Rounds: Take the Money and R1, Megan Scheffel, Dan Bise, and Jeremy Friese
Thursday, October 1, 2026
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The speaker reports that prior authorization is a top-three denial problem and that acquiring Jeremy's business aimed to reduce costs, noting that authorization costs two to three times more on the payer side than the provider side, affecting both sides of the revenue cycle.
The speaker reports that healthcare AI buyers prioritize vendor guardrails and protocols over foundational model performance to mitigate safety risks in high-stakes clinical settings
“you're not investing in a healthcare ai company you're not buying a healthcare ai solution because you need it to be better than the foundational models you need it because they have a bunch of people focusing solely on the guardrails and protocols for healthcare and and that keeps it from killing people in a space where you could risk killing people in a much higher rate than enterprise”
The speaker reports that revenue cycle management is not a single problem but a thousand different pieces requiring shared information, making it impossible to solve with a single technology and necessitating a mix of approaches including RPA and AI.
In Episode 5 of Rounds, Stephanie Davis and Christina Farr break down the latest healthcare headlines — including Oura's step toward an IPO with its S-1 filing revealing $1.4 billion in revenue, and a former Anthropic researcher's warning to the BBC that AI staff are "genuinely frightened" for humanity's future — before sitting down with Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB, Dan Bise, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at R1, and Jeremy Friese, CEO and Founder of Humata Health. We'll cover: Oura's S-1 filing and what it signals about the company's path to IPO Key takeaways from SVB's Healthcare Investments and Exits report — including why fewer specialized funds (not less capital) are driving the fundraising slowdown, why deal volume hit a multiyear low even as total dollars held steady, and why investors are increasingly rewarding proven commercial viability over pure technology hype The diverging exit landscape between biopharma (a record M&A year driven by looming patent cliffs) and healthtech (strong IPO performance, but few companies actually going public) How blurring lines between Dx/Tools, device, and biopharma are reshaping where capital flows The thesis behind CD&R and TowerBrook's take-private of R1, and the company's shift from tech-enabled services to a true AI-native, technology-first approach to automating the healthcare revenue cycle R1's first two acquisitions, Phare Health and Humata Health, and how Humata's prior authorization platform fills a key gap in R1's strategy to reduce downstream payer denials Dan Bise's investment approach — from setting strategy to evaluating the competitive landscape to aligning investors and the Board — and how it mirrors a thesis-driven, PE-style playbook Jeremy Friese's perspective as Humata's founder on what set R1 apart from other potential acquirers, and what convinced him to sell Hosts and Guests: Christina Farr, CEO, Second Opinion; GP, Scrub Capital Stephanie Dav
Show transcript excerpt
In Episode 5 of Rounds, Stephanie Davis and Christina Farr break down the latest healthcare headlines — including Oura's step toward an IPO with its S-1 filing revealing $1.4 billion in revenue, and a former Anthropic researcher's warning to the BBC that AI staff are "genuinely frightened" for humanity's future — before sitting down with Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB, Dan Bise, Executive Vice President of Strategy & Corporate Development at R1, and Jeremy Friese, CEO and Founder of Humata Health. We'll cover: Oura's S-1 filing and what it signals about the company's path to IPO Key takeaways from SVB's Healthcare Investments and Exits report — including why fewer specialized funds (not less capital) are driving the fundraising slowdown, why deal volume hit a multiyear low even as total dollars held steady, and why investors are increasingly rewarding proven commercial viability over pure technology hype The diverging exit landscape between biopharma (a record M&A year driven by looming patent cliffs) and healthtech (strong IPO performance, but few companies actually going public) How blurring lines between Dx/Tools, device, and biopharma are reshaping where capital flows The thesis behind CD&R and TowerBrook's take-private of R1, and the company's shift from tech-enabled services to a true AI-native, technology-first approach to automating the healthcare revenue cycle R1's first two acquisitions, Phare Health and Humata Health, and how Humata's prior authorization platform fills a key gap in R1's strategy to reduce downstream payer denials Dan Bise's investment approach — from setting strategy to evaluating the competitive landscape to aligning investors and the Board — and how it mirrors a thesis-driven, PE-style playbook Jeremy Friese's perspective as Humata's founder on what set R1 apart from other potential acquirers, and what convinced him to sell Hosts and Guests: Christina Farr, CEO, Second Opinion; GP, Scrub Capital Stephanie Davis, Healthcare Industry Analyst Megan Scheffel, Head of Life Science and Healthcare at SVB Dan Bise, EVP, Strategy and Corporate Development at R1 Jeremy Friese, Founder and CEO of Humata Health Sponsored by Silicon Valley Bank.
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