From telehealth to “hospital-at-home,” virtual and hybrid care are becoming core operating models, powered by AI, remote monitoring, and interoperable platforms that extend high-acuity care into patients’ homes. For health technology leaders across medtech, biopharma, digital health, and diagnostics, these models are now central to growth, differentiation, and workforce strategy—not side experiments.
Why this trend matters now
Deloitte’s 2026 US Health Care Outlook finds that over 40% of health plan and health system executives expect care-delivery transformation to significantly shape their organizational strategy in 2026.¹ At the same time, Deloitte’s life sciences and health care outlook warns that the sector could forfeit tens of billions in potential revenue over the next decade if incumbents fail to respond to rapidly changing consumer expectations and tech-enabled entrants.³
Consumers now expect virtual and hybrid options as part of routine care, not just exceptional circumstances. HIMSS underscores that leading organizations no longer treat virtual care as a separate channel but embed it across service lines, specialties, and business models.² For health tech companies, this shifts where value is created, away from episodic, facility-bound interactions and toward continuous, data-enabled engagement.
What hybrid and “hospital-at-home” look like in 2026
Hybrid care blends in‑person encounters with digitally delivered services, including telehealth visits, remote diagnostics, and asynchronous messaging, orchestrated across integrated platforms. HIMSS notes that virtual care now extends well beyond video visits to include ambient clinical intelligence, remote diagnostics, and VR-based interventions for pain and mental health, all tightly integrated with EHR workflows.²
Hospital-at-home and virtual hospital programs are evolving into structured service lines that deliver hospital-level care at home through remote monitoring, virtual nursing, in‑home visits, and rapid escalation pathways. A virtual care expert interviewed by HIMSS predicts that, in 2026, AI capabilities will significantly enhance remote patient monitoring (RPM) and virtual care, improving clinical decision support and enabling earlier intervention.⁴ Remote patient monitoring revenues are projected to approach $3 billion by 2026, reflecting the increasing role of these programs in standard care.⁵
The enabling technology stack
Several technology layers are converging to make hybrid and home‑based models clinically and economically viable:
- AI‑driven RPM, wearables, and smart home systems
AI-enabled RPM uses connected medical devices, such as blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, patches, and rings, to stream continuous physiologic data from patients’ homes. Algorithms detect trends that precede deterioration, allowing teams to intervene before emergencies occur. The smart home medical system market, which integrates vitals tracking, medication adherence, and activity monitoring, is projected to grow at roughly 15% annually between 2025 and 2030, reaching nearly $15.9 billion by 2026.⁷ - Virtual nursing and workforce augmentation
A recent JAMA Network Open article describes virtual nursing as a promising model to support admissions, discharges, patient education, and monitoring across inpatient and home-based settings. The authors emphasize that whether virtual nursing alleviates or exacerbates burnout depends on the ergonomics of the work, schedule design, and integration with bedside teams.⁸ HealthStream’s 2026 nursing trends report likewise highlights virtual nursing, AI-enabled staffing, and automation of routine tasks as key strategies to address shortages and sustain the workforce.⁹ - Interoperability and embedded virtual care
HIMSS and health IT leaders report growing emphasis on FHIR-based data exchange and embedding virtual care and AI tools directly into core EHR environments to reduce “swivel chair” workflows.²,¹⁰ An Athenahealth recap of HIMSS 2025 notes that providers are prioritizing AI that fits inside existing workflows, such as ambient documentation and in‑workflow decision support, over standalone dashboards.¹⁰ - Capital flows and incentives
Rock Health data, summarized by Healthcare Dive, show that US digital health startups raised about $14.2 billion in 2025, with AI-focused companies capturing 54% of total funding and commanding significantly larger deal sizes than non‑AI peers.¹¹ This capital is disproportionately fueling AI‑centric virtual care, RPM, and data-platform plays. At the same time, CMS’s 2026 Home Health Final Rule reduces aggregate Medicare payments to home health agencies by about 1.3% compared with 2025, putting pressure on providers even as demand for home-based models rises.¹²
AI’s highest-value roles in hybrid and home-based care
AI is shifting from pilot projects to “table stakes” in virtual and hospital‑at‑home models.
