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Did we just witness the end of health IT red tape?
On December 22, the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy dropped a regulatory bombshell: HTI-5.
34 of 60 health IT certification criteria, gone.
7 more, completely revised.
The goal? Unleash AI and innovation by killing bureaucratic barriers.
This isn’t just tweaking regulations. This is demolition.
The timing is strategic. With Trump’s Executive Orders on deregulation and anti-competitive barriers in full swing, HHS is betting that less regulation equals more innovation. They’re scrapping Biden-era data sharing proposals, nixing public health standards, and creating a runway for AI-enabled interoperability.
But here’s what should make you pause:
We’re removing guardrails at the exact moment AI is exploding in healthcare. The same week the FDA approved its 1,000th AI medical device, we’re stripping away certification requirements that ensure these systems work together safely.
🤔 The paradox is stunning.
More AI tools than ever. Less oversight than ever.
For health IT vendors, this is Christmas morning. Development costs will plummet. Time to market will accelerate. The bureaucratic maze that kept startups from competing with Epic and Cerner just got bulldozed.
For hospitals and FQHCs drowning in tech debt, this could mean cheaper, faster solutions. Or it could mean a wild west of incompatible systems that don’t talk to each other.
The 60-day comment period ends February 27, 2026. What happens next will reshape American healthcare technology for a generation.
Will deregulation unleash the innovation we desperately need? Or will we discover those 34 requirements existed for a reason?
Maybe both.
♻️ Repost if healthcare innovation requires calculated risks.
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
