30 Apr 2026
Executive summary
Women’s health has long been addressed through a series of clinical touchpoints rather than a continuous experience across life stages. But that approach is beginning to change.
In a recent roundtable convened by Labcorp in collaboration with Becker’s Healthcare, a cross-functional group of senior leaders from national and regional health plans and provider organizations shared how they’re redefining women’s health priorities and where persistent gaps in care demand new approaches.
The conversation highlighted a shift away from isolated programs toward more coordinated approaches that emphasize access, timely diagnostics, and data-informed engagement to improve HEDIS® scores and overall quality performance.
Below are five insights that emerged from that discussion.
Insight #1: Access and engagement remain a primary barrier, even when services exist
Leaders consistently emphasized that access challenges persist even when preventive services are covered and clinically recommended. Scheduling constraints, caregiving responsibilities, transportation challenges and limited appointment availability continue to impede women’s care, particularly for those balancing multiple roles.
More times than not, they put everybody else’s care in front of theirs, which really limits that access piece even more.
Quality Leader at a Payer Organization
Why access matters
From a diagnostics standpoint, access barriers directly affect screening completion and timely testing, limiting the impact of even well-designed preventive programs. This can lead to worsening chronic conditions for women, affect overall health outcomes and impact quality performance measures.
Labcorp strives to improve access for all by:
- Reducing financial barriers
- Supporting patients as they navigate their own personal healthcare journey
- Making healthcare access convenient via 2,200+ patient service centers, at-home test collection kits
- Enabling healthcare organizations to better reach underserved communities with reporting tools and quality-of-care strategies
We have to get away from that 9-5 thought of care because many of the people we serve are working during the day.
Health Plan Leader
Insight #2: Engagement improves when care is anchored in trusted relationships
One way to improve access and engagement is through collaboration. Roundtable participants described how engagement increases when care recommendations are reinforced through trusted clinical or community touchpoints.
These include:
- Physicians
- Pharmacists
- Phlebotomists
- Leaders in neighborhood settings
One of the most effective ways to improve access and engagement is through coordinated collaboration across clinical and community touchpoints. Engagement increases when care recommendations are reinforced consistently by providers, care managers, community health workers, and digital outreach rather than delivered in isolation.
In practice, this means aligning on shared care plans, closing data gaps, and coordinating outreach. The result: higher screening and test completion, less friction in follow up, fewer patients lost to missed care, and more efficient workflows, ultimately strengthening both preventive care and ongoing support.
Trust goes with the physician first, and sometimes the pharmacist. The carrier is often outside that trusted circle.
Lisa Richards Director of Care Team Services and Clinical Programming, Ovia Health by Labcorp
Why engagement matters
Diagnostic outreach is more effective when test recommendations are delivered through trusted relationships, increasing follow-through and reducing missed care opportunities. Labcorp collaborates with health plans and community leaders by:
- Collaborating locally with stakeholders
- Providing flexibility through personalized engagement to increase access
- Giving back through our charitable foundation and serving our local communities
- Leveraging data to provide better patient outcomes and experiences
When we started working through local pharmacies and community touchpoints, we saw people engage more.
Lisa Richards Director of Care Team Services and Clinical Programming, Ovia Health by Labcorp
Insight #3: Women’s health extends well beyond, and well before, maternity
Beyond improving access and engagement, it’s important to think of women’s health more holistically. While maternity care remains essential, leaders stressed the need to broaden women’s health strategies to include menopause, cardiovascular disease, mental health and cancer screening across the lifespan.
Menopause is the most misunderstood phase of a woman’s health. It’s cognitive health, bone health, muscle health—it’s everything together.
SVP at a Payer Organization
Why broadening women’s health strategies matters
Expanding the definition of women’s health creates earlier opportunities for diagnostic testing, risk identification and longitudinal monitoring. Ovia Health by Labcorp offers menopause and heart disease resources for women, including:
Heart disease is still the number one killer of women and it often presents differently—and later—than in men.
Director at a Payer Organization
Insight #4: Closing care gaps requires follow-through, not just screening
Screening access and engagement is only as effective as the adherence that follows it. Several roundtable participants highlighted that screening alone is insufficient if abnormal results aren’t followed by timely diagnostic evaluation.
How do you tell a woman she may have cancer and then tell her to wait four months for a diagnostic appointment?
Lisa Richards Director of Care Team Services and Clinical Programming, Ovia Health by Labcorp
Why closing gaps in care matters
Labcorp helps close gaps in care by:
Identifying gaps is only the first step. The system has to make it easy to act on them.
Lisa Richards Director of Care Team Services and Clinical Programming, Ovia Health by Labcorp
Insight #5: Data and analytics enable more targeted interventions
With payer and provider resources spread thin, data and analytics offer an opportunity for more efficient and effective outreach to reduce staff workloads and enhance more targeted and effective interventions. Roundtable leaders described how analytics, predictive models and lab data are being used to prioritize outreach and personalize interventions rather than relying on broad, generic programs.
We have predictive models that identify high-risk maternity members early so we can intervene sooner.
SVP at a Payer Organization
Why data and analytics matter
When lab results, claim and demographic data are combined, organizations can better focus diagnostic resources where they are most likely to improve outcomes. Labcorp can help you with our data and analytics on over 50% of the U.S. population by:
- Leveraging lab data to combat diabetes and chronic kidney disease
- Provide more accurate patient coding for value-based care success
- Getting pre-enrollment insights into new member health status
- Supporting personalization and clinical evolution for better maternal care
- Cultivating stronger population health outcomes with low-cost interventions
The same intervention is not going to work for every population. Targeting and personalization is where we see success.
Lisa Richards Director of Care Team Services and Clinical Programming, Ovia Health by Labcorp
Labcorp can help
Together, these insights point to a shift toward women’s health strategies that emphasize access, trust and follow-through supported by data and diagnostics that connect screening to action across life stages.
Contact us today to see how we can work together to improve women’s health or to join peer discussions on women’s health, screening and care access.