Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), now part of First Citizens Bank, is back with a just-published roundup of 2026’s first half (H1) in healthcare investment in the US and EU.

“Haves and have-nots. Winners and losers. The top of the heap and everyone else. Pick your metaphor….”

For health tech, it was the best H1 since H1 2022, with $7.2 billion versus $9.1 billion in investment, a tidy increase versus 2025 H1’s $6.7 billion. The major difference is that the number of deals is collapsing, with 203 deals this H1. If you look at 2025’s year total of 598 deals, if this deal track maintains, the 2026 full year number may not break 500. Again, the deal value is disproportionately and increasingly skewed to Series C+ deals, far more so than the past two years. Series B deals contracted and there was another uptick in Series A fundings. (Page 12)

SVB attributes the new health tech prosperity to AI-based technologies: clinical workflow automation, administrative efficiency and data infrastructure. Payviders (remember them?) also had their overdue day powered by AI: Devoted Health in the US with Medicare Advantage, and Alan in Paris (EU and Canada only). In SVB’s terms, “The bar for founders has risen toward durable growth, differentiated technology and a credible path to scale, especially those leveraging AI to address meaningful healthcare challenges.”

Exits, though, are hard to suss. There weren’t many this half for health tech. Kaia Health (Sword) in January, and in provider operations Ostro (Veeva) and Diligent (Serve). Kaia was the only one with a positive multiple on its valuation. Zelis and Virta Health might IPO this year or 2027. Or never. (Page 17). 

Looking at all four sectors, while investment dollars are growing, the number of deals continues to trend downward:

• H1 2026 healthcare investment at $24.7 billion is slightly below H2 2025 at $25.8 billion. The absolute high water mark was $43 billion set at H1 2021, in the midst of the ‘Throw Money At Anything’ period. But the trend is still one of recovery. 
• The big difference is that the number of deals continues its downward trend, sharply. H1 2026 had only 618 deals versus 2025’s H1 801 and H2 703. H2 is not projected to pick up this slack, again.
• 75% of investment is in the US, with EU accounting for 25%; EU is slowly but surely increasing its share.
• The falling investment sector is Dx (diagnostics)/Tools. Device remains steady and constant. (Health tech Readers should look over at device, since here resides WHOOP and its $575 million Series G for Giant) skewing this sector.

Most concerning is that healthcare VC fundraising has hit new lows, and the money is concentrated in a few across the seed, early, and late stages. Only a few years ago, founders had a wide choice of VC funders with fat wallets. Not nowadays. H1 2026 funding for VCs was only $10 billion. Full year 2025 was $16 billion and 2024 $26 billion. Many large “name” funds ($100 billion plus) closed this year, such as Lux, Santé, Frist Cressey Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins. What’s left in health tech? General Catalyst, Andreesen Horowitz, Redesign, Menlo Ventures. It’s a monotonous roster. Occasionally, there’s a crossover. Especially at early stages, founders have lost leverage in finding a simpatico fund. They have to show that they have a credible path to growth and profitability. (Pages 7-8)

Unlike SVB’s last report for 2025, they did not break out a fifth sector cutting across all four, Longevity and Healthspan. 

SVB will also be changing their name during Q4 2026 to First Citizens Innovation Banking. Preview page for SVB’s Healthcare Industry Trends published 25 August.  Hat tip to Megan Scheffel, head of SVB’s healthcare sector.

Oracle’s Seema Verma rumored to be on a list for a new CEO position with a major lobbying group.

ATA Action was kind enough to flag for this Editor that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) may finally be moving toward a new rule for telemedicine prescribing of controlled substances. Yesterday (25 August) the “Special Registrations for Telemedicine and Limited State Telemedicine Registrations” final rule was submitted to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. While under review, the text is not public, but the OMB pending EO  is here with the limited text under the RIN: 1117-AB40   The text of the RIN includes that “DEA is currently reviewing the over 6,400 public comments submitted on the Special Registration for Telemedicine NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) published on January 17, 2025.”meaning that they are still working with a year-old NPRM.  DEA has extended telemedicine prescribing rules several times, most recently at the end of 2025 to cover full year 2026. A final action to determine approval of the rule is due in November, according to the timetable.

ATA Action’s statement, per their email, is “ATA Action is actively engaged as the rule moves through OMB review, pressing the priorities we have consistently advanced: protecting patient access while maintaining safeguards against diversion — without unnecessary in-person mandates, duplicative state-by-state registration requirements, excessive reporting burdens, or implementation timelines that make participation impractical for legitimate clinicians and healthcare organizations.” They also cite geographic “red flags” that pharmacies face when a prescription results from a telehealth visit and state laws that are more restrictive than Federal law. 

