|
Nourish is Cooking, IPOura, and Healthcare’s Top AI Fails
By Jason Barry
May 28, 2026
|
|
|
|
|
Together with
|
|
|
|
“The lesson for everyone else in healthcare is clear: don’t build a product, build infrastructure. Because when everything becomes the same, integration is the only thing that matters.”
|
|
OpenLoop CEO Jon Lensing, MD
|
|
|
Today’s special is Nourish’s nine-figure Series C, which was juicy enough to notch it a $1.75B valuation as it looks to bring AI-native metabolic care to the masses.
We also sat down with OpenLoop CEO Jon Lensing, MD on the DHW Show to discuss the future of telehealth and get fresh insight into building one-person AI startups straight from the infrastructure company making them possible. Catch the full conversation here.
Thanks for stopping by.
Jason
|
|
|
|
Nearly 200M Americans are hungry for help managing a nutrition-related chronic condition, so Nourish just raised $100M of Series C funding to fill their plates with AI-native metabolic care.
Nourish is a proactive substitute for a reactive recipe. Its entire virtual metabolic clinic is purpose-built to tackle chronic conditions before problems start to escalate.
- The care model revolves around nutrition-first interventions, but it’s the fully coordinated wraparound support that transforms access into better long-term outcomes.
- The secret ingredient? Dietitians… plus AI, obviously.
Over the last four years, Nourish has grown into the country’s largest dietitian-led metabolic health clinic, with a roster of over 10,000 Registered Dietitians.
- Every Nourish patient works with an RD to work through a comprehensive care plan – with lab testing, GLP-1 prescribing, and medication management all baked in if needed.
- Patients also receive a personal AI agent to support behavior change and coordinate with other providers. These reportedly have “hundreds of thousands of MAUs and world-class engagement metrics.”
- The RDs are equipped with their own AI agents to help surface insights, automate administrative work, and improve quality of care.
The outcomes are the main course. Nourish patients see an average of:
- 8% weight loss
- 1.3-point A1C reduction
- 31-point LDL reduction
- 23-point systolic BP reduction
GLP-1s are the dessert people can’t get enough of. Despite demand for metabolic care exploding alongside the rise of GLP-1s, medication alone is rarely enough – only 46% of patients stay on GLP-1s at six months, and most who quit regain the weight.
- Nourish’s care model shines here too. Over two-thirds of Nourish patients remain on GLP-1s at six months, and they lose 33% more weight on their way there.
The Takeaway
Nutrition support has been covered by insurance for over a decade, yet only a tiny fraction of those who could benefit ever actually use it. GLP-1s changed that demand equation, and Nourish just loaded its plate with $100M to give people the access they’re suddenly craving.
|
|
VBC 202: Intro to VBC and Risk Adjustment
Navina and Out-of-Pocket teamed up to create VBC 202, a three-part online course for anyone looking to build or scale value-based care programs. Watch the first session on-demand to learn why VBC emerged, how policy shapes provider behavior, and the fundamentals of risk, quality, and financial performance. Gary Pilling II joins as the guest instructor to dive into risk adjustment basics, including RAF scoring, HCC coding, and the CMS-HCC V28 model.
|
|
- IPOura: Just a few short months after raising nearly $1B, smart ring trailblazer Oura announced that it confidentially filed a draft S-1 for its initial public offering. Oura has quickly expanded beyond sleep tracking into areas like cardiometabolic health, fertility, and stress management through partnership with everyone from the Department of Defense to Dexcom (which invested $75M through its Series D back in 2024). We’ll have to wait for the public filing to get an official look under the hood, but in the meantime some great analysis from Exits & Outcomes pegged Oura’s revenue at $924M for fiscal 2025, up 4x in under two years.
- PE in Primary Care: A study in Health Affairs delivered the latest evidence that focusing on short-term profits isn’t a great strategy for helping patients. Researchers used Medicare claims data to examine 225 private equity acquisitions of primary care practices from 2016 to 2022, finding that PE acquisitions increased both the number of services billed (+30%) and the number of patients seen (+11%) by primary care providers. PE also increased the total number of PCPs (+17%) and APPs (40%), suggesting these acquisitions “have the potential to increase the use of primary care services, in part through greater reliance on advanced practice providers.”
- Few Devs Seek AI Pre-Approval: AI developers frequently complain that the technology is moving faster than archaic review processes can keep up, but new research in JAMA Health Forum suggests that most of them aren’t taking advantage of a PCCP program that allows the FDA to pre-approve changes without additional paperwork. Researchers analyzed filings for 794 AI-enabled medical devices authorized from 2023 to 2025, finding that just 5.4% had PCCP plans on file. A whopping 42 devices. That said, the program seems to be picking up steam, with 9.7% of algorithms including PCCP documentation by the fourth quarter of 2025.
- 9am Wakes Up to $26M: 9amHealth raised $26M of Series B funding to expand beyond cardiometabolic care into the broader set of high-cost conditions that account for the majority of employer pharmacy spend. Since being founded in 2021, 9am has built a coordinated system of clinical teams, remote monitoring, at-home labs, and prescription management to support patients with integrated specialty care instead of episodic telehealth visits. Now, it’s looking to use that same playbook to support more patients and employers managing rising costs driven by therapies like GLP-1s.
