Inside Tendo Marketplace: direct contracting made simple

Direct contracting between health systems and employers has been structurally difficult for years — not because either side didn’t want it, but because the transaction infrastructure to support it at scale didn’t exist. A new Tendo Marketplace webinar walks through how that infrastructure now works, for health systems and for the employers and navigators purchasing care on behalf of their members.

What is Tendo Marketplace?

Tendo Marketplace is a transaction platform that connects healthcare supply and demand: providers list bundled services, and employers, navigators, and consumers purchase them directly, without insurance claims, denials, or patient collections. Bundles are prepaid and prospective, so the provider organization is guaranteed full payment upfront.

Two channels, one platform

Care Connect is the private side of the marketplace, where navigators, employers, TPAs, and health plans shop bundled services on behalf of their members and can set up direct-to-employer relationships in their local market. MDsave is the public-facing side, where any consumer can search and purchase a bundled procedure the way they’d shop online, and where health systems can use the platform as a simplified cash register for self-pay and high-deductible patients.

Why insured patients are showing up on the marketplace

The webinar highlights a pattern that surprises a lot of health systems: 60% of marketplace purchases come from patients who already have insurance. Coverage doesn’t always mean confidence in the cost — patients with high deductibles and narrow networks are increasingly shopping for transparent, upfront pricing on their own. For a health system, that volume isn’t cannibalizing existing payer revenue; it’s reaching patients who might otherwise have delayed care or gone elsewhere.

Providers set the terms

Across both channels, health systems and providers choose which bundles to list, set their own pricing, and can customize fee schedules by employer. Tendo’s team supports pricing recommendations and market data, but control stays with the provider organization — a deliberate, provider-first design choice.

Watch the full webinar to see how Care Connect and MDsave work together, and what it takes to bring direct contracting to your organization.

Watch the full webinar to see Tendo Marketplace in action.