Brooklyn’s Cityblock Health’s goes country with Homeward Health acquisition in an all-stock transaction. It is on the surface an odd match: an urban-focused value-based care provider that primarily serves complex needs and provides additional support for Medicaid and Medicare/Medicaid dual-eligible patients expanding into underserved rural markets. What it does promise Cityblock is growth from its present claimed 200,000 members in 10 states and annualized revenue of $2.2 billion, up 77% year-over-year. Homeward serves around 50,000 rurally-based Medicare Advantage (only) members and 5,000 providers in Michigan and Minnesota through a Michigan clinic, mobile clinics and telehealth. It partners with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Aetna for Medicare Advantage. Further financial arrangements were not disclosed.

Homeward’s CEO Dr. Jenny Schneider will remain connected with Cityblock as a “trusted advisor” according to a Cityblock spokesperson and Homeward’s brand and operation will remain. According to her LinkedIn post announcing the acquisition, she previously served as a Cityblock board member. She and another Livongo alumnus, Amar Kendale, launched Homeward Health in 2022 to close healthcare gaps in rural America, accounting for over 61% of primary care shortage areas and a 23% higher mortality rate.

Both Medicaid and Medicare Advantage face challenges–funding cuts for Medicaid and with Medicare Advantage, payers reducing reimbursement rates based on rising costs and increased Federal scrutiny of higher costs, upcoding, overpayments, and bonus programs. 23% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are in a special needs plan (SNP) KFF

Cityblock touts its CORE—Care Orchestration and Resourcing Engine—as an AI-based operating system underpinning our outcomes-based care platform to use almost 10 years of member data to close care gaps for specific members, as well as AI tools “handling routine engagement and administrative work that have already freed up 44,599 hours of clinician time this year, including 42,148 calls handled by AI agents.” Homeward Health’s platform is also AI-native.

Cityblock simultaneously announced a Series E of $116 million led by General Catalyst for a total of close to $1 billion. General Catalyst is an investor in both companies. (Is this a return to the General Catalyst ‘portfolio condensation’ strategy that created Commure last year?–Ed.)

Interestingly, Homeward Health is organized as a public benefit corporation (PBC) and a B Corp, certified by B Lab as meeting their standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. It’s doubtful that will carry over to Cityblock. MedCityNews, FierceHealthcare, Becker’s, Cityblock’s CEO Toyin Ajayi blog post 

Biggar, Scotland senior housing environmental sensor-based technology test saves thousands, but across Scotland could save millions. The test at the retirement home Langvout Court, part of Bield Housing & Care, was of environmental and activity sensors developed and implemented by Glasgow-based technology company Archangel and the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, funded by the UK Government’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology through the Glasgow City Region 5G Smart and Connected Places Programme. The automated alerts were directed and coordinated with Bield staff. The sensors alerted the staff to a potential boiler breakdown during Storm Éowyn, high humidity levels and faulty extractor fans in buildings, and resident temperature and activity changes that could indicate changes in health. Annualized savings in the six-month test were estimated at £7,670 in heating costs and £2,825 in maintenance costs, along with improved tenant safety, reduced manual checks and stronger regulatory compliance, creating positive ROI in year one. FarrPoint, which independently evaluated the project, extrapolated that applying Langvout Court’s system across Scotland’s retirement housing developments could generate annual savings of £18.5 million. Archangel case study published in TechUK, release in Care Sector Hub

Background: Oracle’s current VA contract 36C10B18D5000, the Electronic Health Record Modernization Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Oracle Health Government Services, the successor to Cerner Government Services, originally was structured with a 10 year base period without annual renewals. This started in May 2018. In early 2023, the contract was renegotiated. The base period was halved to five years with the remainder of the contract subject to annual renewals from May 2023 and expiring 10 years after the contract start, in May 2028. The Modification P00008 to the IDIQ contract adds another three one-year firm fixed-priced optional ordering periods, taking the duration of the contract to May 2031.

According to the released contract modification documents, VA projects that the original ceiling would be reached by Q1 in Federal FY 2027, which is between October and December 2026. The rationale is that “Due to unanticipated complexities in deploying this system, extensive site-specific customizations, as well as the other factors … VA has reached the current contract ceiling sooner than originally planned. VA anticipates using the remaining ceiling by the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 and thus requires an increase.” 

