How Rising Data Center Fees Could Affect Clinic Telehealth Pricing Models

How Rising Data Center Fees Could Affect Clinic Telehealth Pricing Models

Clinic leaders in 2026 are juggling HIPAA risk, staffing shortages, and tight operating margins. The latest pressure point: data center energy charges and new regulations that could raise the cost of cloud-hosted telehealth services. If you buy telehealth platforms through subscription contracts, you need to know whether vendors can pass those increases to you — and how to control the exposure in procurement and budgeting.

Why this matters now (short answer)

Late 2025 and early 2026 saw accelerating policy and market moves aimed at making hyperscale data centers pay more toward grid upgrades and renewable integration. Lawmakers and regulators in several U.S. states proposed new surcharges and cost-allocation rules after studies showed cloud and AI compute demand materially affecting local electricity markets. Those changes — plus rising wholesale energy prices and capacity charges — translate into higher operating costs for the data centers that host telehealth platforms. Vendors that use third-party cloud and colocation providers may choose to partially or fully pass those charges through to customers unless contracts limit that risk.

The big picture: how data center fees can flow through to clinics

Not all telehealth pricing will change in the same way. The path from an energy surcharge at a data center to a higher line item on your vendor invoice depends on three things:

• Vendor hosting model — multitenant SaaS, dedicated private cloud, or hybrid/edge deployment.
• Contract terms — whether vendor pricing is fixed or indexed, and whether it includes a pass-through clause or escalation formula.
• Cost structure — how much of the vendor's bill is compute, storage, networking, and how those cost pools are affected by energy charges.

Common pass-through mechanisms to watch

• Direct energy surcharge pass-through: vendor invoices an explicit line item tied to supplier energy costs or data center surcharges.
• Indexation: vendor ties price increases to an index (CPI, PPI, energy index) with a formula to calculate changes.
• Supplier cost recovery: vendor reserves the right to recover increases in its third-party supplier charges, sometimes with no cap.
• Usage-based increases: higher egress, compute-hours or storage fees if vendors shift workloads or increase replication to meet resilience targets.

2026 trends that raise vendor exposure

Understanding the regulatory and market context helps you predict vendor behavior. Key trends we tracked in late 2025 and early 2026:

• State-level cost allocation: Several states explored requiring data centers to contribute to grid upgrade costs. These proposals created a near-term uncertainty premium in vendor sourcing decisions.
• AI-driven demand: Continued rapid growth in generative AI and large model training boosted data center compute density, increasing regional capacity constraints and peak demand charges.
• New capacity and carbon pricing: Utilities expanded demand-response pricing and capacity markets. Regions adopting carbon-adjacent fees increased the effective energy cost for high-use facilities.
• Renewable PPAs and green premiums: More vendors purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) or PPAs to meet buyer expectations, which can add incremental cost unless the vendor absorbs it.

Expect higher variability in vendor operating costs in 2026. The question is whether vendors will treat that variability as a business risk they absorb or a recoverable customer cost.

Five scenarios showing how clinics could be affected

Here are practical, realistic scenarios with the likely commercial outcome and what it means for your clinic.

Scenario 1 — Multitenant SaaS vendor with fixed subscription

Outcome: Vendor absorbs short-term surcharge to remain price-competitive, but next renewal includes a higher base price.

What it means: You may not see a mid-contract line-item, but watch renewals. Negotiate predictable renewal caps and evaluate total cost of ownership over multiple years.

Scenario 2 — Vendor passes through supplier charges on invoice

Outcome: You get a separate energy surcharge line on monthly invoices. Short-term budget volatility increases.

What it means: Ask for transparency, capping, and an audit right. Require detailed supplier invoices or reconciliations for large line-items.

Scenario 3 — Usage-based increases driven by compute-intensive features

Outcome: New AI-driven features (real-time transcription, advanced analytics) increase CPU/GPU hours and drive higher usage fees.

What it means: Control feature rollout, measure per-visit compute consumption, and negotiate price tiers per feature.

Scenario 4 — Vendor migrates to higher-cost region or resiliency model

Outcome: To improve resilience, vendor replicates workloads to multiple regions or uses dedicated racks, increasing costs.

What it means: Require notice and optional migration paths. Ask for a phased cost implementation or shared-cost model.

Scenario 5 — Contract includes broad supplier recovery language

Outcome: Vendor can recover a wide range of third-party cost increases, creating open-ended exposure for you.

What it means: Strike broad recovery clauses and replace them with narrow, defined triggers and caps.

Practical procurement questions clinics must ask telehealth vendors

When evaluating platforms or renewing contracts, use this checklist to surface vendor exposure and lock in protections. These are high-value questions to include in RFPs and negotiations.

1. Do you pass through data center energy or grid-related surcharges to customers?
   • If yes, ask for historical examples and the last 24 months of pass-through invoices.
2. What is your hosting model and which data center providers do you use?
   • Request a list of regions and providers, and whether you use multitenant public cloud, dedicated colocation, or hybrid edge sites.
3. Is any part of our pricing indexed to energy, CPI, or other external indices?
   • If indexed, require the exact formula and a cap on annual increases.
4. Do you have a supplier cost recovery clause? Show the exact contract language.
   • Negotiate to narrow the clause, limit to material and documented increases, and add a cap (for example, 2–3% annually).
5. What notification and approval process do you commit to before passing costs through?
   • Require 60–90 days’ notice and a right to pause or terminate for material increases.
6. Can you supply line-item visibility and periodic reconciliations of third-party charges?
   • Insist on detailed back-up for any pass-through amounts above an agreed threshold.
7. Do you offer price protection (fixed price, capped increases) for multi-year agreements?
   • Consider longer terms with predictable pricing in exchange for volume or commitment discounts.
8. How do you allocate increased costs for optional features or AI modules?
   • Seek per-feature pricing so you can switch features off if costs spike.
9. What are your migration and exit terms if we choose to change vendors because of rising costs?
   • Require defined data export formats, transition assistance hours, and a reasonable migration fee cap.
10. What operational improvements have you implemented to reduce energy intensity of your service?
    • Ask about instance right-sizing, server utilization, regional load-balancing, and edge computing use.

