Tuesday, September 8, 2026

< + > The Healthcare Infrastructure Working Behind the Scenes

One of the most interesting organizations in healthcare is Civitas Networks for Health.  This non-profit organization brings together some of the key organizations that provide the national infrastructure for health and health data.  One of their best venues to convene their community is at the upcoming Civitas 2026 Annual conference.

I recently sat down with Jolie Ritzo, CEO at Civitas Networks for Health, Anne Santifer, Executive Director at Arkansas State Health Alliance for Records Exchange, and Dan Cranshaw, Executive Director at KC Health Collaborative, to learn more about what’s happening in the Civitas community and get a preview of their annual conference.  One thing they shared was how often healthcare infrastructure serves an important purpose but goes unrecognized. This is by design.  For example, an HIE (Health Information Exchange) may make a patient’s information from multiple organizations available to a clinician at the point of care.  The clinician and patient often have no idea how the information from external organizations was made available to them, but having that data often improves care. Good infrastructure like an HIE quietly does this work in the background, often with little recognition.

Along with Civitas members’ role as critical infrastructure for healthcare, we talked with our panel of HIE and health collaborative experts about some of the hot topics in the community as a preview of what will be discussed at the upcoming Civitas Annual Conference.  One of the most important topics in healthcare in general is the cuts and changes to Medicaid.  These cuts are going to have a significant impact on most healthcare organizations, but that also presents an opportunity for HIEs and health collaboratives to assist provider organizations whose patients may need extra assistance and care.

While rural health issues are not a new focus area for the Civitas community, Ritzo, Santifer, and Cranshaw all mentioned that the RHTP (Rural Health Transformation Program) presents a really great opportunity for partners in the Civitas community to support states in improving rural health.  They are hopeful that the funds back rural providers and communities with innovative approaches to solving some of the big challenges they have faced for too long – access to quality care and services, legacy data systems, workforce shortages, the digital divide, to name a few.  Santifer mentioned that one of the things she’s most excited about at the Civitas Annual conference is hearing all of the different ways that states are approaching the rural health funds.  We’ve definitely seen that no two states are the same, and so a lot of great innovation funded by RHTP will be shared.This is a tremendous opportunity to hear what is working and, in some cases, what is not.

With all of the various healthcare interoperability regulations out there, Kill the Clipboard, CMS Tech Ecosystem, TEFCA/QHINs, etc., I also asked the panel about the positive impact these regulations are having and some of the ways they could be improved.  The panel suggested that there’s a lot of nuance to these regulations.  For example, it may seem like a great idea to Kill the Clipboard, but many patients in some areas still really like the clipboard.  We have to take these local nuances into account.  That said, it is an exciting time for innovation and moving policy into practice. Examples of this will be discussed throughout the annual conference.

Finally, we asked the panel to share what they think will be some of the top conversations at the Civitas Annual Conference.  Check out our interview with these experts to learn more about the latest developments in health data, health information exchange (HIE), and cross-sector approaches to improve community health.

Learn more about Civitas: https://civitasforhealth.org/

Learn more about Arkansas State Health Alliance for Records Exchange: https://sharearkansas.com/

Learn more about KC Health Collaborative: https://www.kchealthcollaborative.org/

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.

Civitas is a proud sponsor of Healthcare Scene.



< + > Memorial Hermann Health System Deepens Partnership with Strategic Investment in PartsSource | Arintra Raises $25M

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently raised a round of funding, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT fundings.


Memorial Hermann Health System Deepens Partnership with Strategic Investment in PartsSource

Investment Will Help Strengthen Healthcare Technology Infrastructure and Clinical Capacity Across More than 1,600 Leading Hospitals Through the PartsSource Platform

PartsSource, the leading performance platform for clinical technology, today announced a strategic investment from Memorial Hermann Health System, a non-profit, award-winning health system committed to creating healthier communities, now and for generations to come.

