News bites: Amazon Pharmacy’s same-day delivery zooms, One Medical’s lab results app, OpenEvidence’s valuation shock, NYU Langone-Isaac Health, HealthMark buys Purview, Harbor Health buys Rippl, big raises for Solace Health, Talkiatry

February 13, 2026 | by | No Comments

Amazon Pharmacy growing same-day prescription delivery to 6,500 cities and towns by end of 2026. This adds nearly 2,000 locations. Amazon currently delivers to all 50 states and DC with either same day or next day delivery. Same day is adding locations in two new states, Idaho and Massachusetts. The release rather amusingly lists the horses they use on Mackinac Island, Michigan (no cars or e-anything), e-bikes in Manhattan, EVs in the suburbs, and One Medical kiosks in Los Angeles, which debuted last October. Amazon also touted their savings outside of insurance, an item much in the news with TrumpRx.com–up to 80% on generic medications and 40% on brand-name medications through Prime Rx at no additional cost. What does this mean for telehealth competition? A drop in stock price for Teladoc, Hims & Hers (added to by a GLP-1 pill patent infringement suit by Novo Nordisk), and battered Doximity (Doximity Dialer). Yahoo Finance, TechCrunch  

Amazon’s clinic network, One Medical, premiers a ‘beta feature’ that analyzes personal lab results. The Health Insights feature, developed in partnership with Lifeforce, is on the Lab Results tab. After answering a questionnaire, the patient can see an AI-generated:

  • Personalized wellness score based on their biomarker profile
  • Detailed analysis of individual biomarkers categorized by health domain
  • Evidence-based lifestyle recommendations around nutrition, physical activity, stress management, and sleep
  • Scientific references supporting each recommendation

This Editor noted that One Medical is gradually transitioning to an Amazon identity and logotype. Release

Shocked, shocked at OpenEvidence’s $12 billion valuation? According to Katie Adams in MedCityNews, mais non. We noted at the end of January, when OpenEvidence collected $250 million in a Series D, that it was this year’s “hot number”. Certainly it’s “IT” with the docs as a reference source, claiming daily average usage by 40% of US doctors in 10,000 hospitals and medical centers. More than 757,000 clinicians use their free search engine trained on journals and clinical medical data only, coupled with an AI chatbot agent. It does a job that Doximity, Epocrates, and Medscape aren’t doing. It also dispenses with going through organizations as it permits direct signup. Pharma likes the model and votes with its shrinking dollars, giving OpenEvidence a $100 million revenue run rate. So do investors, who’ve socked $700 million into the company since 2021. There’s nothing like being the ‘up and comer’, as was said on a recent analyst call this Editor was on.

Isaac Health partners with NYU Langone for virtual dementia care. The NYC-based health system, with a strong base in neurology and brain health, seeks to reduce the time for a referral and testing for cognitive impairments. With Isaac, the patient is scheduled quickly, usually within a week, for a virtual consult. Isaac is integrated with NYU Langone’s systems to combine virtual with in-person care. If the patient is not comfortable with technology or the visit, a trained helper can be sent to the home to help manage the virtual visit. Isaac release,  MedCityNews

M&A and raises, in contrast to 2025, remain busy

HealthMark Group buys Purview. Purview’s cloud-based systems provide quick access to ingestion, analysis and sharing of medical imaging data, providing access to imaging records quickly. HealthMark Group is a provider of clinical information exchange solutions for healthcare providers. Acquisition cost was not disclosed, but Annapolis MD based Purview is listed as having less than 10 employees on Crunchbase with no funding listed, while HealthMark Group was refinanced last July by TA Associates private equity, retaining an interest from Ridgemont Equity Partners.   Release, 

Austin, Texas-based Harbor Health is acquiring dementia care platform Rippl. Harbor Health combines a clinic network in Texas with health plans. Most of the clinics are in Austin with expansion to El Paso, San Antonio, and Dallas via last year’s acquisition of 32 VillageMD clinics [TTA 9 October 2025]. Rippl’s platform is designed to support care at home for those with dementia via early detection of physical and behavioral issues. Rippl is also obtaining additional financing from seven investors including General Catalyst and Google Ventures. Acquisition cost was not disclosed. Harbor Health release

And to close, two hefty later-stage raises:

  • Solace Health notched a surprising $130 million Series C. It provides healthcare navigation via advocates for patients requiring guidance on a new diagnosis, needing referrals, understanding insurance coverage, and care coordination. Costs are covered by Medicare, most Medicare Advantage plans and some health insurance carriers. The round was led by IVP, with participation from Menlo Ventures, SignalFire, Torch Capital, Inspired Capital and RiverPark Ventures. This topped last year’s $60 million Series B for a total $211 million financing since 2021. Valuation entered unicorn territory of over $1 billion. MedCityNews, Mobihealthnews 
  • Talkiatry raised $210 million in a Series D, but presently no plans for an IPO. Their total financing now tops $400 million. Talkiatry was an early entrant (2019) in virtual psychiatry and therapy, and employs over 800 psychiatrists and 300 therapists, delivering 3 million patient visits to date. Another asset is that it is in-network with over 100 payers. The round was led by Perceptive Advisors with four other participants. MedCityNews

Must Read: an excellent analysis on Carbon Health’s bankruptcy–and the Ominous Parallels

February 12, 2026 | by | No Comments

Carbon Health isn’t an outlier. It’s part of a trend that founders and senior managers must beware. This Editor didn’t know much about Carbon Health when news of its bankruptcy made the news [TTA 7 Feb]. It was of interest because of its telehealth roots and its growth into a current combination of bricks-and-mortar primary care with telehealth. The liabilities were king sized but the way out they chose was unusual, a combination of a sale and a reorganization.

In context and by comparison, Carbon Health follows a path of inevitable failure trod by two other companies, Olive AI and IBM Watson Health. 2022, an ‘in the money’ year for some, was the finis year for all these companies.

  • Olive AI started to fall apart in late 2022, was closed or parted out a year later, and was a classic case of a company that was overfunded, all over the healthcare map, and finally ran out of time and money. (It was also funded heavily by General Catalyst, another red flag.)
  • IBM Watson Health was originally a company that everyone wanted to like with playing chess on Jeopardy. As it grew, it became less lovable and, just like Olive AI, started to pursue multiple lines of business without a solid track record on their main lines as it gobbled up smaller companies. It started to go sideways as early as 2020, it repeatedly failed in high profile pilots with major healthcare organizations, parts were sold off, then the remainder sold by IBM by July 2022. Most of it still does business as Merative, maintaining a very low profile.
  • Carbon started to fail in 2022 as the pandemic tide receded, their overextension was revealed, and their growth plans collapsed; despite buckets of cash extended by CVS and other investors, it was well on the road to bankruptcy. Their creation of and practice dependence on a proprietary EHR in retrospect was mind-boggling.

Get the cuppa and settle in. Stuart Miller of Haverin Consulting, writing on Substack (free article), draws the Ominous Parallels among the three companies first on a seven-point comparison grid: peak valuation (always inflated), core promise (always 35,000 feet), growth strategy (always hyper), strategic overreach (always too complex), technology gap (always aggravated by overreach), demand dependency (always a fadeaway), and outcome (inevitably, failure). He then illustrates what your company should avoid. What are the lessons smart founders and funders should be minding? If you’re a potential partner, investor, or a board member, what are the yellow and red flags? The deal breakers? The simple questions the company should be able to answer?

The subscriber version goes into far greater detail and is recommended if you have earnest money or your future at stake in digital health companies.

So why is there a ‘100% Written by a human’ flag in the header?

February 11, 2026 | by | No Comments

And why is it even necessary? If you are a wide consumer of online media, including LinkedIn (oy!), all too many articles and videos are either AI-generated or heavily edited by AI. It’s not just grammar and spelling cleanup anymore (tools which this Editor happily uses, along with her own rolling edits). It has little to do with em versus en dashes or the stringing together of clichés in a Perfectly Processed Article.

TTA, whether written by your Editor Donna, Editor Emeritus Steve, or a guest post, is not written by AI. And we won’t be. (My 6 month layoff should be proof therein!). No AI slop here whether generative or agentic, except as In The News.

Steve Hards put it very well some years back. From the sidebar:

Telecare Aware’s editors concentrate on what we perceive to be significant events and technological and other developments in telecare and telehealth. We make no apology for being independent and opinionated or for trying to be interesting rather than comprehensive.