“Building upon the Trump Administration’s successful deployment of VA’s new electronic health record system at several VA facilities, VA and Oracle Health agreed earlier this month to renew their collaboration,” VA spokesperson Quinn Slaven previously said in an emailed statement to FedScoop.

As previously noted in our original article [TTA 12 Aug], in this Editor’s view, the three-year extension is a smart move on the VA EHRM team’s part.

• The obvious one is that the VA EHRM rollout requires another three years from 2028 to 2031 to fully cover all locations. Releasing the main single-source contractor three years prior to its finalization is not an intelligent move unless another EHR company could take it up–and that has not happened. Things apparently are going smoothly in the newly formatted rollout. It was also obvious that the cost ceiling had to be increased.
• The other is protection. Now you won’t read this elsewhere. Since the late winter, Oracle was rumored to be interested in selling, wholly or in part, Oracle Health AI (OHAI). Oracle Health sale rumors were confirmed this summer. In the event of a sale, the buyer would be obligated to honor the VA contracts and its terms.
• The other possibility is if disaster strikes Oracle as a result of their AI landlord strategy, such as bankruptcy, the VA has some contractual protection in a Federal court. 

Orange Slices, NextGov/FCW

VA Indiana’s three-hospital system (Fort Wayne, Marion, and Indianapolis, VISN 3) cut over to the Oracle EHR on 22 August. X announcement (@VAIndyHealth)  The last two scheduled for 2026 will be Anchorage, Alaska (VISN 5) and Cleveland, Ohio (VISN 3) on 24 October.

Grab a cuppa and sit down with these articles. (You may also want to subscribe to their authors.)

From Substack, UK author Martyn Eeles current Health VC newsletter, “The Strategic Clarity Problem”, advises founders of early-stage companies that doing more can result in less–financing. Too much activity in too many directions leads to confusion on investors’ parts. Paradoxically, it doesn’t enhance “potential” but detracts. It reads to investors, especially now, as lack of priorities and not strategic. Mr. Eeles recommends focus, focus, focus. Choose a strategy and stick with it. It doesn’t mean that a founder cannot show multiple future paths, just that the main path has to carry the company forward. (Sounds like good marketing!)

For instance, how you present your direction is vital in making activity sound focused and strategic. FTA:

A founder who says, “There are many use cases,” may sound ambitious. A founder who says, “There are many possible use cases, but this one is the wedge because it creates the clearest buyer urgency,” sounds more investable.

A founder who says, “We have lots of partnership conversations,” may sound active. A founder who says, “These two partnerships matter because they reduce implementation risk and create access to the customer segment we are prioritising,” sounds strategic.

The short (non-subscriber) version has a wealth of information for both founders and funders, complete with a nifty infographic that depicts nearly the entire article. but truncates at ‘The Choices Investors Want To See”.  This Editor would recommend the annual €60 subscription if you’re in the business. Mr. Eeles is managing partner at Clarma Capital, a European life sciences venture fund.

Our friend Sergei Polevikov writing in his Substack AI Health Uncut returns to the General Catalyst-powered Commure in Commure’s Long History of Red Flags. Even though General Catalyst doesn’t want him to.  Yes, the flags still flap around the gaggle of health tech companies financed by General Catalyst (GC). Commure itself is an agglomeration of GC companies: Athelas, Augmedix, RxHealth, and Memora Health. Commure originally had one marketable product, Strongline, a safety and duress badging/tracking system, three years ago before GC’s consolidation moves. What is questionable about Commure has now surfaced in STAT News +’ investigation (paywalled). From pricing dependent on recommendations to products that don’t work until they’re modified at the client if they eventually do work, to referral programs that are way too close to violating the Anti-Kickback Statute…Commure has it all on the Shady Side of the Street. GC keeps shoveling money in because they can, too. 

And once again, thinking the unthinkable, is Ed Zitron. Here he imagines the demise of OpenAI and reads the tea leaves. He notes:

• the deceleration of revenue when it needs to accelerate (see below)
• the COO and CRO left after less than a year on the job, likely walking away from generous stock options/awards–now, who does this?
• it’s backed away from its IPO and likely will be beaten to it by Anthropic (Claude)
• the economics are terrifying. OpenAI lost $20.9 billion in 2025 on $13.07 billion in revenue
• it needs to meet compute obligations and for that needs $800 billion in cash
• it needs to raise $100-200 billion annually just to survive

In short, it has to become the most successful company since Caesar Crossed The Rubicon–or it croaks. Expires. Meets the Devil of Demise and the Devil wins.

