< + > Healthcare Interoperability Works Through Open Standards

Ryan Howells, Principal at Leavitt Partners, envisions a wholesale move by the health IT industry to open standards, health care providers moving data from the EHR into their own data centers for more flexibility in AI use, patients sharing the insurance information with providers without paper cards, and 93% of prior authorizations requests answered in real time.

In a recent interviw with Howells, we explore the regulatory and technical advances in interoperability that might even kill the clipboard that patients fill out on each visit. And yes, “Kill the Clipboard” is a reference to a paper that Howells and Leavitt Partners published wich many of the ideas expressed in the paper being reflected in CMS’ Kill the Clipboard effort.

Leavitt Partners brings together multisector alliances, including providers, payers, IT experts, and others, to help health care organizations handles policy issues at the federal level. In addition to offering services, the Leavitt Partners proposes policy changes to CMS and ASTP (ONC) about what needs to be written or changed.  We dive into some of these learnings with Howells.

Howells laments that the EHR certifications set up in the Meaningful Use period did not require standard interfaces; therefore, each vendor has a different interface and apps can’t easily be designed to tie together different EHRs. (As an example of how bad the current situation, my PCP merged with a hospital in the area and “migrated” patient records to the new EHR, which was from the same major vendor. Most of the information got lost and had to be re-entered for thousands of patients.)

Now that FHIR is widely adopted, ONC certification is requiring interoperability, and Howells says it “could unleash more innovation in healthcare tech than ever before.” Payers and priorities now have to share data prior authorizations and payments. The ONC also pared down its certification.

CMS has a new, loose collaboration to implement the idea of a CMS-aligned network. It has 13 workgroups, currently involving more than 600 organizations and 1,000 individuals. Leavitt Partners, since 2016, has run the CARIN Alliance to empower digital access by consumers to health care data, with the goal of single sign-on from anywhere.

Howells and Lynn discussed the recent importance of AI for consumers. Howells said that 20% of searches on popular sites such as ChatGPT are health-related.

However, the real value of AI comes from understanding the complete patient. To do this, the patient would need to upload their entire history, but that complete record doesn’t exist. Instead, records are scattered among EHRs that don’t talk to each other.

The video also discusses the barriers to sharing data, including those erected by HIPAA. Howells says that rules for business partners, which require fees and the involvement of layers to set up data agreements fees, effectively constitute blocking. Although patients should have unfettered access, the technology hasn’t been created to allow this. And the lack of interoperability ensures that the system doesn’t scale, although TEFCA should help.

The EHR, in Howells’s opinion, has been asked to do too much. EHRs weren’t designed to help physicians determine how much risk to share, or to report quality measurements to regulators. Interoperability is indispensable to the development of a third-party ecosystem where providers can extract data from the EHR, store it in their own cloud instances, and run their choice of applications and AI models.

Thus, openness is the wave of the future: open data models, open AI agents for routine tasks, etc. Open standards allow federal agencies to require their use.

The Rural Transformation Program will help less financially endowed providers adopt the new technologies.

Howells has much more to say in the video concerning digital identity, how we can emulate Africa in leapfrogging to new technologies, the upcoming crisis in finding primary care physicians, why revenue cycle management is a tremendous waste that interoperable technologies should render obsolete, and more about openness.

Learn more about Leavitt Partners: https://leavittpartners.com/

Learn more about the CARIN Alliance: https://www.carinalliance.com/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

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< + > This Week’s Health IT Jobs – February 18, 2026

It can be very overwhelming scrolling through job board after job board in search of a position that fits your wants and needs. Let us take that stress away by finding a mix of great health IT jobs for you! We hope you enjoy this look at some of the health IT jobs we saw healthcare organizations trying to fill this week.