We don’t cover everything and don’t plan to. This perhaps makes us far less marketable than some of our sources, which don’t deviate much from the press releases or the packaged interviews because it pumps up the volume with only a few people writing. Yes, just like Joe Friday on Dragnet (=UK, Jack Regan on The Sweeney who was about 50x rougher than Joe at his worst), we start with just the facts, a/k/a the 5 Ws: who, what, when, where, and why. Sometimes that’s all that’s needed or wanted. But usually, there’s more to the story. I then fill out the background and then opine on What This All Means and why it’s interesting. And yes, we are opinionated, especially when there are broken promises, fraud, or lies, which I no lika.

In increasingly processed and reprocessed media, this Editor (Donna) wants to acknowledge the exceptions. They dive deep and make some major machers (Yiddish for ‘big shot’ or ‘movers and shakers’) uncomfortable. #1 in afflicting the comfortable–Sergei Polevikov. His Substack ‘AI Health Uncut’ goes where no one else does and is so jammed with facts/original research it is often a hard read. It’s linked on the sidebar and yes, requires a moderate subscription fee. #2 to me is MedCityNews‘ EIC Arundhati Parmar, with an honorable mention to Katie Adams. (See this Must Read from last February)

AI content has its place, but not here. For better or worse, irredeemably, Written 100% by a Human. For our Readers, thanks for staying with us especially after last year’s long hiatus. And thank you, Legrand, for continuing to advertise. (Your company can too.)

Do you want to try out writing for something like this? Contact Editor Donna.

(Editor’s Final Thoughts: Two handy guides to spotting (or fixing when you must) AI-generated content: Optimizely and in plain sales-oriented language, Troy Harrison’s blog.)

Chutes and Ladders w/o 9 Feb: Biofourmis’ ex-CEO faces 7 major Singapore fraud charges (updated), Doximity’s 17% drop; Devoted Health’s big $366M raise, Garner Health garners $118M, Synthpop’s $15M Series A

February 11, 2026 | by | No Comments

Chutes go first…

The worst kind of Chute to go down is one that lands in a coal-scuttle full of fraud and criminal charges–in a country known for its punishments. Biofourmis’ former CEO is facing seven counts in Singapore. Rajput Kuldeep Singh, one of the founders and former CEO, has been charged in Singapore with three counts of abetting the falsification of accounts, three charges of fraud by false representation or abetment thereof, and one charge of forgery for the purpose of cheating. These are connected to the Singaporean company, Biofourmis Holdings Pte Ltd., between 2021 and 2022. Headquarters moved to Boston after its Series B in 2019.

Mr. Rajput (surname is first) is accused of falsely invoicing US$16.5 million to Singapore’s Ministry of Health (MOH), and later false representations such as inflated revenue figures, falsified financial statements, a misrepresentation on payment by the MOH, and subsequently a forged employee stock option plan offer letter. This was purportedly intended to deceive DBS Bank into transferring funds from the bank.

The penalties are high in a country that canes offenders for spitting on the sidewalk. The Singapore Police Force announced the charges in a 3 Feb release. Each fraud charge against Mr. Rajput carries a maximum 20 years plus a fine. Falsifying accounts and forgery max out at 10 years plus a fine. Even if convicted of one charge, Mr. Rajput is looking at perhaps a decade of time in a Singapore prison–on multiple charges, perhaps the rest of his adult life. Mr. Rajput is a 34-year-old Indian national. Presently, he is out on bail of S$600,000 (US$475,000) and through his legal representation Eugene Thuraisingam Asia, indicated in court on Feb 4 that he intends to claim trial. Singaporean law moves fast–the pre-trial scheduled to start on 1 April. The Online Citizen (Singapore) Here’s the original article in the Straits Times.

Update on extradition: Should Mr. Rajput remove himself to the US and try to evade extradition, his attorneys will tell him that it may be futile, but will string out things. Extradition is covered by a foundational 1931 bilateral treaty that originated with the UK (as Singapore was a colony then) and has been honored since with modifications and expansions (e.g. the Extradition Act of 1968 and Amendments 2022). The mechanism is straightforward. A request has to be made by the Singapore ministry for law and subsequently heard in a US Federal court. The charges must be valid under existing bilateral laws and meet the requirement that the charges carry a sentence of 2 years+. The extradition back to Singapore must then be approved by the Secretary of State. Fraud, embezzlement, and the taking of money under false pretenses are all covered. Singapore is also an active cooperator with the US whereas many countries with treaties are not. Another complicating factor is that Mr. Rajput is an Indian national and may hold multiple passports.

What about Biofourmis? It merged in October 2024 with CopilotIQ, a smaller RPM/nursing company in home health that took over Biofourmis’ business in in-home delivery of complex care for health systems, payers, and pharmaceutical companies. It was announced by CopilotIQ. This oddity didn’t square with other financial reporting indicating that Biofourmis was the acquiring party, yet was reasonable considering that CopilotIQ’s CEO and his management were running the combined company. Yet Biofourmis was a much larger company, a unicorn with over $400 million acquired in 10 rounds of financing.  Another oddity: Mr. Rajput transferred his 96.6 million shares (!!) in Biofourmis to 19 existing investors immediately prior to the merger, according to filings with ACRA, Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority. Today, the single company runs as two separate brands. In 2024, Mr. Rajput returned to Singapore (and Boston) to found a new company, OutcomesAI, an AI-enabled nurse assistant and voice agent which raised $10 million last October. To be continued….

Doximity, a/k/a LinkedIn for doctors plus virtual visit capability, took a 17% crack on Friday after a wild overnight ride. This is despite the company clocking a decent Q4 2025 beating analysts’ revenue expectations. Sales were up 9.8% versus Q4 2024 to $185.1 million. EBITDA guidance for 2025 is in line at $356 million at the midpoint. What was the problem? Q1 2026. The company guidance is $143.5 million at midpoint, which is below analyst estimates of $151.3 million. It doesn’t seem like much, but the volatility indicates that Doximity has growing competition for the 80% of US doctors who are members. Epocrates and Medscape have for years been the main competition for partner dollars, but the new kid on the block, OpenEvidence, which just clocked a healthy Series D for its medical info search engine, is putting all three in the shade. The pie is also shrinking. Pharma companies are overall spending less and Doximity is spending more on a suite of new tools: DocsGPT, Doximity Dialer, and Doximity Scribe. Share price has stayed flat since Friday. Considering it once traded over $80…. Yahoo Finance, TIKR

Now for the Ladders…climbing them with a ‘barbell’…

Devoted Health raked in $366 million of Series F and post-F funding. This insurtech survivor, a combination of Medicare Advantage (MA) plans with in-house telehealth and in-home care, raised a split Series F: $48 million in November 2025 and at the end of January a Series F-Prime of $317 million. These very late rounds are rare in this constrained funding market. Both were led by long time investor The Space Between (TSB) [TTA 3 Jan 2024], in partnership with Centricus, a London-based global investment firm. This Editor counted 18 additional investors, which is a tell–even when you’re “redefining how healthcare is experienced and delivered” and they are 466,000 members strong, up 121 percent and across 29 states, with 98% of members in 4+ Star plans, they had to knock on a lot of doors for the raise. This raise is also about half of what it would have been in the 2020-22 Silly Money days. One wonders if an IPO is next. Devoted Health release

Garner Health’s latest raise is a $118 million Series D today (Tuesday). The employer-focused provider of health data analytics incentives to guide employees to the best-performing doctors in the employer’s existing health plans now has a total raise of $200 million and a valuation topping $1.3 million. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Redpoint, Maverick, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Mercy, Plus Capital, and other existing investors. Garner is claiming revenue increasing over 130% versus their prior year. Release

On the other end of the barbell, Cambridge MA-based Synthpop (not a music genre) had an early raise of $15 million that closed last week. The new Series A brought their total funding to $23 million. It was led by Ansa Capital, with Defy.vc and Peterson Ventures participating in the round with Storm Ventures and strategic investor Bruce Broussard. Marco DeMeireles, co‑founder and managing partner at Ansa Capital will be joining Synthpop’s board. Synthpop uses AI processes to coordinate document intelligence, payer-aware reasoning, and conversational voice agents to automate up to 80% of healthcare business processes, integrating directly with EHR, billing, and e-prescribe platforms. It was founded in 2023 by CEO Elad Ferber and CTO Jan Jannink, PhD, who have considerable previous founder experience. Release

What’s happening now with the VA on the Oracle EHRM rollout?

