Sean Hudson

The big news this week if you are a digital health operator or investor is the ACCESS program from CMS. Tl;dr is that CMS is now offering value-based care incentives in subspecialties including diabetes, maternal health, behavioral health, and musculoskeletal care. It’s called Outcome Aligned Payment (OAP), because it’s only real healthcare if it has a random acronym 😂 ACCESS will allow these specialty organizations to, in healthcare parlance, “take risk.” They’ll earn bonuses when patients keep their chronic conditions under control and avoid downstream costs, and take penalties when patients go to the hospital or need expensive treatment that proactive intervention could prevent. A few generalized observations from my decade+ building EMR systems and supporting clinicians in outpatient care: 1/ value-based care incentives are by far the strongest in primary care, there are real economic incentives, which makes sense because of the leverage on downstream costs 2/ but those providers are among the least economically influenced because their panels are the biggest (which means they will trade off incentive capture for volume) and margins are most compressed (which makes new operational costs painful to implement) 3/ specialty care has better conditions for adoption - smaller panels, more interest in optimization - but lacks both incentives and infrastructure to take risk The ACCESS program is an interesting answer. It will engage PCPs differently and expand value-based incentives into specialty care areas that are tightly connected to the PCP. That’s immediately exciting for startups and scaled organizations treating patients in those four subspecialties. Their businesses will see a big tailwind to adopt technology and AI if they have the resources to invest ahead of incentives coming online. Shameless 🔌 - a bunch of these organizations have already implemented Canvas Medical, or soon will, so we’re big fans. But I digress. What I’m most bullish on is the positive impact for patients. The winners in ACCESS will understand how to create compounding advantage with technology. That in turn drives a modern, user friendly patient experience. Without incentives like the ones in ACCESS, a busy practice often doesn't want “always on” digital tools like asynchronous chat messaging or on-demand telehealth appointments, because it will cost them money but result in no additional revenue. So cash pay and membership-based clinics are often the strongest adopters of these tools because they have direct incentives to engage (and therefore retain) their patients. All of that changes when the clinical organization takes risk. Decisions now flow from potential impact on cost and quality, rather than payer codes, which means more access and better tools for patients. The aptly named ACCESS is pushing the envelope to specialties where patient and care team interactions can have the greatest impact. This is a step in an exciting direction.

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Here’s something I’ve been thinking about lately: what if we approached RCM like a product team approaches UX? → Patients = users → Payments = conversions → Statements = the interface That would mean: 📉 Mapping where patients drop off between estimate and payment 🧪 Testing different formats, reminder timing, channels 🎯 Optimizing for ease and trust — not just collection speed It’s already happening in some systems — and it’s changing how they build loyalty. 💬 Anyone experimenting with this approach? Share an example in the comments — I’d love to hear what’s working on your side. #RCM #PatientBilling #ProductThinking #HealthTech #DigitalHealth

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CMS announced that applications for the ACCESS Model are now open, but it won't share rates for the Outcome Aligned Payments for a few more weeks -- maybe. It promises to do so before the application deadline on April Fool's Day. "Key Information: Please note that Outcome Aligned Payment (OAP) rates will be released in the coming weeks, prior to the April 1, 2026 application deadline." Curious: Who would submit an application for a program like this without knowing the economic model? I hope CMS publishes the order of applicants so we can see which companies were the most risk-seeking.

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Say goodbye to out-of-date addresses and lost fundraising dollars. We’re thrilled to announce the launch of seamless Instant Address Integration for Ascend CRM. In partnership with Initium Software, we’re empowering fundraising organizations to eliminate outdated data, improve campaign deliverability, and strengthen donor relationships—all with the click of a button. The integration provides powerful capabilities: ⭐ Delivery Point Validation to confirm an address exists and is deliverable. ⭐ National Change of Address to provide automated change of address notifications for USA names and addresses. ⭐ Format Standardization to apply address formatting, either custom or postal preferred. ⭐ Data Appends to enrich address records with supplemental info (congressional district, county, etc.) useful for giving region definitions. Read more about the partnership here → https://lnkd.in/eBR5ceqJ

