Healthcare AI Beyond the Buzzwords: Ambient, Generative, and Agentic Explained Presented by Greenway Health

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Featured Story   The startup that’s changing clinical trial recruitment The story Grove AI leveraged advances in voice AI agents to develop a technology that interacts with patients, facilitating enrollment in clinical trials. Launched just two years, ago, the startup was acquired early this year by Hippocratic AI. Grove co-founders Tran Le and Sohit Gatiganti explained their entrepreneurial journey and talked about how they see AI shaping drug development in the future. The technology Clinical trial recruitment has historically been heavy on documents in a process driven by humans. With Grove’s technology, all of the information about multiple clinical trials is handled by its AI agents. Patients access this technology by phone, answering questions that help the agents determine which trial or trials would could be appropriate. Gatiganti said patients find this process engaging while pharma companies find it makes recruitment faster and more efficient. Why this matters Clinical trial recruitment has long been one of the bottlenecks of the drug development process. Grove’s technology eases that problem. In the future, Le and Gatiganti envision a future where AI agents have roles throughout drug development and even beyond, providing support to patients after a drug is approved and education and outreach to clinicians. Soundbite “It’s much easier to actually go through on the phone, like five questions, ask follow-ups, get everything sorted out in five minutes, versus sending someone a five-page PDF to fill out, sending it back and trying to go back and forth asynchronously,” Gatiganti said. —By Frank Vinluan Sponsored   Healthcare AI Beyond the Buzzwords: Ambient, Generative, and Agentic Explained Presented by Greenway Health The future of healthcare AI is not simply a technology conversation. It is a trust conversation.  Learn more.  Top Stories   Daffodil Health Launches No Surprises Act Dispute Management Solution The news Daffodil Health, an AI health plan administration platform, unveiled a new solution on Thursday that aims to help payers manage No Surprises Act disputes. The issue The No Surprises Act shields patients from unexpected medical bills by keeping them out of payment disputes between insurers and providers. Under the law, insurers and providers must first spend 30 days negotiating reimbursement. If they fail to reach an agreement, either party can initiate the Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process, in which both sides submit proposed payment amounts and an independent arbitrator, known as an IDR entity, selects one of the offers. However, many payers are arguing that the IDR process is being abused by some providers, with providers initiating the vast majority of cases and winning most of the time at significantly inflated award levels. When the No Surprises Act was first introduced, it was estimated that there would be 17,000 arbitration cases a year, but in just the first half of 2025, there were over 1.2 million cases. The solution Daffodil’s new NSA dispute management solution aims to solve this issue. When a payer receives disputes from a provider, the system reads the disputes, triages and categorizes them, and then automatically creates responses to the providers that the payer can review and send. In addition, when a provider pushes back on claims, the system assesses which claim to pay, which one to counteroffer and which one to take to arbitration by analyzing pricing, benchmarking and arbitration data. This “ensures that you spend time and money only where it matters,” said Navin Nagiah, CEO and co-founder of Daffodil Health. For NSA claims that go into arbitration, the system proposes an arbitrator and automatically creates an arbitration package for the payer to review. Lastly, the solution allows the payer to easily show their employer groups how they’re managing NSA disputes. — By Marissa Plescia Healthcare Moves: A Monthly Summary of Hires, Exits and Layoffs Hires Aledade, a national network of independent primary care practices, named Daren Thayne as its chief technology officer and Josh Mandel as its chief scientist. Thayne joins the organization from business intelligence software company Domo, where he served as chief technology officer and executive vice president of product. Mandel comes to Aledade from Microsoft Research, where he served as chief architect for health. Northwell Health welcomed Brian Kim as its first chief biotechnology officer. He comes to Northwell from Mount Sinai, where he most recently served as a physician-scientist and vice chair of research. Documentation AI startup Nabla hired Brian Manning as its new CEO. His most recent role was at Bamboo Health, where he