The consequences will be severe. FTA:

To not actively and meaningfully discuss the potential for OpenAI to collapse is actively irresponsible. To act like there are not significant, existential problems with this company’s economics is to intentionally avoid reality, and whoever is on the receiving end of said ignorance deserves better, be they an investor reading your analyst note or a reader burdened with incomplete journalism.

What follows may be an Enron-Lehman Brothers hybrid, one that leaves unbelievable destruction in its wake, an avoidable systemic risk empowered and enabled by a kneecapped media industry and sell-side analysts incapable of seeing further than two quarters in the future.

The time to stop this? Long past.

Zitron backs everything up with hard numbers laced with cross-references. It’s dense and needs close attention. Depending on your view,  you’ll choose a gallon of coffee, a fifth of bourbon, or a bottle of wine. What Happens If OpenAI Dies?

Another argument, shorter, and similar, is made by Gary Marcus in his Substack newsletter (free access), Marcus on AI,  BREAKING: OpenAI’s unraveling has begun.  Again, just as it was scheduled for its IPO and racing its main competitor.

It contains two citations from the Wall Street Journal writers who cover OpenAI, Berber Jin and Corrie Dribusch:

• “The company grew revenue by just 18% to $6.7 billion from q1 to q2, while its losses sank further into the red”
• Losses grew from Q1 to Q2 to $3 billion to $12.3 billion, while it added only $1 billion (to $6.7 billion)

Nvidia is in full CYA mode, given its exposure to OpenAI. Can Oracle be far behind?

As we near Labor Day, we enter the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone, a/k/a The Doldrums. Given the calendar, monsoons, and the fifth UK/European heat wave plus forest fires, perhaps the Doldrums are an improvement.

Giant Universal Health Services (UHS) $835 million acquisition of Talkspace closed right on time–Q3. The buy, announced in March, is now complete with Talkspace becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary based in NYC. [TTA 12 Mar] UHS is acquiring Talkspace for $835 million or $5.25 per share, a 10% boost on their closing on 8 March. What Talkspace adds to UHG is a full range of behavioral health systems to complement its in-person providers and provide future growth. For UHS CEO Marc Miller, “We’ll now be the only company in the United States that will have a nationally scaled, end-to-end continuum in behavioral health. We’ll be able to offer something that nobody else offers.”

Talkspace was one of many cracked SPACs of the 2020-22 period, debuting in June 2021 with a valuation of $1.4 million. Six months later, shareholders sued for securities fraud, and within a year it became a dollar stock. But it survived and recovered. What Talkspace brings to UHS’s provider network and health services is a 50-state network plus Puerto Rico of virtual behavioral therapy and 6,000 therapists. Their primary markets are health plans, employers, employee assistance programs, schools and government organizations plus self-pay. Their 2025 closed well with a 22% revenue increase to $229 million and net income of $7.8 million. The release is opaque on workforce and management transitioning. UHS is based in King of Prussia PA and had 2025 revenues over $17 billion. Mobihealthnews, Healthcare Dive

Mobile health and transportation provider DocGo to buy Hicuity Health for debt and stock. The terms are interesting ones. From the release, DocGo is assuming $52 million in debt now held by Perceptive Advisors, which matures in December 2029. Perceptive will provide an additional $50 million in debt financing to DocGo. It’s staged in multiple tranches, the first of which is $12.5 million to fund a services agreement pre-closing between DocGo and Hicuity. DocGo will also in the interim provide management services to Hicuity. Hicuity will become a subsidiary of DocGo’s Ambulnz Holdings. Hicuity is a provider of high acuity clinical care including tele-ICU, virtual nursing, and telemetry monitoring services  for health systems, hospitals and post-acute facilities.

