Many Payers who are thinking about building their own portal underestimate the costs and risks of doing so. They usually can see the up-front development costs but are less aware of the security, compliance, and maintenance costs that will be required over the long term. These recurring costs are where many build-versus-buy analyses become incomplete, and they’re often what cause the estimates for building a portal to go overwhelmingly over budget.

A true build vs. buy comparison should include both the initial implementation investment and the recurring costs for keeping the portal secure, compliant, accurate, supported, and useful over time. If you’re trying to decide between developing your own portal and partnering with a portal vendor, here’s an inside look at other costs you may need to consider.

Hosting

Hosting a public website is usually straightforward and relatively low cost. Hosting a HIPAA-compliant portal is different because it must support sensitive data, security monitoring, access controls, and availability expectations. Hosting cost considerations include:

1. How much storage space you’ll need to host your claim and eligibility data
2. Security software and services
3. Your clients’ specific hosting requirements
4. Having staff who can plan, execute, and coordinate hosting efforts

Portal hosting costs involve the hardware, software, and people who can make the hosting secure and effective. Make sure you understand all these costs as you consider whether to build your own portal.

Compliance

Compliance requirements also create ongoing costs. A HIPAA-compliant portal requires more than secure hosting; it also needs:

1. Administrative safeguards
2. Technical safeguards
3. Access controls
4. Audit readiness
5. Documentation
6. Vendor oversight
7. Processes for responding to privacy or security incidents

Whether these responsibilities are handled internally or through a partner, they require ongoing investment, particularly as compliance requirements evolve and change over time.

Ongoing Support

Though artificial intelligence (AI) can make some software development tasks faster, it cannot replace the operational judgment required to support a portal over time. Portal support still involves work that depends on domain knowledge, stakeholder coordination, and human decision-making:

1. Defining conflicting requirements among stakeholders
2. Handling non-standard business rules
3. Building consensus among the Payer and its vendors

Plus, the daily tasks of managing login account issues, verifying providers, and coordinating with developers to troubleshoot also require the input and oversight of humans. Ongoing support requires just as much if not more effort than initial implementation, and Payers must consider the costs associated with that.

Data Mapping

One of the toughest parts of portal development is the consolidation of disparate systems and vendors. As much as our industry has tried to standardize data structures, the fact remains that different systems have different data structures. Plus, the way a Payer uses a data field in one system may not be the way the Payer uses that same field in a different system.

Consequently, Payers who are thinking about building their own portal must expect to spend substantial time:

1. Comparing data files
2. Aligning data structures
3. Programming workarounds so that the data structures can match

Because so many stakeholders will ultimately be looking at this data online, Payers cannot afford to have the data displaying incorrectly, and this requires considerable investment to get the data mapping right.

Continued Maintenance & Enhancements

Very often, companies see developing their own portal as a “set it and forget it” project, where, once the portal is live, they don’t need to pay much attention to it again. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Technology expectations continue to evolve, and healthcare regulations and customer requirements grow in complexity. As a result, Payers must keep investing in portal improvements and enhancements, including:

1. Security updates
2. Accessibility enhancements
3. Addition of new functionality
4. Modernization improvements for end users

Payers cannot afford to fall behind in maintaining their portal; if they do, it won’t be long before they’re where they started – looking to replace their portal.

IT Staff Costs

For the reasons mentioned above, Payers who develop their own portal often are required to increase the number of staff members to maintain it. Additional staff are typically focused on:

1. Hosting strategy & coordination
2. Database development
3. Web development
4. Security monitoring
5. Quality assurance testing
6. Security and compliance oversight
7. Ongoing support

Also, depending on how complex the portal is, your IT staff may be required to do things that really shouldn’t be IT tasks – simple things like uploading a customer’s logo or posting a “closed for the holidays” message.

Developing and maintaining a secure portal requires ongoing attention to security, data accuracy, seamless technology workflows, and an intuitive experience. If you’re thinking of building your own portal, think about the staff you’ll need to have available who are skilled to do these tasks well.

Opportunity Costs

Build projects can also carry opportunity costs and implementation risk. Internal teams may spend months defining requirements, resolving stakeholder conflicts, testing integrations, and responding to delays instead of focusing on core operational priorities. For leadership teams, those delays can affect customer satisfaction, regulatory readiness, and the timing of strategic initiatives.

Hidden Costs Many Teams Miss

Even after factoring in the costs above, there still are others that often go unnoticed. These are costs that can sometimes be harder to quantify yet can pose a heavy burden on budgets:

• Vendor management and coordination
• Security assessments and testing
• Disaster recovery planning and testing
• User training and onboarding
• Employee turnover and knowledge transfer
• Accessibility compliance remediation
• Internal project management
• Documentation and audit preparation

One of these costs alone may seem manageable, but when all of them are added together, they should give Payers pause for considering the ongoing investments they’ll need to make for building and maintaining their portal over the long haul.

Summary

The building of a Payer’s own portal isn’t always a cost reduction strategy; in fact, it often drives up the costs and risks associated with the Payer’s portal. As you consider building vs. buying your portal, spend time counting all the costs associated with not just a good initial rollout, but also continued support, improvements, and sustainability over time.

When you partner with an experienced portal provider, many of these responsibilities shift from internal build-and-maintain work to a managed platform model. The right partner can provide established infrastructure, security practices, support processes, enhancement roadmaps, and implementation experience that would otherwise need to be built and funded internally.

Costs You're Not Counting

When considering whether to build your own portal, the main question should not be whether you’re able to. The question should be whether you want to make portal development, support, and maintenance a core function of your business.

If you decide that partnering with an experienced portal provider is better for your organization, schedule a demo to see how the HPS platform could be the sustainable portal solution for your company in the years ahead.

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