This issue we offer some further thoughts on agentic AI in healthcare, following on Rajil Vohra's guest piece in February. While AI clearly offers benefits in continuing to automate and streamline many aspects of customer service, in all industries - and especially healthcare - the need for access to human agents is still essential.
We'll be in Las Vegas again later this month at Fintech Meetup. Email us here if you'd like to meet!
Remember to download our Demystifying Healthcare Payments white paper here. And reach out here to schedule time if you'd like to take a deeper dive.
PNC Healthcare offers a fully integrated suite of tools, solutions, and advisory services to help the healthcare ecosystem maximize working capital, streamline administrative processes, mitigate financial risk, and access capital for investment and growth.
FEATURE ARTICLE
Agentic AI Is Transforming Healthcare - But It Still Needs a Human Touch
We recently spent hours trying to resolve a complex email analytics issue with HubSpot – only to find ourselves trapped in a chatbot loop with no clear path to a human agent who could actually help. That experience, combined with Rajil Vohra's recent guest post on agentic AI in healthcare billing, led us to go deeper on where AI-driven customer service stands today in healthcare – and where it falls short.
Agentic AI – artificial intelligence that can autonomously observe, decide, and act across multi-step workflows – is reshaping healthcare customer service. Unlike earlier chatbots, agentic systems navigate complex processes end to end, from verifying eligibility to resolving billing inquiries in real time. AI-powered health tech startups captured 54% of all digital health funding in 2025, and Deloitte reports 85% of healthcare executives plan to increase agentic AI spending over the next three years.
The major players are moving fast. Cedar launched Kora, a voice-based AI agent for patient billing projected to automate 30% of inbound calls. Hyro raised $45 million to scale conversational AI across health systems. Commure secured $200 million for its AI-powered revenue cycle platform. Salesforce rolled out Agentforce Health, and Waystar is building an end-to-end agentic revenue cycle network.
The use cases gaining traction center on healthcare payments and revenue cycle management – where providers collectively spend over $140 billion annually. AI agents handle scheduling, answer copay and deductible questions, identify payment options, route patients to financial assistance, and process billing inquiries around the clock. McKinsey estimates agentic AI could reduce cost-to-collect by 30 to 60 percent.
For routine interactions, agentic AI excels. It eliminates hold times, operates 24/7, supports multiple languages, and delivers consistent answers to straightforward questions. Cedar's Kora can detect sentiment, explain charges conversationally, and escalate to a live agent when needed – all while maintaining HIPAA compliance.
But healthcare billing is rarely straightforward. A patient whose surgery is denied 48 hours before the procedure due to a coding error, surprise balance bills involving multiple providers, disputes over medical necessity, coordination of benefits across overlapping coverage – these situations demand contextual judgment that today's AI doesn't possess. Vohra's article last issue makes clear that agentic systems should escalate to humans when judgment or intervention is required. But as our recent HubSpot experience illustrates, organizations must make it obvious how to reach a human and for what situations, or customers with complex problems will burn hours fighting through automated responses.
There's also a fundamentally human dimension. ECRI flagged AI chatbot misuse as the top health technology hazard of 2026, and 60% of Americans remain uncomfortable with AI playing too large a role in their care. Patients facing a confusing medical bill don't just need correct information – they need compassion and the reassurance that someone is listening.
The most effective healthcare organizations won't replace human support with AI; they'll use it to handle the routine so real people can show up where it matters most.
PAYMENT TRENDS
HGP publishes latest health IT market review
Healthcare Growth Partners (HGP) recently published a look at 2026 health IT trends. Their key points:
Regulation is increasingly bifurcating between institutional value-based care and consumer-directed health.
AI is proving additive for incumbents with proprietary data and customer relationships, creating manageable transition risk and structural advantages.
Health IT deal activity rebounded strongly in 2025 with record M&A. Valuations exceeded pre-COVID levels, especially for high-quality assets.
Macro conditions improved meaningfully: Inflation moderated to 2.6%, Fed Funds rates declined to 3.50–3.75%, and GDP expanded 4.3% in Q3 2025 with Q4 forecasts of 2-5%.
Andrew Bouldin, Partner at FCA Venture Partners, shares his perspectives on putting capital to work to help drive innovation in healthcare. Andrew's early stage investing aligns very well with the work we do in healthcare payments. FCA's portfolio company Payground, which gives patients an app to manage, track, and pay all medical bills in one place, is a great example of where our worlds intersect.
