Kevin Henrikson

Legislators are begging you to de-identify your organization's health data. HIPAA has made healthcare a "slow data" industry. The reviews and processes required to limit the use of patient data create friction. Data provisioning to researchers and partners can take months and cost up to $50K per project. The legislators that drafted HIPAA saw this coming. That's why they included the de-identification exemption. It's also why almost all other data protection laws have anonymization and de-identification exemptions. But de-identification is treated as the last resort for protecting health data. Meetings and reviews and DUAs are still the default path. So even as fast data industries have captured the public health narrative and AI has democratized access to expertise, health data is still moving slowly. To compete in the era of AI and fast data, de-identification is the best lever available for healthcare and research organizations.

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Medicare Payments by Skin Graft Labelers In one of my posts highlighting the cost variations among various skin grafts, Dan Reck tossed out an interesting idea: group them by manufacturer! Today, I was exploring whether I could do that, and quickly realized the task is actually not that easy. Instead, I did something I could accomplish quickly: grouping by the labelers. [Key difference: A labeler is the company that packages, labels, and distributes the final product to healthcare providers - they put their name on the label and handle marketing/sales. A manufacturer is the company that actually produces/fabricates the physical product. Often these are the same company, but sometimes labelers are distributors who purchase products from manufacturers and rebrand them, or manufacturers may produce products that other companies label and sell.] The chart below shows the total Medicare payments by labelers. It's interesting to see that some labelers have accumulated substantial payments - not all of these will go to the labelers, but assuming even a small portion, it's quite substantial. There are many insights as you dig deeper into this data. As you explore these labelers, their websites, and their product information, some things may surprise you quite a bit. It's not just skin grafts - there are many other areas where various providers are overutilizing healthcare resources. We have compiled extensive data and interesting insights over time, and this is a quick preview announcement that we will be sharing some of these findings via a new blog at falcon health! (Coming soon!!)

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“The thing I am most proud of is that because we built the entire tech stack that we own, from the member app, the company, the client dashboard, to electronic medical records systems and other internal tooling.   We enable providers to spend more time with the patient.” How much longer? 3x longer than the average primary care visit.   This week on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I sit down with Joseph Kitonga, CEO and founder of Vitable Health. Joseph shares his journey from a family background in caregiving to creating a health plan that addresses the needs of underserved workers. He discusses the inspiration behind Vitable, his experience with the Thiel Fellowship, the prestigious Y Combinator,and the unique aspects of Vitable's direct primary care model.   “We are growing extremely quickly” The conversation also covers the challenges of hybrid care models, the importance of empathy in healthcare, and the company's growth trajectory. Joseph emphasizes the need for accessible healthcare and shares insights on building a successful startup in the healthcare space.   How is Vitable impacting clients? An average savings of about 12%   Takeaways ✨ Joseph's family background in caregiving inspired him to create Vitable Health. 💙 Vitable Health aims to provide affordable healthcare for underserved workers. 🎓 The Thiel Fellowship provided Joseph with the opportunity to focus on his startup. 🚪 Vitable's model reduces barriers to accessing primary care services. 📈 The company has about 100,000 members and is growing rapidly. 💻 Vitable's approach integrates in-home and virtual care effectively. 🤝 Building empathy through direct interaction with clients is crucial for Vitable. 🗣️ Joseph emphasizes the importance of talking to users to build a successful product. 🚀 The Y Combinator experience was pivotal for Vitable's growth. 🧘 Joseph practices mindfulness and reading to manage stress and maintain focus. Check out the episode and be sure to like comment and subsc https://lnkd.in/dVAzHMQZ

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Google launched a new "Ask for me" feature will call local businesses and find which has availability. This is a killer use case for healthcare. Providers refuse to make their availability public for patients. Each call takes patients anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to find out if the provider even has availability in the time frame needed for the appointment. If you're in an especially competitive market for provider time, you can easily be calling around for hours before you either find an appt that works or give up. For providers, gatekeeping this information makes sense. They don't want valuable appt slots taken up by patients who are not a good fit ("this is nephrology, not urology"), not urgent, or not in network. That's why they have humans manning phone lines carefully screening callers' every detail. And encoding all their intricate requirements into web forms takes too much effort, so automating this never got prioritized. By having AI call on behalf of patients, the AI can communicate with the clinics and provide the necessary information for the clinic to assess whether the patient should be granted a slot this month, next year, or never. And will save patients hours of time and stress. Over time, I'm guessing clinics will also implement AI to do this work, and it'll be AI talking to AI before we know it. It is much harder than calling for a haircut or oil change though. It requires access to the patients' detailed health info and truly understanding patient needs before making these calls. I'm guessing Google won't open this up for healthcare until many years down the line, if at all. Any startups looking at opportunities like this??

