Medicare Advantage Headwinds and UnitedHealth's $9B AARP Deal

Does it feel like we packed in a decade of progress this year in digital health? We think so. 

Today, Halle and Steve break down the biggest digital health stories of the moment, from funding trends to AI rivalries and new rules shaping the future of care.

We cover:

💸 What non-AI healthcare startups should do in today’s AI-obsessed investor market

🧠 Is there room for more than one winner in clinical decision support tools?

⚖️ California’s new chatbot law

🩺 Why UnitedHealthcare just paid $9B to AARP despite Medicare Advantage headwinds

🌡️ Hims’ expansion into menopause care and what it means for vertical startups

🤖 How Mass General Brigham is using AI to ease doctor shortages

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Show notes:

• The Future of Healthtech 2025 (SVB)
• 2025: The State of AI in Healthcare (Menlo Ventures)
• Q3 2025 market overview: Signals out of sync (Rock Health)
• OpenEvidence scores $200M, 3 months after series B, boosting valuation to $6B (Fierce Healthcare)
• Wolters Kluwer’s new UpToDate Expert AI (Wolters Kluwer)
• New California ‘Companion Chatbot’ Law Imposes Disclosure, Safety Protocol and Annual Reporting Requirements (Skadden)
• UnitedHealth Group, AARP Extend Medicare Partnership Beyond 2025 (Forbes)
• Hims & Hers to Offer Treatments for Menopause (WSJ)
• One Mass. health system is turning to AI to ease shortage of primary care doctors. Some don’t like it (STAT)

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