The U.S. is short roughly 250,000 nurses and 85,000 physicians, with nearly two thirds of nurses operating at high burnout and a projected 70,000 primary care physician shortfall by 2038. Most health systems are responding by deploying AI on top of broken workflows, which makes burnout more efficient rather than expanding capacity.

CMS just delivered the strongest pro RPM and CCM rule in five years, including a roughly 10 percent reimbursement lift, a new 10-minute RPM code, and a 2 to 15-day measurement code that opens up patient populations that were previously unreachable. In the same window, UnitedHealthcare announced and then postponed a January 2026 rollback that would have stripped RPM coverage.

The 2026 CMS Final Rule raised chronic care management reimbursement by roughly 10%, created a new 10-minute RPM code (CPT 99470), added APCM behavioral health add-on codes, and incorporated AI-augmented services into CPT for the first time. In parallel, the OIG launched a multi-year CCM eligibility audit, and the healthcare workforce is projected to shrink by 4 million workers by year end.