2026 Healthcare Predictions: AI, Wearables & Policy Trends
It’s prediction time. But before I get into my predictions (and the Huddle community’s) predictions, I need to first reflect on what I got right and wrong about my 2025 predictions.
A Reflection on My Healthcare Predictions 2025
I made 16 healthcare predictions for 2025. Below I highlight what I got right and wrong.
Right
Telehealth Flexibilities Extended, Telehealth Companies on the Rise: I was right about the former, but the jury's still out on the latter. The government extended pandemic-related telehealth flexibilities through January 30, 2026. After that, things get more complicated.
Consumer-Grade vs. Medical-Grade Wearables: What's the Difference?: This question will continue into 2026. The FDA is targeting WHOOP for its blood pressure insights feature. The FDA says it's a medical device requiring market approval, while WHOOP claims it's strictly for wellness and not intended to diagnose. But what's the difference at the end of the day? I've been saying this since February 2023:
An interesting phenomenon we'll see is the blurring of "consumer" and "medical" wearable technology: consumer wearable tech can now perform high-quality measurements on par to medical-grade wearable tech.
CMS GLP-1 Coverage for Obesity Falls Through: this happened as soon as the Trump Administration took office. TrumpRx is supposed to be the alternative.
Steps Closer to Repealing Ban on Physician-Owned Hospitals: New bipartisan federal legislation would add exemptions to current restrictions on physician ownership of hospitals, allowing POH to operate in communities with high demand for hospital services (e.g., rural areas).
Women’s Health Research Faces Funding Setback: See my analysis here.
Hospital at Home Keeps Rolling: the House recently passed a Hospital at Home extension for five years.
23andMe Files for Bankruptcy: yup.
Compounding Pharmacies Stop GLP-1 Production: yup.
The Rise of Agents: they are rising!
Kind of Right
Whole-Body Imaging Scan Companies Shut Down: While no company shut down entirely, Ezra did sell to Function Health. I don't know what their financials looked like, but you can presume that played a role in the sale.
CMS Considers Partnership with Cost Plus Drugs: This didn't happen exactly, but TrumpRx functions as a de facto Cost Plus Drugs model.
Wrong
Pendulum Swings Back to Independent Physicians: Ha. Nice try, Jared. Still wishful thinking. Healthcare is still very much corporatized.
Too Soon to Tell
Unlabeled Rounds Catch Up to Startups: Unlabeled funding rounds became popular in 2023, peaking at 55% in Q4 2023. These non-standard, flexible funding events don't follow the typical seed, Series A, Series B sequence. Instead, they're tailored to a company's specific financial needs or strategic goals. These rounds confuse investors about a company's stage and progress (e.g., “why are you hiding your fundraising?”). Without public funding announcements, startups may struggle to attract new stakeholders due to reduced visibility. I predicted these unlabeled rounds would come back to bite startups, but it's too soon to tell.
CGM Device Makers Partner with Wearable Tech Startups: OURA acquired CGM company Veri and partnered with devicemaker Dexcom. WHOOP announced plans to integrate CGM data into their app—whether through a devicemaker partnership (Dexcom/Abbott) or acquisition of a startup remains to be seen.
Apple Launches First AI Coach: this is rumored to launch in 2026. I’ve been waiting since 2023.
The AI Space in Healthcare Will Saturate: the space is saturating, but we haven’t hit the tipping point yet.
2026 Healthcare Predictions
Here's what I'm predicting for 2026, along with insights from the Huddle community.
Health Tech
Wearables
Longevity is Everything: We're riding the longevity hype wave. Wearables now track every move, every glucose fluctuation, and—coming soon to every wearable near you—blood pressure. Incumbent wearable tech companies are offering lab panels that test markers which may or may not mean anything, but will certainly make you anxious. Everyone in wearable tech will rebrand as a longevity company—not just wellness. The target market? Worried-well wealthy.
Medical-grade vs. Consumer-grade becomes murkier: I predicted this last year, and I'll predict it again. WHOOP will likely shut down their blood pressure insights feature (or buy back the device) following this class action lawsuit with the FDA. The core issue? WHOOP launched a feature that provides actual blood pressure estimates without FDA clearance, while Apple got clearance for a notification-only system. I broke down the difference between their approaches—one plays by the rules, the other doesn't. The FDA is drawing a line, and wearable companies will have to choose which side they're on.
Guardian Angel Tech Asserts Its Presence (s/o Cyrus Attia, MD): I've been preaching guardian angel tech for years. Apple does a great job with this. We've moved from simple step tracking to blood pressure monitoring, glucose monitoring, and gait monitoring. The next step? Intervention. As Cyrus says:
With all the commercial and regulatory tailwinds around RPM and wearables, 2026 will be the year we see a big push from passive data collection into full RPM platforms that offer interventions and patient self-management—expanding the scope of care outside the hospital and clinic.
