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SamaCare

Also known as: samacare.com, Sama Health

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Entry priceFree for medical practices · Brand sponsorship by contractFull pricing detail

A medical benefit prior authorization platform for retina, oncology, neurology, rheumatology and infusion practices that creates, submits and follows up on authorizations across major US payers, with approval checkpoints and escalation from AI to a person, free to practices and funded by sponsoring drug brands.

SamaCare handles prior authorization for drugs covered under the medical benefit, the infused and injected therapies that specialty practices buy and bill.

It creates and submits authorizations automatically, individually or in bulk, across all major US payers, follows up after submission, raises alerts when a request stalls and escalates from the AI to a person when a case needs judgment, with checkpoints so nothing goes out without the practice's approval.

Pre submission policy intelligence surfaces the forms, documentation and requirements each payer expects, drawn from what SamaCare calls the largest real time dataset in medical benefit prior authorization: more than 2 million requests across eight years and more than $6 billion a year in drug spend.

Practices pay nothing. SamaCare is funded by pharmaceutical brands that sponsor their drugs on the platform for access insights and in workflow support, and it reports a 29 percent higher approval rate for sponsored brands than for unsponsored ones. Integrations include NextGen Enterprise, with two way exchange of demographics and documents, and partners such as McKesson, Cencora and WeInfuse.

SamaCare, founded by Syam Palakurthy and based in San Francisco, raised a $17 million Series B led by Questa Capital in May 2024, with Vive Collective and South Park Commons.

Vendor details

Canonical URL

https://www.samacare.com

Category

Healthcare agent

Subcategory

Medical benefit drug prior authorization for specialty practices, free to practices and sponsored by drug brands

Funding status

$17M Series B led by Questa Capital with Vive Collective and South Park Commons, May 2024, after a Series A led by Vive Collective. Founded by Syam Palakurthy, San Francisco.

Company status

independent

Use cases & customers

Primary use cases

medical benefit drug prior authorizationbulk creation and submission of authorizationspost submission follow up and escalationpayer policy guidance before submissionaccess benchmarks for practices and drug brands

Target customers

retina and ophthalmology practicesoncology practicesneurology and rheumatology practicesambulatory infusion centerspharmaceutical market access teams

Deployment options

SaaS

Integrations

Two way exchange of demographics and clinical documents with NextGen Enterprise through an API based integration, with McKesson, Cencora and WeInfuse named as platform partners and an integration partner program for EMR and revenue cycle systems. Authorizations are submitted across all major US payers.

In practice

A retina practice needs authorizations for this week's injections. SamaCare creates them in bulk, fills each request with the payer's required documentation, and nothing is submitted until the practice approves it.

A neurology request for an MS infusion stalls with the payer. SamaCare flags the delay, follows up and escalates the case to a person when it needs judgment.

A drug brand wants to know why patients are not starting therapy. SamaCare reports approval and denial trends, denial reasons and time to resolution for the drug by payer and site of care.

Agentic Index coverage score

6.5 / 14 capabilities · 46%

Integrations & Tool Calling Full

Authorizations are submitted to all major US payers from inside the platform. With NextGen Enterprise, an API based integration moves demographics and the clinical documents an authorization needs both ways between the EHR and SamaCare, so staff stop entering the same data twice. McKesson, Cencora and WeInfuse are named as platform partners, and an integration partner program connects EMR and revenue cycle systems.

Sourcesamacare.com/resources/samacare-announces-integration-with-nextgen-r-healthcare-connecting-its-prior-authorization-management-platform-with-nextgens-ehrread 2026-10-09

Workflow Orchestration Full

Each authorization runs from creation through submission to follow up. Policy intelligence surfaces the right forms, documentation and requirements before submission, intelligent alerts flag a request that is stalling, and a case that needs judgment moves from the AI to a person. Requests are created and submitted one at a time or in bulk, and the same records feed the practice's performance reports and the access insights drug brands buy.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

Knowledge Grounding & RAG Full

SamaCare keeps a dataset of more than 2 million medical benefit authorizations built over eight years across tens of thousands of practices, covering outcomes, payer policy changes, how policies are enforced in practice and which interventions worked. It is refined with every new request and applied before submission to surface the forms, documentation and requirements each payer expects for a given drug.

Sourcesamacare.comread 2026-10-09

Human Oversight & Guardrails Full

Built in checkpoints make sure nothing goes out without the practice's approval, so staff stay in control of every submission. Cases the AI cannot settle escalate to a person through what SamaCare calls AI to human escalation, and its automation is built to support rather than replace human expertise, with post submission follow up handled in the same loop.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

Security, Identity & Governance Not documented

SamaCare keeps its security documentation in a gated trust center at trust.samacare.com, so its certifications and access controls are not visible from outside. The product itself is pitched on workflow and data, with no certification, sign in option or user roles in view.

