Healthcare IT · Prior authorization
Latent Health
A San Francisco startup building AI agents that read a patient’s chart, assemble the paperwork insurers demand for expensive drugs, and file the request, so pharmacists spend minutes on prior authorization instead of hours.
Three to four minutes instead of an afternoon
Deborah Simonson runs pharmacy operations for Ochsner Health, a nonprofit system with 46 hospitals and more than 370 clinics across the Gulf South. Before Latent, her staff hunted through electronic health records by hand to prove to an insurer that a patient needed an expensive drug. “With Latent, I can find what I’m hunting for in three to four minutes,” she told Forbes in March 2026.
Ochsner’s prior authorization reviews now run four to five minutes, about 75 percent faster than the industry benchmark, according to Ochsner’s own account of the partnership. More than 20,000 patients across Ochsner’s clinics got faster access to their prescribed medications in 2024, and the system reported a 96 percent increase in monthly throughput per staff member.
The problem
Prior authorization is the step where an insurer requires proof, before it will pay, that a drug or treatment is medically necessary. Physicians spend an average of 13 hours a week on it, according to figures Forbes cited from Somasundaram, Latent’s co-CEO. Both sides often review the same documents by hand, what Somasundaram calls a “human compute problem.”
The company’s own numbers, cited in a March 2026 funding announcement carried by Pulse 2.0, put a figure on the cost: in 42 percent of critical cases, Latent says, a life-saving medication is delayed or denied, not because the medicine does not exist or the doctor erred, but because the request has to clear what the company calls “a gauntlet of clinical documentation, payer rules, and pharmacy coordination.”
Latent is aiming at the hardest slice of that gauntlet: specialty drugs for conditions like cancer, a category Forbes put at about 225 billion dollars in 2024 spend, projected by Global Market Insights to reach 2.3 trillion dollars by 2034. Specialty drugs already account for half of United States pharmacy spending, which is why Latent’s pitch centers on pharmacists and specialty pharmacy teams rather than primary care.
Founders
Sriram Somasundaram and Rishabh Jain are childhood friends who founded Latent in November 2022 and took the company through Y Combinator’s Winter 2023 batch. Somasundaram is 28, according to Forbes, and studied at Stanford, where, per the company’s Y Combinator profile, he worked on molecular binding patterns tied to adaptive immunity and built reinforcement-learning robots with publications at ICML, ICLR and Nature. Before Latent, he was on the founding team at Hebbia, an AI company serving large financial institutions, and earlier worked as a software engineer at Riot Games.
Less is independently documented about Jain. A secondary account, citing the recruiting site HireTop, says he previously sold a bootstrapped company for an eight figure sum before co-founding Latent; that claim has not been corroborated by an independent outlet and should be read as unverified.
From design partner to enterprise backbone
Ochsner Health signed on as a design partner in November 2023, when Latent had four health system customers. Eighteen months of what Ochsner called “rapid iteration and measurable impact” followed, and in June 2025 the two organizations converted the relationship into a three year enterprise agreement covering specialty, infusion and retail pharmacy workflows across Ochsner’s 22 store retail network.
By March 2026, when Latent announced its $80 million Series A, the company said it had grown from four to more than 45 health system partners, including Yale New Haven Health, MetroHealth, UCI Health, Vanderbilt Health, Mount Sinai Health System, Henry Ford Health System, UCSF Health and UCLA Health alongside Ochsner. The round was co-led by Spark Capital and Transformation Capital, with Conviction, General Catalyst and Y Combinator participating; MobiHealthNews and The SaaS News also named McKesson Ventures, though Latent’s own release folds that name into “and others.” A person familiar with the deal told Forbes the round valued Latent at about 600 million dollars, with more than 20 million dollars in annualized revenue. Latent also struck a partnership with CoverMyMeds, the McKesson-owned prior authorization network, to pair Latent’s AI reasoning with CoverMyMeds’ existing automation.