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AEP favors the plans that see specialization early. Fresh from the CMS Landscape: C-SNP (+42%) and D-SNP (+15%) are surging, clear signal to pivot from breadth to precision, and to target counties where affordability just improved. Early movers are already aligning benefits and broker focus to these shifts. If your nearest rival adjusts faster, your window narrows. Want a 20-minute, county-level readout to calibrate AEP? Talk to us (https://lnkd.in/gtjbDPtf) #Medicareadvantage #Healthplans #SNPs #CMS #AEP2026 #HealthworksAI

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Providers aren’t just treating clients. They’re justifying funding. Figuring out policy shifts. Keeping teams afloat. In this interview with OPEN MINDS Circle, our Senior VP of Product, Brian Craft, shares how Radicle Health helps providers: 👉 Spot gaps in care 👉 Tell their story with data 👉 And lead, even when policy lags 📽️ Watch the interview: https://lnkd.in/gaC7ciEB Use it to guide your next move!

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Today Salubrum (Backed by Forum Ventures) is introducing the Patient Intent Score. Healthcare growth has relied for too long on rough proxies like demographics, keywords, and broad targeting. We built The Patient Intent Score to replace guesswork with signal, using privacy-safe healthcare and consumer datasets including claims-based insights, medical propensity models, social determinants of health, and verified consumer records. The output is a single score that helps healthcare brands and providers prioritize the patients most likely to convert, and deploy spend with greater precision and accountability. The best part is, leads with the given score can be pipelined directly into the CRMs of healthcare brands, allowing them to make a difference immediately. This product reflects our broader shift toward building the demand intelligence layer for healthcare and the bet we are making on consumerization of healthcare. We’ll be sharing more on how it works, and where it’s already being applied, in the weeks ahead. Learn more: https://www.salubrum.com/

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Post-acute tech solutions are not about brand alignment and public announcements. In SNF markets, the real partnerships happen in the weeds. They start with a single use case. One owner/operator who’s willing to try something different. One regional Ops director who has budget pressure and no margin for error. That’s where trust is built. Not with a press release. With an actual working pilot and a support team that doesn’t disappear when something breaks. Founders with traction in adjacent healthcare markets (hospitals, health systems and payors) tend to wait for the big deal to validate the pivot. That’s a mistake. Post-acute wins are built deal by deal. Quietly. Then they compound. If your product has potential in this market, it’s not the buyer you need to convince. It’s the partner who can get you in the room. If you've got a solution that you think may translate well in post-acute care settings, let's get something on the calendar and see what you've got. Kaizenleap Solutions is looking for companies that will move the needle for SNF.

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Community clinics and rural providers should never have to choose between quality care and financial viability. Meditab just unveiled its 5-year AI-powered roadmap to make community healthcare more innovative, more connected, and truly sustainable. Here’s what’s coming; check out our new blog: https://lnkd.in/gt3aNRgA #meditab #meditabims #communitycare #communityhealth #healthcare

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>30% of Medicaid encounters at many clinics don’t result in billable encounters. Why? Because: The patient thought they had insurance. They didn’t. You treated them anyway. Now you’re uncompensated. You finally get coverage. But that first work? Still unpaid. Then comes documentation. If it's not perfect, you still don’t get paid. It’s death by a thousand administrative cuts — and the people who suffer most are those at the margins. We talked to a program working with the highest-acuity foster youth. Their solution? Skip the chaos. Bill a flat monthly rate. Qualify kids upfront. Automate everything else. Not every healthcare practice can renegotiate with MCOs, but every clinic can start asking: - How much time are we losing to reimbursement failures? - Where can we automate chart reviews and quality checks? - What if our EHR helped us get paid instead of getting in the way? Let’s stop normalizing unpaid care as a cost of doing good work.