worked as president. Wearables company Whoop welcomed Ami Bhatt as its chief medical officer. Prior to Whoop, she held leadership roles at the FDA and Massachusetts General Hospital. Exits Epic President Sumit Rana stepped down from his role after nearly 30 years with the EHR giant — a move that shakes up succession plans for its 82-year-old CEO Judy Faulkner. Rana’s exit is part of a broader shake-up — with AI leader Seth Hain, R&D senior vice president Dave Fuhrmann and 20-year technical services veteran Mark Morris also departing. Risant Health CEO Jaewon Ryu is stepping down from his position to focus on his family. Dale Maxwell, CEO of Presbyterian Healthcare Services, has been named interim CEO. Layoffs Adventist Health laid off 132 employees across its California operations in early July as it centralized quality, risk management, infection prevention and accreditation functions that were previously handled at the hospital level. The health system, which operates more than 440 care sites and employs over 38,000 people, said 109 of the affected workers had already been offered other roles within the organization. San Francisco-based Dignity Health, part of CommonSpirit Health, laid off 139 employees across two Southern California hospitals — 57 at Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and 82 at California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles. The health system said the cuts are part of an effort to boost efficiencies amid the financial pressures affecting providers nationwide. Novartis is cutting 322 jobs at its Headquarters in East Hanover, New Jersey — its fourth round of layoffs there in five months. The layoffs, effective by October 2, bring the Swiss pharma company's 2026 U.S. job losses to nearly 800. Wellstar Health System is laying off 761 employees, about 2% of its 35,000-person workforce. The cuts hit corporate, shared-services and some administrative roles within Wellstar Medical Group, while the health system said frontline doctors, nurses and clinical staff are not affected. — By Katie Adams A New Era of Interoperability, But Who Gets Left Behind? A collaboratory blueprint CMS released its Interoperability Framework in 2025 as a path forward for EMRs to finally make seamless data exchange a reality. The vision is clear: empower patients and providers by building a connected infrastructure that’s open, standards-based, and rooted in execution instead of theoretical debate. What’s different this time is the tone. CMS isn’t issuing a mandate or a rule; they’re offering a collaborative blueprint, complete with criteria and shared infrastructure. Anyone, big or small, can take the pledge to become a CMS-Aligned Network. That invitation includes networks, EHRs, payers, providers, and digital health apps. It feels like all the right components: faster momentum, patient-first thinking, and modern technology that meets the industry where it is. But while it’s being framed as voluntary, it may not feel voluntary in practice. Hidden requirements The pledge sounds like a gentle opt-in. There’s no requirement to meet every standard on day one, just a commitment to work toward doing the right thing. That sounds great. But to actually participate in the network, you have to meet a baseline level of interoperability. That’s not surprising for organizations that have been building toward this for over a decade. Epic, Cerner, and Athena have had regulatory and financial incentives to enable data exchange since Meaningful Use. They’ve already been meeting or exceeding this level of interoperability for a long time. But that hasn’t been the case across all sectors of healthcare. An uneven outcome Even though CMS’s intent is right, and they’re taking a much-needed stance, the outcome is uneven. If your EMR doesn’t participate, you may not show up in the CMS provider directory. And if that directory becomes a critical tool over the next five to 10 years, this will influence how patients find providers and how providers make technology decisions. Even if it’s not officially required, the cost of not participating will grow. Maybe not today, maybe not this year. But over the next few years, this will have real business and operational consequences. Participation may affect referrals, visibility, and network strength. The onus will be on EMRs to participate. But providers will need to push their EMRs to prioritize participation. This isn’t just about compliance. It’s about what patients are going to expect in the near future. — By MedCity Influencer Elisabeth Brown Video   Video: What did UHC CEO say in unprecedented meeting with reporters? Debunked: UnitedHealthcare invited reporters and influencers to their Minnesota HQ. Why? Hear the exchange between MedCity editor and the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

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