- Risk stratification and early deterioration detection
AI models trained on continuous RPM data can detect early signs of decompensation in conditions such as heart failure, COPD, and diabetes by analyzing changes in trends rather than single data points. A 2026 analysis of the US RPM landscape notes that systems combining AI with standardized escalation playbooks are associated with reductions in readmissions and emergency department utilization.⁶,¹³ - Workflow automation and documentation
HIMSS highlights ambient clinical intelligence and AI‑assisted documentation as key tools for long‑term sustainability of virtual care, helping reduce administrative burden and burnout. HealthStream echoes this, pointing to AI‑enabled task automation and predictive staffing as levers to align limited nursing capacity with patient needs.⁹ Deloitte’s 2026 health care outlook similarly positions AI and digital tools as essential levers to expand access and improve affordability under mounting cost pressures.¹ - Personalized engagement and adherence
AI-powered analytics segment patients by risk, behavior, and preferences to tailor outreach, education, and visit cadence, critical for hybrid and home‑based programs serving older adults and people with multiple chronic conditions. Digital health platforms are using these capabilities to trigger human or automated outreach when a patient’s data deviates from baseline, improving adherence and satisfaction. - Evidence generation and connected care models
Deloitte’s 2026 life sciences outlook reports that one‑third of surveyed life sciences leaders view connected care delivery as a top trend, up 15 percentage points from earlier surveys.¹⁴ For biopharma and diagnostics, AI‑enabled virtual and home‑based models provide continuous, real‑world data on therapy performance, safety, and adherence, enabling more precise targeting and value-based arrangements.
Challenges and risks leaders must manage
Despite strong momentum, hybrid and hospital‑at‑home models raise significant strategic, ethical, and operational challenges:
- Workforce sustainability and burnout
The American Hospital Association’s 2026 Workforce Scan underscores persistent shortages, particularly in nursing and certain specialties, alongside growing pressure to adopt new technologies.¹⁵ Virtual care and AI can help extend scarce talent, but poorly implemented tools risk increasing cognitive load and “click burden.” Deloitte notes that many leaders still rely on traditional strategies that may fall short against these structural workforce and financial pressures.³,¹ - Equity, bias, and access
Analyses of AI in healthcare warn that non‑representative training data and poor deployment practices can exacerbate disparities, especially when models perform less accurately for minority groups. A 2025 Frontiers in Public Health article stresses inclusive data collection, continuous performance auditing, and governance involving diverse stakeholders as core requirements for responsible AI.¹⁶ - Privacy, security, and trust
Telehealth and RPM depend on continuous data flows across devices, homes, and cloud platforms, elevating risk around privacy and cybersecurity. HIMSS and others highlight that evolving privacy frameworks and cross‑border licensure rules will shape how organizations architect virtual care programs in 2026.²,¹⁷ Building clear, patient‑friendly communication about how AI and data are used is increasingly a differentiator for trust.
Regulatory and reimbursement uncertainty
While some grant programs continue to support telehealth infrastructure, CMS’s ongoing rate pressure on home health and evolving quality measures make it difficult for organizations to plan long‑term hospital‑at‑home investments. Virtual care reimbursement remains a “moving target,” with value‑based and virtual‑first models growing but not yet uniform across payers.²,16
Strategic priorities for health technology executives
For health technology executives in medical devices, biopharma, digital health, and diagnostics, 2026 is a year to move from experimentation to building durable, AI‑enabled hybrid and hospital‑at‑home strategies.
- Design products for hybrid and home‑first pathways
- Build devices and diagnostics that are easy to use in non‑hospital settings—self‑installable, patient‑friendly, with reliable connectivity and edge analytics.