Here’s a quick look at some of the health IT jobs we found:

• Director of Informatics Applications – Healthcare IS
• Patient Access Specialist – Ensemble Health Partners
• Systems Director, Population Health Service Organizations – CommonSpirit Health
• Director of Technology and Security – Singing River Health System
• Manager, Privacy – Cardinal Health
• Healthcare Coordinator – PDS Health
• Director, Health System Epic Applications – Aspirus Health
• Project Manager – Medical Affairs & Medical Education (US) – TribeMD US
• Health Information Management Specialist – Breg
• Pharmacy Claims Specialist – TEKsystems
• Medical Records Coordinator – HCA Healthcare
• VP Technology and Digital Solutions – Avant Healthcare Professionals
• Healthcare Claims Operations Manager – Gainwell Technologies
• Sr. Privacy Associate – Stamford Health
• Manager, Ethics and Compliance – Cardinal Health
• Chief Technology Officer – Harmony Healthcare IT
• Epic Systems Analyst (Population Health) – SSM Health
• Senior Director, Technology Governance – Banner Health
• Director, Program Management Danaher Business System Office (DBSO) – Danaher Corporation
• Sr. Healthcare Data Analyst (New Mexico Health Plan, Remote) – Molina Healthcare

If none of these jobs fit your needs, be sure to check out our previous health IT job listings.

Do you have an open health IT position that you are looking to fill? Contact us here with a link to the open position and we’ll be happy to feature it in next week’s article at no charge!

*Note: These jobs are listed by Healthcare IT Today as a free service to the community. Healthcare IT Today does not endorse or vouch for the company or the job posting. We encourage anyone applying to these jobs to do their own due diligence.

< + > CMS Reimbursement for Tech-Enabled Therapies with Joseph C. Sardano from Sensus Healthcare

We all know that one of the biggest challenges that the government faces is the speed at which technology is evolving.  Whether it’s the FDA trying to regulate medical devices and new AI applications or whether it’s CMS trying to evolve how they reimburse for various services, it’s a challenge to keep up.

While this is a challenge, it’s still the reality that they face and they continue to try to adapt to the ever changing world.  To learn more about some of the recent CMS reimbursement changes for tech-enable therapies, we interviewed Joseph C. Sardano, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Sensus Healthcare.  Along with talking about some of these changes and how they can be incorporated into various IT workflows, he also suggests some ways that CMS to continue to improve their reimbursement of quickly evolving tech-enabled therapies.  Check out our interview to learn more:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and Sensus Healthcare

Joseph C. Sardano: I’m the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Sensus Healthcare, and I’ve spent more than 40 years in healthcare. My passion has always been bringing game-changing technologies to clinicians so they can improve patient care.

Over the years, I helped bring major innovations to market with Johnson & Johnson, Toshiba, GE, and Siemens, from MRI and digital radiography to PET/CT and radiopharmaceuticals.

I launched Sensus Healthcare in 2010. We develop superficial radiation therapy (SRT) systems for non-melanoma skin cancers and other dermatologic conditions, including keloids. SRT is incision-free and office-based.

The treatment enables patients to avoid surgery, minimize scarring, and get back to life faster. Studies show the treatment works well over the long term. That gives patients confidence and real peace of mind.

What do you see are some of the ways that technology is evolving and CMS is struggling to keep up?

Joseph C. Sardano: Over the years, CMS has relied on physician societies, often working through the AMA to influence, and in many cases shape, policy, procedures, and reimbursement. In many cases, those recommendations benefited the physician specialties behind them. CMS adopted those recommendations nearly 100% of the time.

In recent years, CMS has continued to consider these recommendations, but it has become more aware of the cost implications. As a result, the process has come under greater scrutiny. CMS has become more disciplined about what it accepts from the AMA. I’ve seen increased awareness and, overall, better decisions.

As healthcare and patient needs continue to evolve, CMS should include manufacturers in this equation, not just physician groups.

How have the new codes from CMS evolved to better account for healthcare IT in outpatient care?