Click here for Andrew's thoughts on what makes FCA different in venture investing and where it focuses in health IT and payments.
Nashville, TN-based RevSpring announced in late February that it had reached agreement to acquire TrustCommerce, one of the last remaining independent healthcare payments companies. TrustCommerce is a portfolio company of Waud Capital.
This deal follows RevSpring's acquisition of Kyruus in September 2025, and continues to add payments capabilities to RevSpring's business, which processes over 60 million payment transactions and collects more than $14 billion in patient payments each year. TrustCommerce's patient gateway has a well-regarded integration with Epic, and has been increasing its share of large healthcare organizations.
Duluth, GA-based Codoxo, a provider of AI and generative AI-powered payment integrity solutions, announced the close of an oversubscribed Series C funding. The company raised $35 million, with the round led by CVS Health Ventures and participation from Echo Health Ventures and existing strategic and financial investors. The company focuses on cost containment via proactive, AI-driven provider education intended to increase accuracy prior to claim generation.
UnityAI announces $8.5M for agentic AI in healthcare
UnityAI, based out of Nashville, TN, has closed an $8.5 million Series A round that brings total funding to $15 million. The financing was led by Third Prime, with participation from Nashville Capital Network, Whistler Capital Partners, Max Ventures, and Company Ventures. UnityAI is building an agentic workforce to help large provider organizations including HCA Healthcare take manual processes and create a single operating system to improve scalability and effectiveness. The company says it is already supporting 300,000 patient interactions each month.
Nitra Raises $187M to scale AI for healthcare practices
New York-based Nitra announced it has raised $72 million in equity from a new $50 million Series B and a previously undisclosed $22 million Series A round. Investors include Actions Capital, AppWorks, Comma Capital, Dunamu & Partners, Era Funds, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Pantera Capital, and Sazze Partners, and others. New financing also includes $20 million in venture debt from Avenue Capital Group and an expanded $95 million warehouse facility from Treville Capital Group and Encina Lender Finance. Total capital raised to date adds to $205 million.
The company says it already has 700+ practices and 2,500+ providers on its platform, which embeds AI agents into the "operational backbone" of practices and includes expense cards, expense management, bill pay, patient payment processing, AI agents for healthcare accounting automation, AI procurement agents, inventory management, and patient engagement capabilities.
Ease Health emerges from stealth with $41M Series A
New York-based Ease Health - which is building a new behavioral health IT platform - announced a $41 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. The company is creating an "AI-native operating system" combining CRM, EHR, and rev cycle components.
Embedded Payments: From Product Feature to Infrastructure. For most of modern business history, payments sat outside the product. Now embedded payments is integrating money movement directly into a software product’s user experience, so that paying, getting paid, or moving funds becomes a native part of how the product works rather than a separate step layered on top. (Alex Johnson - Fintech Takes)
What It Means to be a Bank is Rapidly Changing. The oft-used quote that “there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen,” presumably wasn’t in reference to the banking industry. But it feels apt to describe the current pace of change in the U.S. banking system. (Jason Mikula - Fintech Business Weekly)
Conference List. Rolling twelve month look ahead at conferences and other events covering healthcare payments, revenue cycle, fintech and related areas. Updated through November 2026.
FMP Blog. Thoughts from healthcare payments CEOs and investors on their right to win and goals for the year ahead, as well as data and perspectives on healthcare payments.
Newsletter Archive. News, trends, and insights from the healthcare payments industry compiled in our bi-weekly newsletter. Last six months of newsletters.
Epic MyChart. Excel sheet with full listing of all Epic MyChart instances as of May 2024, categorized by state, provider type and specialty.
All of these resources can also be accessed at the FinMed Partners Insights page.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, please forward to a friend or colleague.
FinMed Partners is a management consulting and advisory business focusing at the intersection of payments/ fintech and healthcare. Our founders have developed deep expertise from decades of experience with health IT companies, healthcare providers and many players within the payments ecosystem. Investors, boards and executive teams work with us to maximize business value through strategic input and tactical execution.
FinMed Partners LLC, 34 Long Avenue, Belmont, MA 02478, United States
%20rectangular.jpeg?upscale=true&width=1120&upscale=true&name=Andrew%20Bouldin%203%20Original%20(No%20Coat)%20rectangular.jpeg)
