Weekly Health Tech Reads 6/15/25

State legislative changes, Commons Clinic launches a preventive health offering, Amazon reorganizes healthcare efforts, and more!

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Kevin O'Leary
June 15, 2025

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👋 Hey all! Kevin here. Welcome to this edition of my free weekly newsletter, where I share my perspective on healthcare innovation news from the past week that I found interesting. My goal in this is not to have you agree with my perspective, but rather to spur some thinking that helps you shape your perspective.

This weeks newsletter has a strong theme to it, as it certainly feels like the pendulum is swinging away from big healthcare in favor of more independent grassroots style efforts to provide affordable, high-quality healthcare in this country. That is most noticeable in the legislation across three states that attack the business models of PBMs, insurers, private equity, and health systems. It seems clear to me that frustration with the current state of the health system is reaching a tipping point.

The desire to move away from the scaled, corporate model of medicine we’ve been collectively drifting toward over the last decade and back to a local, independent model of medicine feels entirely logical to me. A system centered around a relationship with a local independent clinician supported by modern technology to act as the quarterback/coach/whatever seems like the most logical construct for how healthcare should work in this country, at least to me.

I imagine that most folks reading this — whether they work for the biggest corporations in America or a independent provider org — would generally agree with that concept. The primary question is how we move today’s flawed system towards that. And I think many of the conversations we are currently having skirt around some of the harder questions that need to be answered about how we collectively pay for that care and why these scaled models have emerged over the last decade in the first place. While it’s easy to point a finger at perceived evil monopolists as the enemy, I’m not so sure it is the most productive path forward here.

Anyways, enough of my weekly existential crisis for now, lets move on to the news — happy Sunday reading!

Kevin

REGULATORY

State regulatory changes: Indiana’s hospital price caps, Oregon’s MSO restrictions, Arkansas’s PBM prohibition

It’s been interesting to notice what seems like a uptick in states making meaningful regulatory changes over the past few months that target the business models of various large healthcare constituencies — PBMs, insurers, private equity, and hospitals.

Arkansas, Indiana, and Oregon have all implemented legislation that have a common theme: state officials are making the case that they are acting in the best interests of the people of their respective states by breaking up big healthcare, with the legislation serving as a potential example for other states to follow.

  • Arkansas PBM legislation:

    The Arkansas PBM legislation turned into a legal and PR battle this week as PBMs filed lawsuits against Arkansas. Arkansas Gov Sarah Huckabee Sanders penned an op-ed in the New York Times describing PBMs as “a good idea that went sour”. She argues the PBMs now threaten patient health and that CVS could choose to divest its PBM and continue to operate pharmacies in the state, but instead is choosing to take its ball and go home. CVS responded directly to the essay, arguing that Sanders is prioritizing special interests in the state, including Walmart specifically, while hurting the people of Arkansas. It’s a fascinating back-and-forth to watch, even if it feels like two ships passing in the night at times. Both seem quite convinced they are the ones acting in the best interest of the people of Arkansas.

  • Indiana hospital pricing legislation:
    Indiana passed a bill that will set caps on hospital prices. Starting in 2026, a formula will be used to set a price cap for not-for-profit systems, which they will have three years to adhere to, otherwise they will face a tax penalty and lose their tax-exempt status. The article notes that the caps are expected to be at 250% - 300% of Medicare, an improvement from a draft of the legislation that targeted 200% caps. As the article notes, the fact that Indiana is a Republican state indicates this could be a move that is adopted in other states as well.

  • Oregon MSO legislation:
    Oregon passed an aggressive corporate-practice-of-medicine law, attempting to end the “friendly” PC-MSO model whereby corporations can control a practice via a provider who effectively cedes decision-making to that corporation. This interview in Modern Healthcare does a nice job summarizing what the move was intended to accomplish in terms of prohibiting corporate practice of medicine, as well as the critique that the law will end up leading more doctors selling their practices to health systems instead.

    The Oregon MSO law was covered this week in BIG by Matt Stoller, a Substack that takes a critical view towards monopolies. It described the law as a “a ground-breaking event that could catalyze the creation of a new health care system, one managed by medical professionals and patients instead of Wall Street.” As I mentioned in the HTN Slack this week, while I think it’s worth spending time reading that post to understand the general argument, there are a number of things I think it gets factually wrong. It reads more like an advocacy piece against monopolies versus a full assessment of the situation at hand.

