Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Health Catalyst Appoints Simeon Kohl as CEO, Its Third Chief Executive This Year
Health Catalyst has appointed Simeon Kohl as its new chief executive officer, making him the third CEO the company has installed in 2026. Kohl succeeds Dan Burton, who departed earlier this year amid mounting financial pressure on the analytics firm. Health Catalyst provides data platform and analytics services to more than 200 hospitals and health systems. The board cited Kohl’s operational track record and experience scaling enterprise software businesses as key factors in his selection. He is expected to focus on profitability and expanding strategic partnerships as the company navigates an increasingly competitive healthcare analytics market with tightening margins across its hospital clients.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
ATA Action Flags ‘Stark Contradiction’ in CMS 2027 Physician Fee Schedule Over RPM Restrictions
The American Telemedicine Association’s advocacy arm, ATA Action, submitted formal comments opposing remote patient monitoring provisions in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ proposed Calendar Year 2027 Physician Fee Schedule, with the public comment period closing September 14. The proposal would restrict RPM and remote therapeutic monitoring reimbursement to clinical staff who are direct employees of the billing practice, effectively barring outsourced monitoring vendors. ATA Action called the move a “stark contradiction” of Congress’s bipartisan efforts to expand RPM access. The group urged CMS to preserve existing billing flexibilities to protect chronically ill Medicare beneficiaries who rely on remote monitoring programs.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
HHS Pledges Significant Resource Boost for Information Blocking Enforcement
The Department of Health and Human Services has pledged a significant increase in resources dedicated to curbing information blocking, signaling a more aggressive enforcement posture. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed the agency to expand its investigation capacity and accelerate enforcement actions against providers, health IT developers, and health information networks found to be restricting patient access to electronic health information. The initiative includes coordination across the Office of the Inspector General and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. Industry groups broadly welcomed the boost, though some provider organizations cautioned against penalties that fail to account for technical constraints in legacy health IT systems.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
OpenAI Connects ChatGPT to Epic EHRs, Giving Clinicians Read Access to Patient Records
OpenAI has launched a ChatGPT for Healthcare integration with Epic EHRs, allowing authorized clinicians to retrieve and reason over patient information — including appointment notes, lab results, medications, and specialist documentation — directly within ChatGPT or embedded Epic workflows. The read-only connection requires a Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA compliance and is currently being piloted at UCSF Health. Simultaneously, OpenAI released a Healthcare Public Data plugin linking to nine sources including ClinicalTrials.gov, CMS Coverage, RxNorm, DailyMed, and PubMed. The dual release marks OpenAI’s most direct move yet into clinical workflows and intensifies competition among AI vendors for enterprise healthcare IT market share.
Sources: MobiHealthNews
Trinity Health Outsources IT Service Desk, Filing WARN Notice for 557 Affected Workers
Trinity Health, one of the nation’s largest Catholic health systems with 92 hospitals across 26 states, filed a WARN Act notice announcing it will lay off 557 information technology workers following a decision to outsource its IT service desk operations. The affected employees, based primarily at the system’s Livonia, Michigan headquarters, are expected to be transitioned out over a 60-day window beginning in late September. Trinity cited cost reduction and improved service delivery through third-party managed services as the rationale. The layoffs reflect a growing trend of large health systems outsourcing non-clinical IT functions amid financial pressure from rising labor costs and declining reimbursement rates.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
Coalition for Health AI Releases Eight Governance Playbooks for Safe Clinical AI Deployment
The Coalition for Health AI has released eight governance playbooks to help hospitals and health systems safely deploy and oversee artificial intelligence tools in clinical settings. The playbooks address key domains including data quality, model transparency, bias detection, patient safety monitoring, vendor oversight, and regulatory compliance. Developed by a coalition spanning major health systems, medical associations, and AI vendors, the guides respond to widespread uncertainty about responsible AI implementation in healthcare. Each playbook provides implementation checklists, risk assessment frameworks, and recommended governance structures. The release coincides with intensifying scrutiny from the FDA and CMS over AI-enabled clinical decision support tools and automated diagnostic systems across health settings.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Judi Health Adds Color Health, WellTheory, and Cylinder to Its Specialty Virtual Care Platform
Virtual care benefits platform Judi Health has added three specialty care partners to its ecosystem: Color Health for cancer screening and genetic testing, WellTheory for autoimmune condition management through functional medicine, and Cylinder Health for gastrointestinal care. The additions expand Judi’s network of condition-specific programs accessible through employer-sponsored benefits plans. The company said the partnerships reflect growing employer demand for evidence-based virtual care across complex and chronic conditions beyond behavioral health and primary care. Judi Health positions its platform as a navigation layer connecting plan members to the right specialty care partner based on individual health needs, condition history, and coverage eligibility.
Sources: MobiHealthNews
Oracle Health Debuts AI-First Voice-Enabled EHR Platform for Ambulatory and Specialty Clinics
Oracle Health has debuted a new ambulatory EHR platform designed for voice-first interaction and embedded agentic AI, targeting independent practices and specialty clinics. The platform evolves the Cerner acquisition into Oracle’s AI-native product direction, allowing clinicians to navigate the record, document encounters, and trigger clinical workflows using natural language voice commands. Integrated agentic AI can autonomously complete background tasks — including ordering lab tests, routing referrals, and pre-populating prior authorization forms — based on clinical context. Oracle positioned the product as an alternative to legacy EHRs requiring extensive manual navigation, emphasizing reduced documentation time for outpatient clinicians. General medicine availability follows an initial specialty practice rollout.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
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