What You Should Know
The Challenge: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has launched the 2026 KidneyX EMPOWER Prize Challenge, a $4M national competition to accelerate innovations supporting living kidney donors.The Core Problem: The math surrounding kidney disease is incredibly bleak. Over 100,000 Americans are waitlisted for a kidney, and more than a dozen die each day waiting. Despite being one of the most effective treatments, the number of living kidney donors has
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Digital Health | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
CMS Establishes New Billing Code for AI-Driven Calcium Analysis on CT Scans
What You Should Know
The Reimbursement Milestone: Effective April 1, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has established a new national billing code and payment pathway under the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for the algorithmic analysis of coronary artery calcium (CAC) and aortic valve calcium (AVC) on chest CT scans.The FDA Clearance: In tandem with the CMS news, Bunkerhill Health received FDA clearance for Bunkerhill Contrast CAC and
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Wavelet Medical Secures $7M to Scale AI Fetal Brain Monitoring Globally with Aegis Ventures
What You Should Know
The Raise & Partnership: Wavelet Medical, an AI-powered fetal brain monitoring startup spun out of Yale, has raised $7M in seed funding and entered into a co-creation partnership with the venture studio Aegis Ventures.The Solution: Wavelet has developed the first non-invasive, AI-powered fetal electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring platform. Instead of looking at the heart, Wavelet measures the organ that directly reflects neurological status: the brain.The Tech
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WellSky and Google Cloud Partner to Modernize Post-Acute Care Transitions
What You Should Know
The Expansion: WellSky is expanding its partnership with Google Cloud to embed advanced generative AI capabilities directly into its CarePort solutions.The Tech Stack: The integration utilizes Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, Gemini models, and BigQuery to overhaul the underlying data infrastructure of post-acute provider networks.The Solution: The AI integration continuously updates this provider data in real time, validating changes without requiring post-acute staff to
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Ultralight Raises $9.3M to Launch AI-Native Operating System for Healthcare
What You Should Know:
The Rebrand and Raise: Vibrant Practice has officially rebranded to Ultralight and announced a $9.3M funding round to build an AI-native operating system for modern medicine.The Backers: The round was led by The General Partnership, with participation from Wisdom Ventures, Anthemis Group, Emerson Collective, GSBackers, and notable angel investors, including former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy.
The DPC Tipping Point
Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices tripled among
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ModMed Expands Multi-Year Cloud Agreement with AWS to Scale Healthcare AI Solutions
What You Should Know
ModMed, a massive provider of specialty-specific EHRs, has signed a new multi-year agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS has been ModMed's primary cloud provider since its inception, but this expanded agreement specifically designates AWS as the engine for ModMed’s "AI-Powered Practice" initiative.
The Clinical Vision
The goal of the expanded partnership is to embed AI—such as the generative AI tool ModMed Scribe 2.0—into every corner of a
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symplr Appoints Former Edifecs Executive Venkat Kavarthapu as CEO
What You Should Know
The Appointment: Enterprise healthcare operations software giant symplr has appointed Venkat Kavarthapu as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.The Leadership Transition: Kavarthapu succeeds Chris Colpitts, who had been serving as interim CEO since November 2025. Colpitts will remain heavily involved, maintaining his role as Executive Chairman of the Board.
Kavarthapu Background
Kavarthapu is a 25-year veteran of health-tech, but he most recently
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The Push for Side-by-Side Prescription Pricing in EHR Workflows
Prescribing has evolved into a financial decision as much as a clinical one. As a result, one of the most consequential access moments is now occurring inside the electronic health record (EHR) during the prescribing workflow, when cost information surfaces and treatment decisions are finalized.
As affordability pressures intensify across commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid populations, patient out-of-pocket costs have become a primary driver of whether therapy is initiated or abandoned.
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Death by a Thousand Vendors: Solera Report Reveals The Hidden Costs of Digital Health
What You Should Know:
The Report: Solera Health released a research report titled "Death by a Thousand Vendors: The Hidden Costs of Digital Health". The survey included 106 senior benefits leaders at organizations with 1,000 or more employees.The Financial Drain: 90% of organizations spend more than $1 million annually on digital health. The estimated median annual cost of simply managing these vendors—including full-time employees and consultants—is approximately $580,000 on top of the
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Qventus Report: 94% of Healthcare CIOs Say AI Delays Create Competitive Disadvantage
What You Should Know:
Qventus released a new industry report surveying 60+ CIOs, Chief AI Officers, CMIOs, and other senior IT leadership from national health systems, including HonorHealth, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Rochester Regional Health to uncover how they are spending, evaluating, and regulating AI.The report, Beyond the Pilot: How CIOs Are Operationalizing AI Across Health Systems in 2026, confirms that the AI market is at a pressure point. As EHR giants
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