Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Saturday, September 19, 2026
Broadband Gaps Still Block 12 Million Americans From Telehealth
A new JAMA study estimates that approximately 12 million Americans lack the broadband connectivity needed to participate in video-based telehealth services—a gap that persists even as virtual care adoption has surged post-pandemic. Researchers found rural and low-income populations bear the greatest burden, with inadequate internet speeds or no access at all effectively locking them out of what has become a primary care delivery channel. The findings add urgency to federal broadband investment programs and highlight that expanding telehealth’s legal framework alone cannot close the access divide without parallel infrastructure investment.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
Cross-State Care Coalition Launches to Fix Telehealth Licensing
The American Telemedicine Association’s advocacy arm launched the Cross-State Care Coalition on September 18, uniting health systems, academic medical centers, telehealth companies, and virtual care advocates behind federal legislation to ease interstate provider licensing. The coalition aims to build on the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact while pushing Congress for a permanent solution allowing clinicians to treat patients across state lines without obtaining multiple licenses. Members argue that patchwork state-by-state licensing requirements continue to limit care access and create administrative burdens that undermine telehealth’s potential—particularly for specialty and behavioral health services.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
AI Accountability Frameworks May Soon Match HIPAA-Level Standards
Health IT leaders speaking at a recent industry forum warned that AI governance requirements are rapidly maturing toward the compliance expectations set by HIPAA—and health systems that treat AI oversight as optional may soon find themselves behind regulators. The shift reflects growing pressure from federal agencies, state legislatures, and accreditation bodies to formalize AI risk management, bias auditing, and algorithmic accountability into standard operating procedures. Executives from leading health systems described building internal AI review boards and vendor contracting requirements that mirror HIPAA’s administrative, technical, and physical safeguard frameworks, suggesting industry-led standards may solidify before federal rules formally arrive.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
MRO Acquires Vyne Medical to Expand Clinical Data Management
Clinical data management platform provider MRO has acquired Vyne Medical, a company that delivers intelligent document processing to more than 800 U.S. hospitals. The deal expands MRO’s enterprise offering by adding Vyne Medical’s ability to transform unstructured information from paper, fax, voice, and images into digital, discrete data that feeds clinical and financial workflows. Vyne Medical will operate as ‘Vyne Medical, an MRO Company’ during the integration period. The acquisition comes as health systems face mounting pressure to digitize legacy clinical documentation and eliminate manual intake processes. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Congress Subpoenas Oracle Leaders Over $27B VA EHR Contract
The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs has served subpoenas on Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison and CEO Mike Sicilia, compelling them to testify under oath about the VA’s EHR modernization project, whose cost ceiling has nearly tripled to $27 billion despite just 17 of 170 VA medical centers going live since 2020. Ellison is scheduled to appear on December 10 and Sicilia on November 19. The unanimous committee vote came after Oracle declined an invitation to send a representative voluntarily. The cost overruns have made the VA’s Oracle Health rollout one of the most scrutinized EHR implementations in federal history.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
ECRI Calls for Unified ‘One Patient, One Record’ Solution
Patient safety organization ECRI has published an advocacy call for a national ‘one patient, one record’ approach, arguing that fragmented health records distributed across disconnected EHR systems are causing measurable patient harm through delayed diagnoses, duplicated testing, and medication errors. ECRI’s CEO acknowledged challenges—privacy risks, cybersecurity exposure, governance gaps, and resistance from EHR vendors—while making the case that patient safety benefits outweigh the obstacles. The organization’s position reinforces a broader push by payers and regulators for stronger interoperability mandates and challenges EHR vendors to move beyond compliance-minimum data sharing toward a truly unified longitudinal record.
Ferry Health Emerges from Stealth with $9M to Automate Patient Scheduling
Agentic AI startup Ferry Health launched from stealth on September 17 with $9 million in seed funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and several other investors. The platform acts as an AI personal assistant for patients, making phone calls on their behalf to find in-network providers and book appointments—tasks that currently create significant friction and care delays. Ferry claims availability across all 50 states and expects to scale from over one million to five million patients by year-end. The launch reflects growing investor conviction that healthcare access problems are partly a scheduling and coordination challenge that AI agents can solve at scale.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
Oracle Health Extends Clinical AI Agent to Inpatient Nurses
Oracle Health announced U.S. availability of its Clinical AI Agent for inpatient nurses on September 14, expanding documentation automation beyond physicians where the tool has already saved more than 400,000 hours of charting time. Embedded in Oracle Health Foundation EHR, the nursing version combines voice-driven chart navigation, AI-generated patient summaries, and voice-enabled discrete charting to reduce documentation time at the bedside. BayCare Health System was named as an early adopter. The launch arrives as Oracle Health prepares to showcase the tool at its annual Summit in Orlando September 22-24, amid intensifying competition from Epic and athenahealth in ambient AI documentation.
Sources: Healthcare Dive
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Curated by JD · samwise.agency