Joseph C. Sardano: The buzz is building around superficial radiation therapy (SRT) in dermatology, but the industry must remain mindful of self-serving groups that seek to control the adoption of new technologies. These groups can exert significant influence over patient care in order to protect their financial interests at the expense of patient outcomes.

What were the previous workflows and processes for reimbursement, and what do they look like with the new codes?

Joseph C. Sardano: The new codes make reimbursement for treating skin cancer and keloids far more straightforward. The gray area is gone. Physicians can see exactly how they’ll be paid, and payers have clearer guidance on what’s required.

Effective January 1, 2026, CMS revised billing for Superficial Radiation Therapy (SRT) used to treat nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSC). CMS introduced dedicated CPT codes 77436 and 77437, replacing older, less specific codes such as 77401 and G6001. These new codes allow for more accurate reporting and higher reimbursement, and CPT 77437 requires use of a KX modifier.

How are you seeing EHR and billing systems evolve to better integrate things like clinical decision making and documentation with billing?  What else would you like to see done?

Joseph C. Sardano: EMR systems are essential for any physician practice to run the business effectively. In my view, dermatology still lags with much in the healthcare industry in adopting the kinds of modern technologies that are now common elsewhere.

Overall, I see device manufacturers doing too little to help practices improve productivity and fully integrate new tools into the clinic workflow. Until everyone in dermatology is held to clear standards for technical integration, so patient data and practice management systems can work together seamlessly, the specialty will continue to be behind the eight ball.

What else would you like to see done by CMS to continue to facilitate tech-enabled therapies in outpatient care?

Joseph C. Sardano: CMS has issued clear reimbursement guidance that enables dermatology practices to deliver this technology to patients. However, a small number of self-interested groups continue to interfere with patient access and slow adoption. That needs to stop. Any coordinated efforts to obstruct proven, clinically valuable technology, especially when they delay patient care, should be met with appropriate scrutiny and consequences.

< + > Does Your Radiology AI Actually Work Here? HOPPR Has an Answer

AI in radiology often looks impressive in a demo. It scores well in validation studies. It clears regulatory review. Then it lands in a clinic with different protocols, different workflows, and different staffing patterns. Suddenly the AI does not perform as expected. That drift was the spark behind HOPPR.

In a recent conversation with Dr. Khan Siddiqui, Founder and CEO of HOPPR, we explored what happens when AI tools are built to adapt to specific radiology teams instead of the market at large.

What This Conversation Revealed

• AI performance is local, not universal. Most organizations overlook this.
• Locked-down, one-size-fits-all models struggle where imaging technique and clinical behavior vary.
• The strongest AI use cases are operational and financial, not diagnostic.

“Does It Work Here?” Is the Only Question That Matters

Health IT teams are used to vendor claims that an AI model “works everywhere.” The assumption is that performance travels with the algorithm. Dr. Siddiqui challenged that assumption directly: “Instead of asking whether a model works in general for healthcare, we should ask, does it work here?”

A model tuned on one population, one acquisition style, and one workflow may degrade in another. Scanner configurations differ. Protocols differ. AI models will demonstrate different results at different organizations.

Frozen Models Don’t Travel Well

Regulatory clearance creates confidence. It does not eliminate environmental variability.

Dr. Siddiqui put it plainly: “The models that are trained and frozen don’t perform the same when they go from site to site. If I was trained at Hopkins, I would learn to scan patients this way. If I was trained at Stanford, I would learn to scan patients a different way.”

Differences in image acquisition cascade into differences in pixel distribution and ultimately model behavior. A static AI model assumes healthcare practices are uniform. That is simply not the case.

That reality is pushing some organizations to look for AI that can be tuned to their operating context.

HOPPR and the “Market of One”

Rather than shipping another fixed-model AI application, HOPPR built what Dr. Siddiqui calls an AI Foundry. The premise is straightforward: give organizations the components to fine-tune models against their own data, protocols, and risk profiles.

In practice, that means a radiology team can address a problem that only it has. A true “market of one.”