February 8, 2026 | by | No Comments

Planning for April–but are the problems that derailed it three years ago solved? The US Department of Veterans Affairs is still stoutly maintaining an April start date for resumption of its EHR Modernization (EHRM) rollout. In last week’s updated schedule issued by the EHR Modernization Integration Office (EHRM-IO), the new strategy is to keep the rollouts within a fairly tight geographic area in the same VA region, or in VA-speak, VISN, and roll out every two months. Thus the first four systems are VISN 10 in Michigan: Detroit, Saginaw, Ann Arbor, and Battle Creek (system) in April. Two months later in June, an additional four in VISN 10 will roll out: Dayton Ohio, Chillicothe Ohio, Cincinnati, and Cincinnati-Fort Thomas Kentucky. Another three in VISN 10 will start in August and the last two for the year, Louis Stokes-Cleveland in VISN 10 and Alaska (Anchorage) in VISN 20, will be started in October.

And the reservations are… At the end of January, the VA’s Office of Inspector General in their FY 2025 report on VA’s Management and Performance Challenges detailed five major challenges in the agency. While healthcare services was #1, that section concentrated on staffing and community care delivery coordination, touching on the veteran scheduling/appointment problems that are part of the EHRM, including the Veterans Self-Scheduling (VSS) process.

Most of the EHRM discussion was in #4, information systems and innovation. The VA was scored on using existing systems and incorporating emerging technologies to manage veterans’ medical records, benefits determinations, financial disclosures, and education documents. EHRM and its major performance incidents were detailed first, along with Caseflow (claims and appeals) lacking an enterprise governance structure. The system failures also affected patient care, with clinicians being unaware of critically important patient data and communication breakdowns between VA and community care providers leading to delayed diagnoses and treatment. The OIG also noted a background of decades old cybersecurity and data-integrity problems, with critical vulnerabilities that allowed staff bypass of security protections that left about 3.3 million veterans’ records unencrypted at one facility. In implementing the OIG’s recommendations on the EHRM: 

Regarding VA’s ongoing electronic health records overhaul, VA strengthened the contractor agreement by enhancing performance credit clauses (provisions that establish financial penalties if the contractor fails to meet performance standards) and tighter incident metrics. It created limited real-time system dashboards to help monitor performance at sites going live with the system. However, there remain 32 OIG recommendations that are not fully implemented as VA resumes system deployments. (Editor’s emphasis)

The original ten-year Cerner agreement to replace the venerable but non-interoperable VistA eight years ago (May 2018) was a $10 billion contract, later revised to over $16 billion. After the failures of four years ago, it was rewritten at the five-year point in 2023 to, frankly, bring Oracle Cerner to heel. The 2020 and 2022 implementations were disastrous: Mann-Grandstaff (VISN 20) in October 2020 and four more in 2022. The only 2024 implementation was joint with the DOD Military Health System at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Chicago, which went relatively smoothly. A year ago, continuing the rollout looked questionable [TTA 26 Feb 2025]. Now VA has committed to a timeline for 13 health systems/centers this year. Not accomplishing it, and smoothly, will be a bottle of black ink all over VA–and Oracle.

Further complicating matters is Oracle Health’s uncertain status. Will it be cashed out to build AI Datacenters? It depends on an uncertain funding environment and the generosity of banks. And doesn’t relieve the new owner of this Federal contract. [TTA 5 Feb]

Chutes & Ladders this week: Carbon Health’s Ch. 11; Centene’s 2-way beat, TrumpRx.com debuts; Doc.com files for $24M Nasdaq listing, $55M for Alaffia Health, big Series Ds for Midi Health and ElevenLabs

February 7, 2026 | by | No Comments

One busy week in the game! Chutes first…

Primary care/telehealth provider Carbon Health filed for Chapter 11 dual-track bankruptcy reorganization. San Francisco-based Carbon filed on Tuesday 2 February a pre-packaged Chapter 11. The unusual dual track refers to a simultaneous sale of the company and a court-supervised restructuring backed by up to $19.5M in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing. The DIP financing, via Future Solutions Investments, is currently approved up to $9 million. DIP financing ensures that operations continue and that employees and vendors are paid.

The bankruptcy was filed in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, with liabilities estimated between $100 million and $500 million. According to the company release, “the Chapter 11 plan is premised on a debt-for-equity exchange, and a post-petition marketing and sale process for all or a portion of the Company’s assets.” At this point, there is no projected date for emergence out of bankruptcy.

Carbon started as an app-based telehealth provider in 2015 in SF and now has 93 affiliated primary and urgent care clinics across eight states from California to New Jersey. It is structured as a management services organization (MSO) with a proprietary technology stack to support patient telehealth and the clinics. The company attributes the shortfalls and need for reorganization to post-Covid demand changes and a tight capital market for healthcare. (Editor’s note: operating primary care practices through a MSO model, where you make money selling services, is certainly interesting but presents many hurdles to consistent profit. I’ll cite my experience working for an MSO engaged with Medicare payment model ACOs and IPAs.)

It’s been a tough market for provider groups even when financing was easy, as VillageMD’s difficulties with Walgreens have demonstrated. Primary care provision to patients is too sporadic and competitive to allow for mistakes. Then when consistency and depth are needed, chronic care management becomes all about risk management. Not care. Beckers, FierceHealthcare, ElevenFlo

Between a Chute and a Ladder…

Centene’s horrible 2025 closed with a Q4 net loss of $1.1 billion, but a better forecast for 2026. The Q4 compared to a net profit of $283 million in FY 2024. A major factor was that the health benefits ratio (HBR) of 94.3% for Q4 2025 was sharply up from 89.6% in Q4 2024, as well as expenses relating to rising No Surprises Act billing disputes. The ladder was that the revenue topline of $49.7 billion, up 22% versus prior year, reportedly beat Wall Street expectations as did the full year.

For 2026, CEO Sarah London and CFO Drew Asher are promising a more stable ride. Medicaid profitability has improved plus year-over-year growth with breakeven in the Medicare Advantage market. This rosy outlook contrasts with UnitedHealth Group, Molina Healthcare, and Elevance, and has led to more questions by analysts about its validity.

A crotchety Mr. Market didn’t like the news today (Friday) and whipped the stock down 4% to $38. A year ago, CNC traded above $66. Centene’s primary markets are Medicaid, Medicare and the ACA. They continue to shrink non-core businesses, announcing that it is divesting the remainder of Magellan Health it still holds, resulting in an impairment of $513 million, or $389 million after-tax. (Disclosure: this Editor worked for a company Centene bought and holds CNC stock) Financial release, Healthcare Finance News, Healthcare Dive

On to the Ladders…

TrumpRx.com online site debuts. This provides some relief on pricing for 40 heavily prescribed and expensive drugs from five pharmaceutical manufacturers: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serono, Novo Nordisk, and Pfizer. The pricing is ‘most favored nation’ (MFN) which means it is in line with the lowest paid by other developed nations. According to the White House release that outlines availability, “Depending on the manufacturer of a given drug, patients with valid prescriptions will be able to access savings through user-friendly coupons that can be printed or downloaded onto their phones or through channels set up by the manufacturer and integrated into TrumpRx.gov.” In return, the manufacturers are exempted for three years from pharmaceutical tariffs. Many of these drugs are already available at reduced prices through the drug companies’ DTC outlets, such as Zepbound and Wegovy. While for those in commercial plans or Medicare Part D there may not be much difference in pricing, the trend here is that manufacturers continue to unabashedly create outlets for drugs that bypass the beleaguered PBMs.  Healthcare Dive

It was also a Big Week for a future IPO and company financings.

