The Grand Roundup: Mass General Brigham's AI PCP backlash, Hinge Health pushback on CMMI ACCESS, No Surprises Act increasing costs, US drug access & TAMs, AI market signals, and more

News & Analysis from Health Tech Nerds

Mass General Brigham faced pushback from two directions in two weeks — the state flagging the MinuteClinic partnership for increasing costs, and its own primary care docs criticizing the K Health AI partnership. Kevin's take: MGB has the highest primary care rates in Massachusetts with PCPs talking about unionizing, raising the question of whether an academic medical center should be in the primary care business at all.

Digital health continued pushing back on CMMI ACCESS rates, with Hinge Health CEO Daniel Perez issuing the most direct public rebuke yet. Kevin's read: CMMI set rates deliberately low to force a ground-up rebuild, publicly traded digital health companies are structurally ill-suited to participate, and the opportunity is best fit for companies building from a fundamentally different cost structure.

Kevin and Martin discuss the mixed signals emerging around healthcare AI adoption: OpenEvidence showing explosive clinician usage growth while Doximity and Health Catalyst struggle through the transition, alongside OpenAI and Anthropic launching consulting arms and Hippocratic AI publicly defending its traction amid growing scrutiny.

The US reimburses 88% of approved drug indications versus 30-40% in peer economies, illustrating the tradeoffs with healthcare costs in our country. Meanwhile, drug development TAMs are massive, exceeding that of even OpenAI. Kevin’s observation: we can and should be innovating here, but the healthcare cost debate must acknowledge that innovation comes with costs.

Guest: Loren Adler (Brookings Institution)
The No Surprises Act eliminated surprise bills, but the IDR arbitration process that replaced rate-setting has pushed prices to nearly 4x historical in-network rates — with those costs flowing to employers and eventually premiums. Loren's assessment: a benchmark price would have been cleaner, and a near-term fix is unlikely.

Guest: Will Johnson (Gyde)
Will, CEO of Gyde, joins to discuss Gyde’s growth via acquisitions of other MA brokerage agencies and how they integrate and support partners. He shares how they are incorporating AI, his perspective on the journey of the broker market, and the opportunity to go enrollment.

Guest: Jenny Schneider (Homeward)
Jenny Schneider from Homeward joins to discuss the $50B Rural Health Transformation Program and the challenges facing rural healthcare. The conversation covers the operational challenges states face in deploying funds, the $137B in projected rural cuts that exceed the investment, and why provider retention is the more pressing and underaddressed challenge.

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Referenced:

MGB PCP backlash: bostonglobe.com/2026/05/09/business/mass-general-brigham-primary/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/09/business/mass-general-brigham-primary/

ACCESS pushback: statnews.com/2026/05/14/medicare-chronic-care-pilot-access-digital-health-tech/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.statnews.com/2026/05/14/medicare-chronic-care-pilot-access-digital-health-tech/

No Surprises Act: brookings.edu/articles/no-surprises-act-arbitration-databook/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.brookings.edu/articles/no-surprises-act-arbitration-databook/

Loren Adler, Brookings: brookings.edu/people/loren-adler/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.brookings.edu/people/loren-adler/

Loren Adler on X: https://x.com/LorenAdler

PhRMA report: aglty.io/phrma/Attachments/NewItems/PhRMA_OnePager_AccessToNewMedicinesReport_8.5x11_v3.2_Print%20(2" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://cdn.aglty.io/phrma/Attachments/NewItems/PhRMA_OnePager_AccessToNewMedicinesReport_8.5x11_v3.2_Print%20(2)_20260512113247.pdf

Gyde Health acquisition: gydehealth.ai/resources/gyde-acquires-we-know-medicare" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.gydehealth.ai/resources/gyde-acquires-we-know-medicare

Gyde Health: gydehealth.ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.gydehealth.ai/

Will Johnson: will@guidehealth.ai

OpenEvidence adoption: nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openevidence-ai-doctor-medical-physician-login-app-what-npi-uptodate-rcna341064" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/openevidence-ai-doctor-medical-physician-login-app-what-npi-uptodate-rcna341064

Homeward Health: homewardhealth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://www.homewardhealth.com/

Jenny Schneider: jschneider@homewardhealth.com