In healthcare today, one of the quietest yet most damaging leak points lies between the referral and the actual appointment. It’s easy to think of referral processing as a back-office task. But in organizations where demand is high, patient expectations are rising, and competition is fierce, a slow or clumsy referral process becomes a strategic liability.
I’ve seen firsthand how systems built for payments and patient engagement reveal one truth: every delay is a missed connection — patients
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
How Legacy Active Directory Creates Ransomware Risks for Hospitals
In early 2024, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago faced a catastrophic cyber incident. Between January 26 and 31, attackers infiltrated the network, forcing the shutdown of phones, email, and critical patient systems including the EHR and online portal. Nearly 800,000 individuals were later notified that their personal and medical data had been compromised. While the precise attack vector was not confirmed, the episode illustrates how outdated identity infrastructure,
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What Benefits Leaders Need to Know About Agentic AI in 2026
The healthcare industry is a leader in AI agent adoption at 68%, according to KPMG research, with early implementations reducing administrative workload by 55%. Yet for all this progress, Agentic AI remains widely misunderstood - often conflated with chatbots or treated as the “final answer” to benefits complexity.
In reality, Agentic AI represents a genuine evolutionary step: systems that understand context across multiple platforms, take action in real-time, and guide members through
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The Unbundling of Primary Care: How 2026 Will Decentralize Medicine
As 2026 begins, I’m seeing a clear shift in how care is delivered and how patients expect to participate in it. After years of incremental progress, the industry is finally moving in ways that truly empower patients, lower barriers for innovators, and relieve clinicians from administrative overload. The forces driving this change are unmistakable: AI agents, consumer-first care models, new entrepreneurial pathways, and the decentralization of traditional medical systems. Taken together,
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The New “Pass/Fail” Test: Why Sovereignty, Not Features, Will Decide Global Health IT Contracts in 2026
What You Should Know:
- A new 2026 report from Black Book Market Research reveals a decisive shift in global healthcare procurement: digital sovereignty has replaced functionality as the primary "gatekeeper" for international contracts.
- Roughly 80% of international health buyers now treat data residency and jurisdictional control as pass/fail criteria, often disqualifying vendors before a product demo even occurs. This shift is being accelerated by AI, as ministries demand to
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Beyond Reactivity: Integrating AI-Driven Home Safety for Aging in Place
Aging in America isn’t a niche issue—it’s a seismic shift. Within five years, one in five Americans will be 65 or older. By 2034, older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.1 This demographic flip is already reshaping households, businesses, and public policy.
One of the most urgent—and solvable—challenges is housing safety, particularly falls. Nearly 90% of older adults want to remain in their homes as they age.2 Yet, fewer than 10% of U.S. homes are
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Beyond Automation: Why the Future of Surgery Is “Performance-Guided,” Not Autonomous
Lately, I've been reading headlines about full autonomous surgery - claims that gallbladders can be removed without a human hand. It makes me wonder: is the operating room being handed over to machines?
The reality is complex - and more human than you might think.
While automation continues to advance, the true future of surgery lies not in removing the surgeon from the loop, but in equipping them with better tools to navigate it. That’s the principle behind Performance-Guided Surgery™: an
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Ending ‘Pajama Time’: How AI Redeploys Clinicians From Paperwork Back to Patients
Too many of us know the drill. After weeks or months of waiting, you finally land a doctor’s appointment. You sit in the exam room, anxious. When the doctor walks in, you get more eye contact with the laptop than with them. The visit feels rushed, and you leave with more questions than answers.
That scene isn’t about indifference. It’s about time. Clinicians are buried under paperwork. Nearly
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NYC Health + Hospitals to Acquire Maimonides in $2.2B Safety Net Overhaul
What You Should Know:
- New York City’s public health system, NYC Health + Hospitals (NYC H+H), has officially announced its plan to acquire Maimonides Health, a move fueled by a $2.2B state grant designed to stabilize Brooklyn's crumbling safety net.
- This merger will allow Maimonides to exit financial instability by accessing higher Medicaid reimbursement rates reserved for public entities and migrating to a unified Epic electronic health record (EHR) to fix fragmented care
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Physician Assistant Trends 2026: AI Adoption, Title Changes, and Workforce Growth
What You Should Know:
- A new Wolters Kluwer survey of practicing Physician Assistants (PAs) reveals a profession in rapid transition. While the workforce is projected to grow by 28% through 2034, PAs are grappling with a significant skills gap: 56% now use AI daily, yet 87% report needing more formal training.
- As the debate over the "Physician Associate" title heats up and administrative burdens mount, hospital leaders face a critical window to modernize training and support this
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