DocGo has had its own challenges dating back to 2023 with a NYC no-bid contract for illegal immigrant services that turned out to be an expensive fiasco [TTA 18 Sep 2023]. DocGo currently trades on Nasdaq, closing today at $0.4752, a low based on missing Q2 projections. Release, Mobihealthnews, TradingView

Revenue cycle management company R1 will acquire prior authorization automation developer Humata Health. Acquisition cost is not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q3. After closing, the Humata team will “enhance” R1’s R37 innovation lab, R1’s agentic AI development team. R1 plans to connect Humata’s technology to their Phare OS, an AI automation platform for pre-bill workflows for authorization, utilization review, coding and documentation. R1 is a private company, with RCM used by 1,000 providers, including 95 of the top 100 US health systems, and handles over 600 million payer transactions annually.  Release, Mobihealthnews

Senior post-acute and LTC EHR/software company PointClickCare to integrate Anthropic’s AI directly into its software platform. This strategic initiative is being done through Anthropic’s new partnership, Ode with Anthropic, to enable enterprises to deploy AI by providing a team of experienced AI engineers. Ode was formed earlier this year with Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and a consortium of global investors including Apollo Global Management, General Atlantic, GIC, Goldman Sachs, Leonard Green & Partners, and Sequoia. The release is remarkably devoid of specifics such as timing and client rollout. Mobihealthnews

A big UK announcement, made this morning via LinkedIn.

Alertacall has been one of the earliest companies active in the UK telecare sector for social housing and retirement living resident engagement, founded 22 years ago–incidentally, a year before Telecare Aware was founded by Steve Hards. Since then, Alertacall has developed three two-way communication product lines–OKEachDay, Housing Proactive, and Beyond Warden Call–and now serves social landlords and retirement village operators with a total of 25,000 homes across over 60 housing providers. Alertacall holds The Queen’s Award For Enterprise in Innovation from 2023. In 2025, Mr. Batchelor was appointed an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for ‘Services to Technology For Older People’ in King Charles III’s Birthday Honours List 2025.

Volaris is an operating group of Constellation Software (CSI) that manages and acquires vertical technology companies. Its operating philosophy is to acquire companies in specific industries and, unusually, hold them forever with a motto of “Forever Invested”, versus the private equity M.O. of selling or IPO-ing them. We last visited CSI when they acquired Allscripts/Veradigm’s five hospital and large physician practice EHRs back in May 2022.to integrate into their Harris Group. CSI owns 1,300 businesses–Volaris over 240–and both are based in Toronto, Canada. Alertacall is headquartered in Windemere, in the Lake District of northwest England. 

James Batchelor’s very personal announcement/memoir about the start, build, and future of Alertacall, and some of his personal plans after 22 years, is a must read over on LinkedIn, as is the Volaris release. Why? The warmth and personalization in both is, particularly these days, also highly unusual. The highlights are that the company remains independent, led by its current leadership team, and James remains as CEO for (in his words) the short/medium term until “an experienced and passionate successor is found”. Yes, James and the Volaris team are actively looking for a successor! Alertacall now has assured financing, intellectual resources, and a forever home in an operating and technology-focused management company.

A TTA Hat Tip™ to the very busy TTA Editor Emeritus, BTW who has a ‘shout out’ in James’ article.

Unfortunately for my free time, that bot hasn’t been created yet.

So here’s my personal Eight-Point Writers Guide to How You Know TTA‘s Not AI Authored.

1. Selectivity. I write extensively on topics that intrigue me and hopefully intrigue you. I give more emphasis to companies that have a) breakthroughs, b) deserve attention for a variety of reasons, c) by their business move markets, d) fit into a trend that I’ve spotted.
2. If it’s lifted from a press release or another article, it generally is closely paraphrased with ‘according to’ or put into quotes. That used to be taught in writing courses.
3. I do try to connect dots I see. Yes, I get it wrong, sometimes. But I don’t go into outer space, where AI goes.
4. A tendency to be Cassandra. I’m too cynical to be a cheerleader anymore, having been a part of the Hype Curve of Health Tech from 2006. Also, Doom frankly makes for a good lede. Part of my desire to write here is to warn busy people in health tech of the many Scylla and Charybdis that populate healthcare and health tech today*. 
5. The occasional busted grammar and misspelling. I do use tools that flag obvious misspellings. I’ve found Grammarly useful but intrusive, trying to flag and rewrite, sell me on paid, and turned it off as a result. Some of this comes out of re-editing what I wrote at 11pm the previous night. I try to clean up my obvious messes, subject-object agreement, and fractured phrases. 
6. Since I’m American (if being from NJ counts), I write in American English, such that it is. I like certain British turns of phrase, though I don’t use ‘redundancies’ when people are laid off or fired. When I was writing my thesis for my university London Semester Way Back When, my advising professor** instructed me, when I asked the question, to stick to American English and to note source material quoted from UK sources. I also worked with many Brits, Irish, and Australians in my travel industry years (as well as Editor Emeritus Steve here), so some of it rubbed off.
7. Real anecdotes that have an eventual point. If you see the occasional red MD-80 or 737-300 on these pages, I’m hearkening to my three-plus year  ‘graduate school’ as ad manager of New York Air. The ‘wild west’ of airline deregulation, the airlines that started up in that time, the larger than life founders, including their involvement with government regulation, have many lessons to teach to the founders of the new ‘wild west’ of AI companies as well as those attempting to serve or buy from them. Most of us in healthcare lived through other boom/busts: Dot.Com, the Hype Cycle of early telehealth and health tech, and the barely-past-us Crazy Covid Telehealth Money. Not learning from what we lived through leads to mistakes in the business present. Lord Acton phrased it better, though.
8. AI Slop has no sense of humor. Even painful humor.