Taking a step back, all three pieces of legislation seem to be coming from a similar place: frustration with how the scaled approach to big healthcare is negatively impacting people in each of those states. Regardless of what you think of the merits of any of the three pieces of legislation above, I think it is notable to see states taking a more activist role in addressing perceived healthcare challenges in their states, making big moves that could cause ripple effects in the industry and be followed by other states. It feels like a growing trend, one that is worth keeping an eye on.

STARTUP FUNDING

Next-gen specialty provider Commons Clinic enters the preventive wellness game

Commons Clinic is certainly on an interesting trajectory as it aims to build the next generation of the health system, as it announced $26 million in new funding this week, bringing it to $60+ million raised over the past few years.

The company got its start a few years back focusing on the MSK market, investing $9.75 million in a surgery center in Los Angeles to align and deploy Commons Clinic’s AI platform there. At the time of its Series A funding in late 2023, the Commons Clinic narrative was very focused on reinventing the MSK experience, as this investor memo noted.

The funding this week is intended to build out Common Clinic’s Wholebody offering, a early detection / prevention platform. As part of this move, Commons Clinic noted it is expanding from MSK to also focus on metabolic, cardiac, cancer and women’s health. You can see the product offering below, which seems to lean into the longevity market obsession with full-body MRIs and wrapping that into a broader offering:

The Wholebody offering feels like an interesting shift strategically for Commons Clinic. It is clearly signaling its interest in moving beyond MSK toward its vision of rebuilding a modern multi-specialty health system. As part of that, it will need to figure out how to enter those adjacent specialties and build density of other high-quality specialists.

In that context, I can imagine the logic behind the move here — Commons Clinic seems as though it is essentially adding a next-gen version of “primary care” to their health system. I would assume the idea here is the same as the typical health system thesis towards primary care — use it as a loss leader to drive volume to other specialties. I’d imagine that’s the core of the thesis: this Wholebody offering will induce desirable commercial volume for specialties outside of MSK and support Commons Clinic in entering those markets.

When framed that way, it seems like an interesting bet on Commons Clinic behalf that a model like Wholebody is essentially going to be what the future of primary care will look like, and that it will be able to use that as a feeder for its specialty model. We’ve long seen health systems offer services like this as high-end concierge offerings, i.e. the Mayo Clinic Executive Health Program. We’ve seen other systems attempt, and struggle to sustain, consumer oriented primary care offerings — i.e. see Spectrum Health and its Strive program. It’ll be worth keeping an eye on whether this is a moment where those types of offerings become more mainstream. It so, I’d imagine we’ll see more health systems launch similar product offerings.

I’m not so sure I’m there yet personally on this Wholebody type of offering. Particularly for a model like Commons Clinic that has been positioning itself as the future of value-based specialty care. This play seems much more like a high-end D2C fee-for-service offering. It’s something that may well be something a segment of consumer is willing to pay for, but it does not seem particularly well-aligned for an organization seeking to be the next generation of specialty value-based care.

Chart of the Week

Ok it’s not really a chart this week, instead it is a set of slides. As I shared on LinkedIn earlier in the week, I had the chance to present to an awesome group of health system, payer, and employer executives this week, offering up some thoughts on key innovation trends that included AI, consumerism, and ICHRA. I learned a lot from the group, and also tried to share some provocative thoughts on those trends.

I’ve included the slides from the AI section below, and posted the full deck for HTN members on Slack in the event you’re interested in the other sections on consumerism and ICHRA. I hope it spurs some thinking about whether AI is actually going to put downward cost pressure on the healthcare industry, or, as I expect, will more likely result in higher costs.

In an environment where every incumbent provider, payer, employer, etc thinks that AI is going to increase their revenue and help them manage costs more efficiently, that seems like the most logical conclusion to me.

Note: if the slides don’t show up well via this embed in your newsletter, they’re also available via that LinkedIn post above.

Other Top Headlines

  • Amazon has reorganized its health arm into six pillars in an effort to simplify the business after a wave of recent leadership exits. The six units: One Medical Clinical Care Delivery; One Medical Clinical Operations and Performance; AHS Strategic Growth and Network Development; AHS Store, Tech and Marketing; AHS Compliance; and AHS Pharmacy Services. I think it probably goes without saying that I think Amazon may be stepping on its own toes here if those are the six “pillars” that are now the effort to simplify Amazon’s push into healthcare. It seems a bit ironic that a startup named One Medical has now been split into two operating groups in Amazon.

