AI Tackles Chronic Care Bottlenecks in New Healthcare Partnership

NEW YORK, NY – January 06, 2026 – By Nancy Torres

TwelveStone Health Partners, a prominent provider of chronic care medication services, has announced a strategic partnership with healthcare technology firm Tennr. The collaboration aims to overhaul the often-sluggish and complex patient referral process by deploying an advanced artificial intelligence platform, signaling a significant shift toward automation in managing chronic conditions.

For patients navigating the labyrinth of chronic illness, the journey to receiving care is frequently fraught with administrative delays, paperwork, and uncertainty. This new alliance intends to dismantle these barriers, leveraging Tennr's AI to ensure patients are scheduled faster, providers are unburdened from clerical tasks, and no one gets lost in the system.

"At TwelveStone we are dedicated to delivering quality care around the needs of our patients, including leveraging advanced technology to expand access," said Shane Reeves, chief executive officer of TwelveStone Health Partners. "Tennr was a natural fit—helping us eliminate delays in the referral process to ensure patients are seen faster, on their terms."

The Administrative 'Black Hole' in Chronic Care

In the U.S. healthcare system, the patient referral process is a well-known bottleneck. Referrals for specialized services, like the infusion therapies and chronic care support TwelveStone provides, often arrive via a disconnected web of faxes, emails, and proprietary web portals. This fragmented system creates what industry insiders call a "black hole," where critical patient information can be delayed, misplaced, or processed incorrectly.

The consequences are significant. Patients face prolonged, anxiety-inducing waits for essential medications and treatments. Meanwhile, healthcare staff spend countless hours on manual data entry, verifying insurance eligibility, and chasing down missing information—time that could be spent on direct patient care. This administrative friction not only impacts patient satisfaction but also leads to higher operational costs and increased rates of payer denials due to clerical errors.

For nearly a decade, TwelveStone has focused on improving this experience for patients across the Southeastern United States. The partnership with Tennr represents a targeted, technology-driven offensive against these deep-seated inefficiencies.

Enter the AI: How Tennr's Technology Works

At the heart of this collaboration is Tennr's sophisticated automation platform, which is engineered specifically for the complexities of healthcare. Backed by over $160 million in funding from venture capital giants like IVP and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Tennr has developed proprietary AI models to tackle the industry's most tedious tasks.

One of its core technologies, the Referral Automation Engine Language Model (RaeLM), is a self-learning system trained on over 100 million anonymized healthcare documents. Unlike general-purpose AI, RaeLM is specialized to read and interpret the nuanced data found in clinical notes, scanned forms, and even handwritten physician orders. It can automatically classify incoming documents, extract vital patient data, and check submissions against thousands of complex payer criteria to flag potential issues before they lead to a denial.

Through the partnership, Tennr will automate a suite of TwelveStone's operations, including:
* Fax and Document Management: Intelligently sorting and processing incoming faxes and digital documents.
* Referral Intake and Data Entry: Capturing patient information with high accuracy and entering it into the appropriate systems.
* Eligibility and Benefits Investigation: Automating the verification of insurance coverage and patient benefits.
* Patient Qualification: Cross-referencing patient data with complex payer policies to ensure clean submissions.

"Partnering with Tennr is a big step forward for TwelveStone Health Partners," noted Cannon Loughry, the company's chief operating officer. "Their AI helps us turn the complexity of medical policy review into clear, consistent rules — so we can follow payor guidelines upfront, submit cleaner referrals, and improve our chances of getting claims paid the first time without the churn of denials and resubmissions."

A Strategic Alliance for Patient-Centric Care

This partnership exemplifies a growing trend in the healthcare industry: established providers joining forces with agile technology startups to drive innovation. For TwelveStone, the alliance is a strategic move to enhance its patient-first mission and scale its operations efficiently. By automating routine and repetitive tasks, the company's clinical and administrative teams can redirect their expertise toward patients with the most complex needs.

"Because Tennr can work 24/7 and scale as we grow, our team can stay focused where they add the most value: the complex, high-touch referrals that don't fit the standard workflow," Loughry added.

For Tennr, the collaboration provides a vital real-world application for its technology, demonstrating its value in a high-stakes clinical environment. The synergy between TwelveStone’s deep operational experience and Tennr's technological prowess is what both companies believe will create a new standard for the patient experience.

"From our first meeting with TwelveStone, it was clear this team has a day-zero mindset, even though they've been in business for nearly a decade," said Trey Holterman, co-founder and CEO of Tennr. "They choose to better the patient in everything they do and we're excited that they see Tennr as a tool to further impact the patient experience."

Navigating Data Privacy in the AI Era

A critical consideration for any AI implementation in healthcare is the security and privacy of sensitive patient data. With regulations like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governing patient information, deploying third-party AI systems requires a robust compliance framework.

Tennr asserts that its platform is built with these regulations at its core. The company reports using industry-best encryption for data both in transit and at rest, along with strict internal access-control policies. Furthermore, its AI models are trained on de-identified data to refine algorithms without compromising individual patient privacy. This focus on security is essential for building trust among providers and patients alike as AI becomes more integrated into care delivery.

As healthcare providers nationwide seek to overcome operational challenges and improve patient outcomes, the model established by TwelveStone and Tennr may offer a compelling blueprint. By strategically deploying AI to solve tangible administrative problems, the partnership aims to prove that technology can not only create efficiency but also foster a more humane, responsive, and accessible healthcare system for those who need it most.