By September 2026, Latent’s own website counted more than 60 health systems, adding names like Cleveland Clinic, AdventHealth, Mayo Clinic, Cincinnati Children’s and Keck Medicine of USC to the list.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Y Combinator | Latent went through YC’s Winter 2023 batch. YC’s company page lists a team of 50 and San Francisco as its location. | Public record |
| Ochsner Health partnership | Design partner from November 2023, moved to a three year enterprise agreement in June 2025. Ochsner reports 4 to 5 minute reviews, 75 percent faster than benchmark, 20,000-plus patients affected in 2024, and a 96 percent throughput gain per staff member. Confirmed independently by New Orleans CityBusiness. | Independent reporting |
| CoverMyMeds integration | A named partnership pairing Latent’s AI with CoverMyMeds’ FHIR-based network, described on CoverMyMeds’ own site as reducing manual steps for early adopters. No independent outlet has verified the results. | Partner-stated |
| Series A funding | $80 million announced March 2026, co-led by Spark Capital and Transformation Capital, reported consistently by five outlets. Valuation of about $600 million and revenue above $20 million annualized reported by Forbes. | Independent reporting |
| SEC Form D | No Form D was found on EDGAR under Latent Health, Latent Inc or Latent Technologies. Two similarly named filers, Latent Knowledge Solutions Inc. and Latent Labs Technologies, Inc., are unrelated companies, as is an SPV called FW Latent Defense Seed. | Not found |
| FDA record, clinical trials, federal grants | No FDA record, registered trial, or NIH or NSF award tied to the company was found, expected for a workflow software company. | Not applicable |
| Peer-reviewed publications | No PubMed paper describing Latent’s product or clinical results was found as of September 2026. | Not found |
| Customer count, over time | 45-plus health systems in March 2026 funding coverage, versus 60-plus on the company’s own site by September 2026. Plausible growth, but the figures come from different dates and only the company has published either count. | Company-stated |
| Co-founder Rishabh Jain’s prior exit | A secondary source citing the recruiting site HireTop says Jain sold a bootstrapped company for an eight figure sum before Latent. No independent outlet corroborates this or names the company. | Unverified |
Read plainly: the strongest evidence for Latent is one independently reported customer relationship, Ochsner Health, plus a funding round several outlets agreed on. Everything past that, the full customer list, the 42 percent delay figure and the productivity numbers on Latent’s own site, comes from the company or its partners, not a public record.
What to watch
- Whether a Form D or other SEC filing eventually surfaces for the $80 million round, and under what corporate name.
- Whether Latent names more customers the way Ochsner did, with an independent outlet confirming the numbers.
- Whether the company or a partner publishes results from the CoverMyMeds integration beyond the general claims on CoverMyMeds’ own site.
- Independent confirmation of Rishabh Jain’s reported prior exit.
In their words
“It’s a genuine insanity, and this is what happens for essentially every sick patient today.”
Sriram Somasundaram, co-CEO and co-founder, Forbes interview, March 2026 · Independent
“Providers love taking care of patients. They’re just so overburdened and there is really only one way out.”
Sriram Somasundaram, Forbes interview, March 2026 · Independent
“With Latent, I can find what I’m hunting for in three to four minutes.”
Deborah Simonson, Chief Pharmacy Officer, Ochsner Health, Forbes interview, March 2026 · Independent
“And actually, the AI person is much nicer because you think if you’ve made me wait 15 minutes twice, I am not a happy camper by the time I talk to you.”
Deborah Simonson, Forbes interview, March 2026 · Independent
“This is a very strategic place for Latent to actually sit in the nexus of this multi-hundred billion dollar spend brokering between payers, providers, pharma, and the patient.”
Clay Fisher, partner, Spark Capital, Forbes interview, March 2026 · Independent
“For the first time, AI makes it possible to close the distance between a therapeutic decision and a patient receiving therapy.”
Latent Health, company statement, Pulse 2.0, March 2026 · Company statement
“Latent removes the administrative burden that keeps nurses and pharmacists in front of screens instead of patients.”
Deborah Simonson, Ochsner Health press release, June 2025 · Partner statement
“From day one, Latent has exemplified what it means to be a trusted partner, aligning with our long-term vision for success.”
Amy Trainor, RN, Chief Information Officer, Ochsner Health press release, June 2025 · Partner statement
Related companies
Sources
- IndependentThis $600 Million AI Startup Is Speeding Up Paperwork So Patients Get Drugs Faster
- Public recordLatent company profile, Y Combinator
- IndependentLatent raises $80M for AI medication approval platform
- IndependentLatent Raises $80 Million in Series A
- IndependentLatent Health: $80 Million Raised For Clinical AI Platform Advancing Medication Access
- IndependentHow Indian American Founders of Latent Health Are Using AI to Get Life-Saving Medications to Patients Faster
- IndependentOchsner Health expands AI partnership for faster meds
- PartnerOchsner Health partners with Latent for AI-driven medication access
- PartnerOchsner Health Partners with Latent Health to Accelerate AI-Driven Medication Access
- PartnerCoverMyMeds and Latent Health deliver intelligent FHIR-based ePA automation
- CompanyLatent Health homepage
- CompanyLatent Health about page
- CompanyLatent emerges as clinical AI leader, raising $80M to close the gap between diagnosis and treatment
- Public recordEDGAR company search for filers named Latent
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
