by healthcare organization realities than by technical hurdles. That’s why it is important to prioritize meeting these organizations where they are and reducing the lift on their teams. To do our part here at Redox, we help our partners deliver value faster, even in the complex and resource-constrained healthcare environment.
Strategies to break through provider IT budget barriers
Based on our work with hundreds of vendor partners across more than 14,000 live integrations, these are the strategies we’ve seen that resonate in today’s market:
1. Be a cost-avoidance ally
It’s not about shiny features. It’s about what costs you help avoid or reduce. Can your solution replace legacy tools, reduce manual work, or mitigate cybersecurity risk? Help IT leaders actually demonstrate reduced TCO (total cost of ownership) and be a hero in their organization.
Pro tip: Speak to what helps IT say “yes” to the C-suite. Cybersecurity, compliance, and minimal disruption of existing IT priorities top the list.
2. Understand the internal decision-making process
IT teams are no longer calling the shots alone. Most decisions now go through cross-functional committees like clinical, financial, and operational teams. Equip your internal champions with the clear business case and outcomes they need to get through those gates.
Source: Becker’s Health IT, “How CIOs Are Reshaping IT Governance in 2025”, April 2025
3. Bring proof of interoperability
Don’t just claim integration: prove it. Real-world references from peer organizations, EHR-specific implementation plans, and TEFCA/FHIR credentials all build confidence.
4. Build trust through transparency
Black-box solutions are out. CIOs need clarity on pricing, timelines, impact, and what happens if things go wrong. If you can’t show your math, someone else will.
5. Offer managed services and support
Technical teams are often short-staffed. Solutions that come with implementation, integration, and ongoing support are a win. Managed service models are accelerating, especially with mid-sized health systems.
Source: Chilmark Research, Q2 2025: 62% of provider CIOs plan to increase outsourcing of IT ops tasks this year.
The backdrop: why it’s so hard right now
In brief….Provider IT teams are facing category 5 level economic and political headwinds.
Margins remain tight: over 50% of hospitals reported flat or negative operating margins for three consecutive quarters (Kaufman Hall, June 2025). Capital budgets have shrunk, delaying IT refresh cycles and stalling even essential projects. Reimbursement pressures from Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial payers are compounding the pain, especially for safety-net and rural systems.
System consolidation may offer long-term efficiencies, but it often requires EHR transitions that take years, not months. That leaves IT teams under pressure to rationalize vendor portfolios and deliver value fast.
Meanwhile, new federal regulations, from the Health Data Interoperability Rule 3.0 to cybersecurity mandates, are shifting budgets toward compliance and risk management, making it even harder for vendors to get on the roadmap without aligning to those priorities.
Final thoughts
In 2025, being “future-ready” doesn’t mean chasing transformation. It means sustaining operations with less. Survival mode is the new reality for provider IT teams and for vendors who partner with them.
The vendors who get to ‘Yes’ aren’t just selling solutions or shiny objects; they’re co-solving amongst real constraints.
Let’s meet this moment together, with a genuine understanding of what provider IT teams are up against. Let’s support them with urgency, transparency, and proof of impact.