What Cognizant gets wrong in Healthcare
Cognizant's healthcare payer practice is built on the TriZetto platform — which Cognizant acquired specifically to create a captive technology dependency for payer clients. The TriZetto breach, undetected for 12 months, is the most important data point about Cognizant's security posture: they operated their flagship healthcare platform with a persistent threat actor present for a year before detection. That is not a one-time failure — it reflects an organizational security culture that prioritizes platform revenue over platform security.
The TriZetto managed services model creates a structural dependency that is difficult and expensive to exit. Payers on TriZetto contracts find that their claims adjudication logic, benefit configuration, and network management rules are encapsulated in a vendor-controlled platform that cannot be migrated without a multi-year replatforming effort. Every change request requires a Cognizant statement of work. Every enhancement requires a managed services contract amendment.
CMS interoperability requirements are evolving faster than Cognizant's platform update cycle. The FHIR API mandates, patient access requirements, and payer-to-payer data exchange obligations under the Interoperability and Prior Authorization Rule require platform capabilities that TriZetto's legacy architecture is not designed to support. Cognizant's managed services model will address these requirements eventually — on their timeline, not the CMS compliance deadline.
What we deploy instead
We build payer platforms that are not captive to a vendor-controlled update cycle. CMS FHIR mandates, prior authorization API requirements, and patient access obligations are implemented on your timeline, in your architecture, with your team in control of the roadmap.
Our payer technology teams have built around TriZetto, Facets, and modern FHIR-native payer platforms. We know the integration constraints and the migration patterns — and we build systems that your team can operate without a managed services contract.
HIPAA and SOC 2 built into the architecture from day one — enforced automatically by ALICE at every commit.
Fixed-price engagements. Production system in 8-20 weeks. No discovery phase. No change orders.
Domain-qualified engineers with healthcare experience. The senior engineer who scopes the engagement is the senior engineer who delivers it.
Full source code and documentation transferred at close. No licensing. No managed services dependency.
The compliance difference
CMS FHIR interoperability mandates, HIPAA, SOC 2, state Medicaid managed care compliance. Platform security requires a security culture embedded in the engineering — not a breach detection program that runs on a 12-month lag.
What switching from Cognizant looks like
Payer technology engagement: 14-22 weeks. Team: 10-16 engineers with payer domain experience. Fixed price. Full IP transfer — no ongoing managed services dependency.
Architecture review and scope definition. We review existing deliverables and identify gaps.
Scope locked, team assembled, first sprint underway. Working code from week two.
First production milestone — a working integration or system component, not a document.
Full IP transfer. Source code, documentation, operational runbooks. Your team runs the system.
Failed Vendor Recovery Playbook
Step-by-step framework for recovering from a failed Cognizant engagement — from emergency stabilisation through full re-platforming. 4-phase playbook covering stabilise, assess, transition, and normalise.