Physicians aren’t known to pontificate about the future, but the exercise is worth exploring as the way healthcare is practiced, preached and consumed evolves rapidly.

Let’s explore three trends we believe are coming this year (if not are already present in some institutions). We welcome disagreements or feedback.

Something interesting is happening in healthcare: your patients might know their biomarker levels before you do.

Superpower just launched its $199/year membership offering 100+ biomarker tests, biological age calculations and AI-driven health recommendations. Function Health hit 100,000 paying members. Plus, OpenAI just entered the space with ChatGPT Health, a dedicated feature set within ChatGPT where users can connect their medical records and wellness apps directly.

Here's what caught our eye: Over 230 million people globally ask ChatGPT health-related questions every week. So what did Open AI do? They decided to stop fighting it and build a dedicated product around it.

ChatGPT Health lets users:

What physicians should know: You're going to have patients walking in with AI-generated interpretations of their lab work. It’s not inherently bad, but it does mean you'll need a framework for when a patient says "ChatGPT told me my CRP levels indicate..."

Curious - do you already see patients equipped with AI answers?

For years, digital health companies have complained that Medicare fee-for-service has no good way to pay for wearables, apps, and telehealth-driven chronic care. CMS responded with the ACCESS Model (Advancing Chronic Care with Effective, Scalable Solutions).

It's a 10-year voluntary model launching July 2026 that pays providers "outcome-aligned payments" rather than fee-for-service billing. You hit blood pressure targets? You get paid. Reduce HbA1c? You get paid. The activities you used to get paid for are now just a means to the end.

The four tracks:

According to CMS, over 250 organizations have already expressed interest. The AMA called it "an important step toward bringing new, effective digital health tools into everyday care."

For referring physicians: There's a co-management payment built in. If you refer a patient to an ACCESS organization and review their updates/adjust medications accordingly, you can bill up to $100/year per patient.

Why this could matter for your practice: This is signaling that outcomes-based digital health is the future. Companies like Omada Health, Livongo, and dozens of digital therapeutics startups have been waiting for a payment mechanism like this. Expect a wave of partnerships and acquisitions.

Here's a trend that snuck up on everyone: the AI tools built for clinical documentation are now going after billing.

Healthcare AI spending hit $1.4 billion in 2025, nearly tripling 2024. Two categories dominated: ambient clinical documentation ($600M) and coding/billing automation ($450M).

If an AI can listen to your patient encounter and generate a note, it can also assign the billing codes. And if it can assign billing codes, it can predict denials. And if it can predict denials, it can auto-generate appeals.

Some companies to watch:

Payers might be worried that AI coding tools trained to "maximize reimbursement" will submit more aggressive claims. They're staffing up to handle the anticipated flood of AI-generated prior authorizations and appeals.

What this means for physicians: The documentation you generate (or that ambient AI generates for you) is becoming directly tied to revenue capture.

Best,

M&H