Artificial Intelligence
Patient Engagement = Focus: patient engagement will be the hottest niche in the AI space. I’m not sure how lucrative it’ll be when compared to the suite of business AI tools, but it has the greatest room for growth. I’m talking AI patient advocates, AI chronic condition education (”what is metoprolol and why do I need to take it for Heart Failure?”), AI med adherence tools, and the list goes on and on.
Prior Auth = Runner Up Focus (s/o Laxmi Patel) : AI is going to battle AI when it comes to prior authorization. I enjoyed this prediction (edited for succinctness) from Huddler Laxmi :
…healthcare organizations will shift from addressing denials after claims are rejected to preventing them before submission. […] AI-powered analytics and automation will help identify high-risk claims, correct errors in real time, and streamline appeals workflows. Organizations that successfully implement predictive denial management will reduce revenue leakage, shorten cash cycles, and improve overall revenue integrity, while those relying on reactive processes risk significant financial and operational pressure as denials continue to grow.
Scribe Growth and Fall (s/o Bhargav Patel, MD, MBA): The ambient scribe will be commoditized. With everyone offering one, the key to differentiation is pairing it with another needed physician tool that has a direct ROI—like revenue cycle management. Agents are another option, but they need that direct ROI too. Companies that established themselves as ambient scribes will need to pivot. I mean, Doximity and OpenEvidence are free and both launched their own ambient scribes on top of their main medical search feature. From Bhargav:
Most ambient scribe companies will fail or be acquired, the ones who survive will derive most of their value from other services like RCM, prior auth, CDS.
Policy
TrumpRx = Success: TrumpRx may succeed if it can replicate the Cost Plus Drugs business model. Time will tell. Trump has taken a firm stance on lowering drug prices for Americans, and he appears to be following through.
ACA Enhanced Subsidies Fall Through → Healthy People Go Uninsured: Whatever the outcome of this ACA mess, it will undoubtedly push young, healthy Americans to ditch ACA-subsidized insurance. This will raise premiums for 2027, causing more people to leave—and the cycle will spiral.
Business and Reimbursement
Pharmacists Become the "Clinical Quarterbacks" (s/o Mark Gregory): I've been saying this for years—pharmacists are an underutilized asset in healthcare. I've written about how expanding pharmacist authority can improve medication adherence, how pharmacists can help streamline medication costs, and how they're critical for reducing polypharmacy errors. Mark's prediction takes this further:
Pharmacists will become the "clinical quarterbacks" of a fragmented medication ecosystem. With no single entity overseeing a patient's total medication journey across retail, mail order, telehealth and digital channels, pharmacists can step into a new leadership role—one focused on comprehensive medication oversight, behavioral support and continuity of care.
Pharma D2P: In case you didn't believe me already, nearly every major pharma company will adopt a direct-to-patient strategy—selling medications directly to patients and cutting out the middlemen (quick plug for my Middlemen newsletter).
Value-Based Care Inches Forward (s/o Ben Merick): We've been talking about value-based care for years—so much talk that it's easy to dismiss it as healthcare's version of vaporware. But fiscal pressures and policy uncertainty will push the industry toward incremental, unglamorous steps. As Ben puts it:
Healthcare strategy will take incremental steps towards value-centered care. Reducing burdens intended for good but ultimately adding more costs. Less flash, more blocking and tackling. Specifically disrupting the extremely inefficient reimbursement system in the US.
Primary Care Docs Take Limited Financial Risk (s/o DA): Primary care physicians will start taking on limited financial responsibility for health outcomes. Whether through capitation models, shared savings, or risk-adjusted contracts, the shift is coming—slowly, reluctantly, but inevitably.
Hospital Capacity Crisis Forces New Models (s/o Daniel): The "heads in beds" model is breaking. Daniel nails it:
As too many heads chase too few beds, hospitals will experience operational gridlock, longer inpatient length of stay, dangerous levels of ER boarding and inability to accept high-acuity transfers. The financial ramifications of decreased bed turnover will force health systems to consider new models in which hospitals and their ERs play a central role in keeping patients out and redirecting them to higher value care settings.
Enter hospital at home. With the House extending the program for five years, expect health systems to lean into it as one answer to capacity gridlock—treating acute conditions at home instead of filling beds that don't exist.
Big Picture
So, will 2026 will be a year of reckoning for healthcare? AI will move from pilots to production, wearables will face regulatory scrutiny, and the financial models that have propped up fee-for-service care will crack under their own weight.
Let’s find out.