Mexican telehealth Doc.com files for Nasdaq listing. Their filing is for 3 million shares of its Class A common stock priced at $8, for a total value of $24 million. (SEC Form 1-A) The stock will list under DOCC. Doc.com is a little different in claiming to use both blockchain to secure transactions and AI for workflows and operations to provide telehealth services that connect underserved markets with doctors, nurse-practitioners, psychologists, mental health specialists, and even veterinarians. It’s currently offered in Latin America and the US (as of last year), headquartered in NYC. Current financing is $300.7 million raised in January 2024 from Silver Rock Group private equity, and a $700,000 debt financing. (Crunchbase).  2025 annual report, Mobihealthnews

Alaffia Health scores a $55 million Series B. Lead investor was Transformation Capital with participation from previous investors including FirstMark Capital, Tau Ventures, and Twine Ventures. Their total raise is $73 million. Alaffia has developed agentic AI for health plan claims operations. The AI tools offered scale clinical review capacity for health plans and evaluate claims against the complete patient medical record, for a claimed 20%+ average savings on high-cost facility claims and 5x+ ROI for leading health plans. The fresh financing will be used for the usual R&D, developing additional agentic AI, and growth. Alaffia release, MedCityNews

Midi Health is a new unicorn, closing a $100 million Series D financing and a valuation over $1 billion. Even more unusual, it’s another strong raise for a women’s health company, this one in telehealth for women in perimenopause and menopause. Last week, Pomelo Care raised a $92 million Series C to move from the maternity segment into menopause and older women’s health. The Series D was led by Goodwater Capital with participation from new investors Foresite Capital and Serena Ventures, as well as continued support from Advance Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), Emerson Collective, SemperVirens, and McKesson Ventures.  MedCityNews

ElevenLabs closed its own Series D at $500 million, topping $781 million in funds for its generative AI in text-to-speech and an $11 billion valuation. Its scope is apparently near-universal for developers and companies in multiple industries. For healthcare systems, it has platforms for private practitioners and clinics that provide HIPAA-compliant, intelligent voice agents that triage, route urgent calls and respond to patients. The agents can sync with EHR and HIS systems as well as nurse-call and messaging systems. It can also update records, log triage outcomes and book appointments automatically integrated with EHRs. The fresh financing will assist in their international expansion and ElevenAgents, its enterprise platform for voice and conversational AI. Mobihealthnews, ElevenLabs release

Summing up the speculation: will Oracle sell off Oracle Health/Cerner to finance $300B OpenAI datacenter buildout?

February 5, 2026 | by | No Comments

Even Oracle can’t get all the money it wants for AI. The speculation has been building since late last week, kicked off by a report from financial analyst TD Cowen that percolated through financial media first. It centers on the five-year, $300 billion contract Oracle has with OpenAI (ChatGPT) that requires extraordinary financing to fulfill. According to the report (not publicly available), the capital expenditure needed is estimated at $156 billion to build or lease datacenters. To raise this, TD Cowen projects that the former Cerner, now Oracle Health, would have to be sold, as well as a potential cut of 20-30,000 jobs, about 10-15% or more of the current workforce, saving $8 billion to $10 billion in cash flow.

Why doesn’t Oracle go to the markets and banks, hold out the cup to finance this capital expenditure, and let them fill it? US lenders are apparently growing shy on lending for more AI datacenters, while Asian lenders are willing to lend funds albeit at premium rates. In TD Cowen’s analysis, Oracle is having great trouble financing this massive buildout. Investor nervousness shows in Oracle’s credit default swap (CDS) spreads tripling, as well as pressure on their stocks and bonds.

Let’s look at some factors why across several reports:

  • Oracle’s already raised $58 billion in the past two months: $38 billion for facilities in Texas and Wisconsin, and $20 billion for New Mexico. 
  • Since September, lenders have doubled their interest rates on these Oracle projects to near non-investment grade levels.
  • Oracle’s credit default swap (CDS) spreads have tripled,
  • Private datacenter operators can’t get financing, so Oracle can’t fill the gap with leases, even though a few months ago Oracle was able to lease 5.2GW of US data-center capacity across Texas, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New Mexico specifically for OpenAI.
  • On top of OpenAI, Oracle is also building datacenters for Meta and Nvidia in a $523 billion total commitment

Oracle is tightening the purse strings to reduce capital needs. They now require for new customers 40% upfront on building infrastructure. Another strategy being explored: requiring customers to buy their own hardware in BYOC (bring your own chip) arrangements which moves that expense off Oracle’s books and onto the customer’s. 

It appears to this Editor that Oracle is caught in a squeeze play. If the company doesn’t build the datacenters, it risks falling behind its massive strategy to dominate the AI datacenter business. Yet the price of this is to abandon its massive investment in healthcare, a linchpin strategy, and the customers there. And there are Federal consequences: the completely incomplete VA implementation scheduled to resume this year and the complete, but still in progress, Department of Defense system.

Let’s look at what the effect may be on Oracle Health. Oracle bought Cerner back in December 2021 for $28.3 billion–after Cerner’s troubles with the VA EHR implementation and in the midst of the Department of Defense rollout. Oracle now is a fading number 2 in health system EHR implementations. It was all Epic, all the time for the health systems attending HealthIMPACT, the conference this Editor attended over the past two days. If Oracle Health is sold, it represents a major strategic reversal for Oracle and personally for CEO Larry Ellison. Both have pumped and promoted changing healthcare through data and systems integration for the past five years. Perhaps Oracle and Ellison have gotten the data “milk” they want and will sell the ‘cow’ now that Old Bossy is not in great shape. Can the ‘cow’ on the block even get the $28 billion paid for it?

Sell, but to whom? Microsoft is the most probable since it is massively integrated into healthcare in multiple systems. The other two under speculation are Google and Amazon. What they have in common are recent and money-losing experiences with healthcare, closing down and selling various ventures. Google Health was shut down and scattered to the winds in August 2021, and Alphabet’s Verily, pivoting like  Nureyev over a decade, is now a ‘precision health’ entity. Amazon, in the midst of layoffs, has done well with Pharmacy, but One Medical. bought during the 2022 Practice Gold Rush, remains a lump of undigested matter in Amazon’s e-commerce digestive tract. Their agita with integrations such as with kiosks for Pharmacy [TTA 9 Oct 2025] and with Prime deserve Pepto-Bismol. Unlikely: any health insurer, for both cash and regulatory reasons. Spinoff? That won’t raise cash.  To be continued….

Sources for this article: CIO, The Register, and Fred Pennic at HIT Consultant, who broke it in the health tech press.

A short and personal remembrance of Challenger, 40 years ago

January 29, 2026 | by | 2 Comments

On another blog, the writer (a Gen Xer) invited reminiscences of where we were when we learned that Challenger exploded, the loss of the astronauts, and ultimately how we dealt with the discovery that NASA was not infallible in allowing a manned shuttle to launch when it provably should not have. 28 January 1986. Many X-ers posted their early memories, as well as those of us who were Boomers, working and in the adult world, including those who had ties to NASA, Morton Thiokol (the O rings), Lockheed, and other NASA vendors. Ultimately, Challenger had a great effect on us. This article is adapted from my comment there.

On that date, this Editor was nowhere near healthcare. She was in the airline business in advertising. New York Air was a a post-deregulation airline, largely forgotten today, headquartered at LaGuardia Airport NYC. Despite being red in color, it, the people, and her time there remains evergreen in memory.

On that day, we had a small crisis to deal with that had links to Challenger. Permit this short indulgence and diversion, if you would like to read on. (more…)

Chutes & Ladders: UnitedHealth’s disastrous day and industry portents; Sword Health buys Kaia for $285M and gains German entry, $250M Series D for OpenEvidence, Pomelo’s $92M Series C, NOCD buys Rebound Health

January 29, 2026 | by | No Comments

Chutes go first…

UnitedHealth Group’s 2025 financials not only triggered a one-day drop in its stock of 19.6% ($282), but cracked the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) by 409 points– close to 1% (0.8%). Revenue hit a record–$447.6 billion–but profits suffered another drop to $12.1 billion from $14.4 billion in 2024. Worse, it was the lowest annual profit since 2018, not even adjusted for inflation. Their care organization within Optum services, Optum Health, went from a 2024 operational gain of $7.8 billion to a loss of $278 million in 2025. 2026 projections for UHG include a revenue contraction for the first time in years. Healthcare Dive, Yahoo Finance

But the stock free-fall hinged on the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rule move announced on Monday to essentially keep Medicare Advantage (MA)  average rate payments flat at less than 1%, versus an expected 4-6%. This was topped by another rule excluding patient diagnoses that aren’t linked to actual medical care that inflated MA patient risk adjustments, flattening risk scores and payments. The adjustments would save taxpayers about $7 billion. Another major hit is that UHG projects a 2026 loss of 1.3 to 1.4 million MA members. The stock price recovered about 11% today to close at $294.02.

UHG’s stock drop was the 6th worst since 1987’s Black Tuesday. The rule changes also swatted other insurers with major MA markets such as Centene, CVS Health (Aetna), Elevance, and Humana. 

