After 20 years, one thing stands out. It’s all about multi-payer collaboration.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, we’re looking back and looking ahead. While it’s fun to reminisce, we look back not for nostalgia but to identify the factors that made us successful and to build upon that success.

One factor is easy to identify: the value of multi-payer collaboration. Because multi-payer collaboration is an everyday occurrence in our business today, it’s easy to lose sight of why it’s such a big deal. Back in 2001, most in our market never considered it until two different health plans determined that the best way to help the healthcare industry transition from paper claims to electronic transactions was to work together. They decided to provide a single provider channel and thereby reduce confusion, cost, and complexity. At that time, when organizations vastly preferred to build their proprietary tools, the decision to collaborate was a bit of a leap of faith. Still, these two plans could envision the value of a multi-payer solution when others could not, and so Availity was born.

Fast forward to today, and Availity serves nearly every health plan in America through a common platform that connects, delights, and empowers the nation’s healthcare ecosystem. Together, we help drive administrative waste out of healthcare and improve the experience for providers, enabling them to deliver optimal care to patients.

Has it always been easy? Of course not. It’s challenging to get consensus on a new idea or disruptive strategy in one organization alone. So, it’s even more challenging to gain agreement when there are multiple organizations, competitors even, each with their unique processes and stakeholders. But these different businesses had the special ingredient necessary for success: a commitment to making it work. They had so much determination to make it work that even today, the top minds from these competitors regularly come together with Availity to discuss digital engagement strategies that will improve the experience for their providers and care delivery for their members. That’s one of the secrets to our success—talented people from different organizations coming together to make healthcare better.

As we look to the future—digital innovation, AI, clinical interoperability, and more—the multi-payer approach continues to drive value. We see tremendous growth as more health plans recognize they don’t want to go it alone, and not just for processing claims, but for authorizations, clinical, dental, and more. Like all these health plans and providers, we remain committed to making it work and improving healthcare for all. So, let’s celebrate the success of our first 20 years as we plan for the next horizon together.