Negotiation tactics and contract language to protect your clinic

Negotiation is where clinics turn exposure into predictability. Below are tactics that have worked for small-to-mid-sized healthcare buyers.

• Cap pass-throughs — Insist on a fixed percent cap on recoverable third-party cost increases (for example, 2–3% annually) or negotiate a multi-year fixed price with annual CPI adjustment not to exceed X%.
• Define materiality — Only allow cost recovery for increases above a material threshold (e.g., 5% of the vendor's cost base) and require itemized proof.
• Require alternative proof — If the vendor cites increased energy charges, require copies of the supplier’s invoice or billing statement as validation.
• Link increases to benefits — If the vendor raises prices to fund resiliency or new features, require a roadmap and optional feature toggles tied to those investments.
• Time-box increases — Require that any pass-through is temporary and automatically sunset after a predefined period unless mutually renewed.
• Escalation and dispute clause — Include an expedited dispute resolution mechanism for billing disagreements, and require paused billing during disputes beyond a small threshold.

How to model the budget impact — a simple sensitivity approach

Build a quick sensitivity model to test how different pass-throughs affect your operating budget. Example approach:

1. Start with current telehealth spend (monthly subscription + per-visit fees + integrations).
2. Estimate vendor cost pools that map to data center spend (compute, storage, networking). Use vendor disclosures or ask for a breakdown; if unavailable, assume 40–60% of vendor costs are data-center-related for compute-heavy platforms.
3. Apply a range of potential energy-related cost increases (5%, 15%, 30%) to the data-center-related share.
4. Apply your contract’s pass-through rules (0% recovery, 50% recovery, 100% recovery) to calculate clinic exposure.

Example (rounded hypothetical): Your clinic pays $10,000/month. Assume 50% maps to data center costs = $5,000. If energy charges rise 20%, vendor incremental cost = $1,000. If contract allows 100% recovery, your exposure = $1,000/month. If capped at 2% of invoice, exposure = $200/month. That difference determines if you can absorb the cost or must reprocure.

Operational strategies beyond contract clauses

Procurement alone won’t eliminate risk. Pair contracts with operational steps that reduce your total exposure and improve negotiation leverage.

• Measure and tag usage: Require vendors to provide per-clinic usage metrics (compute minutes, storage GB, egress GB) so you can optimize utilization and detect anomalies.
• Defer optional AI features: Turn off compute-intensive modules when not needed or for low-acuity clinics to reduce consumption costs.
• Consolidate vendors: Fewer vendors can drive higher committed volume discounts and stronger leverage to negotiate absorptions of supplier cost increases.
• Choose hybrid deployment: Where possible, use vendor capability to run low-latency or low-cost workloads on clinic-managed edge appliances for recurring, predictable tasks.
• Track market signals: Monitor utility filings, state energy policy changes, and major data center announcements in the regions your vendor uses.

Case vignette: small clinic negotiates annual cap and saves 40%

Midwest Pediatrics (hypothetical) had a 3-year telehealth agreement with a monthly bill of $6,000. When their vendor sought to add a data center surcharge projected to add $500/month, the clinic invoked negotiation leverage: they agreed to a 2-year extension in exchange for a guaranteed annual price cap of 3% and a pass-through cap of $200/month. Over 18 months those protections saved the clinic approximately 40% of the initially projected surcharge while securing feature roadmaps and transition assistance — a useful template for clinics without large procurement teams.

What to expect from vendors in 2026

Vendors will react in three main ways:

• Absorb costs to remain competitive — Market-leading SaaS vendors may absorb modest increases to protect renewal rates, but will push for higher base prices at renewal.
• Introduce explicit pass-throughs — Some vendors will add transparency by separating supplier charges, increasing invoice volatility but improving auditability.
• Offer differentiated pricing — Expect new pricing tiers: green-premium (higher price, renewable-backed), resilient-premium (higher for multi-region replication), and low-cost basic tiers (limited features to reduce compute).

Actionable takeaways for clinic leaders (quick checklist)

• Ask vendors the 10 procurement questions listed above during RFP and renewal conversations.
• Run a sensitivity model for pass-throughs and renewals to understand budget exposure.
• Negotiate caps and audit rights for supplier cost recovery language.
• Control optional features that drive CPU/GPU consumption and storage growth.
• Request per-clinic usage reporting to spot and manage cost drivers in real time.

Final thoughts: treat rising data center fees as a procurement risk, not a surprise

Data center energy policy and market shifts in 2025–2026 make vendor cost exposure a realistic procurement risk for clinics. The good news: most risk is contractable and manageable. With the right questions, simple modeling, and a few protective clauses you can limit volatility and preserve margins while keeping patient care uninterrupted.

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Next steps — how simplymed.cloud can help

If you want a practical, clinic-ready approach, our procurement playbook for telehealth buyers includes:

• A one-page vendor questionnaire (ready to insert into RFPs)
• Contract clause templates for caps, audits, and notification timelines
• A downloadable sensitivity model you can use in Excel or Google Sheets

Contact simplymed.cloud to get the playbook and schedule a 30-minute readiness review. We'll help you quantify risk, prepare negotiation points, and build a predictable telehealth cost plan for 2026 and beyond.