The Mindshare Institute and Smart Health Network Announce Health Care Utility Governance Collaboration as Delaware Puts the Network to Work

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah—July 8, 2026—Today, the Mindshare Institute℠ and Smart Health Network announced a governance collaboration that establishes Smart Health as a Health Care Utility℠—a neutral, shared infrastructure governed in the interest of those who depend on it, rather than operated as a proprietary commercial platform. This follows an announcement from the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) and the Delaware Health Care Commission presenting a Rural Health Transformation Program initiative, built on the Smart Health Network, to support real-time insurance verification and prior authorization across the state.

Smart Health Network is operated by Smart Health Network PBC, a mission-locked public benefit corporation. The network operates as a neutral hub that moves prior authorization, eligibility, coverage verification, and claims transactions between payers, providers, and patients on open standards (HL7, FHIR, and X12)—replacing thousands of fragmented, point-to-point integrations with a single trusted connection point. Delaware is the network’s first statewide deployment: its testing sandbox opened July 1, 2026, and Delaware will host a statewide Connectathon (https://www.smarthealthnetwork.org/connectathon) at the University of Delaware on July 13, 2026, as the network moves toward production operation later this year.

“Technology should make healthcare easier to navigate, not more complicated,” said DHSS Secretary Christen Linke Young. “This initiative will help clinicians spend less time managing paperwork and more time caring for patients.”

“As a physician, I have watched prior authorization consume time that belongs to patients,” said Dr. Neil Hockstein, Chair of the Delaware Health Care Commission, in Monday’s Delaware announcement. “The promise here is simple: cut the paperwork, not the care. A neutral hub that every payer and provider can join once—and that patients can actually see into—is the change the frontlines have been waiting for.”

Working together through the network’s design, Mindshare and Smart Health focused on the question that determines whether shared infrastructure stays trustworthy: who governs it, and for whom. The resulting model deliberately separates powers across distinct, mission-aligned bodies. Smart Health Network PBC operates the network but does not govern it: network rules—including any change to fees—are set and enforced by a governance council drawn from the stakeholders who depend on the network. A separate data trust serves as fiduciary for patients: it protects individual rights and consent, and ensures that patients can see who asked about their information, when, and why. The separation is the point—no single stakeholder, including Smart Health itself, controls the utility that all parties depend on, and patients hold a structural voice, not a symbolic one.

“This collaboration is about more than modernizing prior authorization—it marks the emerging Health Care Utility℠ genre in American healthcare,” said Tomás Valdivia, managing partner and director of the Mindshare Institute℠. “Healthcare is increasingly dependent on data, yet the systems that support it remain fragmented and misaligned. Smart Health shows what becomes possible when infrastructure is built to serve every stakeholder—and governed so it stays that way.”

“One of the most important aspects of this work is establishing governance that is both disciplined and inclusive,” said Paul Meyer, chief executive officer of Smart Health Network. “Working alongside Mindshare, we built a model where every stakeholder—including patients—has a clear voice in decision-making while remaining aligned around a shared purpose. That balance is what creates infrastructure that organizations trust, adopt, and sustain.”

This collaboration furthers the Mindshare Institute’s broader mission to Solve Market Failures that are Hurting People℠ by developing “winner-benefit-all” businesses. By bringing organizations together as aligned partners to co-invest in and govern shared solutions, the Health Care Utility℠ model enables challenges to be addressed at a scale that no single entity can achieve alone.

“Solving these challenges requires collaboration at scale,” said Carter Dredge, president of the Mindshare Institute℠. “Smart Health demonstrates what is possible when organizations align around shared purpose and invest together to strengthen the entire healthcare ecosystem.”

Smart Health will continue to engage state governments, health systems, payers, technology partners, and other stakeholders as the network expands. Delaware is first, but the network—and its governance—is built for every state.

About the Mindshare Institute℠
The Mindshare Institute℠ brings together leading healthcare organizations and industry thought leaders to solve some of the most complex challenges facing our healthcare system by building national-scale Health Care Utilities℠—nonprofit businesses that create lasting value and positive change.

About Smart Health Network
Smart Health Network (SHN) is neutral, shared infrastructure that connects providers, payers, and patients through one hub to modernize prior authorization and the broader set of administrative health transactions—eligibility, claims status, and more—on open standards. The network is operated by Smart Health Network PBC, a mission-locked Delaware public benefit corporation, and governed for neutrality and patient interest. Learn more at smarthealthnetwork.org.

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Contact
Rachel Gledhill

Marketing Consultant – Mindshare Institute

Email: rachel@mindshareinstitute.org

Phone: 801-507-5055