Featuring: Anirudh PerubotlaHosted by: James Chhetree This episode of Ainsley Health features Anirudh Perubotla, Co-Founder and CTO of Floe Health. Hosted by James Chhetree, the conversation explores how healthcare AI can improve care coordination, referral workflows, discharge planning, prior authorization, and the operational systems that shape the patient experience. Ani brings a builder’s perspective to one of healthcare’s most overlooked challenges: the transitions between care settings. For case managers, discharge planners, nurses, patients, families, payers, and post-acute facilities, the process of moving a patient from the hospital to the right next setting often depends on manual follow-ups, fragmented communication, institutional knowledge, and workflows that were never designed for today’s level of complexity. Together, James and Ani discuss what it takes to build AI that works inside real healthcare environments. Rather than framing AI as a replacement for human judgment, Ani explains why its highest-value role is often removing repetitive coordination work, surfacing stalled processes, and helping teams act faster without forcing them into yet another system. The conversation explores several key themes: Healthcare AI Built for Relief: Why the best products in healthcare are not always the most elegant demos, but the tools that help overwhelmed teams get through the day. Care Coordination and Case Management: How discharge planning, post-acute placement, referrals, prior authorization, family communication, and transportation can all become points of friction that delay care. Tribal Knowledge in Healthcare Operations: Why so much of the system still depends on the memory, relationships, and workarounds of experienced case managers, and what happens when that knowledge is not captured. AI and Human Judgment: Why AI should support care teams by automating manual follow-up and coordination tasks while preserving the human judgment, empathy, and communication patients need. Building Trust in Healthcare AI: How early-stage companies can start with low-risk, high-value workflows, prove impact, and gradually expand into more complex operational layers. The Future of Prior Authorization: Ani shares why he believes today’s manual prior authorization process may become one of the administrative workflows that feels outdated in the coming years. Quiet Operational Intelligence: A look at what healthcare AI could become by 2030, where patients may not know the tools behind the scenes, but they feel the difference through faster scheduling, smoother referrals, clearer communication, and better transitions of care. Ani also shares his perspective on what makes a strong healthcare AI engineer, why founders should spend time observing real workflows before building, and how industries like automotive manufacturing can offer lessons for operational efficiency in healthcare. For founders, operators, health system leaders, healthcare executives, and anyone interested in where AI can create practical impact, this episode offers a grounded look at the future of care coordination and the operational infrastructure needed to make healthcare work better for patients and teams. Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; it should not be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security, and is not directed at any investors.
