How AI Is Bridging the Rural Healthcare Gap w/ Dr. Jennifer Schneider, Co-Founder & CEO, Homeward

More than 200 rural hospitals have closed or have stopped providing inpatient care since 2010, and hundreds more are at risk. Rural America has far fewer doctors and specialists than the rest of the country, and people living in small-town America, you know, what John Cougar Mellencamp sings about, face significantly higher mortality rates. Today's guest knows the challenges of rural health firsthand. Growing up in a small town, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and experienced the same barriers to care that countless rural patients face. Now she's using AI to solve rural health's access problem once and for all. to Humanify Health Tech Podcast, where we explore how AI is rewriting the rules of healthcare and putting people back at the center where they belong. I'm your host, Brian Chee, Senior Director of Content at NetHealth. Today, I'm joined by Dr. Jennifer Schneider, co-founder and CEO of Homeward Health, which is rebuilding primary and specialty care access for the nearly 60 million Americans living in rural areas. Homeward Health does it by using predictive AI, hybrid clinical models, and a value-based care design. Dr. Snyder has been named as one of Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People, a Fierce Healthcare Woman of Influence, and an Inc. Female Founders 500 Honoree. She is a trained internist who previously served as president of Livongo, where she led the company through the largest consumer digital health IPO in history and its subsequent $18.5 billion merger with Teladoc, still the largest digital health transaction on the record. She also has served as chief medical officer of Cast Light Health and has run an Ironman, which I learned about not so long ago. Today, she's using AI to help tackle a problem that hits close to home. Pun absolutely intended. Dr. Schneider, thanks for joining us today.

Thank you, Brian. And thank you for the kind words, Mel. You're making me feel like my parents are going to be proud if they hear this. So thank you.

And well, they should, right? I mean, what an amazing journey and an amazing career. The difference that you've made to countless people is really inspiring. You know, going through your background and listening to some of your podcasts and the conversations that you've had, it's been remarkable that your vision has impacted and influenced so many other people who don't have access to care. And I think that that's sort of where I think you as a guest for this podcast really makes the most difference is that mission and how you have leveraged technology and leveraged your vision to make that difference in an area, in communities that are underserved and in an ecosystem that's broken. You're right.

Passionate about it, for sure.

Yeah. And one thing I think I want to jump into first, though, before we really get into the detail of that story, is I do want to say that we have the best timing ever. Here we are on this little podcast, and yesterday the news broke of a big new chapter for your story. Homeward has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by CityBlock Health alongside a $116 million Series E, bringing together Homeward's rural Medicare Advantage model with CityBlock's