Now what got me all cranked up here was a far more succinct view of AI Slop Writing, sent to me by Editor Emeritus and Founder of this website, Steve Hards. An editor’s guide to spotting AI writing by Alys Denby is published on her Substack/website, CapX. We are drowning in it, especially if you like to hang out on YouTube for airliner/ATC and history videos. Her guide is simple, easy to follow…and once you see it,  it’s hard to unsee. Key points she brings out:

• Rhythm, e.g. too even paragraph length. What I call a certain monotony.
• The overuse of short sentences
• Repetitiveness
• Too much passive tense
• Ambivalent constructions
• ‘Not this but this’ negative parallelism
• Too many transitional phrases
• A certain hollowness -‘banal generalizations’. I’d sum it up as the feeling that you’ve just read cotton candy.

Detection tools you can use: GPTZero, Pangram, and even Grammarly (paid). Just a few, not a recommendation. And yes, they are AI too. Kind of like white hat/black hat in cybersecurity.

Most of all, you can read and support authors who write their stuff in both news media and for your company. The use of AI for research is now common, but what’s essential is using the same critical review you’d use in any other research.

• Use Real Human Writers for your company materials. Use real marketers for your planning who listen to sales and your customers. They can use AI to research, refine, and streamline production. Like any other tool.
• Limit the amount of AI Slop Writing you use on social media. It’s filler. Cotton candy. It doesn’t present you well.
• And use Real Graphics Designed by Real Graphic Designers.

And remember….even Pepper fainted from the stress! 

*Scylla and Charybdis are the mythological (?) monsters guarding the Strait of Messina between Sicily and Italy. Appropriate as my maternal ancestors were from that part of Sicily.

**Sir Patrick Duffy, Labour MP, Sheffield Attercliffe, Royal Navy veteran WWII, Brexiteer, RIP aged 105 in January. Had I but known.  Guardian obit

Cleveland Clinic premiers medication drone delivery with the promise of more. The catch for now is that the Zipline drones only operate for now within a five-mile radius of Cleveland Clinic’s Beachwood Administrative Campus and for patients already utilizing home delivery for select medications, excluding controlled substances. According to their Facebook post, “the drones use an innovative delivery method and do not land in patients’ yards. When a prescription is ready, a Cleveland Clinic pharmacy technician will place the package into a secure drop box. The electric drone then autonomously retrieves the order, and flies to its destination. Upon arrival, the drone stays up to 300 feet in the air while a pod containing the package descends to the ground on a tether.” This Editor wonders if the operator or the drone calls ahead to be on the lookout; these drones fly up to 70 mph! If successful, Cleveland Clinic plans to expand the drone delivery to other locations and for other items such as other medications, lab samples, medically tailored meals and supplies. Other healthcare organizations have been experimenting with drone delivery, such as Zipline with Walmart in Dallas-Fort Worth since 2020 for over-the-counter and select pharmacy products. Advocate Health next year will use Zipline for prescriptions, lab tests and medical supplies in Charlotte, North Carolina, then Chicago and Milwaukee. Zipline’s most interesting use of drone delivery will be a $150 million program in conjunction with the US State Department for delivery of blood and medical supplies to as many as 15,000 health facilities across African nations, including Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda (State Department release). Healthcare IT News

Solventum to separate its health information systems business from their medtech. This is positioned as a concentration on their medical-surgical and dental solutions business. HIS generates about $1.4 billion in sales, including an ongoing contract with the Department of War for their MHS GENESIS clinical documentation and coding, a relationship that will end in July 2027 as functions are assumed by the Defense Health Agency [TTA 19 June]. The release does not give divorce details and there is a ton of ‘strategic’ boilerplate designed for investors. Apparently multiple alternatives are being evaluated with expected completion within 12 to 18 months. It concludes with “No decision has been made regarding the ultimate structure or timing of any potential transaction, and there can be no assurance that a separation will occur.” Puzzling.

