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TrumpRx, GLP-1 Frenzy, and American Healthcare Anxiety
November 20, 2025
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Together with
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“Anything that impacts the middleman, I’m a fan of. TrumpRx fits that mold.”
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Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs Founder Mark Cuban
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The White House’s Make Health Tech Great Again event over the summer left many people wondering where TECFA stands. Is it getting replaced? Scaled up? Scaled down? In the latest Digital Health Wire Show, we caught up with Health Gorilla CEO Bob Watson to get the answers and catch a glimpse of where interoperability is heading in 2026 and beyond.
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It’s a bad day to be a pharma middleman. The White House announced the launch of TrumpRx in 2026, kicking off a wave of cost reductions on some of the most popular drugs in the world.
TrumpRx looks exactly like it sounds. Here’s the website.
- The site will serve as a portal for patients to find the best rates on prescription medications, AKA “Most-Favored-Nation Pricing.”
- Unlike other billionaire-run pharma projects like Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, TrumpRx won’t actually fulfill anything.
- Instead, it will send people to pharmaceutical companies’ direct-to-consumer sites to process orders, a strategy that Cuban applauded as having “no downside for anyone.”
It gets better. TrumpRx was part of a broader initiative to lower drug costs for Americans, and included major partnerships with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to expand access to GLP-1s.
- Novo’s Ozempic and Wegovy will be listed at $350 per month on TrumpRx, significantly lower than the $1k per month that many patients are used to.
- The same goes for Lilly’s Zepbound, and both manufacturers agreed to list their upcoming oral GLP-1s at $150 “in the event that the FDA later approves them.” That seems pretty likely at this point.
What does pharma get out of it? Medicare coverage.
- The “historic reductions” will enable Medicare and Medicaid to cover GLP-1s for adults with obesity, as opposed to confining coverage to those with diabetes or heart disease.
Things snowballed from there. Novo revealed this week that it will immediately slash its GLP-1s to $349 on its DTC platform, with doses available at $199 for new patients.
- GoodRx was quick to match them at $199 for the first two months, and Ro hopped on the same introductory bandwagon.
- Omada also completely changed its tune within hours of the TrumpRx announcement and said that it will begin prescribing GLP-1s for the first time in 2026.
The Takeaway
The GLP-1 landscape just got tossed on its head, and the oral versions haven’t even come out yet. Drug manufacturers are already throwing down the direct-to-consumer gauntlet, but so far it looks like patients might actually come out on top.
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Using AI to Democratize Performance Data
You’re tracking clinical performance metrics – HACs, LoS, FCOTS, and more – but does tracking translate to better patient care? Tune in to C8 Health’s expert roundtable on December 10th to learn how leading institutions leverage AI to bring quality data to the bedside. Plus: See how this approach saved UTMB Health over $109k in three months. Grab your spot here.
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Measuring Real ROI From Ambient AI
In a groundbreaking report, Abridge shares a new methodology for measuring the ROI impact of ambient AI at a more granular level than ever before. Abridge partners are now getting a precise look at changes in wRVUs, HCC capture, time spent in notes, and much more. Four health systems also share their results across many of these metrics. To learn more about the technology behind this breakthrough and to see some of the data, download the report here.
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- Get Well Merges With RhythmX AI: SymphonyAI Group is merging its Get Well patient engagement business with its RhythmX AI precision care unit to form GW RhythmX. The combined company’s Precision Care AI Platform unites the full spectrum of clinical, payor, and financial data with health systems’ EHRs and clinical guidelines to deliver insights and recommendations in real-time. The goal is to hit Buzzword Bingo and “form the industry’s leading AI-native company dedicated to revolutionizing care delivery and patient engagement and improving financial performance.”
- Tala Tops Ten-Figures: Tala Health closed a $100M seed round at an eye-watering $1.2B valuation “to make world-class healthcare accessible to anyone.” The startup arrives out of the Titan Holdings incubator, which launches AI-first companies to shake up slow-moving industries. Tala will apparently give patients a way to access virtual care around-the-clock while arming clinicians with AI agents that support everything from symptom assessment to specialist referrals and treatment follow-ups. A ton of funding, not a ton of details.
- American Healthcare Anxiety: The latest Pulse of Healthcare survey from West Health and Gallup showed that Americans are increasingly worried across the board when it comes to cost, quality, and access. In the past year, 3 in 10 adults skipped a procedure or test because they couldn’t afford it, 37% weren’t sure that their needs were understood by their doctor, and 55% delayed or skipped necessary care because of long wait times. On top of that, 47% are worried they won’t be able to afford healthcare next year – the highest level recorded since Gallup began tracking the metric in 2021.