Dr. Siddiqui shared one example. A radiology practice faced a shortage of specialists and outsourced certain studies overnight. The cost of that teleradiology service exceeded reimbursement for many of those exams.

Together with HOPPR, they built a narrowly focused model to identify only the critical findings that required immediate reads at night. The result was a significant reduction in operating costs.

It may not be a broadly marketable feature. It does not need to be. It solved their problem.

The question is no longer “Does it work?”
It is “Does it work HERE?”

Learn more about HOPPR at https://www.hoppr.ai/

Listen and subscribe to the Healthcare IT Today Interviews Podcast to hear all the latest insights from experts in healthcare IT.

And for an exclusive look at our top stories, subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube.

Tell us what you think. Contact us here or on Twitter at @hcitoday. And if you’re interested in advertising with us, check out our various advertising packages and request our Media Kit.

< + > Anshar AI’s Game-Changing Agents Debut at HIMSS 2026

The following is a guest article by Emily Snyder, CMO at AnsharAI

Maria, an overworked revenue-cycle nurse, cut denials by 60% in just one month thanks to Anshar AI’s cutting-edge agentic solutions. Her experience illustrates the revolutionary effect of healthcare AI, opening the door to greater accessibility and usefulness in the field. By integrating Anshar AI’s solutions into her hospital’s existing claim management system with minimal IT involvement, Maria automatically identified and addressed common causes of insurance denials, resulting in faster claim resolution and a significant reduction in lost revenue.

Real stories similar to Maria’s bring to life the true impact of AI-powered transformation in healthcare. Now, Anshar AI is taking this transformation to the national stage at HIMSS 2026, removing every obstacle to effective adoption and giving attendees firsthand access to game-changing agents that can be added to your workflow right away.

Maria’s experience is only the beginning. If you want to be the first to know what’s next, attend the Anshar AI Reveal Party. This exclusive 45-minute online event delivers a preview of agentic workflows, opportunities to engage with the CEO and the Head of AI, and access to a VIP HiMSS-only exclusive offer.

With three U.S. patents and extensive experience designing workflows with leading LLMs, our team is ready to share insights into agentic success. IT professionals will also find tremendous value in technical demonstrations and integration Q&A sessions, designed to provide the knowledge needed to integrate agents into existing IT infrastructure seamlessly. Registration is required, and space is limited. We will reveal the secret HIMSS offer only to registered attendees. 

Agentic AI: Beyond Chatbots, Beyond Generative

This new class of AI is transforming workflow automation for all healthcare stakeholders. Agentic AI goes beyond generative AI and chatbots by functioning autonomously to manage complex administrative tasks. These agents not only provide information but also execute decisive actions. For example, an agent can process a denial, retrieve documents, draft an appeal letter, and prepare it for human review. Other agents can automate prior authorization, claim scrubbing, or patient communication at any time.

Healthcare AI That’s Fast, Affordable, and Ready to Deploy

Following the Reveal Party, the real advantage begins: Anshar AI’s solutions are built for fast results, not generic promises. Here’s how:

• Immediate ROI: Reduce denial write-offs by 40% within 90 days, delivering measurable results.
• Simplified Procurement: Approve purchases without board-level review. Select, sign, and launch with minimal delay.
• Menu-Driven Simplicity: No custom scoping or lengthy workshops are required. Proven agents are tailored for a specific workflow. Flagship options include the “DenialFighter” to reduce insurance denials and the “PostVisitScribe” to convert visit recordings or transcripts into structured SOAP notes. 
• Rapid Deployment: Solutions can be implemented in 4 to 6 weeks, compared to the 12 to 18 months typical of traditional AI projects. This speed is enabled by proprietary reusable architecture and pre-built templates. Faster deployment helps organizations avoid delays and lost revenue.
• Scalable, Human-in-the-Loop: Each agent is designed for clinical-grade reliability, with human approval checkpoints and HIPAA-compliant infrastructure. Specific measures such as data encryption and comprehensive audit trails are in place to safeguard patient information. Defined roles, such as RN reviewers or coding auditors, review each step to ensure medical accuracy and security.