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One of the best parts of HLTH USA was seeing all the doctors, nurses and patient advocates who've become founders. Over the past decade we've seen the barriers to entry in software development diminish. From cloud-based platforms to no-code tools, and now the latest incarnations of vibe coding and AI agents. This flips the traditional model on its head. Instead of boardrooms who measure software in dollars and engineers who see solutions in zeros and ones, we're getting products that start with the clarity, frustrations and lived experiences of the end user. The cardiologist building the EHR she wishes she'd had. The nurse creating documentation tools that actually fit her workflow. The former patient designing the symptom tracker they needed during treatment. They understand the problems intimately because they've lived them. And now they can actually build the solutions. I'm incredibly optimistic about a rising tide of better UX in healthcare, led by the people who know the problems best.

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Adaptive was highlighted in POLITICO this morning in their piece on deepfake healthcare scams — where AI-generated videos of real doctors are being used to push fake treatments and steal from patients. "From kids to state-sponsored hackers, anyone can make a deepfake in minutes — and spread it to millions across social media just as fast." Find the full piece in the comments.

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Prediction: The next billion-dollar SaaS companies won’t charge for software, they’ll give it away for free. Some of the most successful founders we’re backing at SignalFire aren’t focused on selling licenses or seats, but rather on owning entire workflows and ecosystems. We've found that when you embed AI into a high-friction, under-digitized process in industries (education, healthcare, government procurement), you can win the trust of the user who controls the action -- even if they don’t control the budget. That clears the way for you to monetize transactions downstream like payers, suppliers, logistics, finance. We call this model "Networked SaaS", and we’re seeing it reshape entire categories. It's already working really well across some of our our portfolio companies: - Verse Medical gives nurses free AI-powered ordering tools, then monetizes fulfillment - Grow Therapy handles therapist ops, and gets paid through sessions and payers - Stampli turns accounts payable into a real-time financial engine for enterprises We believe that for founders building in complex, multi-stakeholder markets, this will be the winning playbook. More in our latest thesis from Wayne Hu: https://lnkd.in/g7tgsUcG

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I spent Q4 testing agent frameworks with Lab members. Not theoretical demos. Real implementations for solo founder businesses. Some created genuine capacity, freeing founders from operations so they could work on partnerships, products, strategic initiatives. Others? Time sinks that automated nothing meaningful. If you're building agents for your business in 2026, here's where to start: 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗔𝗜 "𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗰" Google's primer on agentic AI explains the core distinction: autonomy vs. chatbots https://lnkd.in/gFD7EABN This matters because most founders are still thinking in terms of task automation. Agents create something different, systems that handle decisions, not just execution. 𝗔𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 OpenAI Academy's workflow introduction shows how tools and memory combine https://lnkd.in/gtJHCRkK The bridge between "interesting demo" and "runs my lead qualification process" is understanding this architecture. 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻: 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲'𝘀 𝟱-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 Models, tools, orchestration, memory, evals. The full stack from prototype to production https://lnkd.in/gDixaQcX 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀: 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗰'𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 Real-world agent patterns that actually work at scale https://lnkd.in/gs3jPjnd This is where you learn what breaks and how to build for reliability. 𝗜𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲: 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲 Watch agents build agents. Practical walkthrough of agentic coding https://lnkd.in/gjJZuZ26 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁-𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹: 𝗚𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲 𝗔𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘃𝗶𝘁𝘆 Mission Control interface for autonomous development agents https://lnkd.in/gtEeCJZD The progression matters here. Start with understanding agentic vs. automated. Build architecture knowledge. Get hands-on. Learn production patterns. Then deploy. When you're ready to dive in: https://mightyailab.com

