The Grand Roundup: Digital vs consumer health participation in ACCESS, maternity care unbundling, Abridge and clinical intelligence, Yuzu's pivot to power alternative plans, peptide market, price transparency, AI-driven risk adjustment funding, and more

Kevin and Martin open with the CMMI ACCESS participant list. Roughly 150 applicants, but many original interested parties opted out presumably over rates, raising real questions about whether digital health can build a sustainable model at current payment levels. They also cover the FDA's peptide deregulation signals, and a price transparency study showing providers raised prices post-implementation, proving transparency alone doesn't fix the problem.Neel Shah, Chief Medical Officer at Maven Clinic, breaks down the end of a 40-year global maternity payment bundle, what's driving the change, how it creates room for innovation in team-based care, and the cost and access implications for vulnerable populations.Russell Pekala and Will Gillach from Yuzu walk through what the team learned building an alternative health plan from scratch and why they pivoted to become the TPA infrastructure powering them, covering how alternative plans are winning on price through reference-based pricing, direct primary care, and navigated cash pay.Shiv Rao, CEO and Co-Founder of Abridge, discusses the company's expansion beyond AI scribing into clinical intelligence, anchored by a pre-visit, during-visit, and post-visit product framework and new evidence partnerships with JAMA and the NEJM.Patrick, VP of Value-Based Care at Withings, closes with why a connected device company may be better positioned for CMMI ACCESS than pure digital health players, and how Withings is thinking about care coordination back to ACOs and PCPs as the program launches.Kevin and Martin close with risk adjustment AI funding. Keebler Health raised $16M and Joyful Health raised $22M, and both signal where AI is driving productivity in healthcare today.For more from Health Tech Nerds, subscribe to our weekly newsletters: https://www.healthtechnerds.com/subscribe