This is made possible by a proprietary, reusable architecture built from a library of agentic workflow templates on a HIPAA-compliant AWS stack.

Built for Every Buyer

Anshar AI scales for small clinics, hospital systems, and payers alike.

• Small Clinics: Automate the admin work that’s drowning your staff. Imagine spending 2 hours on hold for prior authorizations when you can be spending time on patient care.
• Hospital Systems: Deploy agents for revenue cycle, engagement, and operations.
• Payers: Streamline claims and care coordination.

Anshar AI is redefining what’s possible in healthcare operations by making advanced AI accessible, practical, and immediately impactful. With seamless integration and proven results for professionals like Maria, the future of healthcare is within reach.

Experience firsthand how agentic AI can transform your organization’s workflow and results.

Join The Party: Register Now For The Anshar AI Reveal. Space is limited; sign up to receive an exclusive offer redeemable at the booth. Attendees will learn about innovative agents that you can integrate into workflows immediately.

Schedule A Private Workflow Session with the Anshar AI team, either before HIMSS26 or as a follow-up.

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This article is part of Healthcare IT Today’s coverage for HIMSS 2026.  Anshar AI is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.

< + > NuvemRx Acquires par8o from R1 RCM, Strengthening its Specialty Care Coordination and 340B Referral Capture Capabilities

The Acquisition Connects Pharmacy and Referral Intelligence to Help Covered Entities Simplify Workflows, Expand Access, and Grow 340B Savings

NuvemRx, a leading tech-enabled pharmacy solutions company for community health providers, today announced it has acquired the 340B referral capture business formerly known as par8o, from R1 RCM. par8o is an innovative healthcare technology company specializing in 340B referral capture with expansive integrations with the nation’s major pharmacy partners. The acquisition expands NuvemRx’s ability to help covered entities more effectively capture specialty referrals, retain patients within their networks, comply with ongoing rebate and reimbursement changes, and grow eligible prescription savings.

With par8o’s network added to its suite of services, NuvemRx will now support more than 800 covered entities nationwide. The powerful combination of third-party administrators (TPA), pharmacy management, and advanced referral services creates a unique opportunity for covered entities to optimize their entire pharmacy care delivery model. The expanded network of customers leveraging these services represents more than 70 million cumulative patients being served.

“Referral leakage and fragmented specialty care often prevent safety-net organizations from capturing the full value of the 340B program,” said Scott Seidelmann, CEO at NuvemRx. “By bringing par8o’s referral technology, enhanced with AI-powered decision support, into our suite of services, we can automate up to 85 percent of the referral and eligibility process. This offers providers another opportunity to reduce the administrative burden associated with the 340B program and allows patients to receive high-quality integrated care.”

par8o’s technology complements NuvemRx’s core pharmacy services offerings while also filling a critical gap in the 340B ecosystem: delivering real-time referral visibility that helps providers identify eligible prescriptions, capture additional savings, and reduce leakage across specialty care workflows.

“With NuvemRx, we now have a complete solution that brings together TPA, pharmacy management, and referral capture services under a single, mission-aligned partner,” said Melissa Opraseuth, COO at par8o, who will be joining the NuvemRx leadership team. “As a combined company, we will be able to directly address the inherent complexity of the 340B program for safety net providers and support ongoing access to care for patients across the country.”

For more information on how NuvemRx supports community health centers and safety-net providers, please visit nuvemrx.com.

About NuvemRx

NuvemRx helps community health providers deliver on their mission by simplifying the complexity of pharmacy operations —with a suite of scalable solutions that integrate software, intelligence, and expert support that can illuminate savings, expand access, and elevate patient care.