PartsSource provides device-owners and operators an enterprise technology platform that unifies parts, service, contracts, asset intelligence, and workforce capacity into a single operating system for healthcare technology management. Powered by 25 years of longitudinal data, millions of service events, billions of data points, and today servicing over 15,000 clinical sites across the U.S., the platform delivers real-time visibility, predictive signals, and prescriptive action, enabling health systems to move from reactive repair to proactive management—unlocking clinical capacity from assets already in place.

“As healthcare organizations look to lower cost of service, unlock clinical capacity, and find new revenue within their existing walls, a unified, evidence-based, and data-driven approach to asset management becomes essential,” says Philip Settimi, MD, MSE, President and CEO at PartsSource. “Memorial Hermann joins 150 other health systems who are advancing a scalable model that transforms how mission-critical assets are managed…

Full release here, originally announced August 25th, 2026.


Arintra Raises $25M to Pioneer Revenue Assurance for America’s Health Systems

As the First and Only Autonomous Coding Platform Across 23+ Specialties and Every Health System Care Setting, Arintra is Setting a New Standard for Revenue Cycle Management and Reinventing how Leading Health Systems like UC Davis Health, Mercyhealth, Meritus Health, Rochester Regional Health, Reid Health, Mercy Medical Center, and More get Paid Accurately, Promptly, and in Full

Arintra, the first and only enterprise AI platform for revenue assurance in healthcare, today announced a $25 million Series B funding round, bringing the company’s total funding to $51 million. The round is led by Define Ventures, with participation from existing investors including Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13, and Spider Capital. Endeavor Health, based in Chicagoland, also was an early adopter of the technology, and participated in both the Series A and B rounds.

U.S. healthcare is a $5 trillion system, yet most health systems and provider groups struggle to get paid by payers for the care they deliver — predominantly due to siloed processes that are riddled with inaccuracy, costing health systems, providers, and patients every day. As a longtime function within health system operations, traditional revenue cycle management has consisted of individual point solutions and a fragmented workflow that leaves revenue on the table. Arintra is pioneering revenue assurance, an agentic AI approach built to close the gap between care delivered and revenue earned. The company’s platform has become a core piece of the enterprise health system’s infrastructure, bringing leading health systems the bottom-line impact they deserve.

Driving $5 Billion in Annual Claim Value for Leading Health Systems, Large Provider Groups, and Academic Medical Centers

Arintra has deployed its platform across health systems and large provider groups, partnering directly with them to increase compliant revenue capture and lower cost to collect, reduce claim denials and processing lags, and improve coding accuracy. One of those partners is Rochester Regional Health. “At Rochester Regional Health, our vision extends beyond automating a single specialty — we’re looking at how AI can fundamentally transform coding across the enterprise,” said Karen Linder, Senior Director of Health Information Management & Coding at Rochester Regional Health…

Full release here, originally announced August 26th, 2026.



Monday, September 7, 2026

< + > WellStack Acquires DeLorean AI | LeanTaaS Acquires Aidin

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently completed an M&A deal, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT M&A.


WellStack Acquires DeLorean AI to Advance Healthcare Decision Intelligence

Combination of Data Analytics and Predictive Intelligence Capabilities Allows Healthcare Organizations to Identify Risks and Intervene More Effectively

WellStack today announced the acquisition of DeLorean AI, a healthcare-focused artificial intelligence company specializing in predictive analytics, risk stratification, and action-oriented decision support.

The acquisition represents a significant step forward in WellStack’s mission to become the precision intelligence operating system for healthcare, unifying data, AI, and human expertise to drive better decisions, recommended actions, and measurable outcomes.

It also positions WellStack to lead the next evolution of healthcare technology: transforming data platforms into intelligent systems that help healthcare organizations make better decisions, faster, and with greater confidence.

By combining WellStack’s agentic healthcare data platform and analytics modules with DeLorean AI’s predictive intelligence capabilities, customers will be able to move seamlessly from data aggregation to insight, from insight to intervention, and from intervention to measurable impact, all guided by WellStack’s AI-enabled user experience.