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“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” —Wayne Gretzky That quote has shaped how I’ve built every healthcare company I’ve been part of—from building national health data infrastructure at Health Gorilla to now launching beHuman Corp., a preventative cancer screening platform designed precisely for the moment we’re now entering. Last week, the Trump administration—with support from JFK Jr.—announced its national push to reform how we detect and prevent cancer. But we’ve seen this moment coming. That’s exactly what we’ve done with beHuman. While the market was distracted by flashy longevity trends and cash-pay concierge models, we built a virtual provider platform focused on cancer prevention for underserved populations, powered by AI, reimbursed by insurance, and designed to integrate directly with the risk-bearing ecosystem. And now, the puck is here. The Trump administration, with strong leadership from JFK Jr., is leaning into prevention, AI infrastructure, and value-based care. This is no longer just a “vision”—it’s national policy direction. And it aligns with what we’ve been quietly building. The Model Behind beHuman At beHuman, we combine clinical intelligence and automation to: - Identify at-risk patients using claims, SDoH, and clinical data - Drive evidence-based cancer screening via telehealth - Transition payers into PMPM risk-based contracts built around outcomes, not checkboxes - Align with Medicare Advantage, commercial plans, and ACOs on risk-bearing models that actually reward prevention We’re not a navigation app. We’re not just closing gaps. We are a tech-enabled provider org, built for the new risk era. Policy Is Catching Up With CMS investing in early detection, AI infrastructure, and longitudinal care models, we’re seeing federal and commercial incentives finally reward what matters: preventing disease, not reacting to it. However, this shift requires infrastructure—both clinical, operational, and payment-related. That’s what beHuman provides. We didn’t wait for these signals. We read them years ago, and we built ahead. Now We Scale beHuman is live. We’ve already generated revenue, proven patient engagement, and established payer contracts. Next is scaling access, deepening payer partnerships, and owning our role in the new preventive care delivery system. We’re here to work with forward-thinking partners across MA, ACOs, and commercial risk models who see the writing on the wall—and want to move before the market forces them to. If that’s you, let’s talk. This isn’t about where the puck has been. This is about skating full speed into where healthcare is finally ready to go. — Steve Yaskin Founder & CEO, beHuman behuman.health

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Halving health-inequality gaps starts with interoperable data. Right now, care differs not because of medicine - but because of where data lives. Different systems. Different formats. Different truths. When records don’t move, inequality grows. Interoperability isn’t just a tech win. It’s a social one: A rural clinic sees the same record as a city hospital. Prevention isn’t blocked by postcode. AI works on everyone, not just the well-documented few. Health equity begins when data flows. Health equity begins when data flows. Because connected data saves lives.

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𝗔𝗜 𝗜𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 — 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗮𝘆. 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆. Rural healthcare providers aren’t just fighting disease. They’re fighting inefficiency, documentation overload, staffing gaps, and time. At the Center for Health Systems Innovation and OLSF Ventures, we believe the next wave of transformation isn’t about adding more people. It’s about amplifying the people already there. That’s why we’re excited about the work of companies like: Ambience – Using ambient AI to instantly document and code physician-patient encounters in real time. No scribes. No dictation. Just more time for care. Lumeris – Providing value-based care platforms and physician enablement services that optimize workflow, improve patient outcomes, and reduce unnecessary costs—especially important in resource-scarce rural markets. Percipio – Delivering advanced diagnostic support through AI-driven clinical decision tools, helping rural physicians confidently manage complex cases when specialty referrals aren’t an option. These aren’t abstract ideas or future-state visions. They’re live solutions—already deployed, already making a difference. Because in rural America, workflow is survival. If we want to close the health equity gap, we need to equip providers not just with compassion, but with the tools to do more with less. #RuralHealth #HealthcareInnovation #ArtificialIntelligence #Ambience #Lumeris #Percipio #CHSI #OLSFVentures #HealthEquity #Startups #DigitalHealth #AI #WorkforceEnablement #ValueBasedCare #Leadership #PrimaryCare

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