Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
ONC Chief: TEFCA Hits One Billion Records Exchanged, Information Blocking Enforcement Escalates
National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Thomas Keane says TEFCA has grown from 10 million records exchanged in early 2025 to nearly one billion today—a 4,900% increase in 16 months. Speaking in a Healthcare IT News Q&A May 12, Keane said ONC is now sending non-conformity notices to certified health IT developers suspected of information blocking, with violations drawing fines up to $1 million per instance. He described data liquidity as a right patients deserve in 2026 and cited the Social Security Administration using TEFCA to cut disability determination times from weeks to under a day. ONC is also exploring additional network oversight to maintain participant trust.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Included Health Launches AI-Powered Provider Matching Tool for Fortune 100 Employer Clients
Virtual care company Included Health launched Provider Connect, an AI-powered tool that recommends in-network physicians to health plan members based on more than 300 specialty-specific quality measures and tens of billions of clinical and cost data points. Embedded in the company’s AI assistant Dot, Provider Connect explains why a provider scores highly, offering members unusual transparency. Chief Operating Officer Nupur Srivastava said early client feedback has been strongly positive, with employers noting transparency rare in the industry. The company works with one-third of the Fortune 100 and says connecting patients to high-quality providers lowers total cost of care alongside improving health outcomes.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
University Hospitals First to Integrate Supplement Recommendations Directly into Epic Medication Workflow
Cleveland-based University Hospitals announced May 12 it is the first health system to deeply integrate supplement recommendations into Epic’s medication management workflow, through a partnership with digital supplement platform Fullscript. Physicians can now recommend vitamins and supplements directly to patients inside their Epic workflow, while patients access clinician-recommended products through Fullscript and clinicians gain visibility into what supplements patients are already taking. The integration addresses a care coordination gap given that nearly three-quarters of patients incorporate supplements into their wellness routines, according to FDA data cited by University Hospitals. The arrangement aims to reduce safety risks from supplement-drug interactions and improve longitudinal patient care.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Whoop Wearable Adds On-Demand Clinician Video Visits and EHR Syncing in Clinical Pivot
Fitness wearable company Whoop announced May 12 it will add on-demand video consultations with licensed clinicians to its app this summer, alongside electronic health record syncing through a partnership with health records platform HealthEx. Members will be able to share continuous biometric data, bloodwork and medical history with consulting clinicians during visits. The company also launched two new AI features—My Memory, which lets users personalize their coaching AI with life context, and Proactive Check Ins, which delivers tailored health recommendations. The updates push Whoop beyond performance tracking toward a clinically integrated model, reflecting broader consumer wearable moves into healthcare delivery.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
MultiCare, Penn Medicine, Baptist Memorial Win 2026 CSO Cybersecurity Awards for Healthcare Security Programs
Three health systems took home honors at the 2026 CSO Cybersecurity Awards ceremony held May 11 in Nashville, Tennessee, recognizing security programs that delivered measurable results alongside innovation. MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Washington, won Critical Infrastructure Protection honors for deploying identity-based microsegmentation to shift its security culture from restrictive to enabling. Penn Medicine in Philadelphia won the Cybersecurity award for a dark web identity defense program that detects and remediates real-time identity exposure. Baptist Memorial Health Care in Memphis took the Next-Generation Security award for pioneering AI automation in healthcare security operations. The awards highlight how leading health systems are making AI-driven and identity-centric security central to resilience.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
One in Five ACA Marketplace Enrollees Dropped Coverage in 2026 After Federal Subsidies Expired
About 21% of people who signed up for ACA plans on the federal Healthcare.gov exchange in 2026 dropped their coverage within weeks of enrollment, up from 12% in the same window in 2025, according to internal CMS documents obtained by NOTUS. The primary driver is unaffordability after enhanced premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025. Major ACA insurers Centene and Molina Healthcare have reported enrollment declines, and Cigna announced it will exit the ACA market entirely in 2027. CMS attributed part of the dropout rate to fraud prevention, a claim sources told NOTUS does not explain the scale of the increase.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Behavioral Telehealth Provider Cuts Cash Conversion Cycle from 90 to 12 Days with Integrated Platform
Behavioral telehealth provider Televero Behavioral Health cut its cash conversion cycle from 60–90 days to 12 days after overhauling its revenue cycle architecture on the AdvancedMD integrated platform, CEO Ray Wolf told Healthcare IT News. Moving from fragmented third-party RCM vendors to a single platform covering scheduling, documentation, charge capture, claims and payment eliminated the data handoffs that obscured denial patterns. The transformation produced a 97% first-time claim approval rate, 90% point-of-service collections and 98% clinical patient satisfaction. Wolf said the company reached cash-positive operations six months ahead of plan and now runs AI automation workflows directly on its AdvancedMD data layer.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Cleveland Clinic Quantum Computing Program Hits 90% Capacity, Fully Integrates with Clinical AI
Cleveland Clinic’s IBM Quantum System One—installed as part of a 2023 ten-year partnership—is now operating at more than 90% capacity and fully integrated with the health system’s AI and classical computing platforms, Chief Research Information Officer Dr. Lara Jehi told Becker’s. Two-thirds of users at any time are Cleveland Clinic researchers. Current projects include a blood-based biomarker system for lung cancer recurrence monitoring intended to replace periodic imaging scans, and quantum-assisted MRI analysis where AI identifies high-priority regions before quantum processing handles them. The system has upgraded to IBM’s Heron processor and Jehi describes the program as a fully functioning innovation engine producing real clinical breakthroughs.
Sources: Becker’s Hospital Review
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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