Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Thursday, June 25, 2026
Amazon's One Medical Discloses Breach of Iora Health Legacy Systems, ShinyHunters Claims 8.8TB Stolen
Amazon subsidiary One Medical Seniors disclosed Tuesday that an unauthorized party accessed third-party file storage systems — legacy archives from its 2021 Iora Health acquisition — between June 8 and June 11. Archived patient files, including demographic and clinical records, were exposed for patients at former Iora clinics across eight U.S. markets including Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, and Seattle. ShinyHunters, an extortion group that previously targeted Medtronic, claimed 8.8 terabytes of exfiltrated data and set a June 22 ransom deadline. One Medical's current EHR system and clinical operations are unaffected. Security experts warn that HIPAA obligations extend to all inherited data environments following healthcare acquisitions.
Sources: Healthcare IT News Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
31 House Democrats Press CMS for Data on Medicare AI Prior Authorization Pilot
Thirty-one House Democrats sent a letter Monday to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz requesting additional data on the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction, or WISeR, pilot — an AI-backed prior authorization program active in six states for certain Medicare services. Lawmakers asked for vendor determination times, approval and denial rates, beneficiary appeal counts, and audit details. Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington noted that WISeR vendor Virtix has been ordered to submit a corrective action plan for missing the pilot's 72-hour review requirement. Democrats have previously introduced resolutions to roll back the program, which critics say is delaying and denying care to Medicare beneficiaries.
Sources: Healthcare Dive Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Voice AI Startup Assort Health Raises $120M Series C, Hits $1.2B Unicorn Valuation
Assort Health raised $120 million in Series C funding led by Menlo Ventures, the San Francisco company announced Wednesday, pushing its valuation to $1.2 billion and its total funding to $222 million. Investors in the round include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis, First Round Capital, Chemistry, Joe Montana, Tau Ventures, and Quiet Capital. Assort plans to use the funds to expand its platform of voice AI agents, which automates administrative tasks for healthcare providers including scheduling, referrals, patient intake, medication refills, eligibility checks, and payments. The company hit unicorn status with the raise.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Stryker Moves to Dismiss Employee Class Action Over March Iranian Hacktivist Cyberattack
Stryker asked a federal court Tuesday to dismiss a class action brought by current and former employees following its March cyberattack by Iranian hacktivist group Handala. Eight plaintiffs filed within 48 hours of Stryker's March 11 disclosure, alleging their Social Security numbers and other PII were compromised. Stryker's CISO submitted a declaration stating the company found no plaintiff PII in files potentially accessed during the attack; Handala claimed at the time to have stolen 50 terabytes of data. Legal experts say courts now demand more than speculation to establish standing, and that receiving a breach notification letter is typically foundational to such lawsuits.
Sources: GovInfoSecurity Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Oracle Health Partners With Theator to Automate Surgical Documentation Using AI Video Analysis
Oracle Health is partnering with surgical intelligence company Theator to bring AI-powered surgical documentation and analytics to Oracle Health customers, the companies announced Wednesday in a news release. Theator's platform captures surgical video footage as procedures occur, analyzes it alongside EHR data to identify procedural steps, safety milestones, and clinically significant events, then generates a structured operative report that surgeons can review and sign within their existing workflow. The collaboration aims to address longstanding documentation delays — surgeons often complete reports hours or days after procedures — while capturing procedural data to improve quality, safety, and efficiency.
Sources: Becker's Hospital Review Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Mount Sinai Taps Signal 1's AIMS Platform to Govern Expanding AI Portfolio
Mount Sinai Health System announced Wednesday it is evaluating Signal 1's AI Management Platform, known as AIMS, to centralize governance and performance monitoring across its expanding AI portfolio. The platform is designed to provide visibility into AI tools currently in use or under evaluation, streamline AI intake and approval workflows, and automate monitoring and reporting for deployed solutions. Signal 1 says AIMS supports generative and agentic AI applications alongside predictive and imaging AI, and tracks return on investment. Mount Sinai Chief Digital Transformation Officer Robbie Freeman said the health system's priority is monitoring AI performance, safety, and impact at scale without slowing innovation.
Sources: MobiHealthNews Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
CMS: U.S. Healthcare Spending Hit $5.7 Trillion in 2025, Projected to Reach $9 Trillion by 2034
CMS actuaries released Wednesday projections showing U.S. healthcare spending reached $5.7 trillion in 2025 — a 7.3 percent increase and the third consecutive year of growth exceeding seven percent — driven primarily by higher utilization rather than price increases. Published in Health Affairs, the figures also project spending will reach $9 trillion by 2034, representing 20.6 percent of GDP. Prescription drug spending, including GLP-1 medications and oncology drugs, is forecast to grow fastest through 2034. The insured share of the U.S. population is projected to fall from 91.8 percent in 2024 to 90.5 percent by 2034, partly reflecting ACA subsidy expirations and Medicaid cuts.
Sources: Healthcare Dive Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Coval Raises $28M to Improve AI Voice Agent Reliability and Compliance in Healthcare
Coval, an AI evaluation platform focused on voice agent deployment, closed a $28 million Series A led by Norwest, the company announced Wednesday. Base10 Partners, Twilio Ventures, and Y Combinator also participated. Founded by Brooke Hopkins, formerly of Waymo's evaluation infrastructure team, Coval works with more than 60 organizations — including Zoom and Deepgram — and plans to use the funding to address reliability and compliance challenges in voice AI deployment, expand its sales team, and advance product capabilities. Executives say the platform reduces manual quality assurance by up to 30 times and increases voice agent deployment speed by 10 times.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare Share ↗ ✉︎ Email 💬 Text
Curated by JD · samwise.agency