Healthcare organizations have invested heavily in collecting and organizing data, yet many still struggle to identify which patients, operational processes, or financial risks require immediate attention. DeLorean AI addresses this challenge by continuously evaluating clinical, claims, and operational information to identify emerging risks, predict potential adverse events, and recommend evidence-based next actions for clinical and operational teams.

“The acquisition of DeLorean AI is not just about what we can achieve today. It’s about building the foundation for the next generation of healthcare innovation,” said Rich Waller, Chief Executive Officer at WellStack…

Full release here, originally announced August 25th, 2026.


LeanTaaS Acquires Aidin to Orchestrate Patient Flow from Admission Through Transition

Combination Connects Inpatient Flow Intelligence With Care Transition Coordination to Help Health Systems Reduce Avoidable Days, Unlock Capacity, and Improve Timely Patient Access

LeanTaaS, the market leader in capacity management, staffing, and patient flow software and services for healthcare, today announced it has acquired Aidin, a care transition platform serving 200+ hospitals across approximately 20 health systems, coordinating more than two million referrals annually across a network of 21,000+ post-acute providers. The acquisition expands LeanTaaS’ iQueue for Inpatient Flow by connecting intelligence about discharge readiness and barriers with the workflows required to move patients to the appropriate next setting of care.

Effective patient flow starts at the point of admission and extends through the patient’s transition to the next setting of care. However, readiness does not always equate to discharge. Roughly 40% of Medicare patients who are discharged require post-acute care, but these patients account for more than 55% of avoidable hospital days. Completing these transitions requires coordination across placement, authorization, patient choice, and provider communication — often across fragmented systems and workflows that make it difficult to maintain visibility and accountability throughout the process.

The consequences extend beyond an individual patient’s length of stay. When a discharge-ready patient remains in the hospital waiting to transition to post-acute care, the delay creates additional cost and keeps scarce inpatient capacity unavailable for another patient. At scale, these delays can contribute to emergency department boarding, delayed admissions, and longer waits for patients who need hospital care. Aidin is a proven solution that reduces length of stay by an average of 0.86 days, cuts placement time by 50%, and saves customers an average of $1.7 million per hospital each year.

“Our vision is to become the central nervous system for health systems by helping them better sense, understand, act, and learn across the enterprise and patient journey. This acquisition brings that vision to life by helping health systems manage patient flow from admission through transition,” said Mohan Giridharadas, Founder and CEO at LeanTaaS…

Full release here, originally announced September 1st, 2026.



Sunday, September 6, 2026

< + > Bonus Features – September 6, 2026 – 59% of clinicians say TikTok is the top source of misinformation about GLP-1s, AMA names leader for new Center for Digital Health and AI, plus 32 more stories

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT that we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that dozens of health systems in the Philadelphia area had to pull offline web links that publicly revealed daily work schedules and cell phone numbers of healthcare workers. The pages were managed by QGenda, an online workforce management product, and included multiple months of schedules. It’s unclear when the info was disclosed, how long it was publicly available, or whether anyone accessed the info and/or did anything with it.

Stats

Partnerships

Products

Implementations

Company News

People

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.

Hat tip to Grayson for filling in for me last week. The Beastwoods survived vacation and officially have a kindergartner!