Solventum was spun off from 3M in 2024 as a public company traded on the NYSE. 3M shareholders received one Solventum share for every four 3M shares.

Revenue cycle and financial management Federal/enterprise provider Unlimited Technology feels the unlimited sting of a hack. In the second largest healthcare breach reported this year, 3.8 million records were breached by an unauthorized user via a network server between 5-10 October 2025, according to a report on Health and Human Services (HHS)’s HIPAA Cases Currently Under Investigation page. According to a class action law firm release in July, UT’s breached records had the full gamut of PII, including names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, email and mailing addresses, phone numbers, demographic information, and scanned documents such as copies of driver’s licenses or other government identification, insurance cards, and intake forms. PHI may potentially include insurance policy numbers, claims and benefits information, medical record numbers, dates of service, and diagnosis information. UT has no statement on its website other than confirming it was ransomware, nor has it identified any perpetrators. Affected patients were notified starting last month and offered identity monitoring services through Kroll.

Vendor breaches are on the rise. HHS has proposed tightening the HIPAA Security Rule’s requirements for vendor oversight, though that has not been done yet. And vendors like UT aren’t small. Per their website, UT serves US specialty healthcare providers in 4,500 clinics and 6,500 specialty healthcare providers, processing more than $70 billion in net healthcare charges annually.  Bleeping Computer, MedCityNews

Another affordable approach for assisting those with mild to moderate hearing loss via Samsung. Their Galaxy Buds Pro in-ear device just received FDA clearance for its Galaxy Buds Hearing Aid feature. The app is considered to be an over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid functioning in conjunction with Galaxy Buds3 Pro and Galaxy Buds4 Pro. Users with the Buds must use them to do a self-assessment of their hearing via the Hearing Test feature. It uses pure-tone audiometry to assess hearing deficits, whether the user requires assistance and at what level. The Galaxy Buds Pro models run about $250 retail and the Hearing Aid feature debuts Q4 in the US.  Mobihealthnews

The first is the three-year extension of the current VA contract 36C10B18D5000, the Electronic Health Record Modernization Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract with Oracle Health Government Services, the successor to Cerner Government Services. The proposed Modification P00008 to the IDIQ contract adds another three one-year optional periods, taking the duration out to May 2031.

Some history is in order here.

• The contract originally had a base period of 10 years starting in May 2018 with a value of $10 billion, later revised upwards to $16 billion.
• It was rewritten and renegotiated in early 2023 after the failure of the initial five-location rollout. The ten-year base period was halved to five years, ending in 2023, with a renewal instead of five successive one-year optional ordering periods ending in May 2028.
• This renewal took place only after much debate, a hail of flak from both the House and Senate Veterans Affairs’ full committees and tech subcommittees, and calls to dump Oracle and start all over again. The contract redo was designed to bring Oracle to heel.  It subjected both Oracle and the VA to lengthy accountability metrics that culminated in multiple modifications and testing. [TTA 18 May 2023]
• The EHRM rollout was radically modified by geography to VA Health Centers mostly within the same VA region, or VISN, then with additional implementations every two months. The rollout resumed in April 2026, with five more locations added in August and October to complete 13 for 2026 and another 27 in 2027. [TTA 8 Feb and the updated VA rollout schedule]

The three-year extension brings the contract to the projected final VA rollout and conclusion in 2031. According to the article, 36 sites are scheduled to go live between August 2026 and January 2028. Subtracting 2026 (5) and 2027 (27), that leaves four in 2028 before the contract’s original expiration. There are at least another 120 to be covered within VA’s existing VISNs.

The contract modification has an anticipated award date of on or about 17 August 2026. SAM.gov (published Tuesday 11 Aug)

The second is why this three-year extension is a very smart move on the VA EHRM team’s part.

• The obvious one is that the VA EHRM rollout requires another three years from 2028 to 2031 to fully cover all locations. Apparently all is going smoothly but releasing the main single-source contractor three years prior to its finalization is not an intelligent move.
• The other is protection. Now you won’t read this elsewhere. Since the late winter, Oracle was rumored to be interested in selling, wholly or in part, Oracle Health AI (OHAI). Oracle Health sale rumors were confirmed this summer. In the event of a sale, the buyer would be obligated to honor the VA contracts and its terms.
• The other possibility is if something truly awful happens to Oracle as a result of their AI landlord strategy, such as bankruptcy, the VA has some contractual protection in a Federal court. 

