AI health-software seller Commure ends program paying people to refer its products
Commure shut down a referral-payment program for its clinic AI tools six days before a STAT investigation exposed how it worked.
What happened: Commure, a health software company valued at $7 billion that sells AI tools to medical clinics, has shut down a program that paid customers and other parties to refer its products to new business prospects. Emails from the company's chief legal officer, sent Aug. 6, told program members their payment deals would end 30 days after receipt, with anything already owed paid in full. The timing stands out: STAT News had been asking Commure about these referral arrangements since June 5, and the termination notices went out just six days before STAT published an investigation detailing how the payments worked.
Why it matters: Clinics and hospitals often lean on outside recommendations when choosing software that touches patient records and daily workflows. If the people making those recommendations are quietly being paid by the vendor, that advice may reflect a fee rather than genuine performance. AI health tools increasingly factor into decisions about diagnoses, billing, and staffing, so who profits from a sale — and how — isn't a minor detail. It shapes which tools spread fastest through the health system, regardless of whether they're the best clinical fit.
How the payments worked, plainly: According to STAT's reporting, Commure ran a partnership program offering thousands of dollars to customers and other parties who successfully referred its AI products to prospective new buyers. STAT's broader investigation also examined this alongside Medicare's incentive payments for facilities adopting new technology, suggesting referral fees and government incentives could reinforce each other to speed adoption. Exact mechanics — how referrals were tracked, who qualified, and precise payout amounts — remain behind STAT's paywall, so much detail isn't public yet.
What's still unknown: It's unclear how many clinics, doctors, or other partners collected referral payments, or whether patients were ever told that a paid referral influenced which software ran their care setting. Commure hasn't publicly explained why it ended the program now, beyond the timing lining up with STAT's questions. And the link STAT drew between Commure's sales tactics and Medicare's new-technology incentive payments hasn't been fully detailed publicly, leaving open how common this kind of arrangement is across health AI.