Stay up to date on the latest in health tech, digital health and health AI news with this weekly brief. Read below for news from the week of Nov. 2 to 6.
Hims & Hers adds new partners for benefits program
Hims & Hers announced Thursday the addition of four new partners to its benefits program, bringing the total of included partners to 14.
The program, dubbed Hims & Hers Benefits, launched in March and is designed to support subscribers’ whole-body health and includes a GLP-1 weight loss program.
The new partners are nutrition gummy maker Grüns; air medical transport membership service Medjet; AI-powered home strength system Tonal and full body intelligence provider Viome.
“Building health is an everyday activity. It starts with understanding your body and continues with the right support as it changes, from the strength and nutrition that can complement GLP-1 treatment to knowing you’re covered when you need it most,” said Dheerja Kaur, Hims & Hers chief product officer, in a statement. “Hims & Hers Benefits brings that support together in one place, so our subscribers can access the tools behind their whole-body health at prices that make a real difference.”
Superscript expands platform access
Superscript is opening access to its platform through the launch of a new API, which allows any healthcare practice or electronic health record system to access real-time healthcare pricing information.
The platform, backed by Mark Cuban and Nava Ventures, is currently live with 1,500 active healthcare providers. To date, it has served more than 500,000 patients and processed 2.2 million patient billing transactions, executives say.
One of the organizations Superscript works with is Michigan-based Orthopaedic Associates of Muskegon (OAM).
“Patients deserve certainty not only in their clinical diagnosis and treatment plans, but also in their financial obligations,” said Jeff Cave, OAM CEO, in a statement. “Historically, doctors and administrative teams had no way of knowing exact insurance reimbursement rates at the point of care. Partnering with Superscript lets our patients know exactly what they owe before their visit. That transparency builds trust, eliminates anxiety, and allows our care team to focus entirely on delivering high-quality care.”
Hippocratic AI debuts Polaris 6 Ultra
Hippocratic AI launched Monday a new generation of its healthcare language model that features six new upgrades to its AI agents.
The company says the new version of its healthcare-focused AI model can conduct more natural and responsive patient conversations by interpreting emotional cues, reasoning while speaking and adapting its voice in real time, while improving safety, speed and electronic health record system integration.
The upgrade—dubbed Polaris 6 Ultra—features what executives call “bedside intuition,” a first-of-its-kind capability that reads patients’ emotional state and decides next speech without pause.
“In healthcare, you don't get credit for reminding a patient. You get credit for the action they take,” said Munjal Shah, Hippocratic AI CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “Polaris 6.0 was built from more than 323 million patient conversations, making it the only truly experienced frontier model for healthcare able to operate safely and autonomously to drive patient outcomes. That experience shows. Polaris 6.0 handles the healthcare edge cases of real life, it now has more human-like common sense and pacing, and it delivers the kind of empathy that persuades patients.”
Other capabilities include AI intuition, an upgraded version of Care Voice and enhanced Common Sense.
Polaris 6 Ultra also runs on 7.4 trillion parameters and delivers a 1.3X end-to-end speedup compared to Polaris 5, the company says.
Advocates urge DEA to extend telehealth prescribing flexibilities deadline
A coalition of organizations is calling on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to extend its telemedicine prescribing flexibilities deadline given the lack of finalization to a key rule.
The flexibilities are set to expire on Dec. 31, and the agency’s Special Registrations for Telemedicine and Limited State Telemedicine Registrations final rule has not been published.
The coalition said patients and providers are “facing unacceptable uncertainty and the real risk of care disruptions,” noting that providers and platforms will need time to review requirements and apply for registration even if the rule is published in November.
“Patients should not have to wonder in December whether their January appointments will happen—or whether they will lose access to medications they rely on,” said Chris Adamec, Alliance for Connected Care executive director, in a statement. “With 59 days remaining and no published final rule, DEA can give providers and patients the stability they need by issuing a fifth extension as soon as possible.”
Advocates are calling for an extension through at least Dec. 31, 2027.