Saturday, September 5, 2026

< + > Weekly Roundup – September 5, 2026

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

Inside Epic’s Push to Help Customers Build Their Own AI Agents. John Lynn sat down with Derek De Young. He discussed the approach of continuous improvement for Epic Agent Factory, which helps customers make the most of nearly 130 AI features in Epic and gets close to 60 enhancements per week. Read more…

Healthcare Needs Coordinated Infrastructure, Not More Point Solutions. John connected with Cotivity CEO Ric Sinclair, who talked about embedding intelligence in financial and clinical processes “where decisions actually happen” to avoid denials, appeals, and payer-provider friction. Read more…

Real-World Tactics for Women in Health IT Leadership. Colin Hung talked to InventiveX CEO Anita Ghose about improving professional development by focusing on immediate, practical application to build a dedicated leadership pipeline at a time when half of Australian women in the tech workforce leave by 35. Read more…

Life Sciences Today Podcast: A Simple Idea That Can’t Be Solved with Brute Force. Sandy Leonard at Arcadia chatted with Danny Lieberman about how real-world data and evidence create value for healthcare providers. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: What’s Holding Healthcare AI Back? John posed this question to Rhapsody CEO Sagnik Bhattacharya, who addressed issues such as scaling pilots and failing to focus on infrastructure and operational readiness. Read more…

Addressing Infrastructure Gaps and Small Margins at Rural Hospitals. Rural healthcare’s survival depends on higher-margin lines of revenue, John Tonthat at Cellhub said. A key part of the fix is models of home care that can share a common infrastructure, including telehealth and remote clinical operations. Read more…

Modernizing Healthcare Data Requires More Than a New CRM. There are clear signs that that a healthcare IT environment is running legacy database practices underneath a genuinely modern CRM, according to Mohammed Omer Shakeel Ahmed. Read more…

Making Legacy Data More Usable at the Point of Care. If data isn’t surfaced within the EHR, clinicians may not realize it’s there, noted Brian Liddell at Harmony Healthcare IT. Fortunately, improving access to legacy data doesn’t necessarily require broad system changes. Read more…

CISA’s Patch Priority Lesson for Healthcare. David Montoya at Paessler GmbH unpacked a recent directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency that said to stop treating all vulnerabilities equally and instead triage by risk. Read more…

The Next Era of Payment Integrity Is Prevention, Not Recovery. Payer-provider friction increasingly friction comes from how payment integrity is operationalized, noted Anne Neal at Availity. The easiest fix is addressing common issues before submission or adjudication. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for September 2, 2026: Optum seeks a CIO for Optum Care at Home, to be based just outside the Twin Cities. Read more…

Bonus Features for August 30, 2026: 1 in 5 Americans Have Left Without Filling a Prescription Due to High Costs, While 88% of Workers Have Worked Through Illness. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.



Friday, September 4, 2026

< + > Switchboard Health Acquires Livara Health to Integrate Value-Based Musculoskeletal Care

Acquisition Brings Livara’s Virtual MSK Care Model Onto Switchboard’s Specialty Care Platform; Closes $5M+ Round of Funding

Switchboard Health, creators of a digital health platform connecting patients with high-value specialty care, today announced the acquisition of Livara Health, a leader in virtual orthopedics and musculoskeletal (MSK) management. The acquisition combines Switchboard’s referral management and care navigation platform with Livara’s proven MSK care model for health plans and risk-bearing providers. To fuel future growth, the company also closed a $5M round of funding.

Founded by Dr. Kamshad Raiszadeh, Livara Health delivers a virtual-first, value-based MSK care model that combines care planning, virtual care delivery, and care navigation. Through its multidisciplinary approach featuring physicians, PTs, and psychosocial providers, Livara cares for a broad set of care needs, including the most complex and expensive patients. Livara’s results are independently validated: a 2024 Validation Institute review found that participants in Livara’s program achieved a 43% reduction in musculoskeletal spend, driven largely by reduced surgical utilization.

Through this acquisition, Switchboard Health will embed Livara’s virtual MSK program in its automation platform for referral management and care navigation. The combination will enable Switchboard’s provider and health plan clients to seamlessly enroll patients in Livara Health. For nearly 4 years, Switchboard has connected people to specialty care; now it will also deliver care.

“The Livara care model, technology, and team members start an exciting new chapter in our work to transform specialty care,” said Derek Baird, Co-Founder and CEO at Switchboard Health. “Now a primary care provider, right within her EHR, can refer qualified patients to our Livara MSK providers for convenient, evidence-based care.”

