INSIGHTS
March 9, 2026

Will agentic AI expand access—or widen gaps?

The use cases for agentic AI are moving increasingly closer to the patient care journey. In recent weeks, athenahealth launched agentic AI for 24/7 patient communication, Transcarent expanded its WayFinding platform with AI-driven scheduling and care navigation tools, and AWS introduced Amazon Connect Health to manage appointment calls while integrating with EHR workflows.

This momentum raises questions about access and equity—the example of voice-based AI illustrates both the opportunity and the risk. Even as many health systems route engagement through apps and portals, phone calls remain an important access point for many Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, and lower-literacy populations. Agents that answer calls at any hour could make that door more accessible, but voice systems still struggle with language variation and accents and may not be able to recognize complex social needs.

As payers and providers make multi-year infrastructure bets on agentic AI, patient engagement will be increasingly AI-mediated. The question is whether these agents expand access or reinforce gaps that already define healthcare’s front door.

Headlines

  Hospitals Are A Proving Ground For What AI Can Do—And What It Can’t
Early deployments highlight both promise and clinical risks The Wall Street Journal

HHS Bans Anthropic’s Claude AI Tool
Federal scrutiny of AI models spills into government vendor restrictions Fierce Biotech

How Hospitals Have Shifted From Experimenting With AI To Justifying Its Cost
Hospitals rethink operations as AI moves beyond isolated fixes Endpoints News

DoseSpot And Arrive Health Merge To Tackle Prescription Costs
Merger combines prescribing and pricing data to guide patients to lower-cost medications Fierce Healthcare

Hims’ Pharmacy Partner Strive Pharmacy Won’t Reintroduce GLP-1 Pill
Hims scraps plan to relaunch GLP-1 pill that was previously pulled from the market Endpoints News

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