    • Amazon also was in the news this week as it partnered with Progyny to be the first women’s health provider as part of Amazon’s Health Benefits Connector, which allows people to enroll in benefits covered by their employer / health plan. The move is curious given Amazon’s recent decision to offer Maven to its own employees starting Jan 1, 2025, moving away from Progyny (and causing Progyny’s stock to crater more than 30%).

  • 23andMe has entered a definitive agreement to sell both the core 23andMe genome asset and Lemonaid Health to Anne Wojcicki’s TTAM Research Institute for $305 million. TTAM ended up outbidding Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which had previously submitted a $256 million bid.

  • CapitalRx, a next gen pharmacy benefits manager, acquired Amino Health. Amino Health will become CapitalRx’s care navigation product offering moving forward, rounding out CapitalRx’s product portfolio for employers.

  • Blue Shield of California teams up with Zocdoc for provider scheduling offering over one million instantly bookable hours available across primary care, 150 different specialties, mental health, vision, dental and more.

  • MRO acquired Q-Centrix, a clinical data management platform, for an undisclosed amount. The combined entity will provide services to more than 2,000 hospitals and health system and more than 7,000 clinics.

  • Healthcare data platform Datavant acquired Ontellus, a medical records retrieval service.

Funding Announcements

  • Ellipsis Health, a voice-based AI care manager, raised $45 million.

  • Autonomize AI, an AI copilot technology, raised $28 million.

  • Commons Clinic, a next generation health system, raised $26 million to launch a new whole-body preventive care platform.

  • Zorro, an ICHRA administration platform, raised $20 million. The press release notes Zorro has seen 800% enrollment growth in 2025, with 75% of enrollees selecting plans through its AI platform, and employers seeing 20%+ premium savings compared to their group plans.

  • Eli Health, a hormone monitoring platform, raised $12 million.

  • Guide Health, a VBC enablement platform, raised $10 million from Emory Healthcare.

  • Somnee, a wearable sleep tech company, raised $10 million in a seed extension round.

  • Venteur, a ICHRA administration platform, raised an undisclosed amount of capital from Wellstar’s venture arm.

  • Hellocare.ai, an ambient clinical AI startup, raised an undisclosed amount from Mayo Clinic. Mayo is joining three other major health systems to invest in Hellocare.ai since April 2025 following their $47 million Series A funding round.

What I’m Reading

The Wyoming Hospital Upending the Logic of Private Equity by Megan Greenwell
This was a fascinating piece in the Atlantic about efforts to build a new rural hospital in a small town in Wyoming. The article is the latest detailing how PE-backed LifePoint Health acquired the other hospital in the town and the community has been upset with the reduction in services at LifePoint. It has been a years-long battle (the WSJ covered it back in 2021) that has resulted in a feel-good story for a community that has found a way to break ground on this new hospital. Yet at the same time I can’t help but wondering when reading this article — what will healthcare in this town look like in a few years? You have a PE firm that acquired a hospital in a town of 10,000 people that is shutting services because it can’t make money. The town doesn’t like that, and so it has received a $37 million loan from the US Department of Agriculture to build a second hospital that restores those services. I get why we may not like the results of PE-style healthcare, but if the reason for that is because they’re so ruthlessly efficient at making money, I don’t understand how this hospital is set to be better off financially. It’d be fascinating for the community to do this experiment with completely open books as a model for other rural health initiatives — i.e. share the business case and performance here. If this is in fact doable, it seems like it would be a tremendous public good. Read more.

Medicaid Policy: A Modern-Day Trojan Horse or Manhattan Project – or Both? by Hal Andrews
This is a interesting read on Medicaid policy, questioning the growth in federal spending on the program. It’s interesting to see his point that despite all the concern about Medicaid cuts in the big beautiful bill, the stock prices of HCA and Molina, two companies with a heavy Medicaid presence, have gone up over the past few months. Read more

Can AI Be Your Therapist? Not Quite Yet, Says New USC Study by Greg Hardesty
This is a summary of a recent study out of USC that suggests AI is worse at building relationships with patients than other people. I find the study summary interesting to read in terms of the context shared around the results — concern from the authors about the narrative that LLMs could replace therapists. Read more

How healthcare CIOs are shaping AI’s role in patient care and operations by Qventus
This white paper from the Qventus team includes a survey and quotes from a number of health system innovation leaders regarding how they are adopting AI. Read more

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