Big Tech's Direct Play: OpenAI Bypasses Traditional Healthcare IT Partners
OpenAI has launched OpenAI for Healthcare, a suite of AI products aimed at supporting clinical and administrative work at hospitals and health systems. Early adopters include HCA Healthcare, Cedars-Sinai, Boston Children's Hospital, and Stanford Medicine Children's Health. This announcement positions OpenAI as infrastructure, not innovation.
The deeper tension here: health systems are increasingly willing to go around traditional IT partners when they perceive better enterprise support. Many clinicians still rely on their own tools because their organizations aren't adopting AI fast enough. OpenAI solved this by offering enterprise governance, HIPAA-compliant BAAs, and role-based access controls. The question industry partners must now answer: are you positioned as workflow infrastructure, or are you becoming the integration burden?
Why this matters: Health systems are beginning to contract directly with foundation model providers, forcing vendors to compete on integration power — not just product features.
Spark executive dialogue by asking:
“Are you treating OpenAI as a partner or competitor to your existing AI roadmap?”
“With foundation models now available enterprise-direct, are you seeing more pressure to consolidate vendors for cost control—or to allow best-of-breed tools even if integration costs rise?”
“OpenAI is positioning as infrastructure. How does that shift your expectations for how we deliver governance, compliance, and support?”