Bridging the Provider-Payer Divide: Leadership Lessons from Kenyokee Crowell, MBA

Introduction: Why Provider-Payer Collaboration Defines Healthcare Leadership in 2025

Healthcare executives are navigating a landscape shaped by consolidation, physician shortages, value-based care, and relentless disruption. Amidst this, one timeless imperative stands out: closing the gap between providers and payers for improved patient outcomes and organizational performance. The American Journal of Healthcare Strategy sat down with Kenyokee Crowell, MBA, CEO & Founder at Prodigy Advisors LLC and former SVP at major Pittsburgh health systems, to uncover how her experience leading both provider and payer teams informs a playbook for today’s leaders.

Why does this matter now? The lack of alignment between hospitals and insurers is cited by the American Hospital Association as a key barrier to value-based transformation, while a 2023 McKinsey report found that organizations with integrated leadership across the care continuum outperform peers on cost and quality. In this episode, Crowell reveals actionable approaches for breaking silos, earning physician trust as a non-clinician, and building resilient teams—lessons urgent for today’s SVPs, directors, and rising administrative fellows.

What Makes Dual-Side Healthcare Leadership So Valuable?

Having experience on both the provider and payer sides uniquely positions healthcare leaders to break down silos and drive integrated solutions. Crowell’s career exemplifies this dual fluency.

“Having the opportunity to work and learn both sides… that’s probably one of the most beneficial things that I’ve done in my career… it really gave me deeper insights and more robust insights into the problem solving, finding common ground, and really aligning different parties around common goals.”

Key benefits of cross-sector experience include:

• Broader fluency in healthcare “language” and culture.

• Ability to mediate misunderstandings and build common goals.

• Greater credibility and adaptability in executive roles.

• Enhanced capability to lead mergers, acquisitions, and physician integration.

For executives, intentionally seeking experience or partnerships across both domains is increasingly not just a differentiator, but a necessity.

How Do You Align Physicians Without Being a Clinician?

Non-clinician leaders can win physician trust and drive integration by centering patient care, actively listening, and creating true partnership. Crowell outlines the specific strategies she used leading physician integration at Cleveland Clinic and Highmark.

“Doctors want to be able to do what they do best, which is caring for patients… Typically, when I’ve seen a mismatch or conflict, it goes back to that principle—maybe we as non-clinical leaders are making that charge to care for patients more challenging.”

Practical steps for physician integration:

1. Prioritize continuity of care and partnership: The ultimate goal is “greater continuity of care for the patients that you are serving, which should improve outcomes and quality of care.”

2. Bring physicians into change conversations early: “We should bring them to the table and we should engage them in a meaningful way… Have we created a compelling value proposition and actually helped them understand how what we are trying to accomplish is actually a mutually beneficial thing?”

3. Accept conflict as a sign of honest engagement: “If everybody that you work with… is like ‘oh that’s fantastic, that’s great’—chances are you aren’t challenging the system enough or you’re not being honest with them about what the change and the impacts really are.”

Bottom line: For non-clinical leaders, credibility comes not from clinical credentials, but from how rigorously you center the patient and respect the physician’s mission.

Why Is Courageous Dialogue Crucial for Healthcare Leaders?

Avoidance of hard conversations breeds long-term dysfunction; courageous, regular engagement is a leadership imperative. Many organizations fail not from disagreement but from a lack of direct, honest dialogue.

“We have to do a better job at having difficult conversations in the right way and engaging in that courageous dialogue… If you’re only engaging with providers when there’s a problem, you can’t expect that they’re going to always receive that well.”

Best practices to foster courageous dialogue:

• Build political capital before crisis—invest in relationships when things are calm.

• Use regular touchpoints, not just crisis meetings, to engage clinicians.

• Cultivate professional, collegial tone, even during conflict.

• Don’t retreat into remote silos; “if you’re not willing to roll up your sleeves and get in it, it’s easier in the short term but going to cause huge problems in the long term.”

This aligns with research from the Harvard Business Review showing that organizations with a culture of open dialogue outperform peers on change management and innovation.

How Can Healthcare Leaders Build Customer-Centric Cultures, Even from the Payer Side?