Sourcetrust.samacare.comread 2026-10-09

Observability & Auditability Partial

Every authorization is tracked in one interface across payers, and practices see their own performance by payer, therapy and submission route against benchmarks from the wider network. Drug brands get approval and denial trends, denial reasons and time to resolution for their products by payer, plan and site of care. There is no step by step log of what the AI did on each request.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

Memory & State Persistence Not documented

The intelligence improves with every authorization processed across the network, but no memory is kept for a practice or user beyond the authorization records themselves, and a practice's requests and documents live in the platform as ordinary records.

Sourcesamacare.comread 2026-10-09

Deployment & Data Residency Not documented

SamaCare is a cloud platform that practices sign into at provider.samacare.com, used by tens of thousands of specialty providers. There is no region choice or option to run it in a customer environment.

Sourcesamacare.com/resources/samacare-secures-17m-series-b-investment-to-scale-specialty-drug-prior-authorization-platformread 2026-10-09

Prebuilt Agents / Templates / Packs Not documented

Practices get one authorization system, and drug brands buy insights and sponsored support on top of the same platform. No separate agents, templates or library are offered for a customer to choose from.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

Triggers & Channel Coverage Partial

SamaCare creates and submits authorizations automatically, singly or in bulk, follows up after submission and raises intelligent alerts early when a request stalls, so staff can act before the delay holds up treatment. What sets off a new authorization, such as an order arriving from the EHR, is unclear.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

Model Flexibility & Routing Not documented

The models behind SamaCare's AI are undisclosed, and practices have no choice of model. The company puts the weight on its data instead, describing AI that turns messy payer data into guidance while keeping human expertise in the process.

Sourcesamacare.comread 2026-10-09

APIs / SDKs / MCP Extensibility Partial

Technology partners can build medical benefit prior authorization into their EMR and revenue cycle products through an integration partner program, which has already produced an API based connection to NextGen Enterprise. There is no public API reference, SDK or developer site.

Sourcesamacare.com/ecosystemread 2026-10-09

Testing, Debugging & Optimization Partial

The AI learns constantly from frontline prior authorization specialists, and drug brands get closed loop measurement of whether sponsored support lifts approval rates, time to resolution, patient starts and churn. There is no test set or evaluation harness a practice can use to check the AI before or after a change, so quality shows up in outcomes rather than in a test a practice runs.

Sourcesamacare.com/life-sciencesread 2026-10-09

Browser / Computer-use Partial

Submission across payers is automated, so staff stop clicking through forms and chasing payer portals, and submissions, tracking and follow up run in one place for every payer and physician administered drug. Whether those submissions travel through payer portals in a browser, electronic transactions or fax is unclear.

Sourcesamacare.com/providersread 2026-10-09

The Agentic Index coverage score grades every vendor Full, Partial or Not documented against the same 14 buyer facing capabilities, from public evidence only. Each capability links to how all vendors in the index score on it. How this evidence is graded

Pricing

Free for medical practices · Brand sponsorship by contract

No charge to practices; pharmaceutical brands pay to sponsor their drugs on the platform

Free tier

Included quota

Practices are not charged by volume; any cap on free use would sit in SamaCare's terms.

What is public

SamaCare states that its platform costs medical practices nothing. What drug brands pay for sponsorship is not published.

Billing mechanics

Practices request access and use the platform at no charge. Pharmaceutical brands contract separately to sponsor their drugs, which buys access insights and in workflow support for practices prescribing them.

Cost watchouts

The platform is free because drug manufacturers sponsor their brands on it, and SamaCare reports higher approval rates for sponsored brands than for unsponsored ones. Weigh that when the drugs you prescribe compete with sponsored ones.

Variable cost rationale

Practices pay nothing however many authorizations they run; the cost sits with the drug brands that sponsor their products on the platform.

Additional watchouts

A free tool paid for by drug brands has an incentive behind the support it shows, so check how sponsored and unsponsored drugs are treated in your specialty.

Overage / add-ons

Not applicable.

Sales call required

Mixed (some tiers require a call)

Free / trial

Free for medical practices

Lowest paid plan

Not applicable for practices; brand sponsorship by contract

Commercial notes

SamaCare raised a $17 million Series B led by Questa Capital in May 2024 and says 40 percent of the leading global pharmaceutical companies sponsor brands on it.

Key ambiguities

Whether practices see different guidance or support for sponsored drugs than for unsponsored ones is not spelled out beyond the reported approval lift.

Missing data

Brand sponsorship pricing, contract terms and any limits on free practice use.

Agentic Index verified 2026-10-09

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