- Ensure data models and APIs align with FHIR and emerging interoperability standards so offerings plug smoothly into health systems’ virtual care command centers and EHRs.
- Make responsible AI a core differentiator
- Embed bias mitigation, explainability, and privacy into product design, including diverse training datasets, rigorous validation, and clear documentation of intended use and limitations.
- Generate robust real‑world evidence demonstrating impact on outcomes, cost, and experience in hybrid and home‑based programs, using continuous RPM and virtual care data.
- Align technology roadmaps with workforce strategies
- Co‑design AI tools and virtual workflows with clinicians, nurses, and home health teams to ensure they truly reduce administrative burden and cognitive load.
- Position your solutions as workforce multipliers—enabling virtual nursing, AI‑assisted triage, and optimized staffing—rather than simply new tools to manage.
- Build cross‑sector ecosystems, not standalone offerings
- Recognize that successful hospital‑at‑home programs depend on orchestrating devices, platforms, logistics, and services; partner across medtech, digital health, connectivity, and home health to deliver integrated solutions.
- Biopharma and diagnostics leaders can embed therapy‑specific monitoring and adherence support into these ecosystems, using virtual care and RPM data to support risk‑sharing and outcomes‑based contracts.
- Invest in data platforms that treat home as a primary site of care
- Develop or partner on platforms that aggregate EHR, claims, RPM, and patient‑reported data to support near real‑time decision‑making and population‑level analytics.
- Use these platforms to pilot new business models—such as subscription‑based monitoring services, virtual‑first care bundles, and proactive outreach programs for high‑risk populations.
For health technology leaders, hybrid, virtual, and hospital‑at‑home care are no longer optional add‑ons; they are the backbone of a connected, AI‑enabled health system. By acting now on responsible AI, interoperable platforms, workforce‑aligned design, and ecosystem partnerships, executives can help shape the next decade of care delivery and secure their place in a rapidly evolving health economy.
Sources
- Deloitte Insights – “2026 US Health Care Outlook”
- HIMSS – “Telehealth in 2026: What’s Next for Virtual Care?”
- MedCity News – “Deloitte’s 2026 Healthcare Outlook: Key Findings on Confidence and Anxiety”
- HIMSS TV – “In 2026, AI capabilities will boost RPM, virtual care expert says”
- Signify Research – “$3B Remote Patient Monitoring Market by 2026 – Has RPM’s Time Finally Come?”
- Intuition Labs – “AI in Remote Patient Monitoring: Technology & Applications”
- Market.us via EIN News – “Smart Home Medical System Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.1% between 2025 and 2030”
- JAMA Network Open / PMC – “Virtual Nursing and the Future of Workforce Sustainability”
- HealthStream – “CNO Nursing Workforce Trends to Watch in 2026”
- Athenahealth – “HIMSS AI Technology and Interoperability 2025 Recap”
- Healthcare Dive – “Digital health funding increases in 2025, spurred by AI: report” summarizing Rock Health
- Home Health Care News – “CMS Finalizes 2026 Home Health Medicare Payment Rule with 1.3% Aggregate Reduction”
- Intuition Labs – “Remote Patient Monitoring in the United States: 2025 Landscape”
- Deloitte Insights – “2026 Life Sciences Outlook”
- American Hospital Association – “2026 Health Care Workforce Scan”
- Frontiers in Public Health – “Can AI developers avoid bias in public health applications?”
- HIMSS – “HIMSS Telehealth Community Evolves into the HIMSS Virtual Care Community”
- Amwell – “Unlocking Grant Opportunities for Telehealth and Virtual Care in 2025”
- CMS – CY 2026 Home Health Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule, CMS Fact Sheet
About the Author
Paula Norbom is the Founder and CEO of Talencio, an executive search and staffing firm serving health technology companies. She has worked in the health technology industry for over 30 years.