From TekinHealthHealthcare Tech Field Notes

OpenAI announced on September 1, 2026 that ChatGPT for Healthcare now connects to Epic electronic health records, letting clinicians at participating organizations pull a patient's chart into the chatbot for read-only reference. Access requires an organization-level workspace covered by a signed business associate agreement rather than an individual account, and OpenAI says it evaluated the feature with 4,363 physician ratings across 27 clinical use cases, reporting a 99.1% "safe" rate. UCSF Health is OpenAI's named pilot partner for the Epic integration. ChatGPT for Healthcare itself launched in January 2026 with organizations including HCA Healthcare, Cedars-Sinai, Memorial Sloan Kettering, Boston Children's Hospital, AdventHealth and Stanford Medicine Children's Health.

Why it's notable: It is one of the largest sanctioned deployments of a general-purpose chatbot directly against live EHR data, and the roughly 1-in-100 "unsafe" response rate OpenAI itself reports means clinicians should treat its output as a starting point, not a verified answer, on charts that include allergies and medication changes.

At its 2026 Users Group Meeting in Verona, Wisconsin, Epic introduced Agent Factory, a no-code platform for health systems to build, run and monitor AI agents that act across Epic workflows. Organizations can start from about 120 built-in AI features or build their own. Epic says early adopters are using it now, with broader availability in 2027. Epic also announced Curiosity, a predictive tool built on its Cosmos clinical database; real-time prior authorization checks; and UpToDate content inside its clinician assistant, Art.

Why it's notable: Epic is the record system for most large US health systems, so its agent platform will shape how AI automation reaches everyday clinical and administrative work. For many organizations, it will also affect whether separate AI vendors are needed at all.

On June 26, 2026, HHS's Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) said the number of health records exchanged through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) has grown from about 10 million to more than 1 billion in less than a year. ONC awarded Alliance Global Tech, a federal IT contractor in Columbia, Maryland, a one-year contract of about $1.3 million to check that TEFCA participants follow the network's rules. The contract can be renewed through 2031, for up to about $5.5 million in total. ONC also said it is doing extra compliance reviews of the 11 Qualified Health Information Networks, a group that now includes eClinicalWorks, Netsmart, Oracle Health and Surescripts, and of their participants.

Why it's notable: TEFCA is becoming the main national route for pulling outside records into a clinic's EHR. The new oversight follows disputes over improper record access, including Epic's lawsuit against Health Gorilla, so participants should expect closer checks on why and how they query records.

On May 13, 2026, CMS named 29 early adopters for its Electronic Prior Authorization Acceleration initiative, part of its Health Tech Ecosystem effort. They include health systems such as Cleveland Clinic, Providence, Ochsner Health, Sanford Health and Bon Secours Mercy Health; EHR vendors Epic, Oracle, athenahealth, eClinicalWorks, MEDITECH, ModMed and TruBridge; and networks including CommonWell and eHealth Exchange. Participants committed to building electronic prior authorization into clinical and billing systems, replacing fax and portal workflows, and showing clinicians where a request stands. The work is meant to get ready for January 1, 2027, when certain payers must support electronic prior authorization for medical items and services.

Why it's notable: Payers have to support electronic prior authorization by 2027, but clinics only benefit if their EHRs and health systems are wired in too. This puts the major EHR vendors on record committing to that work.

On April 23, 2026, IKS Health agreed to acquire TruBridge for $26.25 a share in cash, a deal Fierce Healthcare valued at $557M including debt. TruBridge sells EHR, revenue cycle and coding services to more than 1,500 mostly rural and community hospitals and clinics. The companies say the combined business will serve more than 2,000 healthcare organizations and 150,000 clinicians. The deal closed on July 9, 2026, and existing TruBridge products remain available on their own.

Why it's notable: Many small rural hospitals rely on TruBridge for both their EHR and their billing. Its new owner plans to layer AI-driven revenue cycle services on top.

On April 8, 2026, Epic said its customers were the first to share medical records electronically with the Social Security Administration through TEFCA, the federally backed national exchange network. SSA uses the records for disability benefit decisions. The first organizations were AltaMed, Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services, Overlake Hospital Medical Center, Saint Francis Health System and Valleywise Health. Epic says TEFCA has connected another 13 hospitals and 374 clinics to SSA, and that electronic exchange typically makes determinations up to 50% faster.

Why it's notable: Disability record requests usually mean staff time and faxes for clinics. An automated TEFCA connection cuts that work and can speed up benefits for patients.

Mount Sinai Health System announced on March 31, 2026 that it is rolling out OpenEvidence, an AI medical search tool, inside its Epic EHR across its seven hospitals. It is giving access to physicians, registered nurses and pharmacists. OpenEvidence answers clinical questions in plain language, with citations to peer-reviewed literature and guidelines. Coverage described it as OpenEvidence's first enterprise-wide deal with a health system.

Why it's notable: Clinicians have mostly used OpenEvidence on their own phones. This deal makes it a sanctioned tool inside the EHR for the whole care team, which is a model other health systems may follow to govern clinicians' use of AI.

On January 7, 2026, OpenAI announced ChatGPT Health, a separate health space inside ChatGPT where US users can connect their medical records through the health data network b.well, which covers about 2.2 million US providers. Users can also connect apps including Apple Health, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, Peloton and Function. OpenAI says more than 230 million people ask ChatGPT health questions each week and that the product was built with feedback from more than 260 physicians. The company says ChatGPT Health is not meant for diagnosis or treatment and that health conversations are not used to train its models. It launched first to a small group of early users, and the record connections are US-only. On January 12, OpenAI bought the health-records startup Torch to build out the product, for a price reported at $60 million to $100 million.

Why it's notable: The most widely used consumer chatbot can now read patients' own records, so more patients will arrive at visits with AI interpretations of their lab results and charts.

On December 22, 2025, HHS's Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator (ASTP/ONC) proposed the HTI-5 rule. It would remove 34 of the 60 criteria in the ONC Health IT Certification Program and revise 7 others. One revision cuts back the Biden-era 'model card' transparency requirements for AI decision support tools in certified EHRs. The rule would also change the information blocking rules: it adds 'autonomous AI systems' to the definitions of access and use, drops the TEFCA manner exception, and narrows exceptions that let EHR developers limit third-party access. HHS estimates savings of $1.53 billion, and the rule was opened for 60 days of public comment.

Why it's notable: The certification program defines what every certified EHR must do, so this changes which features vendors are required to keep and how much they must disclose about the AI built into them. The information blocking changes are aimed at making it harder for EHR vendors to shut out AI tools and third-party apps that want patient data.

Oracle Health said its new EHR, rebuilt from scratch on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure rather than on the Cerner platform, received ONC health IT certification and met DEA requirements for electronic prescribing of controlled substances. That makes it available to US ambulatory providers. The system includes Oracle's clinical AI agent and voice commands that let clinicians ask for things like recent labs and current medications instead of clicking through screens. Oracle said acute care functionality would follow in 2026.

Why it's notable: Outpatient practices that are choosing an EHR now have a certified option built with AI throughout, from one of the two largest US EHR vendors. It is also the first real test of whether Oracle can win back ground after the Cerner acquisition.