Sword announced that its AI Care Management division, Sword Intelligence, is being deployed in Greece as the country's front door to healthcare. It appears the initial use case centers on a new National Health Information Line in Greece, 1566, with Sword’s AI agents powering the hotline. The rollout of 1566 earlier this fall appears to have been plagued by issues, as 200,000 visits were scheduled within the first five days of operation. The hotline experienced long wait times and booking errors, which appear to have led to this partnership with Sword. Sword’s CEO told Bloomberg that it is on a path to build a trillion-dollar business that will change healthcare worldwide.

Best Buy reported another $192 million impairment charge on its Best Buy Health business in Q3 FY26 earnings. Best Buy’s US services business, which accounts for ~7% of its domestic revenue, saw revenue decline by 1% YoY primarily due to Best Buy Health. The press release noted that the impairment charge reflects “downward revisions in the company’s longer-term projections in part due to pressures in Medicaid and Medicare Advantage markets”, with the 10-Q noting that pressure is both on revenue and margins. While Best Buy exited the Current Health business earlier this year, it also made a few other acquisitions over the last decade, including GreatCall and Critical Signal Technologies, which appear to be driving the impairment charge here.

On the same week the House passed a 5-year extension for hospital-at-home, former employees shared on LinkedIn that hospital-at-home provider Inbound Health abruptly shut down. Inbound originally spun out of Minneapolis-based health system Allina Health in 2022 with $20 million in funding to scale Allina’s hospital-at-home model to other health systems. If you’re looking to understand the challenges of care delivery innovation, I think Inbound makes for a great case study. From the conceptual appeal of the hospital-at-home model and COVID-19 as a catalyst driving early adoption to the challenging reimbursement environment and the challenges of operationalizing health system JVs, there’s a lot to unpack and learn here.

Mark Cuban apparently shared on a panel at the Forbes Health Summit this week that Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs and Humana are exploring a partnership, with Cuban seemingly excited about the distribution that Humana could provide to bring volume to Cost Plus Drugs. Which… what? I guess I am impressed by the level of cognitive dissonance that Cuban apparently is able to handle, given his public schtick that vertically integrated insurers are the root problem of healthcare in this country. As I think I recall reading in Sun Tzu once, if you can’t defeat your arch nemesis, instead partner with them to leverage their scale to your economic advantage.

Hims & Hers announced the acquisition of YourBio Health, a blood-sampling technology company that Hims will use to simplify blood sampling. Hims also completed the acquisition of Livewell this week, which will become the center of its Canadian offering.

Aledade announced its $500 million credit facility from Ares Commercial Finance, which was first reported back in September by Bloomberg. Aledade noted in the press release that the capital will be used to “accelerate shared savings distributions to our clinician partners, enabling them to reinvest in their patients and practices sooner to sustain our momentum in value-based care”.

Mercy Health and WellVana signed a 20-year partnership to launch a Clinically Integrated Network for primary care physicians and advanced practice providers who aren’t employed by Mercy to participate in VBC contracts.

Curative, a health plan offering fully-insured and level-funded plans for employers, raised $150 million at a $1.275 billion valuation. Curative pivoted to this model after initially launching as a COVID-19 testing provider. The model offers $0 out-of-pocket costs for in-network care for members who complete a Baseline Visit within 120 days of joining the plan. While the press release notes this is an annual preventative health visit, the Curative website Q&A notes this is not an annual wellness exam with a PCP; it’s a meeting with a Curative Care Navigator. Curative reports serving 1,200 employer clients and 165,000+ members, while also achieving profitability. It’ll use the funding to expand from Texas, Florida, and Georgia to other mid-Atlantic states in the near term. This Reddit thread seems to do a good job of providing reasonable views on the model from folks in Texas.

Angle Health, an AI platform for employer healthcare benefits, raised $134 million. Per Modern Healthcare, this consisted of $84 million in equity financing and $50 million in debt financing. Angle, which focuses on small- to medium-sized businesses, notes that it now serves 3,000 employer customers across 44 states. The company uses its AI model to predict future healthcare risks, helping brokers and employers to better design health plans for employees.

Paradigm Health, a platform for clinical trials, raised $78 million. Paradigm also announced this week that it is acquiring Flatiron’s Clinical Research Business and entering a long-term partnership with Flatiron to integrate the offering into Flatiron’s oncology EMR. It will reach 2.4 million patients across 25 academic centers/health systems and 100 community oncology practices.

Artera, an AI platform for patient communications, raised $65 million in funding. Per the press release, it has engaged 200+ million patients and expects to have $100 million in Contracted Annual Recurring Revenue by the end of 2025.

Reema, a platform that engages hard-to-reach members in Medicaid managed care and other health plans, raised $19 million.

Empathy Health Technologies, the company behind the addiction recovery app Sober Sidekick, raised $7.6 million. This Fortune article from Empathy’s last funding round in 2024 does a really nice job describing the business then, highlighting how Sober Sidekick chose not to chase dollars from referring patients to rehab centers and instead started working with Medicaid plans.