Why Digital Health’s Growth Problem Isn’t Product – It’s Distribution

“Digital health doesn’t have a product problem. It has a distribution crisis.”

If you’ve built a digital health solution that drives clinical outcomes, engagement, and retention – congratulations. You’ve already done what many can’t. But if you’re still struggling to move beyond pilot programs or limited regional contracts, the issue isn’t your product. It’s your path to market.

The Product Myth

For years, digital health companies have assumed that a clinically sound product would sell itself. Prove outcomes. Publish studies. Build a strong user experience. Then scale.

But that formula doesn’t work anymore.

Health plans and employers are inundated with point solutions claiming evidence, outcomes, and engagement. The bottleneck isn’t efficacy – it’s access. Breaking into payer networks and employer benefit ecosystems has become the hardest step in digital health growth.

A single solution, no matter how powerful, can’t easily clear the hurdles of contracting, integration, and reimbursement. Every payer has its own data requirements, performance guarantees, and billing standards. Every employer faces administrative fatigue managing dozens of vendors. The result? Even the best products stall before they reach meaningful scale.

Distribution as the Growth Lever

Distribution is now the defining factor between companies that grow and those that plateau.

Think of it this way: in pharmaceuticals, distribution determines whether a drug reaches the shelf. In digital health, it determines whether your solution reaches covered lives. Without payer integration, a great product remains a niche offering – limited by bandwidth, budget, and bureaucracy.

Scaling in today’s environment requires access to existing networks – the connective tissue between your solution and the populations who can benefit from it.

How Networks Solve the Distribution Crisis

That’s where aggregation models change the game. Networks like Solera’s make it possible for digital health companies to bypass the traditional one-by-one contracting grind and plug directly into payer and employer ecosystems.

Through Solera’s platform, proven programs are distributed across national health plans and employer groups – with unified contracting, claims integration, and performance measurement built in.

By partnering through a network, digital health providers can:

• Accelerate market access without reinventing payer contracting each time.

• Gain visibility with leading payers and employers actively seeking solutions.

• Leverage shared infrastructure for billing, reporting, and data transparency.

• Scale proven outcomes faster – without expanding internal sales or operations teams.

The Path Forward

The next wave of digital health success won’t be defined by who has the best product – but by who can reach the most people, most efficiently. Distribution determines scale. And in a market this crowded, access is everything.

Solera’s network was built to help digital health innovators reach their full potential. Because when your solution gets the distribution it deserves, the impact multiplies – for your business, your partners, and every member you serve.

Download our latest our playbook for benefits leaders today and uncover how you can “Build a Digital Health Network Without the Chaos.”

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