Healthcare AI company Ascertain has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Deerfield Management, with strategic backing from Northwell Health. The new capital will fuel the growth of Ascertain’s AI-driven solutions that streamline case management and reduce the administrative workload across healthcare systems.
The announcement highlights growing interest in operational AI tools that assist — rather than replace — healthcare workers.
Healthcare organizations are facing a major strain from staffing shortages and rising administrative demands. Case managers in the U.S. spend up to 60% of their time on paperwork, leaving little room for direct patient care. At the same time, more than 100,000 administrative roles remain unfilled, intensifying the pressure.
Ascertain is addressing this gap by developing AI systems that handle complex, repetitive tasks like prior authorizations and compliance documentation. As Julian Harris, M.D., of Deerfield Management put it, the platform "reimagines healthcare workflows from the ground up," not just making them faster, but meaningfully more efficient for providers and patients alike.
With this fresh capital, Ascertain will expand access to its case management automation tools, aiming to improve care coordination across hospitals, insurance payers, and provider networks. The company plans to grow its engineering and customer teams and enhance integration capabilities to adapt to diverse system needs.
Ascertain will also scale partnerships with health systems nationally, building on its success with Northwell Health’s transitions-of-care team. The results from this collaboration demonstrated measurable reductions in admin tasks for nurses, social workers, and case managers — allowing them to focus on what matters most: the patient.
Founded through a partnership between Northwell Holdings and Aegis Ventures, Ascertain is redefining how operational challenges are handled in care delivery. Led by CEO Mark Michalski, M.D., a healthcare-tech veteran with experience at Mass General Brigham and Amazon, the team has designed an agentic AI system that is flexible, modular, and easy to implement.
Ascertain’s technology centralizes fragmented workflows and equips case managers with one interface to communicate with payers, surface relevant medical data, and automate form-heavy tasks. This not only saves time but improves the quality and speed of care delivery — helping ensure patients get the right support at the right moment.
Michalski will also serve as Chief Information Officer at Deerfield Management, with Ascertain moving into Deerfield’s NYC-based Cure headquarters to deepen its collaboration with the investor network.
Deerfield and Northwell Health join Ascertain as not just investors but long-term collaborators. Northwell’s early adoption of the platform validated its value within large, complex health systems. Northwell is also part of the Aegis Digital Consortium, a group of 11 leading health systems working together to scale AI-driven solutions for healthcare’s biggest operational challenges.
With a mix of tech, venture, and clinical expertise, Ascertain is well-positioned to scale its model and support overburdened care teams nationwide.