“Our mission is to transform patients’ and providers’ experiences with MSK care, delivering convenient, effective, virtual support to patients,” said Rob Cohen, CEO at Livara Health. “We’re excited to see Switchboard integrate Livara Health into its referral and care navigation workflows to scale the delivery of high-value MSK care.”

In conjunction with the acquisition, Switchboard closed an oversubscribed round of more than $5M in equity financing, drawing participation from existing Livara and Switchboard investors as well as new backers. New and returning participants include First Trust Capital Partners, LLC, Route 66 Ventures, A1 Health Ventures, Allumia Ventures, and Martin Ventures.

“We’re grateful to our new and current investors for funding our expansion into care delivery and the next phase of growth,” said Baird. “The number of patients coming through the Switchboard is up 500% over the past 9 months. We see even faster growth ahead of us.”

About Switchboard Health

Switchboard Health helps providers, health plans, and employers deliver high-value specialty care services. Our software platform and national specialty care network deliver improved access, reduced costs, and much-needed support to patients seeking care. For more information, visit switchboardhealth.com.

About Livara Health

Livara Health (formerly SpineZone) is a value-based MSK management solution for providers, health plans, and employers. By combining care planning, virtual-first care delivery, and care navigation, Livara has delivered exceptional patient outcomes for nearly two decades. Livara offers flexible payment arrangements, including assuming total cost of MSK care. More information can be found at livarahealth.com.

Originally announced August 25th, 2026



Thursday, September 3, 2026

< + > Inside Epic’s Push to Help Customers Build Their Own AI Agents Using Agent Factory

Epic Agent Factory, a tool for Epic users to build their own AI agents, was announced this past January. Now, according to Derek De Young, Software Developer at Epic, the tool is moving into a new stage where Epic will quickly put it into the hands of their customers.

Agent Factory provides a platform to leverage 129 of the AI features in Epic. De Young describes three stages in its use. First, he expects organizations to shape existing AI features to the organization’s policies, guidelines, data, and workflows. Next, they will build new agentic features for revenue cycle management, clinical decision making, patient engagement, etc. In the future, Epic will expand the scope of Agent Factory to use external connectors and run on partner platforms outside Epic, including Care Everywhere.

At first, the developers who are expected to use Agent Factory will probably be senior analysts who best understand its potential, have a thorough understanding of what Epic already does, and where it could be expanded. Eventually, users might include clinicians and even back office workers. A conversational interface might be developed, and AI might be used to rewrite workflows. They plan to interact with the Medicaid submissions portal and other government sites.

Autonomy will differ for different applications of AI. Certainly, for the foreseeable future, any clinical decisions will be approved by a doctor or nurse. But some organizations are considering fully autonomous agents for some less critical functions such as routine billing. The AI agent itself tends to be able to rate its own confidence in its conclusions.

Because agents monitor their responses to every prompt, the tool is expected to improve continuously. Users can add their own evaluations.

A recent “buildathon” invited groups who had innovative suggestions to work with Epic developers. One of these, for instance, evaluates measles outbreaks and uses CDC guidelines to do outreach for vaccinations. Another application speeds up transfers to community hospitals. The agent makes sure that the important questions are asked, such as whether the patient is stable enough for the move and whether the community hospital has the necessary equipment. Successful agents can be added to a community library so they can be shared with other Epic customers.

Because Agent Factory is hosted in Nebula, Epic’s managed cloud, Epic can add 50 to 60 enhancements per week. Customers can benefit from those enhancements without an upgrade because Agent Factory takes place in Epic’s cloud.

Watch our interview with Derek De Young from Epic to learn more about Epic Agent Factory.

Learn more about Epic: https://www.epic.com/

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.



< + > The Healthcare Infrastructure Working Behind the Scenes

One of the most interesting organizations in healthcare is Civitas Networks for Health .  This non-profit organization brings together some ...