Insights & Updates

2026 has squeezed every line of business. Medicaid, Medicare, and ACA each took a hit, and the pressure is coming from more directions than any one article can cover. Ryan Peterson's read at Upward Growth is the best summary of what plans are absorbing right now: https://www.healthplanweekly.com/p/e

Yesterday’s Digital Health New York Summit was a reminder of why New York has become such an important center for digital health innovation.Kudos to DHNY for continuing to build something our local industry needs: a real community where healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, and innovators ca

As a musician, losing Dolly Parton, especially in the same week we lost ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard, makes me reflect on what remains after the music stops.As someone who has spent much of my life in healthcare and technology, I think Dolly’s legacy carries an unexpected lesson for the AI era.We talk

We just closed out three months of data on our post-discharge program with one of our clients.30-day readmissions: 13% → 8%.That's a 39% reduction in a single quarter.The credit belongs to the client's clinical management team - they trusted a new retail-inspired model of outreach, and their patient

My 2 cents and 3 takeaways from Qualipalooza 2026.

Over 80% of AI implementations in healthcare fail to show ROI.

When budgets tighten, the instinct is to cut. The health plans that win in 2026 will do the opposite - they'll lean harder into quality and care management.

This National Nurses Week, I want to thank the incredible nurses and medical assistants at Twig Health.

In healthcare, that's not just semantics. It is strategy.

In the latest session of Eric Glazer’s Bright Spots in Healthcare webinars (one of my favorites), “MA Strategy Session: What Actually Drives Long-Term Viability,” Mike Rapach, Jen Cohen-Smith and Joshua Meeks reinforced a message I strongly believe in, both as a board member of an MA plan and as an

Since 2025, SUNY Downstate is partnering with Healthfirst and Twig Health to close gaps in value-based care and post-discharge member engagement.

If you've watched Star Trek, you know the scene. The Enterprise is under pressure. Scotty's in the engine room telling Kirk the ship simply cannot do more than it's doing.

"AI can flag patterns, but you - with your functional knowledge and your human judgment - determine intent."This is a quote from Arjuna Swaminathan, chief artificial intelligence officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG), speaking yesterday at

It was a privilege for the Twig Health team to participate last week in SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Medical Center’s annual Safety and Quality Fair and to reflect on what has been an extraordinary collaboration.One comment from Maja Castillo MD, MHA of Healthfirst captured the spirit o

The Twig Health team is heading today to our partner SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University Medical Center for their annual Safety and Quality Fair. We'll be presenting alongside Healthfirst the incredible transformation of the medical center's value-based care ops.It all started with a simple, d

For the first time since 2020, ACA marketplace enrollment is down - from 24.3 million to 22.8 million. Enhanced premium subsidies expired January 1, and the average subsidized enrollee saw their annual cost jump from $888 to $1,904 😲

Nearly 3 million Medicare Advantage enrollees were forced to find new plans for 2026 - a 10x increase over historical norms. In 12 states, over 20% of members had to switch!So who absorbed them?* Humana led the pack, gaining roughly 1.2 million members and closing in on UnitedHealthcare for the top

In 2026, the greatest threat to a health plan’s success isn't a lack of AI or a lagging digital capabilities. It is the Sisyphean Trap of episodic engagement.As new Medicaid and Medicare requirements demand that members be "activated" multiple times a year, plans are finding themselves stuck in a lo

Medicaid is about to lose millions of members. And many health plans are responding wrong.New federal work requirements kick in January 2027. States must start outreach this summer.18.5 million enrollees will be subject to the 80-hour monthly work requirement. CBO projects 5.2 million will lose cove

Big news: Twig Health has been named one of Digital Health New York’s 10 Companies to Watch for 2026! 🚀

"Land and Expand" is a wonderful growth strategy.In highly regulated industries like healthcare, sales cycles can take years. As a startup, one way to get your foot in the door faster is by conducting a "pilot". We prefer "phase 1", but nobody asks us :)The pilot is limited in time and scope. It is

At Twig Health we hold weekly meetings with each of our clients.📊 To keep ourselves honest, we start with a brief deck called "performance review". We go over each of the KPIs we jointly defined, and then add some flavor by sharing good and bad interactions we had with members.We then dive into a d

🌎 We are excited to kick off the week with a new deployment, with a new payor, in a new state.💰 With Q4 just a week away, it’s crunch time for plans - lots of $$$ at stake. Quality managers are recalibrating efforts to close HEDIS care gaps and often seek outside help.⚡ This is where Twig Health's

⚡ We recently started working with our biggest partner so far, a healthplan with several million members.🚀 Phase one has started with a few thousand members, and we're already seeing amazing results in terms of engagement and activation.👉 A recurring theme for us, regardless of client size, is tha

A quick update on our diabetes management collaboration with Community Health Options of Maine.Chronic care programs in health plans often sit at two extremes.On one side are curriculum-driven programs like Omada, offering classes, videos, connected devices, and quizzes. On the other, minimal engage

Many people don’t know this about me, but I am a rock star. Literally. Well, sort of, if you consider a middle-aged amateur guitarist covering 70’s bands at a NYC bars as a star. Anyways, this weekend, I crushed the solos for Pink Floyd’s Money to a standing ovation. The opening lyric stuck with me:

Thrilled to announce a new Twig Health collaboration.We’ve partnered with Vesta Healthcare, a leading virtual care group supporting home care populations, to pilot a solution that prepares local health plan members for their Uniform Assessment System (UAS) visits.Using Twig’s AI-guided Front Desk se

👉 In healthcare, a phone call is always more effective than a text for patient engagement!👈 No. It’s the other way around - who has time for a call when texting is so convenient?Actually…Texting vs. Phone Calls - is not the right comparison ❌Engagement vs. No Engagement at all - is the correct fra

"What would be the single most impactful new policy at HHS to support digital health growth?" Stephen Konya, Chief of Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at HHS, asked me at one of the ViVE receptions last week.