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FDA update: “information-only” AI tools won’t be regulated like medical devices. In plain English: if your app or wearable is just providing general health info (think wellness insights, education, organization) and not diagnosing, treating, or claiming “medical-grade” accuracy, the FDA says you’re outside device regulation. Big unlock for low-risk digital health. A couple of important guardrails: - Start making clinical claims (e.g., diagnosing, treating, or “medical-grade” vitals), and you’re back in FDA territory. WHOOP’s blood-pressure dust-up is a recent reminder.  - FDA also refreshed its Clinical Decision Support guidance: some software that helps clinicians can be “non-device CDS” if it meets strict criteria (transparency, clinicians can independently review the basis, etc.). Nuance matters here. For founders: great news for education, wellness, and care-prep tools—faster paths to market. But if you want to live in clinical workflows, plan for evidence, labeling discipline, and a clear claims strategy from day one. (Build the product you can legally describe.) Bottom line: this doesn’t green-light risky features; it clarifies the lane for low-risk, info-only AI while preserving scrutiny for anything that looks like the practice of medicine. Ship responsibly. 🔧🩺 https://lnkd.in/e8udDGhz 🔁 Know someone working on this? A quick repost might save them time. Follow me at Alex Koshykov.

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You're building a HIPAA-compliant app. Do you hire the $50/hr generalist or the $70/hr healthcare expert? It’s not a trick question. The wrong choice can cost you a fortune in rework and delays. Specific domain expertise is a critical factor in your Total Cost of Development that goes far beyond hourly rates. In this video, I discuss: * The hidden costs of hiring a generalist for a specialist's job. * How domain experts anticipate problems before they happen, saving you time and money. * Why the "cheaper" developer is often the most expensive option. Get your copy of The True Cost of Software Development here: https://lnkd.in/g5DbFuth #SoftwareDevelopment #DomainExpertise #CTO #Offshoring #TotalCostOfDevelopment #HealthTech

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Spitball Sunday: $7B to Reverse Disease With AI. You can see that as either a spitball OR reality via ACCESS While not once in the RFA or rate document does CMMI mention AI or LLMs, CMMI leadership was quoted yesterday saying something that made it’s intentions clear. "Develop NOT for RPM economics, but leverage LLMs to help patients self-manage. If you've already got something built, think about the automation and self-management side." They want AI-powered self-management. At scale. For $1.15 a day. Think that's the worse idea ever, well as Pryce Ancona and Brendan Keeler have said - AI is the worse it's ever going to be. And 3 weeks ago, in the course of a few hours, I was able to download 10 years of health data, generate 3 of comprehensive health eval and optimization plans for myself tapping into 4 different world reknowned physicians. The reports blew away anything I have received from tens of thousands of $$ spent trying to get to the bottom of my health. Inclulding traditional MDs, functional docs and concierge docs. As for the ACCESS rates, it’s as if ŌURA sat down with Oz over dinner and sketched out the economics they needed to participate in access – Initial year - $200-$250 to cover the cost of the hardware and double the current $5.99/month to cover the cost of an amped up version of their current nudging. Follow-up years – no more hardware cost, just the cost of nudging. ACCESS is many things: A System C Design Breakthrough Pot of Gold An Opportunity to Capture Payment from Medicare for Direct to Consumer Disease Reversal Solutions Not Reimbursed Today by Medicare A Golden Opportunity to Show Consumer Latent Demand for a Desire to Reverse Disease NOT Simply Treat It “Better” An Opportunity to Bridge the Gap Between the Grocery Store and Healthcare NOT through FIM but through Food Is Health – Leveraging the Assets that Exist Today and Harnessing the Tech that Healthcare (rightly so) Fears and Views as Perilous A System B Slap in the Face A Tech Bros Best Day Ever An Expensive Dumpster Fire (and Possibly the Biggest One in CMMI History) I see it as a design challenge for the Good Guys. For CKM, it’s $420/month x 21.5 million beneficiaries with a CKM condition. The incumbent healthcare delivery system sees that as a gnat on the elephants ass, but others don’t. This is actually an unexpected opportunity for CPG and retail grocery to take a new position in healthcare with their customers. AND get paid for it. If the rates hit a nerve. Good. We started mapping the use cases for this last week in Denver at our first ever Food Is Health Unconference (Carter Williams). We had farmers, CPGs, retail grocery, healthcare and more designing how we could end the chronic disease epidemic. If you didn't hear about it, you must not be over on our foodishealth substack. It's GO TIME for what Carter Williams and I call System C. The food industry has the opportunity to take back a bunch of marketshare from healthcare.

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