About par8o

par8o advances access to care for safety-net healthcare organizations by turning eligible outpatient referrals into compliant 340B savings at scale, through advanced technology, expertise, and deep pharmacy integrations. par8o was acquired by R1 RCM as part of the Cloudmed transaction in 2022.

Originally announced February 2nd, 2026

< + > Digital Isn’t Enough: Why Interoperability Must Be the New Standard for NEMT

The following is a guest article by Jill Hericks is the Head of Strategic Accounts at Kinetik

Across healthcare, interoperable technology infrastructure has become foundational. Recent industry research underscores just how critical this shift has become: according to a global survey of healthcare leaders conducted by MIT Technology Review Insights, 96% of executives say they are ready and resourced to adopt digital solutions, yet more than 90% acknowledge that interoperability remains a significant challenge to realizing their full value. This contrast highlights a growing consensus across the industry—strategy and investment alone are not enough if systems remain disconnected.

Payers and public programs increasingly recognize that siloed technology limits visibility and slows decision-making. As a result, interoperability—the ability for systems and stakeholders to securely share and act on data—has become foundational to improving outcomes, controlling costs and delivering better outcomes.

Yet, one critical benefit has largely been left behind in this interoperability transformation: non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT).

For more than two decades, the NEMT industry has operated within a highly fragmented market. Program administrators, brokers, and service providers often rely on disconnected systems, manual processes, and delayed communication. While many programs are now considered “digital,” they remain operationally disconnected. As a result, NEMT programs are frequently overseen reactively rather than managed proactively, limiting the ability to make agile, data-driven decisions and contributing to inefficiencies, increased risk of fraud, waste, and abuse, and declining member trust.

As Medicaid programs modernize, payers assume greater accountability for outcomes and costs, and regulators demand stronger program integrity, NEMT’s lack of closed-loop interoperability has become a material operational and financial risk – not just an efficiency issue. Today, interoperability must become the standard by which NEMT programs are designed, procured, and managed.

The Real Cost of Reactive Oversight

Missed and late trips, along with broader issues related to trip fulfillment, remain among the most visible failures in NEMT programs. But these aren’t isolated operational hiccups; they’re symptoms of a system designed to respond after something goes wrong – rather than prevent failure in the first place.

In many NEMT programs, data is captured by individual stakeholders but not shared through interoperable infrastructure. Trip intake lives in one system. Fulfillment happens in another. Billing and claims live somewhere else entirely. Information arrives late, requires manual reconciliation, or can’t be trusted as a single source of truth. By the time a program administrator learns the ride was missed or delayed, the appointment is already lost.

This reactive model increases administrative work, inflates costs, and erodes member trust. Over time, it conditions organizations to accept failure as inevitable because the system offers no way to intervene early enough to change the outcome.

Digital Solutions Don’t Equal Connected Infrastructure

As Medicaid leaders and payers evaluate NEMT partners, it is increasingly important to distinguish between digital solutions and interoperable technology stacks.

Many vendors describe their offerings as “end-to-end,” yet in practice, critical components such as billing and claims may remain disconnected from trip operations. In these models, data exists across multiple systems but does not flow automatically across the full benefit lifecycle. This fragmentation limits the ability to act on data in real time, increases reliance on manual workflows, creates additional administrative overhead, and opens the door to fraud, waste, abuse, and human error.

Interoperability is what unlocks the full strategic value of the NEMT benefit. Truly interoperable technology stacks support closed-loop data sharing across program administrators, brokers, transportation networks, members, and financial workflows. With closed-loop data sharing, stakeholders can make agile, data-driven decisions and have proactive oversight. This shared infrastructure allows programs to focus on continuous improvement and accountability, which rely on capabilities that digital tools alone cannot provide.

What Interoperability Means in NEMT

In NEMT, interoperability is the ability for every stakeholder involved in a trip to operate from the same, trusted data, at the same time. It means trip status updates are visible as they happen. Exceptions surface immediately. Billing and claims are generated directly from the verified trip activity. Operational and financial data remain synchronized throughout the benefit’s lifecycle.