- Innovaccer Gets Its RCM Wings: Innovaccer kept its M&A streak alive with the acquisition of RCM services provider CaduceusHealth for a price tag of around $66M. Caduceus manages $5B in annual gross patient charges across nearly 4,000 providers (including big names like Adventist Health and Orlando Health), which immediately gives Innovaccer’s Flow platform a major beachhead in the ambulatory RCM market. The move marks the fifth acquisition in Innovaccer’s recent expansion push following Cured (CRM), PQS (pharmacy), Humbi AI (actuarial tech), Story Health (virtual specialty care).
- Employers Are Sleeping Giants: An NEJM perspective piece explored why employers are “A Sleeping Giant of Health Care Affordability.” The aptly titled paper outlined subtle barriers preventing employers from managing costs, despite the fact that 6 in 10 workers are covered by self-insured plans. One barrier is a collective action problem, stemming from employers historically having little incentive to work with their competitors. Another is bandwidth, due to employers lacking the in-house resources to engage with third-party administrators and health systems around pricing. The authors make the case that employers could become a “proactive rather than a sleeping giant” by banding together to overcome these obstacles.
- The Path Less Traveled: AI therapy startup The Path raised $14.3M of seed funding from a starstudded list of investors like Apolo Ohno and Deontay Wilder (it never hurts to have a celebrity co-founder like Tony Robbins). The startup is blazing its own path by leveraging an “anti-validation” AI architecture that’s explicitly built to challenge users rather than agree with them. Robbins worked with co-founders Anson Whitmer (ex-Calm AI/data science lead) and Tyler Sheaffer (ex-Calm engineering founder) to ground the platform in CBT, ACT, and DBT to prioritize effective problem resolution over user engagement.
- Top Healthcare AI Failures: A brutal-yet-entertaining LinkedIn post from Dmitrii Gorbunov rounded up five of the biggest failures we’ve already seen from healthcare AI. The crown of shame went to Kaiser Permanente, which was fined $556M for using AI to add diagnostic codes to medical records without clinical confirmation, physician input, or audit trails. Dishonorable mentions included UnitedHealthcare (physician decision overrides), Cigna (one-second denials), Sharp (fabricated consent documents), and Doctronic (duped into recommending massive doses for opiates).
- Seniors Struggling With New Tech: A recent report from CVS Health showed that digital health literacy (or a lack thereof) is limiting many seniors’ ability to manage their own health. The report found that only 15% of seniors are tech-savvy, while 71% are tech-intermediate and 14% are considered tech-resistant. Across four focus areas – navigation, knowledge, access, and trust – navigation emerged as the most significant barrier, with 85% of respondents reporting challenges. The good news was that the same share of seniors said they’re open to engaging with digital health tools.
- RFK Jr. Dismisses USPSTF Leaders: In a sign of major upcoming changes at the USPSTF, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed two of the advisory group’s leaders, vice chairs Dr. John Wong and Dr. Esa Davis. The USPSTF consists of volunteer clinicians who provide guidance on preventive medical services like cancer screening. They usually meet three times a year, but haven’t convened since March 2025 as RFK Jr. ponders changes to align it more closely with the Make America Healthy Again agenda.
|
|
State of Payer Enrollment and Credentialing
Over half of provider orgs are losing revenue due to credentialing delays – with many missing out on over $1M annually. Medallion’s new report unpacks the forces quietly undermining operational and financial performance, and how leaders across the industry are addressing them. Check out the full report to get insights tailored to your role and org type.
|
|
A New Path for ACCESS Model Participants
Building your CMS ACCESS program? Withings was accepted into the inaugural cohort as both a participant and a device partner via the ACCESS Tools Directory. Bring the same FDA-cleared, cellular-enabled devices into your program, including BPM Pro 2, capturing clinical measurements and patient-reported outcomes at the point of reading, purpose-built for value-based cardio-kidney-metabolic care.
|
|
Execution for Every Workflow
Health systems have no shortage of ideas for improving care and operations. Bunkerhill lets them bring those ideas to life – at scale, across service lines, and around the clock. Discover how the Carebricks platform is empowering clinical and operational teams to deploy AI agents that turn the data they have into the actions they need.
|
|
- Unlock Better Care With LOLA: Whether you’re looking to augment your team’s capacity or capabilities, Tucuvi’s clinically validated LOLA voice agent is purpose-built to make it happen – and has the success stories to prove it. Hear first-hand from Tucuvi’s customers how LOLA is empowering clinical teams to care for patients while maximizing ROI.
- Better Health Through Virtual-First Primary Care: For patients, positive health outcomes are driven by strong relationships built on trust with health systems and providers. Hear how Ovatient’s fully EHR-integrated, virtual-first care approach is helping primary care patients like Tito Santiago reach their care goals and build a stronger relationship with The MetroHealth System.
- Evidence, in the Flow of Care: Heidi brings trusted guidelines and peer-reviewed research directly into clinical workflows so decisions don’t stall care. Clinicians get clear, evidence-based answers without leaving the conversation. No ads, no limits, and no outside interests getting in the way of care. Find out how with Heidi Evidence.
- Same Tool, New Name, Better AI: DoxGPT is now called Ask, and it’s powered by a new agentic reasoning engine that delivers better, faster, and more reliable responses. Physicians can still find verified answers to complex clinical questions, integrated drug references, and full-text access to over 2,000 top journals – all in the Doximity workflows they’re already using every day. Don’t wait, Ask.
|
|
|
|
|
