Atlantic Health System CIO Sunil Dadlani

Artificial Intelligence

AI Spotlight on Epic, Abridge, and Oracle 

Epic, Abridge, and Oracle just gave us a year’s worth of blockbuster AI announcements in three days, and at least one of them was more than speculation and old news.

‘Twas the week before UGM, and the rumor-mill has been overheating with reports that Epic might finally launch its own EHR-native scribe at its upcoming User Group Meeting.

• Over 40% of U.S. hospitals are already on Epic, which means its scribe would have access to one of the biggest distribution channels in healthcare even if its UX and performance aren’t best-in-breed (which they won’t be).

• That means about 100 ambient AI startups could be about to find out why scribing is a feature – not a product – and the race will be on to differentiate through other capabilities like RCM and specialty-specific tuning.

Abridge doesn’t plan on being commoditized. Less than 24 hours after Epic’s scribe leaked, Abridge unveiled the exact type of solution that’ll define who survives the incumbent squeeze: real-time prior authorization at the point of conversation.

• Abridge is co-developing the new solution alongside Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh-based payvidor that operates both a multistate payor division and the 14-hospital system Allegheny Health Network.

• Integrating Abridge’s ambient AI platform across Highmark’s entire organization will allow patients to get approval for necessary treatments before they even leave the office, a perfect example of how “scribes” can be truly transformative beyond just transcripts.

Oracle couldn’t let Epic and Abridge have all the fun. It decided to “usher in a new era of AI-driven health records”… by reintroducing us to the same AI EHR it unveiled last October.

• Although mostly a PR stunt to grab headlines ahead of UGM, the new EHR includes several features that underscore where the AI puck is heading, including a native scribe, voice-first navigation, and agents to support clinical workflows.

• These features are also a good list of use cases where startups might not have a lot of juice left to squeeze after EHRs start bringing them in-house (and prior auths just so happen to be the last thing Oracle wants to get its hands dirty with).

The Takeaway

Native scribing is (very likely) on its way to Epic, Abridge is giving patients the gift of time with instant prior auths, and Oracle is banking on voice for the future of EHR navigation. What a week for digital health.

Next Generation Ambient Tech and Agents

The ambient AI transformation is already sweeping across health systems, reducing administrative burdens and improving patient outcomes. So, what’s next? Tune into this on-demand session to learn how systems like Carle Health and Denver Health are leveraging Nabla to eliminate Pajama Time and build a future where agentic AI unlocks true workforce sustainability.

Scale RPM With BPM Pro 2

BPM Pro 2 is the next generation cellular blood pressure monitors, empowering care teams to scale remote patient monitoring and streamline operations. Discover why leading providers are choosing BPM Pro 2 to collect highly precise measurements and enrich data with Patient Insights from their daily lives.

The Wire

• Less is More With Low-Value Services: New research in JAMA Health Forum found that Medicare spent $3.6B annually on 47 low-value services from 2018 to 2020, and that’s not including another $800M per year of out-of-pocket costs. Twenty services accounted for 95% of total annual spending ($4.2B of $4.4B), and the five services among those with D grades from USPSTF were responsible for 59% of that. The biggest cost-drivers were screenings for COPD and bacteriuria, as well as low-value imaging for conditions like headache or back pain. 

• The 2025 Inc. 5000: The 2025 Inc. 5000 List has arrived, and healthcare was well-represented on this year’s lineup of the fastest-growing private companies in America. The industry’s top showing was none other than in-home care provider Upward Health, which claimed the #4 spot after growing its revenue an eye-popping 24,256% over the last three years. It’s hard to know how impressed to be without knowing the base revenue being multiplied, but that’s a lot of growth by any standard. Other familiar faces included kidney care provider Monogram Health, data platform Arcadia, and provider network management all-star Medallion.

• Arintra Coding Capital: Arintra hauled in $21M of Series A funding to bring its GenAI medical coding platform to more health systems and physician groups. The platform helps providers secure full reimbursement by going beyond patient charts and combining coding automation, provider-specific clinical documentation improvement, and payor-aware denials insights. Definitely interesting to see how much capital continues pouring into dedicated coding startups as every ambient AI platform under the sun starts rolling out similar functionality.

• Growing Revenue is Hard Work: Doctors have been working more and earning less, according to Kaufman Hall’s Q2 Physician Metrics. Data from over 200k U.S. clinicians showed that net revenue per full-time provider was up about 5% from 2023 to 2025, primarily because PCPs and specialists have been delivering more services since the pandemic. Despite the revenue uptick, providers were actually making less considering the extra elbow grease, with “net revenue per unit of work” down 7% over the same period. The shaky situation is only about to get shakier with millions of Americans set to lose coverage due to OBBB.