Whether Oracle can even sell OHAI is an open question. But for VA to tighten the contract to confirm an obligation to continue the VA EHRM to the end (or near end) is commendably businesslike–to not leave the VA and our veterans who served in the lurch with their medical records, scheduling, research, and much more. That would be unacceptable.

Update: Just posted in NextGov/FCW and FedScoop. The last notes that the House-passed fiscal 2027 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bill would give $3.4 million for EHRM.

30,000 global layoffs (18%) in March were evidently not enough.

FTA: “The cuts could reach double-digit percentages on some teams, according to the document. The company has requested managers provide lists of affected employees, with the intention of reducing payroll by the time the second quarter begins on Sept. 1, according to one of the people with direct knowledge.” Note: the Oracle FY27 began on 1 June 2026, thus Q2 27 starts on 1 September.

The Business Insider writer claims to have seen an internal document confirming this. Considering that today is 12 August, there is not much time between now and 1 September. Oracle currently has around 141,000 employees. If there were, for instance, a 10% (double digit) overall layoff, that would be 14,000 people. No hard numbers are included in the BI article.

The BI article does not have information on whether this will affect only the US, North America, or global Oracle sites. The last round of layoffs were global in scope.  Oracle ran into expensive buzzsaws in countries such as Germany; many European countries have layoff notice and benefit requirements. In the last layoff, India was hard hit.

The scuttlebutt on The Layoff rumor board has other tidbits that may be true or sheer speculation:

• The actual date may be 15 September. But historically Oracle layoffs happen around Labor Day (US 7 September). (Ed.–It could be both!)
• Managers are preparing lists for upcoming layoffs. One poster scores his or her part time remote manager who remained after the last layoff round.
• Nothing is showing up in Federal/state WARN notices yet. However, WARN does not cover remote, dispersed employees nor offshore employees.
• There are about $300 million in restructuring costs included in the FY 27 SEC 10-K filing. This is a comparatively low amount that has to cover earlier layoff costs, which may indicate that this upcoming layoff will be lower than March’s.

The money continues to flow out, not in. Oracle’s high-profile data center buildouts, notably Project Jupiter, are being hit with increasing “social costs”. Despite initial permitting, local groups have been successful in mobilizing for changes. Redesigns in cooling and power draw are expensive. Data center locations and builds are one of the few US issues that cross political lines [TTA 29 July]. Unlike Microsoft, Oracle no longer has the cushion of free cash flow to pay the bills. Oracle also has crushing performance obligations to meet with OpenAI and Meta [TTA 16 July].

What’s the healthcare impact, other than AI?  For the business segments in the former Cerner, now is Oracle Health AI, the news has been dismal–and concerning to entities such as the Federal Government.

• The Oracle EHR, bought in the palmy days of June 2022 for $28 billion, is now down to a ‘sloppy second’ versus Epic in the acute care (20%) and the health system (27%) segments. The EHR is not prospering as an alternative, as much as many in healthcare don’t care for Epic.
• There is no one reportedly lining up to buy OHAI. In June, London-based investors Nelson Advisors confirmed the rumors that the division was up for sale. The ‘usual suspects’ all have regulatory and competitive road blocks. The alternative may be private equity purchase or investment, including the Federal Government. PE is not jumping up and down to lay the money down. In other words, OHAI is a hard-to-sell asset.
• Even if an OHAI sale freed up anywhere near the purchase price, an unlikely outcome, it would make only a dent in the stunning amount of debt. Whether it would improve Oracle’s low credit rating is doubtful.

There are also ongoing and new Federal commitments to meet:

• There are the EHRs managed by the Veterans Health Administration EHR Modernization (EHRM) and the Military Health System (MHS), two separate but mandatorily interoperable systems. MHS is rolled out but modifications continue, while VA’s EHRM is only getting started, with extensive Federal oversight and guardrails in place. That rollout is expected to continue into 2031. These are both hot potatoes that show no signs of cooling off.
• In Oracle’s traditional software business, Oracle’s latest commitment is to the Department of War (a/k/a Department of Defense). In late July DoW announced a software contract with Oracle which could be worth up to $7 billion over ten years as part of the cross-agency Enterprise Software Initiative. 

The layoffs can only increase the perception of Oracle as losing the staff to meet their commitments, as unstable and in trouble. This is a developing story. A TTA ‘hat tip’ to an observer who wishes to remain anonymous.