Congress is also going hard after health insurers, with hostile House Ways and Means committee and House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearings last week skewering CEOs from UnitedHealth, CVS, Cigna and Elevance over their compensation, rampant vertical integration with pharmacy benefit management (PBMs) and providers (including rate setting), prior authorization, and care denials. Fun fact: non-insurance business can be as much as one-third of revenue for the insurer giants. Only the Blue Shield of California CEO (Ascendiun), a non-profit, who basically agreed with all the criticisms of healthcare and threw himself on the mercy of the court, somewhat escaped. It was a Bad Day on Capitol Hill that may portend Boot Hill for some CEOs. Healthcare Dive, Becker’s 

Other portents for the industry aren’t great either. ACA individual plan subsidies, which had ballooned beyond recognition in the past few years, are not expected to return, and members are fleeing. Many insurers such as Aetna have already exited the exchanges. Health policy reforms are iffy in a midterm election year. Medicaid state payments are still in unknown territory. A bit more favorable is that margins are stabilizing and commercial plans remain positive. Healthcare Dive

All of which means that in a hot midterm year, there will be renewed bipartisan calls to restrict insurers on practices of their painstakingly integrated service businesses–and increased calls for divestitures. By last year, it was clear that UHG was becoming a victim of its own size and a strategy rapidly becoming obsolete. This Editor in May 2025 (just before her extended hiatus) in an extended brief advocated a voluntary breakup of UnitedHealth Group before it wound up like GE, wrecked by its own problems. The finalized acquisition of Amedysis in August, dangling with DOJ since 2023, was the swan song. Or honk. The days of big UHG accretive buys, Optum acquiring practices, and Optum Ventures making big bets in digital health are over, and darn well should be.

A very tart take–but requiring a subscription–is in yesterday’s (27 Jan) AI Health Uncut. Sergei Polevikov details the multiple fraud cases that UHG is fighting, the devastation that Change Healthcare’s suspension of provider payments for months in 2024 wreaked, insider trading, and more.

And here are the Ladders, which are finally showing up in healthtech after a thoroughly depressing 2025…

MSG physical therapy/mental health/telehealth provider Sword Health today (28 Jan) announced the acquisition of Kaia Health for $285 million. (Updated) Kaia is also in MSK management for employers, payers, and public health systems, but adds a pulmonary therapy for COPD, Kaia Breathe. The Sword brand will replace Kaia in the US, while Kaia’s prescription app footprint in Germany (DiGA) will open the digital health Rx reimbursement pathway there for Sword. Clearly that was a very big asset of interest to Sword. At present, Sword has 700,000 members across three continents and 1,000+ enterprise clients. Their financing to date is $500 million raised from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Transformation Capital, and Founders Fund. Kaia had funding of about $123 million but hadn’t had funding since their April 2021 Series C, which is a prolonged time and indicates that they were having trouble with that ol’ devil Profitability. (Crunchbase) Sword release, Mobihealthnews

OpenEvidence, the medical information search engine for doctors that is 2026’s ‘hot number’, scored a $250 million Series D, led by Thrive Capital and DST Global. The AI-enabled (what isn’t?) free search engine trained on journals and clinical medical data only, coupled with an AI chatbot agent, claims scorching growth, from 3 million clinical consultations/monthly in December 2024 to 18 million/monthly in December 2025, all from verified US physicians. The Miami-based company also claims daily average usage by 40% of US doctors in 10,000 hospitals and medical centers. Its funding and valuation are scorching too, totaling $700 million from a Murderer’s Row of major investors, doubling its valuation to $12 billion, making it the most valuable healthcare AI company on Planet Earth. (This gives OpenAI and Anthropic something to ‘shoot’ for.) The fresh funding will be invested in R&D and compute costs associated with their multi-AI agentic architecture. “Medical superintelligence” may be an overstatement, but in discussions around physician marketing and engagement, OpenEvidence is showing metrics that dust the traditional providers such as Doximity, Medscape, and Epocrates. FierceHealthcare, Mobihealthnews, release

Pomelo Care’s $92 million raise will take it beyond maternity care. At present targeted to fertility, maternity, and pediatric care for women and children, the company is expanding into midlife women’s health, including perimenopause and menopause symptoms and mental health support. The Pomelo app enables access to a dedicated care team and customized care plans. Currently, the NYC-based company founded by Marta Bralic Kerns and named after the doughy citrus fruit has access to 25 million covered lives through health plan payers and employers. The Series C was led by Stripes with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, PLUS Capital, Atomico, BoxGroup, and SV Angel. Valuation is now up to $1.7 billion. MedCity News, Mobihealthnews, Forbes

On the other end of the barbell, NOCD, a virtual care provider for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), purchased trauma care provider Rebound Health. The two companies are forming under a parent entity, Noto. Rebound provides for trauma patients a mobile app that provides structured self-help support. The overlap/extension for the two companies is in treatment of PTSD and Complex PTSD. NOCD has raised $84 million since its founding eight years ago but Rebound Health only $150,000 in a pre-seed round (Crunchbase). Acquisition cost was not disclosed but could not have been much. Behavioral Health Business

One-two punch: AI moves hard into clinical healthcare and consumer medical with OpenAI/ChatGPT and Claude for Healthcare debuts

January 28, 2026 | by | No Comments

Two of the major movers in generative and agentic AI announced healthcare products within days of each other–and in time for both the tail end of CES and at JPM. Let’s make some sense out of the hype–along with Claude’s 12-page, ‘connecting the dots’ health plan generated for one individual (see the closing).

First out of the gate was OpenAI entering provider medical management with OpenAI for Healthcare, a set of products that includes ChatGPT for Healthcare. ChatGPT for Healthcare was rolled out earlier this month to AdventHealth, Baylor Scott & White Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, HCA Healthcare, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Stanford Medicine Children’s Health and University of California, San Francisco. ChatGPT for Healthcare is designed to use generative AI to support clinicians in reasoning during patient care and to reduce administrative burden. Key features include:

  • Models built for healthcare clinical, operational, and research workflows built on GPT‑5 models 
  • Evidence retrieval with transparent citations that draw from millions of peer-reviewed research studies, public health guidance, and clinical guidelines
  • Institutional policy and care pathway alignment that integrate with enterprise tools such as Microsoft SharePoint and other systems
  • Templates to automate workflows
  • Access management and governance
  • Data control and support for HIPAA compliance

OpenAI’s API has already been used in HIPAA-compliant healthcare software marketed by Abridge, Ambience, and EliseAI. There was no public timetable for availability to other healthcare organizations. OpenAI release

The consumer version, ChatGPT for Health, is still in test. The limited information available indicates that it will provide a secure storage area for connecting personal medical records and wellness apps. ChatGPT is touting its current track record of being a leading source of health and wellness information for 230 million people globally. The new program will help individuals understand recent test results, prepare for doctor appointments, advise on diet and workout routines, and understand the tradeoffs of different insurance options based on healthcare patterns. OpenAI will be operating it as a separate space to protect this data and not use this information to train their models. At this point, it’s waitlisted for nearly everyone, but some users across their various products will be invited to test it. It will be available only in the US. OpenAI release, Healthcare Finance

Days later, Anthropic, the parent company of agentic AI Claude, stole a cheeky march on rival OpenAI at JPM by announcing Claude for Healthcare, not only for providers but also for consumers. The HIPAA-compliant tools for Claude are built on their Opus 4.5 latest software version and on their October release for Life Sciences. The sense this Editor has is that the two actually run somewhat in tandem. Claude’s tools for providers center on prior authorization, insurance claims appeals, care coordination and patient triaging, clinical administration, and healthcare startup developers. Claude’s tools compile information added from the CMS Coverage Database, ICD-10, and the National Provider Identifier (NPI) Registry.

For individuals, Claude Pro and Max subscribers in the US can connect their personal health records and results to Claude. Their integrations or ‘connectors’ include HealthEx and Function in beta, with Apple Health and Android Health Connect integrations following in beta via the Claude iOS and Android apps. Once connected, “Claude can summarize users’ medical history, explain test results in plain language, detect patterns across fitness and health metrics, and prepare questions for appointments. The aim is to make patients’ conversations with doctors more productive, and to help users stay well-informed about their health.” Which puts this connectivity for individuals in the here and now, a step ahead of OpenAI.  Anthropic release, Healthcare page  

Two 9000-lb elephants in AI have staked out their territory in healthcare. How much takeup both for clinical and personal models will happen, how long they will take to ‘debug’, and how long it will take for a paying clinical model, are interesting bets to take. Anthropic apparently won the PR war by announcing at JPM, as evidenced on CNBC‘s and Mobihealthnews’s reports,. But then there’s this breathless rave review on the Food is Health Revolution blog on how Claude, digesting 60 files collected over a decade, generated a 12-page health plan that connected the writer’s low thyroid with her cognitive problems. Bingo!