• GLP-1s Are Coming to Medicare: Medicare and Medicaid are gearing up to cover GLP-1s, a potentially huge victory for patients and drugmakers. GLP-1s can run ~$1,000 per month without coverage, but The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration plans to pilot covering the costly drugs for obesity starting with Medicaid in 2026 and Medicare in 2027. If that plan ultimately takes shape, it would be great news for those without diabetes trying to access GLP-1s, which also makes it great news for Novo and Lilly.

• Elation AI Suite: Elation Health knows how to keep its customers happy: big upgrades at no cost. The primary care EHR and billing platform just received an AI makeover through a full range of new solutions, including Elation Note for ambient scribing, Clinical Insights for chart summaries, Wordsmith for drafting referrals, and Clinical Forms for streamlining intake. Quite the overhaul, which should only further strengthen Elation’s already Best in KLAS clinician experience.

• Robo-Triage: A large study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health suggests that AI could help manage rising patient loads in the ED. Mount Sinai researchers trained an AI model on 1.8M ED visits between 2019 and 2023, then tested it against nurse triage assessments for 50k visits over the course of two months. The AI assessments proved 85.4% accurate, while the nurses trailed close behind at 81.6% accuracy. That’s another point for Team Robot.

• Translucent Raises $7M: Translucent just joined the quickly growing crop of startups using AI to help provider orgs understand their finances. The startup closed $7M in seed funding to give “every operator a personalized AI analyst” that can help translate the chicken scratch hiding in their spreadsheets to actionable performance insights. So far the focus is on larger medical groups and health systems, but it sounds like Translucent eventually plans to expand to smaller clinics without a dedicated finance team.

• Xsolis Dragonfly Navigate: Xsolis announced the launch of Dragonfly Navigate, an AI-powered discharge planning and capacity management solution designed to help optimize length of stay. West Tennessee Healthcare is the first system to pilot Dragonfly Navigate and “support more proactive discharge planning,” made possible by integrating length of stay analytics directly into clinical workflows alongside next-best actions to overcome discharge barriers.

• Neuroglee + Mayo Clinic: Neuroglee Health is deepening its collaboration with Mayo Clinic to deliver comprehensive cognitive and dementia care to its patients, along with dedicated support for their care partners. The move builds on the duo’s work co-developing Neuroglee Connect to support independence for those with mild cognitive impairment, and allows patients with more severe dementia to be enrolled in Neuroglee’s program for longitudinal virtual care delivered by a neurologist-led team of nurses, licensed social workers, pharmacists, and care navigators.

Real Time Prior Auth at the Point of Conversation

Abridge is partnering with Highmark Health and AHN to solve the challenges and frustrations of prior authorization. The technology will compare, in real time, Highmark’s medical authorization requirements to the information that is being collected during the patient visit. If any pieces of required documentation are missing, Abridge will prompt the clinician to gather what’s needed. Read more about this game-changing partnership. 

Navina AI “May Be Essential for Thriving” in VBC

Innovation lab Phyx Primary was left with one conclusion after its independent evaluation of Navina’s AI Copilot: AI “may be essential for thriving” in value-based care. Physicians using Navina saw a 40% reduction in clinical review time, a 32% decrease in burnout, and lifted STAR quality ratings by 1.9 points. The experience scores were just the icing on the cake. Get the full report to learn more.

The Resource Wire

• Ensuring Compliance With Medical AI Scribes: AI scribes are transforming how providers document patient encounters, but new innovations come with new compliance risks. Head over to Playback Health’s quick-start guide to maintaining compliance in the age of AI, and see how Playback Health Pro is giving providers peace of mind with 100% data ownership, SOC 2 verification, and HIPAA-compliant encryption every step of the way.

• Elevate 2025 – Medallion’s Virtual Conference Returns Sept 17: Now in its fourth year, Medallion’s annual conference is back – bringing together healthcare leaders to explore this year’s theme: Elevate the present. Reframe the future of healthcare. Hear from industry voices like Tom Lawry, author of Hacking Healthcare, UPMC Chief Medical Information Officer Robert Bart, and many more. Reserve your spot now.

The Industry Wire

1. Does AI over-reliance lead to physician “deskilling?”
2. Leaders split on CMS proposal to eliminate inpatient-only list.
3. Cardinal Health to acquire Solaris for $1.9B.
4. Journal refuses RFK Jr.’s call to retract vaccine study.
5. Vinay Prasad returns to FDA’s CBER after short absence.
6. Minnesota provider CentraCare laying off 535 workers.
7. FDA reportedly allowed substandard meds into the U.S.
8. Deportation fears hit home healthcare industry.
9. Boston’s lab building boom goes bust. Now what?
10. Flesh-eating bacteria is surging in coastal waters.