We’re happy to share that following a successful pilot in late 2024, Twig health and Clover Health extended their partnership to optimize engagement and outcomes for Clover’s home care members.

When a patient needs answers or help right now,❌ they don't want to log onto a portal 🖥️❌ they don't want to chat with an AI bot 🤖❌ they don't want to launch an app 📱❌ they don't want to send an email ✉️❌ they don't want to spend 20 minutes on hold to speak with a call center representative ☎️Wha

We are excited to share that during the last few months of 2024, Twig Health partnered with Community Health Options, Maine's member-led health insurer, on a highly successful pilot to optimize their diabetes quality program.

Written by Twig CEO, Amir Kishon, Phd.

AI in Digital Health: A Collaborative Approach - can AI truly replace humans in patient/member engagement? the right balance for complex engagements

The users of our platform are our own employees - registered nurses - who use it to serve our customers and their patients.

In healthcare, Investing in relationships may seem expensive in the short term, but it always pays off. digital health is no different

As part of the high frequency communication with patients, Twig nurses verify medication adherence to help patients

The partnership will increase patient engagement, reduce care team burden, and optimize value-based care services

To provide true value to the ecosystem, digital health companies need to get all 3 P's right: PEOPLE, PROCESS, PLATFORM

health plans should seriously consider separating the care management function from the member experience function in your organization.

Services like Twig Health can help, offering a lifeline to both patients and their caregivers. Twig is an innovative SMS Concierge service

We need to bring back the human connection to healthcare. The relationships. Twig health re-architects care management to do just that.

If you are a health plan or a provider struggling to maximize the success of your value based contracts, please talk with us.

SMS texting works on virtually any type of mobile phone, even older patients feel comfortable texting.

Generative AI is a promising solution in reducing this administrative burden: text to speech, inference, and the ability to distill the conversation into the right notes

giving care teams super-powers and alleviating non-clinical burden through AI actually makes a lot of sense

Google is pushing AI into healthcare while nurse unions are voicing concern about AI overruling care decisions made by nurses.

AI tools can efficiently provide data but they fall short of the genuine empathy, understanding, and human connection that nurses bring.

Imagine the impact in care if every nurse currently working in a hospital or clinic could increase their productivity by just 10%.

A recently published survey of over 1300 nurses found that half of them have a side hustle. Additionally, nearly half of nurses with less than 3 years experience plan to transition to their side job full time at some point.

Payors and providers can support CMMI's plan to drive for accountable care is by using frequent SMS text conversations to increase member engagement

Mass disenrollments could easily be avoided through better communication with plan members. For example, using text messaging.

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the past decade, you're probably familiar with HLTH (health) health ecosystem platform and conference focused on health innovation and transformation. The good folks at HLTH recently published an ebook covering the major trends in digital health.

When health plan members are actively engaged in their healthcare, it not only improves their health outcomes but can also significantly impact the profitability of health plans.

Unplanned readmissions not only signify potential gaps in care quality but also put an immense financial burden on the healthcare system

Texting Improves Care Coordination it's a simple technology that can revolutionize the way patients engage with their healthcare providers.

At the core of personalized care is the human connection - emotional intelligence, authenticity, and empathy

Texting is positively impacting U.S. healthcare. Learn how to transition your practice to bi-directional SMS texting

Texting with patients can be a way to help overcome some of the challenges of loneliness. Texting can provide a sense of connection and support.

95% of texting patients feel more connected to their provider and 85% prefer text over phone, email, or portal

Picture this: It's 2025. ChatGPT is diagnosing complex health conditions and supporting physicians in ways that even the best binge-watcher of Grey’s Anatomy couldn't manage.

In this week's edition of the Fixing Healthcare Podcast, Dr. Robert Pearl did a great job explaining the fears many people have of the use of ChatGPT and generative AI in healthcare. He also explained why he is more excited than frightened.

A care gap in healthcare is the discrepancy between the care that is recommended to patients and the care that is actually received. Care gaps occur far too frequently, for example up to 40 percent of patients do not receive the recommended follow-up care after surgery.

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there ❤️.Thank you for nurturing and guiding us so selflessly!

CEO Jason Gorevic's comments on Teladoc Health recent quarterly call that “Virtual care's role within the healthcare industry remains underpenetrated” is true and mindboggling. Over 25 years of #digitalhealth innovation, pandemic lift, tens of billions of dollars of investments and still no signific

Dr. Wickline post on Facebook - April 24th, 2022