AI failing–at present–to lower costs, grow revenue, improve efficiencies. Yet it’s full speed ahead: Deloitte, PwC surveys

January 27, 2026 | by | No Comments

When the business process outsourcing (BPO) leaders pour lukewarm water over AI, one hears the air leaking from a bubble. BPOs have been a key part of the hype around AI as a business solution. The McKinseys, Genpacts, Deloittes, and PwCs for years have touted AI and as a result, made large consultancy fees. AI now proliferates for every business problem. Whether it’s generative, (still kicking around) machine learning, NLP, LLMs, agentic, robotic process, and now sovereign AI (domestically developed and powered)–it’s been positioned as the solution for simplifying processes and reducing administrative burden. Of course, a fair chunk of this involves getting rid of those pesky human factors in overseeing whether these new systems and software actually work, or reducing them to the lowest cost possible, to pay for all the AI spend.

Unfortunately for the BPOs, their customers are telling them that AI Is Not Quite All That. In fact, for the money they have spent, it hasn’t performed. Yet. But they remain optimistic, a neat bit of cognitive dissonance or perhaps justification.

The Deloitte global survey of 3,235 business and IT leaders confirms the gloomy news to date–yet it’s full speed ahead. Only 20% have experienced revenue growth as a result of AI. Transformation is coming along slowly; 25% of those surveyed believe that AI is transforming their organizations, which corresponds to 84% not redesigning jobs or work around AI capabilities. In this area, there’s a lot of resistance. While 55% of workers are reportedly open to AI technology, only 13% of workers are highly enthusiastic about AI, 21 percent would prefer to avoid it, and 4% actively distrust it. There’s also a lot of pilot-itis. Only 25% report shifting 40% or more of their AI experiments into live use, though optimistically they project that will increase to 54% in three to six months.

Yet they’re justifying AI. Totally. 66% reported that it improves productivity and efficiency, which contradicts the low revenue growth. 58% of companies are already using it to some extent, with adoption to hit 80% within two years. 74% of companies plan to deploy agentic AI within two years, even though only 23% are using it now and 21% have a model for governance of autonomous agents–a high risk level. 42% believe their strategy is ‘highly prepared’ for AI adoption. Another part of AI adoption has surfaced–sovereign AI, to reduce dependency on foreign sourcing, vendors, and infrastructure. 83% reported that this was at least moderately important to them. The Register 21 Jan, Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise report (PDF, January 2026) 

PwC’s larger survey of 4,454 business leaders in their 29th Annual Global CEO Survey contains gloomier and more detailed feedback for AI advocates. “Most CEOs say their companies aren’t yet seeing a financial return from investments in AI.” Only 30% reported increased revenue and 26% saw lowered costs. More than half–56%–did not see either lower costs and higher revenue. 22% reported an increase in costs due to AI.

Another finding is that isolated AI projects aren’t delivering value. Companies lack a clear strategy in building AI foundations such as clearly defined road maps and sufficient levels of investment​​.

A relatively small proportion of their surveyed CEOs say they’re applying AI to a large or very large extent to areas such as demand generation (22%); support services (20%); the company’s products, services, and experiences (19%); direction setting (15%); or demand fulfilment (13%). In a previous survey, only a tiny minority of workers–14%–are using generative AI daily. PwC’s report goes on to identify many other factors reshaping global business and influencing growth, in context confirming that depending on AI as a quick fix is not paying off.  The Register 20 January, PwC 29th Annual Global CEO Survey (January 2026).

Reality tends to bite. Many of last year’s corporate layoffs were attributed to heavy AI investments that weren’t paying off, but books needed to balance by year’s end and it was taken out of human capital. Layoffs are projected to continue across all industries in 2026. Books balance another way, though. The AI bubble is deflating from Inflated Expectations into the early stages of the Trough of Disillusionment. How long it will take to move to the Slope of Enlightenment is anyone’s guess–two years, five, a decade? The useful tool of the Gartner hype cycle strikes again–as it did with telehealth and health tech. Separately, we’ll be looking at OpenAI’s ChatGPT for Healthcare and Anthropic’s Claude for Healthcare.

Short takes: Owlet’s baby sleep survey, MediBioSense’s Infinity Watch, telehealth extensions move to Senate, EBG’s telemental laws app ’26 update, Done Global indicted with principals convicted

January 24, 2026 | by | 1 Comment

Rounding up some current–and back–stories:

The January season for reports continues with Owlet’s newly released ‘Baby Sleep Report’. This surveyed data was generated via Owlet devices (Dream Sock, Dream Duo, and Dream Sight) from 1.2 million babies over 900 million hours of monitoring in 200 different geographic regions during 2025. The survey purpose was to research sleep patterns, trends, and developments affecting babies monitored from one to 18 months. One major finding was that baby night awakenings, that bane of life for nearly all parents, drop by 55% by about 9 months, and sleep patterns stabilize in the first six months. Other findings summarized in the release:

  • 80% of bedtime changes happen in the first six months
  • By 6–8 months, babies on average sleep nearly nine hours at a time
  • Biggest sleep and pulse rate changes happen in the first two months
  • Early high pulse rates are common and usually reflect age-typical patterns
  • Pulse rate remains higher during light sleep than deep sleep

The full report is available here.  

Doncaster, UK’s MediBioSense will be introducing in March the MBS Infinity Watch, which combines an Android-based smartwatch, smartphone, and medical wearable. We covered MBS and the CEO/founder Simon Beniston back in 2018 (!) when your Editor was doing consulting for an app security company partnering with MBS’ on their first product, VitalPatch. MBS products such as the VitalPatch are distributed in the UK, Europe, Saudi Arabia, South America, and Australia. Mr. Beniston’s latest update is on his LinkedIn post. An earlier update from Business Doncaster, a local publication, was published in October. They also achieved medical certification from the Saudi FDA (SFDA) for VitalPatch after a rigorous two-year (and nine month!) process.

The US House voted on Thursday’s (22 Jan) to send a ‘minibus’ bill containing several long-fought for telehealth extension/expansion provisions to the Senate. A ‘minibus’ combines several funding bills (versus a massive ‘omnibus’) in a multi-bill FY26 funding package released by the House Appropriations Committee earlier this week. With legislation related to the Departments of Labor, the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, Defense, and Transportation, it contains key provisions preserving telehealth including those not included in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. They are:

  • Extension of Medicare telehealth flexibilities through December 31, 2027.
  • Five-year extension of the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program through September 30, 2030.
  • Extension of in-home cardiopulmonary rehabilitation flexibilities through January 1, 2028.
  • Enhancements to certain durable medical equipment (DME) requirements under Medicare.
  • Requirement that HHS issue guidance within one year on furnishing telehealth services to individuals with limited English proficiency.
  • Inclusion of virtual diabetes suppliers in the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program through December 31, 2029.

The American Telemedicine Association and ATA Action continue to track and lobby for the extensions. Release 20 Jan, 22 Jan.

Digital health law firm Epstein Becker Green (EBG) announced an update to their free Telemental Health Laws app. The app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play, is a reference for state-specific laws and policies governing telehealth. This year’s issues include shifting Medicare rules, the gray areas of remote prescribing, and escalating compliance requirements. There’s also the continuing drama of the DEA’s kicking the can down the road, extending pandemic-era prescribing flexibilities to the end of the year versus finalizing a permanent framework for remote prescribing of controlled substances. EBG’s page with link to the app

Last, but not least, are the substantial Federal prison terms that teleprescriber Done Global’s two principals will be facing come 25 February–followed by the indictment of the company. Both founder/CEO Ruthia He and clinical president David Brody were convicted of six counts of illegal distribution of Adderall, a controlled substance, via Done’s telehealth operation, and the submission of false and fraudulent claims for reimbursement for Adderall and other stimulants. The cost? $100 million, as well as “clients’ substance abuse, addiction and, in some cases, overdose”. The fraud included deceptive social media, paying nurse practitioners to refill prescriptions without interaction, and auto-refilling. Both He and Brody were convicted by jury in November. The indictments date back to June 2024 [TTA 24 June, 3 July] and was the first Federal prosecution of criminal drug distribution related to telemedicine prescribing by a digital health company. In December, a Federal grand jury also returned an indictment against Done Global and Mindful Mental Wellness P.A. (MMW), a Florida company, for conspiracy to provide Done members with prescriptions for Adderall and other stimulants that were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose, in return for a subscription fee. Done Global is charged with prescribing over 40 million pills of Adderall and other stimulants, and fraud of $100 million in revenue. Both trials and indictments are in San Francisco, Federal Northern District of California. Department of Justice releases 19 Nov, 17 Dec 2025.