This level of transparency is now expected in nearly every other service that touches consumers’ daily lives. We can track a food delivery in real time from pickup to delivery. Yet for members relying on NEMT to access healthcare services, that same visibility has historically been absent. This gap underscores how far behind the benefit has fallen, and how critical closed-loop interoperability is to enabling timely, data-driven intervention.

Why Interoperability Changes Outcomes

When NEMT programs are built on closed-loop, interoperable infrastructure, oversight shifts from reactive to proactive. Program administrators can see trips unfolding in real time, identifying risk as it emerges, and intervening before a delay becomes a missed appointment. Decisions are informed by real-time, trusted data rather than after-the-fact reports.

Closed-loop interoperability also strengthens program integrity. When billing and claims are directly connected to trip data, programs reduce manual reconciliation, limit opportunities for fraud, waste, and abuse, and automate workflows that would otherwise require significant administrative effort. Most importantly, members experience more reliable, predictable service, which helps rebuild trust in a benefit that is essential for care access.

What Payers Should Look for in Closed-Loop Interoperability

As payers evaluate NEMT partners, a few questions can help distinguish digital tools from truly interoperable, closed-loop infrastructure:

• Does trip data automatically flow across intake, fulfillment, billing, and claims without manual reconciliation?
• Is there real-time visibility into trip status and exceptions to support timely, data-driven decisions?
• Are operational and financial data connected to a single, trusted source of truth?
• How does the platform reduce reliance on human intervention for oversight and issue resolution?
• Can the infrastructure proactively identify risks before trips are missed, late, or unfulfilled?

These questions shift the focus from features to foundations—where long-term program performance is determined.

Interoperability as a Procurement Imperative

As healthcare continues to modernize, NEMT cannot remain an exception. Interoperability must be treated as foundational infrastructure, not a differentiator or add-on. To identify partners capable of delivering programs that unlock the full strategic value of the NEMT benefit, procurement processes must look beyond surface-level digital features and assess whether solutions support closed-loop data sharing that enables proactive oversight and agile, data-driven decision-making.

The right infrastructure enables program integrity improvement, lower administrative overhead, and better member experiences. Without closed-loop interoperability, NEMT programs will continue to rely on fragmented workflows and reactive management, which limits their ability to evolve alongside the rest of healthcare.

NEMT is a critical access point to care. Interoperable, closed-loop technology is not simply an upgrade; it is essential to ensuring the benefit can meet the expectations of today’s healthcare system and the members who depend on it.

A Perspective from Inside the Industry

I entered the NEMT space as a newcomer to healthcare, bringing a background in hospitality and a strong focus on customer experience. That perspective drove me to immerse myself in the NEMT ecosystem and learn from stakeholders across the industry to understand where and why the benefit was breaking down.

What became clear was that many of the challenges facing NEMT were not the result of a lack of effort or intent, but of disconnected infrastructure that limited visibility, coordination, and the ability to make timely, data-driven decisions. Motivated to help solve these challenges, I worked at a brokerage and ultimately joined a healthcare technology company focused on building closed-loop, interoperable infrastructure to connect the full NEMT ecosystem. The goal was simple: enable earlier issue detection, better collaboration, and a solution that benefits everyone involved.

About Jill Hericks

Jill Hericks is the Head of Strategic Accounts at Kinetik, where she leads with a mission to modernize healthcare access and make it more dependable. After a long career in hospitality, she joined the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) industry in 2020, bringing her expertise in service excellence to healthcare technology. Jill is passionate about helping partners implement solutions that address the root causes of systemic challenges – advancing a more connected, reliable system that communities can trust.

Kinetik is a tech-enabled services company that empowers health plans to own, share, or delegate NEMT program operations – without sacrificing transparency, control, or accountability.

Kinetik is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.