Customer experience is not just for hospitals; payers and back-office functions also shape the patient journey. Crowell dispels the myth that payers are simply “gatekeepers,” explaining how all teams can develop customer obsession.

“Regardless of that, at the end of the line there is a patient or sometimes a customer that we are trying to impact… Insurance plans are not there to stop people from getting care; they are there to help facilitate people getting care and make sure it’s the appropriate care for the condition and it’s evidence-based.”

To build a customer-centric culture at all levels:

• Directly connect every function—even coding, finance, or insurance—to its impact on patients.

• Regularly shadow front-line teams to understand real-world challenges.

• Advocate internally for patient-centric process improvements, not just cost containment.

• Reinforce the “Amazon principle” of customer obsession: “Institutions that focus on customer experience as a science… all of their staff members having that seem to succeed.”

Leaders who operationalize customer-centricity—especially on the payer side—position their organizations for stronger partnerships and improved patient loyalty.

What Are the Top Three Tactics for Senior Leaders to Stay Connected with Their Teams?

Senior executives must deliberately avoid losing touch with the daily realities of their teams. Crowell shares three practical tactics:

1. Job Shadowing: “Whenever I’ve gone to a new job, I do job shadowing… sitting for 30 minutes and understanding what that role is, kind of interviewing that employee.”

2. Town Halls: “Quarterly meetings where I’m talking about my vision for the strategy of the organization, how we’re impacting the larger organization, and highlighting the good work that’s going on.”

3. Coffee Chats: “Small groups—most of these are done virtually—open dialogue, they can ask me anything they want, share concerns, very informal setting to connect with the people you are leading.”

Direct answer: These methods not only build morale but also inform executive decisions, as executives gain an unfiltered view of strengths and pain points on the ground.

“As a senior leader, the worst mistake you can make… is to get too far away from understanding and appreciating the work that is happening on a daily basis to drive the organization forward.”

This is corroborated by Gallup research showing that employees with regular executive interaction report higher engagement and retention.

How Can Executives Sell “Soft” Investments Like Customer Experience to Finance-Focused Senior Leadership?

Convincing skeptical CFOs and boards to invest in customer experience requires storytelling, strategic alignment, and understanding how work gets done.

“Every organization is a little bit different and you have to understand how work gets done in an organization… How do the new strategies you are trying to employ align with the organizational goals? That’s the story you need to tell.”

Step-by-step for selling “soft” initiatives:

1. Map out how the investment ties to enterprise-level priorities.

2. Identify and cultivate key stakeholders before formal presentations.

3. Develop narratives linking customer experience to financial and operational KPIs.

4. Collect frontline anecdotes and data from your engagement tactics (shadowing, coffee chats, etc.) to strengthen your case.

This mirrors playbooks recommended by both the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and leading consulting firms: successful change is both top-down (strategy) and bottom-up (storytelling).

How Do You Sustain Focus and Resilience Through Seismic Industry Change?

Adaptability and focus on controllable actions are crucial for healthcare leaders managing turbulence—from COVID to political upheaval.

“You have to be adaptable… You cannot control [external factors] but what you can control is your reaction… and the path you take to achieve your goal.”

Crowell’s practical advice:

• Focus on “the Triumph of the human spirit”—recognize that “the bigger the problem, people tend to come together.”

• Keep your “eye on the prize” while remaining flexible on tactics.

• Accept that you can’t predict or control external dynamics, but you can control your response and leadership choices.

Direct answer: Leaders who stay adaptable and intentionally build teams for resilience not only weather change—they set the tone for organizational stability and innovation.

Takeaway: Leadership Is Bridging, Listening, and Acting for the Patient

The U.S. healthcare system’s complexity is both its greatest challenge and its richest opportunity. The leaders who bridge provider and payer, clinical and non-clinical, and strategy and execution are those who will drive real transformation.

As Kenyokee Crowell, MBA, CEO & Founder at Prodigy Advisors LLC, models: the best executives never move too far from the front lines, always keep the patient at the center, and continually adapt to what the moment demands. Whether you’re leading a team of ten or ten thousand, commit to courageous dialogue, relentless customer focus, and authentic partnership with clinicians—and you’ll build an organization that thrives through disruption.