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AI Trust-Building, Ask Tom, and Phasing Out Faxes
March 23, 2026
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Together with
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“The 1980s called, and they want their fax machines back.”
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CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz on final rule to phase out faxes.
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AI might move at the speed of trust, but new research in JAMA Network Open shows that trust only moves at the speed of accuracy.
The study had a solid setup. To determine the factors currently driving patient trust in AI, researchers presented 3,000 U.S. adults with a pair of hypothetical AI-assisted visits for a moderate-risk rash.
- Each visit had six randomized attributes, such as whether or not a doctor was present, how well the AI performs relative to human clinicians, and various AI governance mechanisms.
AI performance came out on top by a wide margin. Respondents cared more about how well the AI performs than FDA approval, governance, and even having a doctor in the room.
- The biggest difference came from AI performing better than a specialist, which increased the likelihood of choosing that visit by 32.5%.
- AI performing at the same level as a specialist boosted visit preference by 24.8%, slightly more than having AI that performs as well as a general practitioner (19.1%).
- Having an actual doctor present surprisingly only swayed visit preference by 18.4%.
Governance factors also moved the needle. They just didn’t move it much.
- FDA approval for the AI increased visit preference by a modest 11.1%.
- Mayo Clinic AI certifications apparently carry just as much weight – also coming in at 11.1%.
- Local hospital certifications for the AI only gave visits a 7.8% lift.
AI data quality was important. It just wasn’t as convincing as AI performance.
- AI that had nationally representative training data boosted visit preference by 11.9%, but it was interesting to see that disclosing bias in the training data had no effect versus not providing any data details.
The written explanations told the same story. Respondents cited AI performance and clinician involvement as the primary reasons for their choices, with many of them expressing comfort with AI as a tool – but not as a standalone decision-maker.
The Takeaway
Widespread AI adoption requires patient trust, and this study did a great job highlighting the specific areas that should be prioritized for building it.
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The Perfect Moment for Digital Health
With expanded support for remote care, digital health is positioned to play a central role in new value-based care models. Check out this overview from Withings Health Solutions to learn how connected technologies can help reduce preventable events, while also improving care quality.
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State of Payor Enrollment and Credentialing
AI is changing the way that healthcare leaders tackle provider network management. Medallion’s latest report breaks down the biggest challenges, emerging trends, and how automation is transforming the landscape. Get the insights you need – read the full report today.
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- Final Rule on Faxes: CMS just took a major step toward swapping out fax machines and snail mail for electronic claims transactions. The “groundbreaking final rule” establishes the first-ever HIPAA-adopted standards for healthcare claims attachments, enabling the electronic exchange of supporting documentation such as medical records, imaging, visit notes, and lab results. It also includes new requirements to ensure electronic signatures are safe and authenticated, but ended up cutting the prior authorization attachment standards that were in the originally proposed rule.
- Conduit Raises $17M: Conduit Health closed $17M of Series A funding to expand its vertically-integrated model for insurance-covered home medical supplies. Accessing durable medical equipment like wheelchairs and hospital beds still usually requires a weeks-long process of navigating a fragmented system of providers, payors, and suppliers. Conduit is aiming to replace that system with a single platform that can handle clinical evaluation, coverage navigation, and fulfillment from start to finish.
- Stryker Gets Struck: Stryker announced that its internal Microsoft environment was recently hit with a cyberattack linked to the war in Iran. The attack reportedly didn’t compromise any of Stryker’s products or result in disruptions at U.S. hospitals, but it will likely cause delays with order processing, manufacturing, and shipping. Cybersecurity was already top of mind for healthcare organizations, but this retaliatory attack confirms the increased risk that several advisory groups have been warning about.
- Fewer Healthcare Bankruptcies: A report from Gibbons Advisors found that healthcare bankruptcies declined for a second consecutive year, with “just” 45 filings in 2025. That’s down 21% from 2024, and the report noted that the bulk of last year’s bankruptcies occurred during the first quarter as we continue reverting toward the pre-pandemic mean. Hospital filings were notably up 60% in 2025 (from five to eight cases), although the pharmaceutical and senior care sectors continued to account for nearly half of all healthcare bankruptcies.
- Qualified Series A: Qualified Health is raising $100M in Series A funding to become the go-to platform for healthcare AI evaluation and implementation. The AI boom has sparked demand from health systems looking for better ways to establish effective governance around new solutions, which is exactly what Qualified set out to provide when it launched last year. The infrastructure platform serves as guardrails for active AI governance and continuous monitoring of algorithm performance.
- New York Looks to Ban AI Medical Advice: A new bill in New York is grabbing headlines after proposing strict limits on AI responses in licensed professions like healthcare. The legislation would ban LLMs from providing “substantive responses” related to medicine and psychology, as well as other fields such as law, dentistry, and engineering. It would also allow users to sue AI developers if their product oversteps in those areas, which seems like it’s walking a fine line between protecting consumers from unregulated advice and cutting them off from a rapidly growing new resource for accessible information.
- Lumeris Launches Ask Tom: Lumeris expanded its AI-powered primary care platform with a new Ask Tom analytics capability that gives health systems conversational access to enterprise insights. Tom acts as an embedded care team member that aggregates data from disparate sources into a 360-degree view of patients and populations. Users can now use plain English to Ask Tom for recommendations on how to improve access, capacity, and coordination.
- Heart Health is Still Unaffordable: As part of a JACC special issue, investigators examined data from 4k adults with various forms of cardiovascular disease and found that patient contributions to health plan premiums plus spending on cardiovascular-related care and medicines increased from $4.8k to $5.3k from 2007 to 2022. That increase was driven by a rise in premiums ($3.3k to $3.9k), with 34% of patients using more than 10% of their income on those premiums.
- HIMSS Reports Attendance of 24k: HIMSS reported attendance of 24k at its 2026 annual conference in Las Vegas. While that keeps HIMSS in the realm of the largest U.S. medical conferences, it continues a slow slide in attendance that’s persisted since the pandemic. Attendance at HIMSS 2025 (also Las Vegas) was estimated at 28k, while HIMSS 2024 in Orlando drew some 30k people. The last show before the pandemic – HIMSS 2019 – drew about 43k attendees to Orlando.
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The Virtual-First Playbook: Rural Health
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Medical Transcription That Gets Terminology Right
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- Abridge & Availity Redefine Payer-Provider Synergy: Abridge is teaming up with Availity to redefine payer-provider synergy at the point of conversation. The collaboration aligns Abridge’s evidence-aware intelligence with Availity’s real-time health information network to create a first-of-its-kind prior authorization experience, with a shared understanding between patients, providers, and payers. Find out how Abridge and Availity are extending conversational intelligence across the revenue cycle.
- 8 Keys to Gain an AI Edge in VBC: As value-based care models evolve and competition intensifies, healthcare leaders are seeking practical strategies to improve performance across risk, quality, and financial outcomes. Head over to Navina’s roundup of eight key insights from VBC leaders to learn how aligning AI-powered tools with organizational priorities and clinician needs can help secure a measurable competitive edge in value-based care.
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