The Grand Roundup: AI agents turn insurance friction into a cost center, Rightway and transparent PBMs, longevity goes to work, Cigna investor day, and more

Kevin and Martin kick off with the latest Citrini report and its argument that AI agents will turn friction from a profit center into a cost center, with health insurance as exhibit A. Martin doesn't buy the idea that payers unwind, but thinks bots that fight every denial and prior auth mean higher premiums down the road. Kevin brings in the NYT story on SmarterDx and McLaren to ask whether all this coding automation just builds another middleman profit pool.From there it's Rightway's $155M raise at a $1.75B valuation and 45 Fortune 500 clients. If transparent PBMs are winning, why isn't anyone at dinner parties saying their healthcare got better? Martin pulls up Drug Channels data, notes the CAA just made transparency table stakes, and lands on the iron law of insurance: bigger risk pools win, and every innovation gets metabolized.In longevity, Superpower's B2B deal with Sequoia, August's $39 a month membership, Neko's 25,000-person New York waitlist, and PE money flowing into Aligned Modern Health. They close with Heidi Health, Corridor, Basalt, Oura's IPO, and Cigna's investor day.Brought to you byLorikeet is a leading platform health tech companies use to build, test, and deploy AI concierges for patient and provider support. lorikeetcx.ai/healthtechLinks referencedCitrini Research, "Agentic Reality" (Sept. 22, 2026): https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/agentic-realityNew York Times article on Blue Cross Blue Shield Association data about hospitals using AI coding: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/business/ai-hospitals-insurers-health-care-costs.htmlFor more from Health Tech Nerds, subscribe to our weekly newsletters: https://www.healthtechnerds.com/subscribe