The best part of Y Combinator is the community - batchmates, friends, and now partners. Today, Cova (YC S26) is leveraging Arctic’s AI-native credentialing workflow to expand its home health footprint across Michigan. Grateful to build alongside another exceptional YC team.

Telehealth can cut office overhead, but not enrollment work. Providers still need licenses where patients are located, payer enrollment, and accurate service locations. Big platforms simplify this, but the contracts are theirs. Own contracts yourself so your practice stays yours.

Starting an independent practice is a sequencing problem. Form the entity, obtain NPIs, contracts, credential providers, confirm effective dates and verify claims setup. A large platform may handle the paperwork, but it also owns the contracts. Build it and keep the upside.

CAQH is not credentialing. A complete profile gives payers data, but doesn't mean a clinician is approved or loaded for claims. Independent practices should track every payer, provider, and effective date to stop billing denials down the line.

Joining a large group can raise rates without improving a practice's net economics. Management fees, shared overhead, and credentialing delays can absorb the difference. Independence works when practices own their payer contracts and fee schedules.

Unclear fee schedule? Strong rates for office visits can hide underpayments for your most common procedures. Large groups optimize for the whole stack. Independent practices should negotiate for the work they actually do.

Ophthalmology groups join IPAs for leverage, but end up being undercut. IPAs take a cut of collections. In a retina practice, a high % of collections are drug pass-through with no margin, so a few points on injections can make a big difference. Independent practice? DM me.

Too many ophthalmology groups negotiate cataract rates, but skim through drug terms. For retina practices, buy-and-bill drugs often represent the largest share of claims, and some payers reimburse injectables below cost. Independent retina group? Send me your payer list.

There's a short list of specialties where independent groups can still shake the payers to get strong rates. What we've seen move rates is unique coverage that payers can't replace. When a directory is thin on your niche, network adequacy becomes a real argument.

"Network is closed for your specialty." Heard this before? Payer administrative hurdles force many clinics join IPAs. If you're an independent clinic and want to own your own contracts, send us your payer list.

Company update: We are back in NYC! To kick things off, we are writing a series on NY-specific credentialing nuances, starting with specialties we've recently worked in. If you run a neurology group in New York, get these steps right before your first denied claim. arctic.health/blog/neurology…

One of the biggest misconceptions we hear from new DME suppliers is that commercial enrollment should be straightforward after Medicare enrollment is complete. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. We put together a practical guide to help navigate commercial enrollment smoothly. If you're a DME supplier, we hope it helps. arctic.health/blog/dme-suppl…