This week’s Must Read: a deep dive on football’s Tom Brady’s involvement with GLP-1 e-Rx eMed

January 22, 2026 | by

For your reading before the NFL Conference championships on Sunday–when celebrity and phenomenal ability don’t necessarily translate to sound judgment. Sergei Polevikov’s latest dissection of Shady Digital Health Doings in AI Health Uncut focuses on Patriots’ quarterback great Tom Brady’s splashy deal with GLP-1 telehealth prescriber/reseller eMed.–then segues to eMed’s story. Brady was named chief wellness officer of the company last Monday. His job with them? “To raise awareness of a more accountable approach for employers to offer medically supervised population health benefits, including GLP-1 therapies, emphasizing the importance of eMed’s medical oversight and its ability to drive long-term health outcomes.” Qualifications? Brady was famous for his TB12 rigorous training and diet regimen, which extended his career to age 45, about 10-15 years longer than most players. He has zero medical background. 

Mr. Polevikov’s narrative documents Brady’s hands-on (so to speak) involvement with a 2014 football championship scandal (“Deflategate”), then his $30 million spokesman engagement with FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto-currency exchange that spectacularly imploded in 2022. For a quarterback whose fame hinged on excellent judgment, except in returning to football after his first retirement, he (and other celebrities) didn’t do the due diligence. But eMed is a step further for Brady. He is more than an eMed endorser–he has an actual company title and an attributed function. Certainly, Brady did not come inexpensively for this relatively young company, funded most recently by Aon Investment for an undisclosed amount.

Background–and interesting intersections. eMed was founded in 2020 by investor Michael Ferro. It started with 2020’s hot product–pandemic Covid-19 tests with online reporting at $35. In 2023, they pivoted into GLP-1 e-prescribing and blood testing. Ferro also founded in-store health kiosk Higi in 2012, though departing management by 2016. Higi was sold to Ali Parsa’s Babylon Health after their spectacular SPAC in late 2021. This would not be the last time Ferro’s and Parsa’s paths would cross, as after Babylon’s Chapter 7 (US) and administration (UK), eMed bought the remains of Babylon Health UK while GP at hand stayed with a group of central London GPs and the NHS. Like the US, the UK operation markets GLP-1 meds to men and women on separate websites (HeMed and SheMed). The US sells both injectable GLP-1s and the new Wegovy oral semaglutide pill.

The rest of the article opens up eMed’s hood, looking at Michael Ferro’s background, some of his hires including Linda Yaccarino (ex-X), Dr. Patrice A. Harris (founder), and (under the chassis) Charlie Javice (a de facto CEO now facing seven years in Club Fed for defrauding JP Morgan with the sale of her company, Frank), and the parts that don’t quite work, such as its financials (allegedly burning through cash) and lack of patient outcomes on GLP-1 meds.

Part of the article is posted on LinkedIn. The article is also on AI Health Uncut on Substack, but a full read requires a modest subscription. It is definitely worth it. Sergei Polevikov is also the host of a podcast, Digital Health Inside Out (free on YouTube), recently interviewing Halle Tecco on what is really broken in healthcare, with a preview of her book ‘Massively Better Healthcare’ (out in February).

2025 healthcare investment off 12% versus 2024, with AI nearly half: Silicon Valley Bank roundup (updated for Scheffel interview))

January 14, 2026 | by

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), now part of First Citizens Bank, is back with a roundup of the prior year in healthcare investment in the US and EU. 2025 was a year of contractions and skewed investments, what they called “barbells, bookends, and have-nots”, with fewer investors hotly chasing profitability and monetization. 

SVB broke ‘healthcare’ into four sectors: Biopharma, Healthtech, Dx (diagnostics)/Tools, and Device. This Editor’s analysis will concentrate on an overall look plus a deeper dive into Healthtech. SVB also broke out an area cutting across all four, emerging from side conversations into the spotlight. It’s an area where many of us have been laboring in for years–Longevity and Healthspan. (Surprise, surprise!)

Highlights:

  • 2025 total healthcare investment in US and EU totaled $46.8 billion, down 12% versus 2024’s $53.2 billion. European investment remained flat. 2025 still exceeded the dreary days of 2023 that dipped sharply to $41.6 billion. (page 12) Yet adjusting for inflation between the two years, 2025 fell below 2023, which would be today $48 billion (Bureau of Labor Statistics using the Consumer Price Index). 
  • Deal numbers fell 7% in 2025 to an estimated 2,517, versus 2024’s 2,704.
  • AI investments across all four sectors was $22 billion–46%. (pages 2, 5)
  • After Biopharma, Healthtech investments stayed relatively strong as the second largest category, growing from 2024’s $13.2 billion to $13.9 billion. (Note: SVB tracks only investment deals above $2 million)
  • Investments resembled a canyon–plenty in Series A, cratering for Series B and Cs (the have-nots), rising for mega-deals around AI, redefined from the traditional $100 million+ to $300 million+. The higher definition reflects the big capital investments required for AI companies. The report calls it a ‘barbell’ shape–and the plates at both ends are heavy.
  • There are fewer deals as investors seek companies with nearer-term scalability, strong fundamentals, defensibility, and strength of execution. Topping it–less money is available for investment from fewer VCs.
  • Healthtech dominated AI unicorns with valuations above $1 billion: Abridge, OpenEvidence, Innovaccer, and Cera. (page 11)
  • Healthtech saw only seven private M&As and three IPOs (Hinge Health and Omada in the US, 66nao Brain Training in China), versus 2024’s 14 and two respectively. (page 24)
  • Healthtech investments fell off in H2 from a decent pace in H1. Both Series A and later stage companies had generous rounds, though getting there is harder than ever. Page 15 presents a roundup of both the Series A and later stage deals.
  • Investor money raised fell to a decade low–$7 billion versus 2024’s $23 billion. Yet many name investors such as Venrock and General Catalyst closed $100 million healthcare funds, continuing the concentration on money following scale, fundamentals, and monetization versus story and potential. (page 7) 

A ‘must read’ is SVB’s discussion of the Longevity and Healthspan sector on pages 18-21. Finally, finally, the market is seeing the huge need and potential of therapies treating age-related conditions from ability to disease, growing 2.3x in 2025. The sector further concentrates into three areas:

  • Geroscience: R&D into the biology of aging to reverse or mitigate changes. Companies: NewLimit, Altos, Cambrian, Rubedo, Aspen Neuroscience
  • Consumer Healthspan: products for users that analyze everyday behaviors to stay healthy longer. Companies: Function, Viome, Oura, Whoop
  • Intrinsic Capacity Healthtech: apps and tools extending functional everyday abilities. Companies: Neuralink, Sword Health, Hinge Health, Science

Based on early indications of investments and deals, 2026 looks brighter, but still continuing AI and consolidation.

A preview of the report is available with registration here. 

Updated 20 Jan: Mobihealthnews interviewed Megan Scheffel, who heads up their healthcare and life sciences practice, outside of JPM last week. She reviewed some of the study findings, such as the ‘barbell’ shape of investment (above). M&As are also reviving, looking “pretty” on the mega/later stage side, but on the smaller side perhaps not the “fantastic outcome” founders and investors wanted, but allowing the technology or founders to live to fight another day. This Q&A was telling:

MHN: Do you see any companies eating up other companies just to bury them?

Scheffel: I don’t know if I would say they’re burying them. I keep saying, like, there’s clearance racks.

For companies, SVB operates on two sides: banking and debt. A strategy, according to Ms. Scheffel, that hasn’t changed since before their near-death experience in 2023. She should know as with them for “a gazillion years” prior to that bad time. “We still really want to help companies, even if they’re not raising $300 million rounds every six months. We still are trying to help find ways to support them and support their causes.”

Her advice to companies to succeed: have good management teams and ideas with a “moat”–innovation, IP, and advantages. For investors, the downturns clear out the dead wood (as this Editor predicted after the 2022-3 shocks). To her, times like now are when good investors can make money from better companies.

 

Editor Donna’s selective roundup: One Medical’s Amazon Rx kiosks, VillageMD sells off Texas, digital health investment’s Q3 boost

October 9, 2025 | by

Amazon keeps trying to integrate healthcare and make One Medical work, using Pharmacy as leverage. Like CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens, Amazon succumbed in 2022 to the Gold Rush of buying up a health clinic network and attempting to integrate primary care delivery into its retail model–after stumbling badly and failing with Amazon Care (2019). While the former have either ditched (Walmart), pivoted (CVS–Oak Street), or spun off their primary care providers (Walgreens–VillageMD/Summit Health), Amazon is testing yet another integration with One Medical, their first being with Amazon Prime.