- Epic and Humana “Kill the Clipboard”: Epic and Humana are teaming up to eliminate paperwork and make it easier for Medicare Advantage members to check in for appointments. Humana is rolling out Epic’s coverage finder and digital member card for over 800k MA members across 120 different health systems, allowing them to automatically confirm coverage ahead of their visits. The duo said the move was made to advance the White House’s “kill the clipboard” initiative, similar to Humana’s other recent partnership with Providence.
- Raise Your Voize: Voize hauled in $50M of Series A funding to bring its ambient AI companion for nurses to the U.S. market. The EHR-integrated AI companion listens to nurses speak during routine care, then handles administrative tasks like documentation and scheduling – reportedly cutting nurses’ admin time by 30%. Voize is already supporting over 75k nurses spanning 1,100 care facilities in Germany and Austria, but they’ll be up against some stiff competition in the states.
- Smartwatch AFib Showdown: A new meta-analysis of 26 studies took a look at how today’s leading smartwatches stack up when it comes to detecting atrial fibrillation. Six of the seven brands included in the analysis had “excellent diagnostic accuracy” – sorry Fitbit – and could precisely identify patients both with and without AFib. The most popular consumer wearable in the world came in at fourth place for AFib performance (Apple Watch, 94% sensitivity, 97% specificity), while the Amazfit ranked first with 99% sensitivity and 99% specificity. This graphic lays out the full head-to-head.
- Apple Fined in Masimo Case: In other Apple Watch news, a federal jury ordered the Cupertino tech giant to fork over $634M for violating Masimo’s blood-oxygen reading patents. The court found that the Apple Watch’s workout mode and heart rate notification feature both infringed on Masimo’s IP, which concludes another branch of the six-year legal battle. Some Apple Watches received an import ban in 2023 that prompted Apple to release new versions of the tech, but the two companies are still duking it out with U.S. Customs over the legality of the updated watches.
- Nemours Children’s Advanced Care at Home: Nemours Children’s Health launched the first at-home pediatric program operated by a freestanding children’s hospital. The Advanced Care at Home program is designed for medically complex children who are in stable condition but require ongoing monitoring, and has already treated over 120 young patients and helped avoid 177 inpatient days. FL-based Nemours is planning to expand the program to Delaware by the end of the year and introduce a pediatric mobile health initiative in early 2026.
- Gerrymandering Affects Access: Gerrymandering has been a hot-button political topic in the U.S. lately, but it may also have ramifications for healthcare access. A study in American Journal of Public Health found that people living in political districts in North Carolina that were highly gerrymandered (defined as communities split between two state senate districts) had to travel 30% farther to get to the nearest federally qualified health center, and were 20% less likely to visit an FQHC. Gerrymandering severity was negatively correlated with both FQHC availability and utilization.
- AdventHealth + HelloCare: AdventHealth is introducing Virtual Care Smart Rooms powered by HelloCare to transform the patient experience and streamline clinical workflows across the system. The smart rooms allow patients to connect with their care teams and view personalized health info on digital whiteboards, while also giving clinicians access to AI-enabled monitoring and remote rounding capabilities.
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Withings and Babyscripts Tackle Maternal Health
Babyscripts is teaming up with Withings Health Solutions to tackle the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S. – hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including preeclampsia. Learn how remote patient monitoring with BPM Pro 2 is helping Babyscripts keep mothers safe through personalized support when they need it most.
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Under the Hood of Navina’s AI
Navina’s AI engine harnesses over 600 proprietary algorithms to transform fragmented patient data into actionable clinical intelligence at the point of care. It’s shaped with the expertise of physicians to turn multiple data sources (EHR, HIE, claims, care gap files, etc.) into contextualized insights like suspected conditions or evidence for care gap closures – each linked back to the original source. Download the whitepaper to see examples of Navina’s AI in action.
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- Next Generation Ambient Technology 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.
- 10 Strategies to Expedite Provider Credentialing: Lagging provider credentialing workflows can create a wave of unexpected care delays and financial setbacks. Sidestep these pitfalls by tuning into Medallion’s recording of 10 Key Strategies to Expedite Provider Credentialing and see how your organization can keep a well-oiled team and patient care intact through the ever-evolving changes seen in healthcare.
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