In its latest tweak, Amazon is delivering limited onsite pharmacy services via a dispensing kiosk to a group of five One Medical offices in the Los Angeles metro. Now Amazon never calls it a test–one has to get about halfway down their release to discover those kiosks won’t be installed till December–but it’s obviously one, with a rollout to other undetermined One Medical offices promised in the sweet bye-and-bye of 2026. The kiosks will dispense common prescription meds in a four-step process: prescription written, sent to Amazon Pharmacy, patient opts for in-office kiosk pickup and payment using their mobile phone to check it out in the Amazon Pharmacy app, and checks it out using a QR code at the kiosk.

Using these five locations (Beverly Hills! West LA!) is an adequate feasibility test, but doesn’t address the piously phrased rationale of 25% of neighborhoods as “pharmacy deserts” and where even in non-desert areas, 51% of patients report delays in filling prescriptions.

The kiosks will be storing basically common Rx meds such as antibiotics, blood pressure medications, and inhalers. 

Where this picture isn’t as revolutionary as my friend Sergei Polevikov maintains in his latest Substack essay (subscription required–and you should; also partially on LinkedIn), it’s another kick in the head for the traditional pharmacy retailers and the PBMs. They are already getting boot impressions by the Hims & Hers virtuals and Big Pharma on GLP-1 and ‘favored nation’ DTC deals. On one side, it reduces friction by making it onsite and easy. But suppose the kiosk doesn’t have my med or it’s out of stock. What do I do once the script is sent and I need to change it? This is also appealing to a younger and/or tech-savvy segment who live on their phone and Amazon apps. Suppose I’m an older patient and apps/QR codes do nothing but confuse me? For Amazon, what about the cost of kiosk installation, cleaning, stocking, monitoring, just like those telehealth kiosks from Forward (CarePods), Higi, and way back HealthSpot Station. They were the future–for five minutes. Apparently there’s also a little regulatory issue of self-dealing referral (hat tip to LinkedIn commenter Ajay Kumar Gupta).  Also Healthcare Dive

VillageMD continues to shrink. The formerly free-standing and co-located Walgreens clinic unit, spun off into a standalone company by Sycamore Partners while I was on medical leave (FierceHealthcare 28 Aug), has sold 32 Texas primary care clinics to Harbor Health, a primary care group and payvider in the Austin area. This adds San Antonio, El Paso, and Dallas as well as more Austin locations. Forbes From a significant almost-national primary and specialty care group, VillageMD is devolving into pieces for sale. One wonders about the extensive Summit Health/CityMD operation, very much tied in with Hackensack Meridian Health that dominates northern New Jersey, and disruption. (Disclosure: my family and I are Summit Health patients)  In other news, Tim Wentworth was replaced as CEO by Mike Motz, from another Sycamore portfolio company. Wentworth remains as director for the time being, undoubtedly working out his retention and various payouts. 

Rock Health breaks the cheerful news that Q3 digital health is an improvement over a dismal 2024 a/k/a 2019. YTD is $9.9 billion, exceeding the $8.4 billion raised through 2024 Q3. Deal size is also trending up: $28.1 million, increasing from $20.4 million in 2024. Where it’s still wobbly is middle-stage investment and anything with a Series letter. Rounds of $100 million plus thrived, with 19 of them accounting for 40% and $3.8 billion of 2025 YTD total funding. I won’t be doing my usual dive into their numbers due to time constraints, but Healthcare Dive summary will do. Rock Health’s Q3 report, usually putting the best foot forward, is weirdly downbeat, calling it ‘signals out of sync’. 

Way out of sync is the continuation of the partial Federal government shutdown, with no mercy on telehealth services and the donkeys doing what donkeys do…refuse to move. 

I’ll be on a short hiatus with no new articles until the week of 27 October.

Will “expensive, complex and inefficient” US healthcare respond to six major demographic, cost, supply trends–and recuperate? Or further sicken?

October 9, 2025 | by

A new and exhaustive report diagnoses the US healthcare patient, pronounces it sick, and the proposed cure involves a “return to first principles”. A new report from researcher Trilliant Health outlines the unsustainability of the current status quo. As of 2023, the US system is the most expensive in the world in absolute terms. It grew from $2.8 trillion in 2012 to $4.9 trillion in 2023 with relatively flat demand and utilization (with 2022 and 2023 skewed because of Covid). In terms of GDP, it was 17.6%, a stunning number that will grow by almost 3 percentage points in the next ten years. The report outlines six trends that are anticipated to affect healthcare, based on data analysis of consumer demand, healthcare supply, and yield–the pricing where they intersect plus regulation and market incentives (e.g. reimbursement). This is a 30,000 foot view of an incredibly detailed report (details below):

  1. Price sensitivity and affordability concerns are reshaping demand. Prices have increased 54.5% from 2009 to 2023, compared to a 45.7% increase in overall consumer prices. Average annual insurer commercial plan premiums are up 85.7% between 2010 and 2024.
  2. Stakeholders are slow to adapt to changing demographic and lifestyle trends. US life expectancy is flat, and the average person is living 12.5 years in poor health. This is compared to residents of the 38 OECD countries, who on average live four to eight years longer and in better health. Avoidable mortality rates per 100,000 are over 100 points higher. Chronic disease mortality among those aged 18-44 increased by 6.4% in the past six years, led by chronic liver diseases. US population is also shifting to the ‘sunbelt’ stages, fleeing California and New York State.
  3. The healthcare delivery system incentivizes specialty care intervention instead of primary care prevention. This is driven by the rise of chronic conditions including “long Covid”, GI diseases, and behavioral health, as well as the low supply of primary care physicians. Retailers and Amazon, after a ‘gold rush’ starting about five years ago, are either exiting, pivoting, or scaling back. Somehow behavioral health volume increased by 43.7% between 2018 and 2024, despite psychiatry not even showing up in their physician specialty analysis. New drug development also is increasingly targeting chronic and rare diseases, with about one-third targeting cancer.
  4. Fraud, waste and abuse are pervasive in U.S. healthcare. To no one’s surprise, rates by CPT codes vary widely and wildly, insurance payers have favored systems, and hospital administration gets more money than direct patient care. Expensive EHRs aren’t delivering on workflow and patient portals. Brokers and PBMs add to cost and complexity.
  5. The transition to alternative care settings and therapies is accelerating. In-patient care innovations tend to start in the hospital and then migrate outward to outpatient settings such as ambulatory surgical care centers. Behavioral health, for instance, has migrated to telehealth. Patients with mental health needs who are well managed and include telehealth tend to have have far more in-patient utilization than unmanaged patients, regardless of utilization level. GLP-1 utilization increased 744.6% between 2018 and 2023, and is increasingly being prescribed and delivered via virtual care providers such as Hims & Hers, Ro, LifeMD, and WW in deals with the pharma companies. Rural health continues to shrink and cut inpatient services.
  6. If the industry cannot deliver value for money and employers will not demand it, the government is prepared to force it. Their effectiveness in this is perhaps a debatable point, since CMS’ value-based care programs such as MSSP and REACH have not really reformed the system, contained costs, nor spread as practices. The profitability of insurers has also deflated. The Trump Administration’s moves with Pfizer on ‘most favored nation’ pricing for Medicaid and direct sales fit here. Coupled with drug manufacturers’ selective desire to bypass PBMs and go direct, there’s a trend here to cut out the middleman.

As to telehealth, once seen as a cost and supply panacea, since 2020 and the pandemic, volume declined by 32.2%, driven by a 52% decrease in non-behavioral care. What remains is behavioral health, 66.9% of visits in 2024. Even that has declined versus prior year from 70.5%. (Slide 84). Another panacea was supposed to be EHRs but they tend to be closed systems, non-interoperable, and another increaser of complexity.

Their conclusion is that healthcare is at a crossroads–no surprise–and that healthcare is now locked into a “doom loop” (Slide 110). Prices increase, the financial strain on patients, providers, payers, and employers increase, patients enter the system sicker, access decreases, and the inefficiency increases geometrically. Their call (Slide 111) is for a return to see what is what is essential and necessary. “At its core, the healthcare system is intended to connect patients with providers for medical care.” Our currently redundant and complex system (see the nightmare that is Slide 8) cannot do that.

The Trilliant Health report is available for download here. Release.